Weekly Newsletter
June 6, 2024
News from Principal Emma Liebowitz
We hope you can join us Friday night for Beauty and The Beast!
Opportunity to Offer After School Enrichement Next Year
Please complete the survey at https://forms.gle/MoSwK2bjq5Rwa8Ec6
Upcoming Events
Friday, June 7 - Kindergarten to Farm
Friday, June 7 - Beauty and The Beast at 6:00
Monday, June 10 - Step Up Time at 10:30
Monday, June 6 - Sixth Grade to the Lake
Tuesday, June 11 - Third Grade to Porter Farm
Tuesday, June 11 - Fifth Grade Pen Pal Project at 1:30
Wednesday, June 12 - Third Grade to Bug Hill Farm
Wednesday, June 12 - All School Meeting at 2:15
Wednesday, June 12 - Sixth Grade Graduation at 5:00
Thursday, June 13 - Ms. Melanie and Ms. Carole’s Classes to Look Park
Thursday, June 13 - Sixth Grade to Six Flags
Friday, June 14 - Last Day of School - 12:30 Dismissal - ICE CREAM CONES!
Link to Sanderson Academy calendar.
PTO News
Local Goods Fundraising Catalog!
Do you or someone you know want to sell your item(s) in our Local Goods catalog this fall? Email us at Sandersonlocalgoods@gmail.com by June 28th if you are interested. This is one of Sanderson Academy’s biggest fundraisers.
Ice Cream at the Lake!
The PTO would like to celebrate the end of the year with ice cream cones at the Ashfield Lake Beach on Friday, June 14th at 4pm. This event will be rain or shine. Lifeguards will be on duty from 1-6pm.
Get Involved!
The PTO is also looking for people who are interested in taking on a bigger role planning events for our students and our school. One of our biggest events is the Ashfield Fall Festival and we are looking for more help running this event. The planning starts this summer and if you can help, please email lindi.russell@gmail.com.
Looking for Coaches!
Check out this opportunity!
Library News from Ms. Wilson
The end of the school year is upon us, which means it’s time to return all library books. Each student (except for Pre-K and K students) has been given a print-out of the books that they need to return before the end of the school year, so please look in backpacks and Thursday folders. Thank you for your help with this effort! Next week I will be sending home information about summer reading and local library summer programs.
Last week, second graders enjoyed a Storywalk outside in the baseball field. We read Birds, by Kevin Henkes, illustrated by Laura Dronzek. Each student read a page aloud and chose a “movement” to travel to the next posted page. It was so fun to watch 2nd graders skipping, rolling, hopping, flying, and bear-crawling across the field! This June we will finish off the year with books that reflect Pride month themes, including celebrating the freedom to be who we are, inclusion, and treating each other with kindness despite our differences. We will also read books that are just plain funny, because at the end of a long school year, it feels good to laugh together!
Finally, congratulations to Talia Miller, who won the 50/50 raffle at our recent Arts Night! Thank you to all who bought tickets. Your contributions go directly to new books for Sanderson Students.
Health Office News from Nurse Loranna
In June we celebrate Pride month; where we look at ways we can celebrate, advocate and support those of the LGBTQ+ community; their families, friends and allies. Some may ask; why do we do this? Historically, and it continues today, those of this community are targeted with acts of violence, discrimination and hate just for living authentically as themselves. The youth of today are at more risk than ever before as the political climate can be oppressive. Statistics show that the rates of depression, anxiety and suicide are much higher in this group than their peers. The data from 2023 shows this: “41% of LGBTQ young people seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year—and young people who are transgender, nonbinary, and/or people of color reported higher rates than their peers.” and “Nearly 1 in 3 LGBTQ young people said their mental health was poor most of the time or always due to anti-LGBTQ policies and legislation.”(Trevor Project/2023 Our youth are aware of and deeply affected by the current increase in anti- LGBTQ acts and laws being passed in the U.S with more incidence than ever before. “Anti-LGBTQ+ legislative attacks were so pervasive in 2023, the Human Rights Campaign issued a National State of Emergency for LGBTQ+ Americans for the first time in their 40+ year history.” (Human Rights Campaign)
What can we do about this striking disparity in youth mental health and increasing discrimination? This is where we can find some hope amidst this very heavy topic. Acceptance, inclusion and celebration of LGBTQ youth can have a monumental positive impact on wellbeing as well as creating a richness, depth and beauty to life that positively impacts the community at large and opens the doors for others to live authentically. When LGBTQ youth feel supported and affirmed, their rate of depression and anxiety decrease substantially.“LGBTQ young people who had access to affirming homes, schools, community events and online spaces reported lower rates of attempting suicide than those who did not.”(Trevor Project/2023)
We can support this community by creating safe spaces at home, at school, at work and in the greater community. We can be sure that they have the same access to mental health services and medical care. We can use affirming pronouns and chosen names. We can have more access to books, movies or other media that affirm and celebrate this community. We can intervene if we witness discriminatory or hateful acts and provide support and education. We can celebrate and illuminate the beauty and depth this community has to offer to our world, and the bravery for living authentically even amidst the challenges and hate. Click the links below for some helpful documents from the Human Rights Campaign that you can refer to. For parents and caregivers, For educators and administrators, For librarians/media specialists, For mental health professionals
Preschool news from Ms. Freeman and Ms. Becky
This week our dramatic play center has been transformed into a campground! Preschoolers helped brainstorm a list of materials needed for our campsite. We have flashlights,lanterns, a tent, boat, life vests, and fishing gear. We also talked about food and adding things to make s’mores. It’s exciting to see information from past family adventures used to create new learning experiences! It’s a perfect dramatic play theme to end our school year with.
Preschool News from Ms. Melanie and Ms. Kylee
Preschoolers had a wonderful time exploring all of the stations set up around the school campus for field day. They loved making bubbles and some of them were huge. They squealed with delight as they chased and popped them. Many children loved the slip & slide and the obstacle course as well. A class favorite was the tug of war station. The children had so much fun pulling and cheering each other on. The water games that the fire department hosted were a big hit too. The children enjoyed working together to fill the barrel with water at the bucket relay. They were very good at putting out fires at the target spray station. They realized that a fire hose filled with water is very heavy and hard to manage. All in all, it was a wonderful experience. Thank you to everyone who made it possible!
Kindergarten News from Ms. Sarah, Ms. Veronica and Ms. Beckwith
In our social skills program, we have been doing lots of discussion and role playing about different situations that come up when we are playing with other kids--very helpful with summer activities and camp settings coming up this summer! Last week, we explored how sometimes when people are joking around and being silly, they may say something that we don’t find funny or makes us uncomfortable. We then role-played things we could say in this situation to let the person know how we are feeling in a friendly way. This week, we discussed three ways to compromise when people want to use the same toys: take turns, trade, or share. Again, we role played ways we could use each of the strategies. Acting out these strategies helps students be more prepared for when these situations come up in real life.
First Grade News from Ms. Wyckoff and Ms. April
Although the year is wrapping up, first graders continue to grow and learn! This week we started our final science unit of the year - how do living things grow and survive? First graders are learning about the basic needs of living things as well as how they use their body parts to help them survive.
In Second Step (our SEL program) we have reached the final lesson, which has first graders looking back and reviewing all they have learned this year in first grade. They revisited skills such as how to be assertive, how to recognize and calm down when experiencing strong feelings, how to play fair and what to do when a problem does come up. First graders have learned that these lessons are not just for first graders, they are life skills that they will carry with them in their years at Sanderson and beyond.
Second Grade News from Ms. Lilly, Ms. Laura and Ms. Taylor
Second grade has been so busy! We’ve been learning about division and fractions in math. The introduction to these skills help prepare the class for their move to third grade. During our phonics lessons we have learned the last syllable type. The final syllable type is consonant + le. This helps students to learn to spell and read words such as bugle, sample, and puddle. By learning this syllable type students are able to determine if the first vowel in the word is a long or short sound. Finally in science, we have been learning about erosion. We learned why erosion happens and how canyons are formed. We then began brainstorming ways to stop erosion. We’ve made hills out of cornmeal and are drafting ideas for how to prevent landslides. We have also spent the last week working on making good choices and taking care of our own actions and words. Second grade is ready for our last week of school and all the fun we’ll have next week!
Third Grade News from Ms. Carole and Mr. Luke
Third graders have been busy learning about colonial life in the past few weeks. We went to Wilder Homestead and learned about crafts, games, and cooking as well as Native American traditions from the 1700s. Last week we talked about food storage in the days before refrigeration. We ground up the flint corn we harvested last fall and have been drying all year to make cornbread. This week we used onions, garlic, and beans from our harvest last fall to make a vegetable soup.
This week we also tackled learning about the Revolutionary War. The class enjoyed discovering the birth of our nation, and we learned the famous poem about Paul Revere’s midnight ride. We also finished preparing the gardens for the big hand-off this Friday to future third graders. Below are pictures of garden labels they made and the hay (which was graciously donated by the Porter Family Farm) the class put down to stave off the weed growth.
Fifth Grade News from Ms. Johnson and Ms. Shero
Students in fifth grade have been learning about the history of Sanderson Academy. They have learned that the first Sanderson started in 1816 (established in 1821) and was on Main Street in town near the library. They have also learned that The Field is named after John and Eliza Field who donated that land for the youth of Ashfield and is where the second Sanderson was built. The second Sanderson burned in 1939 and the third was built in its place in 1940. An addition was added in 1954. This is the building so many of us remember and perhaps attended. We are in the fourth Sanderson building which opened in 1997.
News from Ms. Prew
SEPAC News
Check out the latest news.
Community News, Events and Summer Opportunites
Check out what is happening in our area!
About Us
Email: eliebowitz@mtrsd.org
Website: https://sanderson.mohawktrailschools.org/
Location: 808 Cape Street, Ashfield, MA, USA
Phone: (413) 628-4404
Facebook: facebook.com/SandersonAcademy