Welcome to our Paws-itively News for the week of January 3rd. If you wish to receive a paper copy of this newsletter, please notify the school admin. asst. Gail Januskiewicz at the following email address: gjanuskiewicz@asrsd.org and we will be happy to send you one. You may also contact Gail at ext. 1401 or by sending a written note in with your child. Our goal is to provide consistent and effective communication between home and school. For our students / your children to have a successful learning experience, we must partner together for their benefit.

From time to time you may also receive additional notices, regarding important news updates, events, and activities that were not included in this weekly newsletter. It is important that parents/guardians take time, on a daily basis, to ask your children about their school day and whether they have important papers, in their backpacks, for you to see.

We welcome your input on ways that this newsletter can be more helpful to you. Page Hilltop is OUR school community!

Thank you for sharing your children with us!!

Fred Deppe, Principal, fdeppe@asrsd.org, ext 1400

Matt Lutinski, Assistant Principal, mlutinski@asrsd.org, ext 1426

Please click here to see a copy of the revised school calendar.

Revisions include additional early release days on the following dates...

• Wednesday, January 12th
• Wednesday, February 9th
• Wednesday, March 9th
• Wednesday, April 13th
• Wednesday, May 11th

**Early Release Days -- Dismissal @ 1:45 -- Lunch is Served**

• Monday, January 3rd -- Welcome Back from Winter Break!
• Thursday, January 6th -- PTO Meeting via ZOOM
• Wednesday, January 12th -- Early Release -- Dismissal @ 1:45 -- LUNCH WILL BE SERVED
• Friday, January 14th -- Page Hilltop / ASRSD Spirit Day - Wear your "Maroon and White"
• Monday, January 17th -- MLK Day -- No School
• Friday, January 21st -- 1/2 Day -- Dismissal @ 12:15 -- NO LUNCH SERVED

Please click here to view the January lunch menu.

Can you find the 5 spelling mistakes?????

Page Hilltop will be running a "Sock Drive" for the month of January. We are looking for pairs of NEW socks that will be used to help PH students & families in need throughout our community. If the staff and students of Page Hilltop can achieve our goal of 500 pairs of socks we will be celebrating with a "Pajama Day / Comfy Sock Day" sometime in early February. Thank you for your continued support!

If you are a resident of Ayer, Devens, Dunstable, Groton, Harvard, Littleton or Shirley and hunger is affecting your family, Loaves & Fishes can help! The staff and volunteers of Loaves & Fishes are dedicated to helping our neighbors in need in a way that promotes dignity, respect, and honors your confidentiality. Many clients report the kindness they receive from our volunteers is just as valuable as the nourishment they get from the groceries.

https://loavesfishespantry.org/

All teachers host one weekly 30-minute extra help session either before or after school to help students who may be struggling. Please take a look at this document to see when your child's teacher holds their extra help sessions. To set something up, please email your child's teacher directly. Transportation must be provided by parents/guardians.

As part of our SEL (Social Emotional Learning) & Positive Behavior Incentives program, we continue to promote our PAWS program. Our ultimate goal is to have every student coming to school, ready to learn in a safe and respectful environment built upon a foundation of positive community culture & climate.

The “PAWS POWER” form can be presented to ANY student by ANY staff member at ANY time. If your child happens to bring one home, please celebrate with them! I am sure you will be as proud of them as we are here at PH.

Students receiving a PAWS POWER tickets will receive two copies. One copy is to bring home to celebrate with family members. The 2nd copy should be kept in the student's desk, in a folder or in their backpack.

When a student has earned 10 PAWS POWER tickets, they may contact Mr. Lutinski or Mr. Deppe. The student may then select one of the following "rewards":

• Prize from our School Store

• Lunch for themselves, and two friends, with Mr. Deppe

• Lunch for themselves, and two friends, with Mr. Lutinski

• Lunch for themselves, and two friends, with Officer Bigelow

• Students may continue to earn PAWS tickets and Prizes all year long.

We cordially invite all of our Page Hilltop families to join us for a virtual PTO meeting on Thursday, January 6th from 7:00 - 8:00 pm. We have a wonderful PTO at Page Hilltop - a group that supports our students, teachers & families.

PTO Website -- LINK

PTO Facebook Page -- Link

Join via ZOOM...

https://asrsd.zoom.us/j/82382916994?pwd=V3U0MXhWL1A1dGRnV1NnU0F0MW1Kdz09

Meeting ID: 823 8291 6994
Passcode: 917120

Our students have been enjoying their outside recess activities while remaining safe at the same time. We have all been enjoying our "new" Playground Structure, Swing Set & Gaga Ball Pit.

Recently our Nurse Leader, Rene Paine, sent home a FAQ sheet to help all parents understand and follow protocols relative to COVID-19. We hope that information has been useful to you. If you have any additional questions, please contact one of our Page Hilltop School Nurses, Tiffany Naughton or Ashleigh Barter, at 978-772-8600 x 1406.

This is to remind parents that all students are to come to school dressed appropriately for the changing weather conditions. We take the students outside, for fresh air and a mask break, every day possible. Please have your child dress in layers so that they are able to add on / take off a layer of clothing depending on the weather at any time. Students are always welcome to leave a sweater / sweatshirt in school for times when they need it.

Reminders:

• On a 2-hour delay -- school opens at 10:25 -- NO breakfast -- bus riders will be picked-up 2 hours after your "normal" time.

Thanks to all of the parents, and other adults, who are involved in either the morning drop-off and / or the afternoon pick-up. As you know we have had to implement some changes in our procedures and we appreciate your flexibility & cooperation. I am very pleased with how smoothly both procedures have been running.

Please take note of the following reminders:

• Parents may not leave vehicles idling for more than a few minutes while sitting in line, waiting for drop-off or pick-up. We understand that this might be a common practice during cold weather.
• During morning drop-off, private vehicles are not allowed to pass other vehicles OR make a U-turn during drop-off.
• Please adhere to slow speed zones during drop-off or pick-up
• When picking up, please keep your "name card" visible at all times. Do not take it down until after the staff has checked in with you.

We really appreciate all your support of our "PM Parent Pick-up Procedures" and following the traffic patterns each afternoon so as to ensure a safe and efficient student pick-up process.

Thank you for your patience and cooperation so that we may keep everyone safe!

Daily attendance is essential to student academic success. Attendance is checked daily and reported to our school office where, in turn, it is then reported to the DESE. This does not apply to days when your child may be potentially sick and/or are involved in any COVID procedures. On those days, please make sure you contact our school office to report the health concern.

Attendance Line at Page Hilltop -- dial 978-772-8600, listen to the prompts to select "Page Hilltop" and press "3" for the attendance line.

Your classroom teachers are here to support your child whenever there is a need. Please feel free to contact your child's teacher if necessary.

In addition to our outstanding teachers, we have a "Student Support Group" at Page Hilltop. Please feel free to reach out to any of these people:

Fred Deppe, Principal - 978-772-8600 x1400 fdeppe@asrsd.org

Matt Lutinski, Assistant Principal - 978-772-8600 x1426 mlutinski@asrsd.org

Rachel Savoie, School Counselor - 978-772-8600 x1424 rsavoie@asrsd.org

Jenny Alquist, School Counselor - 978-772-8600 x1489 jahlquist@asrsd.org

Tiffany Naughton, School Nurse - 978-772-8600 x1406 tnaughton@asrsd.org

Ashleigh Barter, School Nurse - 978-772-8600 x1466 abarter@asrsd.org

Danielle Moran, Social Worker - 978-772-8600 x1519 dmoran@asrsd.org

Officer Jen Bigelow, SRO - 978-772-8600 x1337 jbigelow@asrsd.org

On Friday, January 14th we will be holding our January spirit day which will be "Maroon and White Day". Wear your Ayer-Shirley gear or anything maroon and white.

For several years now we have been able to enjoy viewing a beautiful aquarium which was arranged and maintained by one of our parents - Shawn Miller (father of Lucas & Logan). Recently Mr. Miller changed over the school aquarium to a "saltwater ecosystem" and it is amazing. Students, staff, and visitors can now enjoy watching beautiful saltwater fish (including Nemo), living coral, snails, crabs, eels, and a variety of ocean life. We love this and are very appreciative of Mr. Miller's efforts. As a school educator himself, Mr. Miller plans to add an "educational highlights" display board that will provide our students with a wealth of interesting knowledge regarding saltwater sea life.

Two of our grade 4 teachers, Helen Jean Berry & Morgan Messina, recently brought their classes over to the Ayer Shirley Regional High School to collaborate on a computer science project with high school sophomores under the direction of teacher Phil Moore. The high school students were engaged in the development of learning APPs that could be used on both cell phones and iPods. Our 4th graders had the task of "testing out" all of the different APPs and providing consumer feedback. It was an excellent learning experience for both groups of students. We look forward to working with ASRHS Principal Spencer Christie and his staff on future learning activities.

Our 5th grade classes have been involved in a very special creative musical education project: The "John Lennon Real Love Project". Our school was selected to participate in this process through a grant program. At the moment, we are 1 of only 6 schools in the United States who have been accepted into this project. Our school was selected based on our school climate & culture that focused on community spirit, social - emotional learning and kindness. We are working with Scott & Beth Bierko, award-winning children's musicians / composers from New York. Our students have been re-writing lyrics to one of the Beatles song - "Real Love". The final project will be a music video that has the song being sung by our fifth graders, Scott & Beth, and the original Beatles themselves. We are very excited to see & hear the completed music video and will be sharing it out with our PH school community.

Our school chorus, under the direction of Mrs. Arielle Richter, recently performed for our school and community under "unique" conditions. So as to be able to hold our traditional holiday concert, while maintaining COVID safe guidelines, we held our first-ever outdoor concert.

Mrs. Godin's 5th-Grade Science Class:

Mrs. Godin's 5th-graders conduct holiday-themed science activities before winter break. Experiments included "Santa's Toothpaste", "Dissolving Candy Canes", and several others. Nice job Mrs. Godin and students!

Mrs. Reilly's 2nd-Grade Class:

Mrs. Reilly's 2nd-grade class had some fun before winter break using "snow" (shaving cream) to draw some holiday-themed images on their desks.

On Thursday, December 23rd 4th-graders and 5th-graders faced off against their teachers in a few rounds of floor hockey. The event was organized by Mr. O'Brien and students and staff all had a great time participating in some friendly competition.

All classes participated in the annual "Great Paper Chain Challenge" during their art class with Mrs. Cowley. Classes worked together as a team to see which homeroom could create the longest paper chain. This activity helped students work on their team-building skills as well as their measurement skills. Paper chains were used to decorate the school for our holiday concert and donated to the local nursing home and Jake Thibeault. Thank you Mrs. Cowley for organizing this fun activity.

With the start of any new year, many people choose to "make a resolution" to improve their life in some way (personal, health, professional, lifestyle, etc.). Do you have any individual or family resolutions to initiate on January 1st?

We are encouraging all PH students to set a "School Goal" for the year 2022. This is something that they hope to achieve between now and the end of the current school year. We ask parents to have a conversation with your child, explore options, and then determine an appropriate goal.

Students should write their goal on a 3x5 index card or piece of paper. They should include their name, grade and a statement: "My goal is ............................"

Parents may also decide to include a family goal along with the individual student goals.

All goal cards should be sent to the school office. We will be posting them all on a large display board so that they can be shared with all members of our school community. We can then celebrate and encourage each other in the achievement of our goals.