Spring is upon us and we are down to the final two months of the school year. Our students and staff have been working diligently to meet their yearlong goals! It is important to keep up this momentum throughout May and June. Please continue to encourage your student to put their best effort into making each remaining school day count. Let's finish strong!

As such, I would like to give a well deserved shout out to our third, fourth, and fifth grade students who have been putting excellent effort into RICAS testing! As a reminder, RICAS and NGSA (science) testing continues through May 9th!

I would also like to take the opportunity to give our teaching staff a much deserved shout out for their constant dedication to doing what's best for students. I look forward to celebrating our whole staff during Teacher Appreciation Week, May 6th-10th.

We have a busy few months ahead. We are excited for our highly anticipated end of year events!

Warm Regards,

Courtney Francis

The school year is coming to a close, the weather is getting nice, and the students are getting antsy. For parents, these last few weeks before summer can feel like a marathon, attempting to keep your children from completely checking out from the classroom mentally—without losing your own sanity. Looking for some fresh ideas? Here are five things parents can do at home to keep their children motivated in the classroom through the end of the school year.

1. Give in to the great outdoors

Once the air warms up and the sun comes out, the pull of the great outdoors is hard for all of us to ignore. Make a point of quenching your child’s thirst for time outside during the hours you have with him or her at home. Walk to the local park after school, sign him or her up for an outdoor sports league, take a weekend day trip to go hiking, or simply eat dinner in the backyard as a family. Any time you spend outside with your child will help manage his or her need to escape the indoors while he or she is busy learning in the classroom.

2. Ask questions

Contrary to what you may hear from your child, his or her time in the classroom is valuable right up to the last day of the school year. Teachers are racking their brains every bit as hard as you to keep students busy and learning during the final weeks of school. Help them out by making a concerted effort to get your child talking about that learning at home. Avoid the impulse to focus on upcoming summer activities or indulge in complaints, and ask your child about what the day’s lessons included. As always, express your own interest in those topics—enthusiasm for learning is infectious.

3. Maintain a routine

The days may be getting longer and summer activities may be getting started, but that’s not an excuse to disrupt the school year routine. Make a point of maintaining consistency in your child’s homework time, family mealtime, bedtime, wake-up time, and any other daily rituals you have. This will help keep your child in the mindset for school and improve his or her focus in the classroom right up to the last day of the school year.

4. Reflect on the year

For students, each school year is a distinct experience. As the school year is wrapping up, make it a priority to help your child reflect on all that he or she has learned and done in the classroom over the past nine months. Try having your child write a letter to his or her younger self from the start of the school year—what advice would he or she offer, what challenges can he or she expect, and what should he or she look forward to? This kind of reflection is a great way to get your child thinking about all the progress he or she has made throughout the year and motivate him or her to keep up the academic momentum.

5. Provide some incentive

Never underestimate the motivating power of a little reward. Think about different incentives you can offer your child for displaying continued effort and achievement at school during these final weeks. Maybe it’s an extra hour of TV time if he or she finishes all of the night’s homework before dinnertime or a special outing if he or she achieves a certain grade in a subject that has been challenging. Big or small, dangling a carrot can make a big difference in keeping your child engaged at the end of the school year.

Looking for an at-home program that can help you and your child set personalized learning goals and reward hard work with customized incentives? Study Island for Home provides state-standards aligned practice in core subjects with engaging activities and games that make learning fun. See it for yourself—start your free trial today!

(Source: http://blog.edmentum.com/5-parent-tips-keep-children-engaged-end-school-year)

Congratulations to Mrs. Allain for being named the 2025 Steere Farm Elementary School Outstanding Teacher of the Year Nominee!

This accomplishment in and of itself speaks volumes about the respect administration, colleagues, and families have for Mrs. Allain, her teaching, and level of professional engagement. As a school-level nominee, Mrs. Allain is now a candidate for the 2025 Burrillville School Department Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award!

Each month SFE recognizes students who have gone above and beyond to show their 3Rs: Respectful, Responsible and Ready to Learn! Students are nominated by their classroom and/or special subject teachers. Congratulations to our April Student of the Month recipients!

Toodle Tickets continue to be a hit! Students are invited to fill out a Toodle Ticket to give a special shout out to another student who was kind or helpful! At the end of every month, Toodle Tickets are chosen from grades 2-5. These students are then invited to have a special popsicle with Mrs. Francis. Check out the pictures below from our recent Pops with the Principal!

If your child has any prescription medications, including Epi-Pens and Inhalers, and/or medical supplies please stop by the Health Office to pick them up by the last day of school. Medication that is not picked up by June 17th will be disposed of.

If you anticipate that your child will be taking medication for the upcoming school year, please go to our School’s Website and click on Health and Wellness to print out any forms that your child’s doctor needs to complete over summer break. Please remember that medication orders do not transfer from year to year. Medications will not be accepted by the Nurse without signed doctor orders and parent signed permission.

Thank you!!!

Administrative Assistant Appreciation Day was April 24th and a great opportunity to express our sincere thanks to Ms. Tiffany for all that she does for SFE students, staff and families! Ms. Tiffany plays an integral role in keeping our building running smoothly! Thank you, Ms. Tiffany!

Special shout out to Ms. Laney for her vital contributions to our office, as well!

The multi-age classroom had the honor to be a part of the Unified Banner Ceremony on April 26 at Burrillville High School. We were just a small contingent of students from the District who were invited to attend this event. Many of our students look forward to being future Unified athletes in the middle and high school. We are thankful to the High School staff and students for including us, as well as providing us with snacks.

Grade 2 students are learning about the life cycle of plants in science. In writing, students are working on weather poems, which came out fantastic. A special shout out to Mrs. Hammond's class for winning the Friday trivia contest as well as the April break reading challenge!

Our newest reading module is all about inventors and inventions. Students are pictured reading our first text about Thomas Edison and then completing a write around the room activity, discussing and answering questions about the text to deepen their understanding.

Students in Mrs. Richards class have been enjoying math games to solidify their basic fact knowledge! Check out some of the students playing multiplication war! In addition, Mrs. Barr and Mrs. Gould's classes continue to begin their day with a Choose Love jamboard!

Connected to the ELA module on the arts, each SFE 5th grader did research on an assigned artist, created a poster board presentation, and gave a mini oral narrative to visitors while dressed in character. We were all blown away by how well students did!

A special thank you to Mrs. Detonnancourt for all of her organization and work with the students, and to all the families who visited!

Our Steere Farm Broncos have talent! Thank you to all the families that came out to support our students last night, SFE Music teacher Mr. Latendresse, and the talent show audition committee! It was an awesome talent show!

Thanks to all staff and students who wore purple to show our support of SFE students who have a parent or family member serving in the military!

Congratulations to fourth grader Evan Escalera for being a Feinstein Foundation Golden Ticket winner! Steere Farm Elementary was gifted a $5,000 grant as a part of our Golden Ticket win! Evan also had the opportunity to a $500 grant to a non-profit organization and chose St. Jude's Children's Hospital.

Thank you Feinstein Foundation, for your generosity and for making a difference in our community!

Kudos to Jameson (grade 2) and Sophia (grade 5) for winning our report card voucher raffle! Both students earned extra recess for their class!

With over 160 submissions, Earth Day Poster Contest committee has selected the 12 posters that will be printed in the 2025 environmental education calendar.

Congratulations to the following students from Steere Farm that are part of that 12 include:

• McKenzie Esposito, Grade 4
• Kaylee Fletcher, Grade 5
• Piper Huguenin, Grade 3
• Norah Lagace, Grade 5
• Alice Lee, Grade 4

The students and their families will be attending an award ceremony on May 14th at 6:00pm at the library. It will be revealed who the top 3 in each category are and those students will receive cash prizes.

We will have one final reading challenge, May 13th-May 20th- sponsored by Dr. Romani!

The classroom who reads the most minutes during the week will win:

• A pizza party!
• READING ROCKS t-shirts
• Teacher’s gift card of $100 to Staples

In the end, everyone wins with Romani Orthodontics’ $500 donation to our school library.

Field Day is scheduled for June 6th! The rain date is June 7th.

We are looking for several volunteers to help make this event a memorable one. We're asking that volunteers sign up for both dates--June 6th and the rain date, June 7th--where possible. All volunteers must have a valid BCI on file.

We look forward to our special Moving Up ceremony for our fifth grade students on June 14th @ 10:00 a.m. in the gymnasium!

We look forward to the Someone Special Dance on Friday, May 3rd at Crystal Lake Country Club! As a reminder, no tickets will be sold at the door.

For those who purchased a ticket to the dance, the doors will open at 5:45pm, with dinner and dancing beginning at 6pm, and the dance ends at 8:30pm!

The last PTA meeting of the school year will be Wednesday, June 5th, 2024 at 6:30pm in person in the library or via Zoom.

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/2289417724?pwd=RUdZVXhSSzlzYmpreld0QmE4SWZEdz09

Meeting ID: 228 941 7724

Passcode: 4cNchp

On April 23rd the PTA welcomed back students and staff from April vacation with a fun and educational Mad Science STEM Assembly! Fire & Ice was a big hit!

Teacher Appreciation Week is May 6th-10th and one gift we would like to give teachers, is the gift of time. We need 4 volunteers per recess period to cover recess duty on Friday, May 10th and Monday, May 13th. To sign up please click here:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C084AABAC2CA0FAC61-49341201-recess

Square One Art went home on March 15th. Square One Art makes for a great keepsake and gift for a loved one. The deadline to order has been extended to May 15th, don't miss out!

Don't forget to order a yearbook for your student! Yearbooks are $25 each and orders can be placed by clicking the. link below! Have questions? Please email Jess Hancock at jessica.cavedon@gmail.com.

Our final restaurant fundraiser of the year will be at Uno in Smithfield all day on Wednesday, May 22nd! So please grab some takeout or dine in and the PTA will receive 25% of all sales!!! Please share the attached flyer on your Facebook page with your family and friends!

May 1-2: RICAS Math Testing (grade 5)

May 3: PTA Someone Special Dance

May 6-10: Teacher Appreciation Week!

May 8: School Nurse Day

May 8-9: RICAS Math Testing (grades 3/4) & NGSA Science Testing (grade 5)

May 9: Student of the Month Family Ceremony @ 8:25 a.m.

May 13-17: Reading Rocks Challenge

May 13: BMX Bike Assembly

May 14: 5th Grade Transition Day @ BMS

May 16: Grade 4 Field Trip

May 20-24: End of Year Benchmarking Window (reading and math)

May 22: Grade 3 Field Trip

May 23: Smoothie Bike @ Lunch

May 24: Grade 2 Field Trip

May 27: Memorial Day - No School

May 29: School Improvement Team Meeting @ 3:30 p.m.

May 30: Bwana Iguana Assembly

May 30: Grade 5 Field Trip

May 31: Chorus Concert