MHS/WES Newsletter

October 10: No School, Columbus Day

October 12: MHS/WES Walk to School Day (Grades K-5)

October 31: MHS Costume Parade, 9:15 AM

November 8: No School, Parent Teacher Conferences

MHS & WES are partners of the Massachusetts Safe Routes to School Program, a federally-funded initiative of MassDOT, promoting safe walking and biking to school to decrease traffic congestions, increase physical health and better the environment.

On October 12th, MHS & WES students will be participating in the International Walk to School Month, an internationally recognized walk to school day promotion. Students will be picked up at their regular bus stops in the morning and will be dropped off at the Aubuchon Warehouse driveway (95 Aubuchon Drive, Westminster). The first bus (after they have dropped off their students) will then go to WES and pick up the students from Extended Day and bring them to Aubuchon’s. From the Aubuchon location ALL children will walk with teachers and staff to their schools.

The Westminster Police and Fire Departments are partners in this event and will be on hand to help ensure both pedestrian and traffic safety.

AM Drop-offs: Those children who are usually driven to school and who wish to participate can also be be dropped off at Aubuchon's.

Breakfast: Please note, breakfast will only be served to morning extended day students on October 12th. All other students should eat breakfast at home that morning. Thank you!

The walk is intended to serve many purposes. These goals include:

• To remind children and parents about the range of transportation choices;
• To teach students important lifelong walking safety skills;
• To create an awareness among drivers;
• To demonstrate the health benefits for our children through regular exercise;
• To improve the physical health, environmental health, and safety of our students;
• To have fun and strengthen our community connection.

If you request that your child not participate, please call or email the school by Tuesday, October 11th.

We are still waiting on several emergency forms to be submitted via email. Please check your email or SPAM. This information is vital to the safety of your child. Several emails have been sent out to those that haven't submitted their forms yet. Please take a look. Thank you

Our new kindergarten students have done an excellent job settling into kindergarten. They are adjusting to our daily schedule, classroom routines, meeting new teachers and making new friends. We are going to have a wonderful year!

We were thrilled to see so many faces, some old and some new, at our recent Open House! We appreciate the support and dedication of all our families. Please know, our doors are always open.

We are eager to announce that starting in October, all kindergarten students will walk to the Forbush Library once a month with their class. Each child will receive their own library card and will bring home a book to share with their family. This is an amazing opportunity for all and we look forward to our library trips. We hope you all enjoy reading!

The cooler weather has already arrived, please kindly make sure your child is dressed appropriately for the weather and that all their belongings are labeled. We thank you all for your help.

It is hard to believe that we are in our 6th week of school already! Time really flies when you’re in fifth grade at WES! Fifth graders recently participated in Start with Hello week where we discussed the importance of including others, being kind, and celebrating diversity. Students made pinwheels that you will see decorated outside our school, and sent and received Hello-grams to brighten others’ days! Many fifth graders were helpful and donated their recess time to organize the school wide events that took place throughout the week.

Ask your fifth graders about the Creepy Carrots that have joined our classroom for the month of October! A friendly reminder that we are working toward building responsibility as we prepare students for middle school. This includes a lot of working on independence and organization as well as establishing a homework routine that works for each child! Bringing a home-school folder back and forth everyday is one very helpful tool to staying organized with materials. We also suggest packing backpacks the night before to ensure a less hectic morning! Please remind students to charge their Chromebooks nightly! Teamwork makes the dream work! We look forward to meeting with you at parent-teacher conferences in the beginning of November!

ILLNESS/ABSENCES: As a reminder, all parents/guardians must contact the main office in the morning if your child is to be absent and inform them why he/she will not be attending. If your child has been ill, he/she should be free of a temperature for 24 hours before returning to school without the use of fever reducing medication

STUDENT HEALTH FORMS: Please continue to return the Student Emergency Health forms as soon as possible

PHYSICAL EXAMS AND IMMUNIZATIONS: In accordance with the AWRSD Policy and Massachusetts State Law, physical exams and documentation of immunizations are required for all students entering Kindergarten and 3rd grade. All students entering Pre-school are also required to present documentation of immunizations in order to attend. The law states that medical exemptions must be presented at the beginning of each school year. Massachusetts Department of Public Health additionally requires annual renewal of religious exemptions in writing at the beginning of each school year. If you choose not to immunize your child for religious or medical reasons, you must provide the nurse with a written statement annually per the above state guidelines

FLU CLINIC: The Nashoba Board of Health will be hosting a Flu Clinic at Oakmont on Thursday, October 27 from 3pm - 6pm. They are asking all those who plan to attend to pre-register. The flyer with link to register is attached below.

Ashburnham-Westminster Regional School District is currently looking for substitute school nurses! Please see the link below for more information and how to apply! You can also reach out to us with any questions!

Substitute Position

Finally, please continue to routinely check our website for the most current health services information Here.

As always, feel free to reach out to us with any questions or concerns :)

Bridget Hurley RN, BSN

Westminster Elementary School

Bhurley@awrsd.org

P: 978-874-2043 ext 5

F: 978-874-0964

Cassandra Benes RN, BSN

Meetinghouse School

Cbenes@awrsd.org

P: 978-874-0163

F: 978-874-0726

We are so excited to have the opportunity to work with your students at MHS and WES. We have truly enjoyed meeting and getting to know them during these first weeks of the school year.

We are also excited to have had a very successful Start With Hello week! Your students were able to participate in daily activities that reinforced a promise to start with hello, a promise to be kind, a promise to reach out and help, a promise to embrace diversity, and a promise to connect. These promises were made in order to create and promote a culture of inclusivity and belonging within our school community which helps to reduce feelings of isolation and disconnect that can be problematic for our youth.

One of these activities included decorating pinwheels that have been planted by each school entrance. These pinwheels serve as a reminder that while we make connections with others and notice our similarities, we can also celebrate our differences. Students were able to decorate their pinwheels with words or pictures that acknowledge their own family culture, classroom culture, school culture, and the culture within our greater community. We hope you can enjoy seeing them displayed and continue to support these important feelings of connectedness we value so much at MHS and WES!

We loved seeing these values modeled by some of our 5th grade Kindness Representatives! These volunteers led our Kindness Pledge and morning announcements, they helped put together and plant our pinwheels, they delivered Hello-grams throughout MHS and WES, and they even had breakfast with our Kindergarten and 1st grade friends to show how we can make new connections. A big THANK YOU to all of those who were willing to help and BE the kindness we talk about!

Kiddos at Meetinghouse are being introduced to art materials by our art studio mascot puppets: Cookie Critter and Piggy. So far we have opened up the Drawing Center and the Paper Scrap Center. I have seen some wonderful creations coming from the students!

Westminster Elementary kiddos also have a mascot, but he's not a puppet....he's our studio skeleton! His name is Peppay. (We will use him for observational drawing units). Grades 2 and 3 have been doing "Around the Room" activities where they travel to 6 stations that have art materials set up at them. Lots of great experimenting! Grades 4 and 5 have picked up where we left off last June and they began center work already. Most classes have a few centers open already: Art Games, Building Design, Drawing, and Artist Trading Cards.

Our Clay Units this year will be as follows: Grades K and 1 will use Model Magic, Grades 3 and 4 will use air dry clay and grades 4 and 5 will work with kiln-fired clay. Stay tuned...

Ms. Banning

ALSO:
News from Westminster Youth Playhouse!

The grades 4 and 5 Youth Playhouse will have a S.T.E.A.M. focus and is set to begin next Tuesday, October 11. Registration for that program is now closed. The Youth Playhouse program for K and 1 will be on Tuesdays in January and February. Grades 2 and 3 Youth Playhouse will be on Tuesdays in the spring. Registration forms for K and 1 will go out in December and registration for grades 2 and 3 will go out in February! Stay tuned.....