FRIDAY NOTES J u n e

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June 12, 2015 Dear Families, The Final Friday Notes of the 2014-15 school year means the end of the academic year is near. When I look back on the year, I find myself appreciating all the progress and growth in our children, the time and effort of our teachers and staff, and the support of the parents and community. We continue to strive toward improving our school and the learning for every child. This past month, the Westminster School Board of directors hosted two evening forums in order to hear from community members/parents about the future of our schools. They have embarked on developing a strategic plan and need your input to understand the direction the community wants them to take the schools. These events were held in the Center School gym - and the conversation was rich and the ideas plentiful. That said, we heard from only 25-30 community members. It was, and still is, our hope to hear from more of you. A survey was developed to gather more input and to deepen the understanding of the issues facing our schools, teachers, and students. Please take a moment to take the survey - by going to this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/8SLHZNT. Thank you for your time and for sharing your ideas. Next week, we will be saying goodbye to several key staff members at the end of the school year: Colleen Grout is retiring from her position as our art teacher after years of service to the community; Classroom teachers, Russell Williams and Atasi Das, are leaving to pursue other aspects of education; Ian Levy is taking a year 's leave to be with his family; Nurse, Maria Harlow is relocating to the northern part of Vermont; Special education teachers, Amy DeCarolis and Beth Burnham; are leaving to pursue other aspects of education; HCRS school-based clinician, Elizabeth Ungerleider and Para-professionals: Molli McKeen, John Donaldson, Melissa Haskell and Chelsea Burke. We wish this group of dedicated individuals well as they continue their journey. They will be missed. I hope the summer days find you and your family well, enjoying the sun, having fun and relaxing when possible. I hope to see many of you over the summer at the Westminster Summer Camp. Sincerely, Steve Tullar, Principal

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LOOKING AHEAD Westminster Schools recently completed the hiring of three classroom teachers for the 2015-16 school year. Joining us will be Deborah Ruesswick, Elizabeth Wing, and Lucia Danielson. Susan Lockerby will be our school nurse. Ms. Ruesswick will be teaching sixth grade. She has 19 years of teaching experience in Florida and Brattleboro, VT. Deb has her Masters Degree from Nova Southeastern University, majoring in Brain Based Teaching. She comes with a great deal of effective teaching knowledge and applies the "brain research" in her classroom. She visited this week to meet her students and begin the transition process. Ms. Wing will be teaching fourth grade. She is switching to regular education teaching, after taking on a long term substitute teaching position in special education soon after graduating from Antioch with her Masters Degree in Elementary and Special Education. (Her undergraduate work was at UVM in Human Development/Family Studies). Previously, Liz founded and directed "City Potters" in New York City, a creative arts summer program for 6-11 year olds. Ms Danielson will be teaching the multiage K-1 at the West School. She has her Masters Degree from Antioch - majoring in Elementary and Early Childhood Education. Her undergraduate degree is from Lesley College. Most recently Lucia was teaching preschool at the Gan Keshet Jewish Community Preschool in Northampton, MA. She brings a strong understanding of child development, nature based learning, and a love of music. Ms. Lockerby is a Registered Nurse, and joins us from Springfield Public Schools. She is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, where she received her BS in Nursing. She has a BS from Boston University in PE. She has lived in the area for years, and previously worked at BFUHS. Sue's experience in nursing in the school setting will be a great asset for our school community. We are fortunate to have brought Sue into our community school. Please welcome these new staff members to our community when you see them.

2015-16 Grade Assignments West School Grade Multiage K-1 Multiage 2-3

Teachers Lucia Daneilson Sheryl Miller

Students 5/2 12/8

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Center School Grade Kindergarten First Second Third Fourth Fifth Sixth

Teacher Paula Borochoff Kathy Gifford Ann Beaudry-Torrey Dena Weiss-Tisman Patrick Cafferky Cynthia Payne Meyer Deb Ruesswick

Teacher Emily Clark

Jennie Perry Elizabeth Wing

Students 24 15 15 29 28 16 18

We will be assigning students to classrooms and sending out letters in early July.

KINDERGARTEN

To kick off our garden/farm unit we dissected lima bean seeds, which led to the discovery of a baby plant inside the seed. We learned that each seed has a seed coat that protects the baby plant (embryo) inside. Inside the seed coat is material (endosperm) that the plant uses as a food source. Once introduced to water, the baby plant inside the seed begins to grow which will produce yet another lima bean plant. The life cycle of a plant is truly amazing! The children ‘planted’ their very own garden in a bag which we hung in the window of our classroom. Each bag contains sets of corn, peas, magic beans and pumpkin seeds. The children made predictions about what will happen to the seeds. Because the seeds are in a ziplock bag, we can watch germination and root growth. Each child will document the changes they notice over time in their science journals. On Thursday we planted pepper plants in the school garden, which will be harvested in the fall when our children are in first grade!

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FIRST GRADE Emily Clark

It’s hard to believe it is time for our year together to end! We’ve had such a wonderful year together and have developed a true sense of community within our classroom. We’ve done amazing things in our academic subjects, but I’m most proud of the things we’ve accomplished that are far less tangible.

This class is kind. This class is compassionate. This class practices gratitude. We recognize that what we have to offer when we work together is far greater than what we could ever have accomplished alone. I’m amazed at the work this class has done. In our reflections of our year together, the kids each wrote what they are most proud of themselves for. This is their list: I’m most proud of I’m most proud of I’m most proud of I’m most proud of I’m most proud of I’m most proud of I’m most proud of I’m most proud of I’m most proud of I’m most proud of I’m most proud of I’m most proud of I’m most proud of

myself myself myself myself myself myself myself myself myself myself myself myself myself

for being smart. for doing the Fun Run. for learning how to read chapter books. for doing my hard work. for being kind the whole year and not having a big temper. for getting through all of that work. for getting a big cut and not crying. for knowing most of the rules and doing good work. for being kind. for reading because I got better. for my work. for practicing reading chapter books. for learning how to read.

I am most proud of them for all those things- and so much more. Have a wonderful summer!

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FIRST GRADE Miss. Kathy’s

As the sunsets on First Grade at WCS, I am reminded of all the things we discovered this year: sound traveling through different media, parent animals taking care of their young, special animal characteristics that help them survive, light waves and energy, maps, holidays, space, moon, stars, earth and Kenya to name a few. All the while learning to read, write and do math. Students progressed from letter identification to reading, really reading. From simply counting collections to using their numeracy skills for algebraic reasoning. From practicing their names in writing to penning persuasive pieces about visiting Africa. Phew! No wonder we’re tired! But, don’t stop now, almost-Second-Graders. Keep reading, writing and doing math for a lifetime of learning. Have a great summer, Ms. Kathy

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SECOND GRADE The highlight of many second graders school experience of the past two weeks has been the WALKSMART/BIKESMART Vermont program. This program is an initiative that works with a range of partners across Vermont to get kids in grades K-8 riding their bikes with style and confidence. Our second graders had 4-5 opportunities to refine their biking skills and receive safety lessons regarding Helmet Safety, Dressing for Safety, ABC Quick Bike Check, and Rules of the Road. We would like to thank the volunteers who helped make this WCS experience a success. Here are a few quotes we heard from the students about this opportunity: ~“Riding in Evans Woods was the best time of my life!!” ~“I liked everything about it. It was fun to get to ride on the road.” ~“I really liked the bumps in Evans Woods and I liked going on Rt. 5 because I never usually get to ride on the road.” ~“For the first time, I learned the signals for left turn, right turn and stop.” ~”Learning the ABC Check was new for me, I never knew any of that stuff.” ~”Going into Evans Woods was AWESOME!” ~”I like the BikeSmart program because we got to ride our bikes on Rt. 5 where it is nice and smooth. I’ve never been on Rt.5, on my bike before.” ~”Riding on Route was exciting because I never went on a solid road before, I also liked Evans Woods because it was bumpy and it was a challenge to get up the hills. It was like Mountain Biking!” To continue our sharing of monthly Friday notes dedicated to helping you support your child’s reading development, the second grade team would like to share the following with you. We are pleased with the progress our second graders continue to make toward becoming more confident and fluent readers. In the classroom, one of the strategies we have been working on recently is using prior knowledge to connect with text. Have you ever read a story and been able to connect on a personal level with a character or storyline? Do you notice that is is easier to read and comprehend something that you have background knowledge of? This is because readers bring information from what they already know or what they have previously read about a topic and connect it with what they are reading. This increases their understanding of text and helps them remember what they have read. Using prior knowledge can help students connect their own experiences with the text to better understand and make sense of what they are reading. How can you help your child with this strategy at home? a) When reading with your child, pause before and during the reading of the text to relate what is being read in the story to what is already known. b) Model for your child how you activate prior knowledge before you begin reading. You can use some of the following questions to get started:  What experiences have you had that might be similar to what this book cover is telling you?  What do you already know about this content, genre, or author?  While reading: Does this part of the story remind you of anything you have done before or read before?  Using what you already knew about the topic, did the information help you understand this reading?

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SECOND GRADE C) Remind your child that a reader can connect text to many different experiences They can make a “text to self ” connection (for connecting to personal experiences), a “text to world” connection (what they already know about the world that will help them better understand the story), or a “text to text” connection (the current book remind them of a previous book read). When your child makes a connection, see if he/she can identify what kind of connection was made. Also, remember...reading ‘just right’ text is important and keep your children reading over the summer!!! Each student has selected two “just right” books to read (which they will receive soon), so plan on trying out some of these strategies as they read to you over these next few months. :) ~The Second Grade Team

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SECOND AND THIRD GRADE Mrs. Miller We were pleased to have 100% attendance for Success night. Students were proud to share the work they have done over the year.

Sharing success of bridge design

Planting potatoes

West School students spent a sunny afternoon planting in our raised beds and in our larger garden, as well as planting Scarlet Runner Beans, which we hope will grow over the tunnel we built from saplings last year

Preparing to plant carrots.

Sheryl enjoyed working with incoming second graders as they planted pumpkins.

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THIRD GRADE Third graders have been busy the past few weeks finishing up different projects. Both classes created Dream Houses, making floor plans and drawings using their knowledge of area (and perimeter) to work within a budget. These were displayed at Success Night. Our young budding architects did a great job and practiced their math skills. Just this week, we did a walking field trip to visit the Westminster Town Hall and the old cemetery on Rt. 5. Volunteers from the Westminster Historical Society explained the exhibits to us. Students were excited to see a model of the Court House, as well as lots of different weapons, tools, a carriage hearse, clothes, and more. Down in the clerk’s office, we went into the vault with all the town records and found a copy of some students’ birth certificates. Finally, we walked down to the cemetery, past the marker about the Westminster Massacre, and we saw William French’s gravestone and memorial. Students chose a gravestone to sketch on black paper. It was a great morning of learning about our town, and we sang a Happy Birthday to Artie Aiken on the way! The third grade also visited the Pinnacle for the final time this year. We completed four different hikes this year and each was different and special. It was a special experience to watch those natural places change throughout the seasons, observing how the plants and animals changed and adapted. On this last hike, it was amazing to see how much more comfortable and confident all the students were in the woods. The group’s endurance was incredible and we reached the summit in what seemed like half the time it took on our first hike last fall. While all of these trips supported our different science and social studies curricula, the most important thing may be watching this group enjoy the outdoors and be successful with an entirely different set of experiences than they would find in an indoor classroom. All in all, it has been a fantastic year of learning, exploration and fun. This group has worked so hard to acquire skills, build a third grade community and carry out their responsibilities as students at Westminster Schools. Thank you so much to all our students and to their families for all the support we received this year. We wish everyone best of luck in their new adventures next year.

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FOURTH GRADE For the past 2-3 weeks the fourth grade has been working hard on human body systems. Each student has worked on all 7 of the chosen body systems: Skeletal, Muscular, Digestive, Respiratory, Circulatory, Nervous system and the Lymphatic system. The students get a paper with 4 things to answer; The main function or purpose of the system, the main body parts of the system, how the system works and some interesting details. After they have written the information on one of the questions they have to make sure it’s true, so the students checked books to get the information, they needed two credible sources. Additionally, the fourth grade recently were working on the solar system. Each student was assigned to a planet or dwarf planet. They then came up with questions to research about their assigned planet. After they found the answer to their questions, they made a slideshow. Each student was supposed to have 10 slides: 7 for facts, 1 for the introduction, 1 for the conclusion and 1 for fun facts. After every student finished their slideshow they presented them to the class, they read their facts and answered some questions each slide show was very interesting. Written by: 4th grade News from Cameron Gage.

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FIFTH GRADE

Some people say that learning ends as the last day of school approaches. For the fabulous fifth graders, this is far from the truth! We are still knee deep into thinking, connecting, and creating. From writing opinion papers to creating slide shows of travelling across the United States, we’ve been using all sorts of different skills. Thanks to everyone who has supported this group in having a great year. Check out some other things we are currently engaged in learning.

We visited Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts to learn about life in colonial America. Students are learning to make jumbles with a reflective stove and learning how to use a printing press.

Our recent health fair got us moving and thinking about living in a way to build strong bodies and minds. Planting Day was lots of fun. We helped kindergarteners as we planted bell peppers in our beautiful community garden.

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SIXTH GRADE Sixth grade would like to thank all of the volunteers who helped to make our Boston trip possible. We would like to thank the members of TEAM who supported our trip, the parents who helped research and plan our trip, the friends and grandparents who provided us with treats, and the parent chaperones who came to Boston with us. We had a fantastic time! Some of our highlights were: a trip to the Mapparium and to the Isabella Gardner Museum, a tour of Fenway Park followed by a Red Sox game, visits to the Boston Museum of Science and the Boston Aquarium, topped off by a tour on the famous Boston Duck Boat. afterwards was enjoyed by many members of the community.

As we move on to middle school, we will hold many happy memories of our elementary years at Westminster.

We will miss you, Westminster Schools!

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MUSIC ROOM It has been a joyful year in the music room, full of dancing, singing, playing, learning, and making noise! We are wrapping up our year by reflecting, recalling and reminiscing about all of our favorite songs and activities we played and sang together this year. What better way to end the year than with a spectacular Spring Concert?! It was a performance of "heroic" proportions. Each and every student and staff member contributed to making this event a success; you should all be very proud! We are so blessed to have such a supportive and musical school community. Have a great summer and keep on singing!

ART ROOM I have so enjoyed my time here teaching Art to the children of Westminster. Thanks so much for the kindness and support you have all provided for me during the past six years. It has been an honor working with such wonderful colleagues and such creative and enthusiastic children. I am moving on but not moving away. It gives me great pleasure to pass the torch to Janelle Beard. I plan to visit often to admire all the creative things she comes up with. Have a Wonderful Summer Holiday!

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LIBRARY On Monday, eight WCS 5th and 6th graders will be attending a "Readers Day Out" to celebrate their DCF reading accomplishments. These students read and blogged about up to 18 of these books this school year. We will stop at the Village Square Bookstore, visit the newly renovated Rockingham Public Library and have a lunch meeting to discuss the new DCF list. The Scholastic BOGO, $no charge$, summer reading book fair was a SUCESS! Each and every student at the Westminster Schools had the opportunity to choose (an average of three) "right fit" books to add to their summer reading list. With great effort and ease we have designed a system for this annual event that involves student choice, accurate reading level with on the spot assessment, topic specific suggestions and fiscal awareness. The books will go home at the end of the school year along with additional summer reading materials. Our two home town libraries are open for business in both villages and can enrich your summer experiences. Investigate your garden pests, look up those shells you found on the beach, check out some old local maps and discover a new hiking trail, get lost in a story - whatever your interest, you can find out more about it at the library. Butterfield Library is open M 1-4 and T, Th 1-7 West West Public Library M, T, W, TH and Sa - varying hours.

NEWS FROM THE NURSE Medication Pick-up: Parents of students who have medication stored in the health room should pick it up by the last day of school, June 15. All medication (pills, Epi-Pens, inhalers, etc.) not picked up will be discarded. Please plan ahead to pick medication up so it is not wasted! Medication may not be carried home by the student — it must be picked up by a parent. School nurse will not be available after June 17 to return medication to families, but you can call the front office to arrange a different pick up day. Medication Order Reminder: All medication orders expire at the end of the school year. If you are visiting your child’s health care provider during the summer, consider requesting a new medication order for your child. All prescription medications require an order. Immunizations: 6 grade students need the following immunizations before entering 7th grade: 1 dose of Tdap and 1 dose of Meningococcal (MCV4). Please, get your child immunized over the summer break. Have a great summer!

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PHYSICAL EDUCATION As the end of May rolls into June, it’s a very busy time for Physical Education! Celebrating the transition between spring and summer activities, all students have had some outside classes. Our students have been learning about bike safety in their Physical Education classes. We provide helmets and bikes to some students, while others bring in a helmet and bike from home. Students are required to bike with a helmet and sneakers. With this week’s rains, we also needed outerwear that repelled water. Students have been demonstrating proper helmet fit, and learned to replace a helmet when damaged or more than five years old. They also learned to check their helmet fit by using their eyes, ears, and mouth as markers for placement. We discussed what students should wear to be safe and visible while riding a bike in public. The ABC Bike quick check was practiced by all riders before starting to pedal away. Students have been using hand signals while riding on our parking lot course and some groups have practiced their signals and safety measures on trips around the school block. I would like to thank everyone who volunteered their time and effort in the many activities we did throughout our school year that support movement and fitness. Have a safe and happy summer and remember to KEEP MOVING!!!

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GARDEN NEWS

WCS GARDEN PLANTING DAY Students from every class came out to meet Bianca Zaransky and Paul Harlow, who guided them through planting a crop in our garden. Thanks to both of them for their support. Thanks also to the many staff members and parents who were able to help out on planting day. This is the beginning of our All School Garden, 2015! It will be studied, visited and tended by a variety of people this summer: students from Keene State College, teenagers from HCRS, summer campers, teachers and families. The garden will also be one of the stops on the Westminster Cares Garden Tour in July. Our garden signs are getting a much appreciated redo from the talented Vanessa Schoonover, our school custodian. To catch up on what’s been happening in our garden this spring look up our school garden blog: vermontschoolgarden.com. Please leave a note if you’d like to be a part of our garden team! Irene Canaris, Garden Educator

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WESTMINSTER FOOD SERVICE Please remember to pay your lunch accounts! It is very important to the Program that we receive all of the revenue owed prior to June 30th. Thanks, Kim Kinney Director of Food Services Westminster Schools

COMING TO AFTERSCHOOL NEXT YEAR!

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WESTMINSTER ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Westminster Super Stars celebrating their unique, beautiful selves and shining bright at the Southern Vermont Girls On The Run 5k.

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After School Program News It’s hard to believe that spring clubs have already ended. Those 6 weeks flew by! Believe it or not, we are already planning clubs for next year. Among others, we’ll be offering Crazy 8’s: a club that combines math with mischief! Stay tuned, folks. On June 1st, the 3rd-6th graders enjoyed a TECHNICOOL presentation by Dan Ozimek. Dan gave us lots of helpful information about technology and safety. We learned that: Like us, computers have memory. Unlike us, computers NEVER FORGET! Even when we delete files, pictures and text, they aren’t truly gone. Your digital image is the “you” that people see online. Be very careful what you post, it represents you! If you wouldn’t post it on a billboard for your whole town to see, the internet is not the place for it. If you don’t want grandma to see it, the internet is not the place for it! Never give away personal information online. Make usernames that don’t identify you. Choose strong passwords that contain upper and lowercase letters, symbols, and numbers. Cyberbullying is when a person or group of people target another person or group of people, multiple times, with the intent to hurt, humiliate or embarrass. The best thing to do when you are being cyberbullied is to tell a trusted adult. If that doesn’t work, tell another trusted adult. Don’t give up! Studies show that children who are brave enough to report the first instance of cyberbullying often will not report again, even if the bullying gets worse. Another important tip for dealing with a cyber bully is don’t engage. More often than not, the bully is trying to get your attention. Serious cases of cyberbullying are best handled by the Vermont State Troopers. On the internet, people often lie about who they are. If they aren’t your friends in real life, they shouldn’t be your friends online. On the other hand, just because someone is your friend in real life doesn’t mean you have to be online friends with them. More than 2 hours of screen time per day is not recommended for anyone, children and adults alike. According to Dan, the best thing parents can do is keep engaging their children in conversation about technology: show an interest in the games your kids play, what they do online, who they text, etc. Set firm guidelines for kids when it comes to screen time. Make sure they understand the reasoning behind the guidelines. For those who were unable to attend our parents’ night, here’s what you missed from our other speaker, Justin Daniels: Helpful Hints for Parents Tips from a lifelong gamer You don’t need to have a love for video games to have a basic understanding of them. The tools exist for you to be able to make an informed decision on what your kids are exposed to. Once you learn what tools are available, you can eliminate the one truly unpredictable factor in gaming: the other players online. https://www.commonsensemedia.org/ is a website that can help you determine whether a specific

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game is right for your child or not. This site provides great detail and information about the individual video games, such as their ratings and what exactly those ratings mean. For example, if the back of the box says “violence,” that can mean any number of things. This site gives you details as to what kind of violence is in the game, and details as to why the violence is happening in some cases. The website also helps with TV, Movies, Books, Apps, websites and music. If you worry that your children are getting too competitive while gaming, consider picking up some cooperative games next time. Games like Rock Band, or sports games wherein you and your friends can all control individual players on the same team are fantastic games that will help your child and their friends work together instead of compete all the time. If your kids don’t like sports games there are plenty of coop games outside of the sports world. Pretty much all the Lego games, Little Big Planet, Marvel Ultimate Alliance are all cooperative games. Xbox Live and the Playstation Network are two examples of situations wherein children are playing games with anonymous strangers. Let’s not beat around the bush: some of these gamers are VERY crude. There is a very simple solution: parental controls. Every console has them. If you are having trouble locating them, check the manual or contact the console’s customer service. As soon as you take control over who your children are playing with, you have eliminated the potential risk that online gaming poses. It’s important to understand that video games nowadays are not what they used to be. The games that exist now are more comparable to Hollywood movies than to classics like Pacman, Donkey Kong, etc. The target audience for most video games today is 16-35 year olds! Your typical big name video game release costs anywhere from 20million to 30million dollars to make. And like movies, these games have specific audiences they are trying to entice. The easiest way to grasp the video game rating system is by comparing it to movies: E=G E10+ = PG T = PG-13 M=R AO = XXX *these games are not sold in stores* Hope this helps!