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The end of the year is near. Please enjoy the pictures in this newsletter of all the fun activities that have been happening. Next week is packed with more celebrations as listed in the Coming Up calendar section. Thursday is our last day of school for students and dismissal will be at 12:30.

The fourth graders had a great time fishing at Storr's Pond and fort building in the woods. It was a perfect reminder of how wonderful it is for kids to be outside with unstructured time to explore. With that in mind, here are some ideas for outdoor summer family fun that I used to do with my children:

-Visit Storr's Pond, walk on the trails around the pond, play on the beach, catch tadpoles
-Go to the Montshire Museum and take the Planet Walk or River Loop
-Play a round at Fore-U mini golf
-Take a short hike up to Velvet Rocks Shelter for a picnic
-Complete a Valley Quest (a short self-guided mini adventure)
-Bring books/board games and a picnic to any of the local parks

Please see the Notes from the Nurse below for more summer ideas. I hope to see everyone out and about this summer and we'll be in touch.

Hello,

I loved the Celebration of Learning evening and I hope that you all did too. It was heartwarming to see how excited all of the students were to show off what they've been working on in school. The wax museum is always one of my favorite events of the year because it's amazing to see the students choose a famous person, research them, write a paper and a speech, dress in costume, and decorate their 'booth'. It's a wonderful example of the type of engaging, hands on, project based learning that happens all over the building.

Thank you for coming to the event and thank you to the staff for all your hard work pulling it together!

The next three weeks of school are packed full of field trips and special days like Field Day on the 29th. Please check out the list of important dates in this newsletter. They are also listed on our website.

Leah Wheelan, Principal

What an amazing outpouring of appreciation for the staff! I can't thank you all enough for the breakfast treats, recess coverage, snack cart, and all the touching emails and cards. It really does make a difference and the staff had a great appreciation week.

We had a huge turnout for our Bike and Walk to School Day today. The students were celebrated in the gym with a quick 5 minute assembly.

There are so many events happening in these last four weeks of school that I will probably be sending some reminders through the alert system, but we'll try to list them all below in the Coming Up section of the newsletter.

Hope to see everyone on the 19th for our Celebration of Learning,

Hello,

It has made the staff so happy to see how joyful your children were when they returned to school on Monday! It feels like we are running full speed towards spring and the end of the year. We have our state mandated testing, SAS, approaching for 3rd and 4th graders. This will happen the week of May 18th - 22nd so please make sure that your children get enough sleep and attend school.

Please save May 19th from 4:30 - 6:00 for our open house which is now called our Celebration of Learning. All families can attend for any part of the 90 minutes. The purpose is to visit your child(ren)'s rooms and the specials rooms and see all the wonderful projects that they've worked on this year.

In addition, we hope to see many K, 1st, and 2nd grade families at our last school sing on May 15th at the usual 2:00 time.

Thank you,

Leah Wheelan, Principal

Hello,

There is clearly a need for more afterschool STEM based activities. We had over 70 students sign up for the new STEM club before we turned off the Google Form. I am going to have to think about some creative ideas to enlarge both the Robotics and the STEM club next year. Thank you to those of you who have already reached out with funding possibilities and staffing/volunteers.

I will send out an email giving everyone a day's notice before we open the Lego Club sign up form and we will prioritize students who did not attend the Robotics or STEM club.

And last, a reminder that there is no school the week of April 20 - 24.

Thank you,

Leah Wheelan, Principal

Hello,

Our Robotics Club has been a huge success and the students have loved it. I'd like to thank our kindergarten teacher, Megan Flanders, for leading the club.

If you are a parent of a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th grader, you will receive an email at apx. 8:00 tonight with sign up information for our next club which is an afterschool engineering and design club. We also have collected enough legos so as soon as I have a parent volunteer confirmed, I will send out information on an after school lego club for K-3rd graders. If you are interested in helping, please send me an email. I hope to start the Lego club in two weeks.

And last, a reminder that there is no school on March 30th as this is a professional development day for all staff.

Thank you,

Leah Wheelan, Principal