Announcements

Hello,
We are so excited to have everyone back at school. Tuesday is our school orientation event followed by ice cream or popsicles on the playground. It's going to be very busy with probably 200 families moving throughout the building. Parking will be tight so plan a little extra time to find a spot and if you live close enough, consider walking or biking. I have added a lot of logistical information below to help keep everything running smoothly.

We will be at a table in the lobby with class lists and and will direct you to your child(ren)'s rooms if you need help. If you can't attend the event, I will send a link to all of the teachers' presentations.

Wednesday is the first day of school! If you haven't completed your child's registration or turned in their immunization records, please do that on Tuesday so they are able to attend the first day of school.

See you all soon.

Leah Wheelan, Principal

Hello,

Everyone should have received an email or through Alma, our student information system, with a welcome letter from me and from your child's teacher. You can also see your child's teacher's name in Alma. If you didn't receive this email, please let me know. We sent it earlier than planned due to an issue in Alma.

I also wanted to put a few dates on your calendar. Our Family Orientation/Ice Cream Social will be on Tuesday, Aug. 25th, at 1:30 if you have multiple children at HSS and at 2:00 if you only have one child here. And. . . the day that we've been waiting for, the first day of school is Wednesday, Aug. 26th!

Enjoy summer!

Leah Wheelan, Principal

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,