January 2022

Newsletter

Principal’s Corner…

Welcome back everyone!  We hope that you enjoyed your holiday break and got to spend some time doing things you enjoy.  It has been so great to see the students return with smiling faces and ready to dive back into their educational journey.  In December we were fortunate to be able to host our winter concerts at both Stony Brook and Eddy.  Both schools were able to provide entertainment for the entire school population safely outside.  Thank you to Mrs. Faris and Mrs. Belliveau for doing an amazing job organizing this for our schools.  

Winter is finally upon us and it even actually feels like winter.  With the temperatures getting lower, please make sure that your student is dressed appropriately.  Students are encouraged to have a coat, hat and gloves, dressing in layers is always a great idea!  Students go outside daily for mask breaks as well as recess and we want them to be warm enough during the cold months.

We wanted to take a moment to send off two amazing staff members onto their new adventures!  Colleen Lawless, Stony Brook’s school nurse, will be joining the team at Nauset Family Practice beginning this month.  Colleen has provided many years of fantastic nursing talents and  much more to our Brewster School community.  Congratulations and good luck Colleen on this new journey!  Kelly Barnatchez is retiring at the end of this month!  Be sure to check out highlights of Mrs. Barnatchez in our Staff Spotlight this month!  We wish Kelly all the best with her retirement!

Just a reminder that if you haven’t had the chance to follow us on Twitter please check us out @NausetEddy and @NausetStony.  We will share different things that happen in the school here!

Take care,

Allyson Joy, Assistant Principal

Keith Gauley, Principal

Staff Spotlight…

Mrs. Barnatchez 

I am the teacher that has been teaching the longest at Stony Brook and this is my retirement year! I started teaching way back in 1985 when there was only one elementary school and it was called Brewster Elementary School. I have been teaching kindergarten for the last 15 years, having taught second, third, and fifth grade also! While I have loved all grades, kindergarten is my favorite. There is nothing like the magic of seeing five and six year old children learn. It's the best job in the world! 

For the month of January, I am looking forward to introducing my students to the arctic and learning all about arctic animals as we read the Magic Tree House Book Polar Bears Past Bedtime.

Here are some fun facts about me! My favorite color is blue. My favorite food is pizza. My husband and I have 3 adult daughters and 1 son . I have 5 grandsons from 7 months to 8 years old! I have 2 dogs-Cooper and Lexie! I love spending time with my family and exploring all of the walking trails across Cape Cod. Something you wouldn't expect about me: When I was a little girl I was known to be the best tree climber in my neighborhood! Much to my mother's dismay I could always figure out a way to climb to the very top of most trees! It was my favorite outdoor activity when I was in elementary school!

**Thank you Mrs. Barnachez for all that you have done for the Stony Brook Elementary School! We wish you all the best in your future endeavors**

What’s Happening around the school….

Let’s take a peek into what the specialists are doing :)

Happy New Year from the SBES Art Room!

Prior to vacation, the entire school celebrated the Monarch’s arrival at their over wintering site in Mexico by creating some amazing Monarch and Marigold collages.

The Kindergarten students were able to do some clay hand building and produced beautiful pinch pots with glaze. They will be fired soon!

Grade one created gorgeous Mountain Landscapes that incorporated value and complimentary colors.

Meanwhile, the second graders, painted watercolor winter scenes with 3D snowmen in a study of light and shadow.

This month, the Kindergartners are learning about the color spectrum with the book,

Penguins Love Colors. They will be drawing and coloring adorable penguins with a rainbow background.

Claude Monet will be the inspiration for grades one and two. The students will be studying his career of color and light impressions by painting their own waterlily pond and bridge.

Artistically yours,

Mrs. Young

News from the Music room....

It’s xylophone and classroom instruments month in the music room.  K-2 is learning the basics of holding the mallets, where to strike the bars and how to watch a conductor.  Grades 3-5 are learning how to be part of a band.  They don’t all play the same thing and they don’t all play at the same time.  K-5 all continue to learn the importance of following directions, keeping the beat and using dynamics.

News from the Library Media Center at Stony Brook….

In the Computer Lab:

Students in Grade 2 Technology classes spent the last few weeks before vacation learning to Code in code.org and even participated in the Hour of Code. While they will continue to work on coding throughout the year, 2nd graders have started their Typing Quest journey. This week we will focus on home row and play some fun typing games to get used to letter placement on the keyboard.

Prior to vacation, Grade 1 students had been discussing what it means to be a Digital Citizen and how to stay safe when we go online. They took a virtual field trip to the zoo and got to view animals on live webcams from their very own computer. This week 1st graders had an introduction to Coding. After participating in a direction following exercise and reviewing the compass rose directions, students logged in to their own code.org accounts and took the first steps in coding with the Angry Birds characters. 

In technology, Kindergarten students continue to work on mouse skills. Before vacation they completed 2D/3D shape games to correlate with their math curriculum. This week they used the Starfall programs ‘Weight’ and ‘Measurement’ to practice these skills. They will also use the program KidPix in the upcoming weeks to create a winter animal scene. 

In the Library:

It is so wonderful to have the Library back up and running this year. The students love to come check out books and participate in Library time. It was so exciting to see how many students in grades K-2 participated in our Winter Reading Challenge! Keeping all of those readers inspired is our goal. Look for more reading challenges to come in the future. 

Physical Education with Mr. Kirk

 I hope everyone had a wonderful winter break! We are back and we have hit the ground running! For Kindergarten students we are continuing to do our warm up activities entirely in Spanish with Profe Colombo. Our second activity in each class will be focused on using manipulatives (scoops, pillow polo sticks, noodles and paddles etc.)

First and second grade students are continuing to do our warm up activity entirely in Spanish in one of the 2 gym classes weekly. They have begun our basketball skills unit. Some of the skills that we are focused on are dribbling and passing while we work up to shooting towards the end of the month.   

Check with your student on which days they have PE and remember to send them in with sneakers.  

World Language with Profe Columbo

Pre-K students are working on following commands and directions entirely in Spanish

and they know almost ALL of their colors!

Kindergarteners are working on describing the weather, days of the week and working

with numbers in Spanish.

First graders are working hard on following commands in Spanish, expressing how they

feel and expressing personal preferences.

Second graders have made their class global people and shared about their

own culture to their class. We will be adding days of the week and adding in

comprehensible stories on Rockalingua. Second graders can sign into their

Rockalingua account to reinforce Spanish skills found on the SBES Technology page. Username: firstlastname Password:hola.

¡Hasta luego!

Support Brewster Schools

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Stony Brook Elementary School

384 Underpass Road

Brewster, MA 02631

508-896-4545