Volume 8 April 13th, 2023

The First Branch Newsletter  

A bi-weekly newsletter from Principal Janet Cash and Associate Principal Kate Liptak featuring photos, stories, and updates from the Chelsea and Tunbridge schools.

Follow us on Facebook for daily photos, updates, and announcements. 

Important Upcoming Dates



Upcoming Dates:



April 14: Early Release Friday


April 21: Hulbert Visit to TCS for grades K-2.


April 24-28: Spring Break, No School


May 2-8: Grades 3+4 VTCAP State Testing


May 9-18: Grades 5-8 VTCAP State Testing


May 19-24: VTCAP Make up testing days



Principal Letter


Happy Spring to all of our First Branch families!  


With the brighter sun and longer days we are sure to find mud in our outdoor spaces. Please have students wear boots while not in the building and save their sneakers for inside the hallways in gyms. If we all do a little, our school will remain clean for learning.


Our lost and found selections at both of our campuses have been growing all winter long and are ready to get cleared out. If you are missing something, please stop in and take a look or have your student look while at school. Items that are left on Wednesday, April 19th will be cleaned and boxed for donation.  


Our state testing window will be opening as soon as we return from our spring break. During the month of May it is increasingly more important that students arrive at school on time and are present when able. There is a make up testing window, but it’s crucial that all of our students are accounted for in this data.  


We are excited to share with our First Branch families that Hulbert Outdoor Center has teamed up with us once again to make sure that all of our students have an experience with their programs. This looks different at each age group. Friday, April 21st Hulbert will send a team to TCS to work with our K-2 students on team building. Our 3rd and 4th grade learners will travel to Hulbert on May 8th and 9th and our 5-8 team will head toHulbert on May 25-26 for an overnight experience. More information about these events will be coming.  


We are proud of our ROAD ready students and the growth all of our students have shown this year. We will continue to acknowledge when students positively engage with our expectations and look forward to some more earned experiences.  


Enjoy this beautiful weather!  


Janet Cash, Principal

Kate Liptak, Associate Principal 

Elementary School News

Mrs. Connolly’s First Grade



Students in Mrs. Connolly’s class are learning to tell time on analog and digital clocks. In First grade, students learn to tell time both to the hour and half hour.


In Literacy in the First Grade students have recently written Opinion books about which pet they believe is the best pet to have. Students wrote and illustrated an Opinion piece in book form using an opinion, two reasons, and a conclusion. When finished students read these books to their classmates, practicing fluency and presenting to a group.


In the month of March we read lots of Dr. Seuss books. Students practice reading “Green Eggs and Ham” for fluency and we listen to a number of titles during Read Aloud like “Horton Hears a Who” and “Horton Hatches an Egg” and discuss the Author’s Message of the story. First Graders are very good at noticing the important ideas that Dr. Seuss wants us to know from his stories. We have found messages about how ‘everyone is important’ and ‘it’s important to be dependable’.




Reading our recently purchased Geodes books has also been fun. These books are nonfiction, decodable books that we read to practice newly learned reading skills. They are also great stories that teach us great background knowledge. We have learned about ideas such as little free libraries, cave paintings in France, and libraries in the city of Fez, Morocco. Seeing these places on a world map in far off places of the world is very interesting for us in First Grade.


During the week of St. Patrick’s Day we have written compliment coins to each other. Each student writes a compliment on a colored paper gold coin for all other students in the classroom. Once written, we shared these with each other and each child added their coins to their “pot of gold” collection to bring home.

Ms. Perkins First Grade


First graders, in writing, are working on Opinion Pieces on what the best animal is. We had the opportunity to listen to the other first grader’s books and are finishing up ours to then read to their class. Students chose animals ranging from dogs to cats to even komodo dragons! Students are very proud of the three reasons that they came up with for why the pet they chose is the best.


In math, students are learning to time to the nearest hour and half hour. We are continuing to practice word problems, commutative property, and adding and subtracting within twenty.



We have been enjoying our time in Outdoor Education on Thursdays for an hour and exploring in the woods, building fairy houses, learning about animals in Vermont, and reading thermometers. Every day after students enjoy their time outside with Ms. Eliza and I, they journal about it on sticker paper that is then placed into our classroom log.


First graders are continuing to work on phonological awareness using Heggarty, phonics and spelling using Fundations, and reading using Geode books.


Middle School News 

7/8 Science


How does a helicopter fly?  This has been the essential question for the second trimester of ⅞ science.  Students began the semester by applying Newton’s 3rd Law to design and create a device capable of landing an egg from a 22 foot drop.  Ziplines were another favorite activity, as students calculated and graphed kinetic and potential energy.  Levers and pulleys became tools for students to plan their own investigation to explore the different variables that affect force, motion and mechanical advantage.  


Through collaboration efforts with Dartmouth and the Montshire Museum, students will spend the next month implementing a new curriculum focused on forensic science.  Students will spend time thinking about different ways we can use science to find evidence.  We will use microscopes to look at fibers, create “blood” splatter assessments, do “blood” testing, and analyze fingerprints and shoeprints.  We even have new electrophoresis machines that allow us to analyze DNA! 



Chelsea One Planet


We have had a wild and wonderful winter at Chelsea’s afterschool program. Session II was cold and snowy, and students enjoyed sledding outdoors, as well as gym days, Arts Bus visits, making cartoon art, and learning about board and card games from around the world. We added two new creative play stations with baby dolls, accessories and a beautiful vintage wooden doll cradle at one station, and a kitchen play station with food, a cookstove, a grocery basket and a cash register. These join our building, arts & crafts, and games stations and allow kids of all ages greater choice and ability to explore and to practice social emotional learning skills each afternoon.


We are excited to welcome Lynne Clayton to the team as a new teaching assistant this session. Having Lynne on staff means that we are able to offer additional spaces for students, particularly on early release days. Looking forward, we will be able to offer more programming on half days, and possibly a field trip later this spring. A warm welcome to Lynne!


Our spring session began this week with a welcoming of the spring equinox. We are looking forward to many exciting activities and themes over the next few months:


Mondays: Kids’ choice and creative free play


Tuesdays: Arts Bus art & craft activities


Wednesdays: Walking Wednesdays - we will be taking a number of walking field trips around town to better get to know our community and neighbors. Possibilities could be a tour of a fire truck, a visit to the Sheriff’s office, a sunny-day walk to Will’s store for creemees and then over to the town playground, or just a visit to the village green for group games.


Thursdays: Potions - We will provide a number of age-appropriate potions lessons in the areas of STEM, art, and cooking. We’ll make ooblek, try our hand at a color-changing chemistry experiment with milk and food coloring, make some delicious smoothies and maybe even pour candles or make our own lip balms! 


Fridays: Visit the Library - Students can choose to visit the Chelsea town library on Fridays for read-alouds, and for those with a library card, to check out books. We will also join the town librarian for special craft activities on selected Friday afternoons.


We are also hoping to host a number of special events this spring, including a Sakura Cherry Blossom festival in April, a Cinco de Mayo celebration in May and a celebration of moms in the days leading up to Mother’s day. Our last day of operation for the 22/23 school year will be Friday June 9th.






The Future of Food


Typical of Mr. I’s reading groups, the thematic focus was on something edible. In this case, we explored persuasive arguments about why insects could become a more popular cuisine in the future. Students examined articles, charts and graphs about the amount of resources and costs involved with farming various types of food and found insects are the most cost efficient, relying on less resources and space. Insects can reproduce quickly and reach adulthood in days, making them a sustainable food source. Also, they are an excellent source of protein and vitamins.

While they are enjoyed in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, they struggle to catch on in Europe, Canada and the US. Even though there are a few farms in Vermont beginning to harvest crickets, it is still largely viewed as an unpalatable snack. Will our thinking, and taste-buds, change? Students were able to sample some actual ants, crickets, grasshoppers, super worms, scorpions, and a tarantula to decide for themselves.

Tunbridge School Library


We are currently finishing up our Red Clover program, which we began last November. We have completed our tenth book and are preparing to vote on our favorite title in the coming week. Last month, we read the colorful and delightful story, A Song of Frutas, by Margarita Engle.  Student illustrations may be seen below:


In the Red Clover book, Someone Builds the Dream, by Lisa Wheeler, we practiced our engineering skills with STEM activities. Students designed bridges, towers, mansions, and other creative buildings:


In addition to our Red Clover activities, students continue to enjoy reading and checking out books, including series such as The Adventures of Sophie Mouse, HiLo, and The Baby-sitters Club. 


Thank you for reading the First Branch Newsletter!