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

A new school year has begun! Follow us on Facebook for daily photos, updates, and announcements. 

Upcoming Dates to Note:

November 23-25 - NO SCHOOL, Thanksgiving Break

December 19 - School Photo Retake

Chelsea 8-10am, Tunbridge 11-2pm.

Elementary School News

Stephanie Perkins - First Grade

Ms. Perkins first grade students have been enjoying their 30 minute Yoga session that we have each month with yoga instructor, Sylvie Desautels.  We have been learning about breathing techniques, centering ourselves, and many different poses.   We have practiced  tree pose, cow pose, cat pose, boat pose, bridge pose, and more recently, the eagle pose. 

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Another really fun opportunity that we had as a school, was watching the Garifuna Collective perform here at Tunbridge Elementary School through a partnership with Barn Arts.  Before they visited, Ms. Perkins class read about them and learned about their history.  They have performed in 30 countries in 5 continents and are musicians from across different generations.  They travel the world together, sharing their music with different audiences.  Their performances spark the history and soul of Garifuna culture, as the history has struggled.  The Collective take their place in a long line of ancestors who strive to maintain their identity through generations and traditions.  First graders really enjoyed this ceremony and were able to identify many of the instruments that they brought with them.

Middle School News 

Pat Barnes - 5th & 6th Grade Science

We live amidst one of the greatest comebacks of the natural world. Typically, when an environment is radically altered by humans, recovery of the environment is slow, if at all possible.

When humans of European descent first settled in what would become Vermont, the region was almost entirely forested, save for beaver meadows and occasional valley fields maintained by indigenous peoples. Beginning in the late eighteenth century European settlers cleared Vermont homesteads for subsistence farming and in the early nineteenth century, transitioned to raising sheep for wool. Entering this wool economy, farmers began aggressively cutting the forests to make pastures and hayfields. In the period between 1811 and 1840, the state’s forest cover was reduced to a mere 24%.

In the 180 years since, a combination of our soils, our climate, and human neglect has allowed the forest to return to dominance in Vermont. Today, forests cover approximately 80% of the state.

The fifth and sixth grade science students have used the mild weather at the beginning of the school year to explore and learn about our remarkable Vermont forest. Using the resources available only a short walk from the school building, students have learned to identify a dozen common tree species. In addition, the local woods tell the story of the Vermont forest’s recovery.

We can see white pines which are uniquely adapted to taking over the abandoned pastures growing on the slope just above the ballfield’s third base line. Small-seeded trees like paper birch and quaking aspen that are adapted to growing on bare soils are growing in recently disturbed areas just outside Highland Cemetery. Everywhere under the cover of these pioneering species are the shade tolerant species (maple, beech, spruce, and fir) that dominate our mature forest.

Ecologists call the replacement of a community like pasture grass by a stand of white pines, and then by a mature forest, succession. The succession available for us to study just outside the classroom tells us the story of a landscape once radically altered that has largely returned to its earlier composition.

Thank you for reading the First Branch Newsletter!