Volume 2 October 24th, 2022 | |
The First Branch Newsletter | |
Kindergarteners cooking over the fire pit in Elizabeth Dutton's Forest School classroom | |
A bi-weekly newsletter from Principal Janet Cash and Associate Principal Kate Liptak featuring photos, stories, and updates from the Chelsea and Tunbridge schools. | |
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Upcoming Dates to Note:
Oct 28th: Half Day, noon dismissal
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THERE WILL BE NO ONE PLANET IN TUNBRIDGE ON FRIDAY OCTOBER 28TH. | |
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Greetings First Branch Families!
First, we want to thank all our families and staff who came out to create, run and support our Apple Festival Celebration at Tunbridge Central School! Our students had a wonderful time, and this was all because of community involvement! If you have not connected with our Friends of First Branch community organization, please do!
At Chelsea Public School, we celebrated students from each advisory demonstrating our shared agreements. In the weeks ahead, we will shift to not only honoring the R in Roads for Ready, we will also branch out to the A in ROADs for Ally. While we jump ahead in ROADS, and hold on O (Open-Mindedness) for now we will return. The focus on ally will allow middle advisories and elementary class meetings to discuss being an ally for others in the classroom, in school and in the community. Our counselors will also focus on anti-bullying and defining conflict vs. bullying. In the days to come, Mrs. Cash will share a letter about how our schools will approach and celebrate Halloween. After Halloween, our focus will turn to conferences and celebrating our local veterans. Please reach out to Mrs. Cash by email if you know of a local veteran.
Sincerely,
Janet Cash, Principal
Kate Liptak, Associate Principal
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Miss Elizabeth’s Class
We have been working this fall on developing community and classroom culture. Both inside the building, and outside in our Forest School classroom, the students are working together and developing their language and problem solving skills to support and help each other. Through work and activities such as math games, collaborative projects, cooking on the fire pit, and exploration and play, we are building friendships and trust in each other and ourselves. We are excited for our year together and our future explorations and discoveries.
Below the students work together to make applesauce.
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Ms. Crocker's Class
We were excited to make our first visit to our Woods Classroom last week! Students learned about our three cares: care of self, care of others and care for our Earth. They each choose a forest animal and a movement for our new animal greeting. They learned the Good Morning Earth song, got to know where our outdoor classroom boundaries are, and enjoyed a bit of wandering time. We hung up a thermometer and checked the temperature. Students chose one nature item that intrigued them to bring back to class and drew this item as their first woods journal entry. Students also recorded the date and temperature and began learning to label their drawings.
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Ms. Perkins’ first grade class enjoying their Exploratory Science class with Ms. Eliza. Every Thursday, first graders spend their morning in the outdoor classroom for a greeting, observing the weather, math, exploration and journaling. | |
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5th & 6th Grade Humanities News | |
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All-School Read: Linked by Gordon Korman
Last week, every middle school student began reading the novel, Linked, by Gordon Korman, as part of an ‘all-school-read’ in Chelsea. The story is set in a modern day middle school where mysterious swastikas begin showing up on walls in the school, creating many strong feelings and igniting a school-wide project to create a paper chain with six million links in memory of those lost during the Holocaust.
World War II is an historical period that is a favorite of many of our students. This novel introduces the Holocaust, or Shoʾah in Hebrew, for catastrophe or destruction. Holocaust refers to the systematic, state-sponsored killing of six million European Jewish men, women, and children and millions of others during World War II. It is a powerful and serious topic that 5th & 6th grade students are coming to with curiosity, sensitivity and impressive background knowledge.
Class discussions, writing and projects will touch on the role of symbols, identity, racism, acceptance, as well as viral social media, family history, and forgiveness. The combination of historical references with current day middle school realities makes for a reading experience that students are loving - plus it has plenty of humor.
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Above, students work with images and words from 1940’s & 1950’s National Geographic magazines to create their individual ‘symbol collage,’ representing ideas & objects important to them after a lesson on the power of symbols for both positive or negative concepts. While the swastika has come to be a symbol of hate, students named many symbols of hope, love, family, hobbies, sports and freedom. | | |
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The Next Great Food Truck Elective
Students in the 5-8 ‘fast food’ elective enjoyed mug French toast recently - complete with garnishes of dried cranberries, mini marshmallows & local maple syrup. Reviews were mixed, but the key seemed to be in how much one stirred the bread cubes and the egg mixture - too much yielded warm mush, while just enough did the trick. Next up? Ice cream? Campfire treats? No-bake goodies? Outdoor oven inventions? The idea is to find the perfect, quick sweet and salty offerings that can be served up to the whole school at a school-wide celebration.
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Capture the Chicken!!! And the fish!!!!!!
At a recent Town Hall, Mr. Franske (⅚ science) and Erik (⅞ math) got in on the action during an epic game of ‘Capture the Chicken & the Fish.’ Town Halls take place every Friday, where the entire school community comes together for announcements, celebrations, agreement work on school norms & expectations, and games. Over time, students will take on more and more leadership roles in organizing and running Town Halls.
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PE in Tunbridge
This fall we have been working on a variety of activities and movements depending on the students level.
Kindergarten-2nd grade students have been enjoying games that involve a variety of gross motor skills (running, jumping, skipping, galloping, ect.) Top games of the season are Hot-dog tag, Island movement, and Tail-tag! Recently we have started our soccer unit, students are doing amazing. They have been working on their control and keeping the ball in their own space.
In 3rd & 4th grade we focused on Ultimate Frisbee at the beginning of the year. Recently we have transitioned to fixing up hiking trails around the school and re-creating paths through the woods!
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PE in Chelsea
We have recently spent time building relationships and trust, as well as building character through a series of “team building” activities. Students were asked to leave their comfort zone, where true learning happens. This unit was a “challenge by choice” unit where each member of the team could advocate for their needs as well as contribute to the task at hand. It was great to see so many students stepping up or back depending on what was needed. Students not only learned about their peers during this unit, but also about themselves. Fun stuff!!
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After gaining trust through the team building unit, we moved on to “archery”. In this unit students are asked to demonstrate some of the highest levels of focus and safety in the PE program. Not only does the unit require students to demonstrate an incredible amount of focus, responsibility, listening, and safety; it also takes patience, persistence, and willingness to take a controlled risk. Students started with the basic equipment identification of the arrow and recurve bow. They then moved outside for shooting stance and firing, as well as scoring both individually and as a team.
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A special thank you to Cooper and Lou Maraget for their help getting equipment ready for use. Also, thank you to Lou for coming in and being a part of the program, teaching kids about the difference between recurves, compounds, and crossbows.
It was great to see so many parents/families on the Open House evening. Thank you to all who stopped by to say hello in the gymnasium. A special thank you to those who dared compete in the “Scooter Triathlon” of parents vs. kids!! It was a blast to see and hear the smiles and laughter!
Health Education - Miss Amy
Health classes are grade specific 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade classes, all meeting once per week. The beginning of the year the focus was on personal needs as a learner as well as the “Areas of Health”. Students were asked to complete a Health Wheel assessing their own personal health and setting short term goals to improve areas of weakness.
The current focus is on social and emotional health. Students have been identifying what healthy vs. unhealthy relationships look like. They have also identified various relationships, and created their own relationship circle maps. Students are now trying to develop community relationships through various projects. Some of the upcoming projects include a school dance, scarecrow competition for the town of Chelsea to view, a food drive, as well as a potential “Fall Fest Field Days” for First Branch grades K - 2. Many details for these projects are still being finalized. Stay tuned!!
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