FIRST BRANCH

Weekend Newsletter

Feb 3 & 4

Janet Cash, Principal

Dan Rivers, Associate Principal

Jill Interlandi, Newsletter Coordinator & 4th Grade Teacher

Trailblazers hit the slopes on Friday with Mr. Rivers! Way to go students and adult volunteers.

Above: Sheriff Ryan Palmer from Windsor County visited us on the sledding hill. His team is working with Chelsea to provide more support.

Below: A little dancing in advisory always helps us wake up!

UPCOMING EVENTS

Feb. 5: Permission slips due for elementary students

Feb. 6: First Branch Board Meeting at TCS. Featuring Up for Learning!

Feb 8: 4th grade grade students visit the local library & snowshoe

Feb 8: FIRST BRANCH FILL THE FOOD SHELF NIGHT

@ the Chelsea Gymnasium

5:00pm- ⅞ First Branch Girls vs. Oxbow

6:00pm- ⅚ First Branch Boys vs. Echo Valley

7:00pm- ⅚ First Branch Girls vs. Echo Valley.

Feb 9: Early Release, 12 pm dismissal

Feb 12: Elementary field trip to

the Chandler Center for the Arts

Feb 19-23: Winter Vacation - No School

Feb. 26: CPS PreK Info Night & Dinner Provided by HeadStart

Feb. 28: TCS PreK Info Night & Dinner Provided by HeadStart

Feb. 29: First Branch Budget Info Night at CPS starting at 6:30 pm

Mar 1: Early Release, 12 pm dismissal

REMINDERS

STUDENT HANDBOOK

First Branch Basketball Schedule

Lunch Menus

First Branch Lunch February

Hello, Heart Heroes! Are you ready?! Kids Heart Challenge is coming to our school this week! We have exciting things planned this year to get us moving, helping others and having fun. Get a head start by signing up today and helping your student choose a daily health challenge. Visit our school page at www.heart.org/schools or download the AHA Schools app!

Hello First Branch!

Hello First Branch Families,

We hope everyone was able to get outside and enjoy the bluebird days!

This week is an exciting week at First Branch! On Tuesday, Our Up for Learning Student Leaders will share a draft mission and vision with the First Branch Board. We will also review current First Branch Academic data.

On Thursday, we are rallying to fill the food shelves. Root on our home teams! While being there is enough, we are also collecting items for the food shelves in our area. The concession stand will also be open to support our students heading to Europe, and we will also have a special pop-up store-making station to support our food shelves! We are asking for a suggested donation of $1. We have enough supplies for 200 s'mores! So come on over while they last! All proceeds will go to help fill the food shelves in our areas. If you can't make it to the game but would like to donate shelve stable food or donate, please see our front office staff.

-Shelf-stable milk

-Canned Fruit

-Canned Veggies

-Tuna/Chicken

-Beans

-Coffee

-Tea

-Cans of Soup

Finally, Chelsea Route 1 bus route updates were sent out Friday the route is also noted below.

Be Well,

Jnet Cash

Principal, First Branch Unified District

Kudos to our 3-4th grade Girls Basketball team. They earned their first win this week! Way to go!

First Branch Elementary Field Trip

Grades 1-4

Students in grades 1- 4 have been invited to participate in a field trip

at the Chandler Center for the Arts.This field trip is an opportunity for students to learn about Classical music (Cello) and Korean tradition (Gayageum). Classroom teachers will be sending home permission slips. All permission slips must be signed and returned to school by 2/5/24.

Mr. Franske's 7th and 8th graders studied how the eye works. They were fortunate enough to dissect a cow eyeball to learn, up close, where the parts of the eye are. They were able to contrast the differences between a human and cow eye. For example, cows, like cats, have a tapetum, which humans do not have. This is what causes light to reflect back at night, such as with headlights. What a great learning opportunity!

Photos have been cropped to accommodate any potential visual sensitivity.

Middle School Spotlight:

Do you have an 8th grader this year? Please see the letter from Ms. Mindy about High School school choice below and linked here.

Curious about our Middle School academics?

Here are the course summaries for Trimester 1 to review.

5-6 Team

7-8 Team

Please note the updated route adjustments for Chelsea Bus (C1)

Special Guest features the Cello

As part of our January Chordophone unit Hugo and his mom, Mary, shared their Cellos. Ms Lake talked about the cello with Mrs. I’s 4th grade and both of them played a duet for Miss Danielle’s 3rd grade. Students who wanted to tried bowing the cello.

Magellan will be sharing her violin with other classes to experience bowing a string instrument.

It was interesting to discover that Mary finds playing the Cello uses the same motor skills as shearing sheep. She uses her left hand to hold a sheep about the same size as a cello and her left hand holds the bow with the same dexterity or lightness as a shearing blade.

Thanks Mrs Lake for sharing the Cello!

Staff Spotlight

Jebson Interlandi

How long have you worked at First Branch?

I've been teaching at FBUB for six years.

What is your favorite thing about working at First Branch?

I love helping students recognize the empowering quality of reading.

What do you want people to know about your job?

It allows me to share possibilities of written expression.

What is one fun fact about you?

I've been playing the bass guitar in bands since I was 13 years old.

Weekly Riddle

Do you think you know the answer? Email callen@wrvsu.org

The idea of this task is to complete the four by four grid so that the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 appear only once in each row and only once in each column.You will see that some squares, or groups of squares, are outlined with a thick black line. These groups of squares are called 'cages'.In the corner of one of the squares in a cage, you will see a small target number and usually a mathematical operation too. For example, if a cage of three squares has '8x' in the corner of one of the squares, it means that the three numbers in that cage multiply together to make 8. if the cage is made up of only one square, which has a number in its corner but not an operation, that number is telling you exactly what goes in that square. These mathdokus are brought to you by nrich.maths.org @ University of Cambridge.

WRVSU CALENDARS

2023-24 CALENDAR

about-summer-camp

Learn more about Vermont Family Support programs here!

First Branch School

Tunbridge Elementary 523 VT rt 110 Tunbridge, Vermont

Chelsea Middle School 6 School St. Chelsea, Vermont

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