Season’s Greetings Families!
I hope you enjoyed the Thanksgiving break and are looking forward to the winter holidays!
At school, teachers are working very hard to keep the focus on learning and practicing skills, while also making room for some holiday fun. Personally, I remember very few presents I got for Christmas as a child, but I remember vividly learning how to make a Christmas tree at school by folding down the pages of a Reader’s Digest and then showing my siblings how to do it; traveling on foot with my class to present cards and sing carols at the nursing home; attending the community Elks Club party; skating in the park to A Charlie Brown Christmas; and decorating the gingerbread cookies my teacher baked for us (what a saint!).
Aside from the classroom-based activities, there are plenty of opportunities for our students and families to make memories in the coming weeks, including the tree lighting, PTG Cookie Bingo, the grade 4 and 5 school concert, and the Holiday Bazaar!
You can find the school calendar of events along with the December menus below.
Wishing you a great start to December!
Mary
December Menus
December Calendar
Notices and Announcements
- Trimester Progress Reports: We hope to send T1 progress notes home with students on Thursday, 12/7. We'll let you know if that changes.
- The Tooth Protectors Inc. is coming to our school on December 11 and 12th to provide preventative dental care for our students. Services such as cleanings, fluoride treatments, sealants, and temporary fillings are just a few of the options available. This service is free for those with Mainecare; the Tooth Protectors can bill other forms of insurance as well; or you can pay out of pocket. For more information and to sign up your child, please visit https://www.toothprotectors.org/permission-form/ If you have any questions, feel free to call Nurse Ashley 207-737-4748.
- Winter Attire: Please talk with your child about remembering to bring their warm gear, and to actually wear the warm gear! Often we find everything needed by a shivering child stuffed in their backpack!
Engineers at Play
A team of innovative teachers who wanted something more than ball games and playground equipment to interest and occupy students have found an answer. They helped students bring objects from the forest onto the playground. We now have several types of forts made of pole saplings, leaves, and other gifts from the forest. The students really enjoy engineering their shelters. Recently, I watched a unique (and beautiful!) design crumble to the ground. After a brief moment of disappointment, the builders begin discussing what they needed to do differently when they put it back together. This is learning at its finest: Create, fail, study, recreate, fail, study, recreate, succeed.
