Explorer 09 10
Transcript of Explorer 09 10
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October 30, 2009 An ACES Interdistrict Magnet School vol. 12 , issue 10
Daylight Saving Time ends thisSunday, November, 1, 2009 at
2:00 a.m. Don’t forget to set your
clocks back one hour.
"What's going on in that
head of mine?"
Kindergarten pull-out Enrichmentstudents met as a group for the
first time on Monday after-
noon and took part in a discussionon special gifts that they all pos-
sess. They took delight in a work-
shop called, "What's going on in
that head of mine?" where theycreated gigantic "heads" with
icons representing their likes and
gifts. It was a great way for eachstudent to brilliantly become self-
aware of themselves and their sur-
roundings. This very lesson setthe tone for upcoming lessons fo-
cusing on self and divergent
thinking.
Pennies for Peace
Walking down the hallway
Wednesday morning, teachers
were greeted by Primary studentsin charge of collecting pennies for
our school wide service learning
program, "Pennies for Peace", thatcoincides with the book Three
Cups of Tea. This project has
made Wintergreen students aware
of empowering communities
through education in Pakistan andAfghanistan!
By participating in "Pennies for Peace" we Wintergreeners are
making a positive impact on a
global scale, one penny at a time.
While a penny is virtually worth-less, in impoverished countries a
penny buys a pencil and opens the
door to literacy.
November 3,2009 is Election
Day. This year,
we will be vot-
ing for state andlocal officials.
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Scary StoriesFor the last few weeks students in
kindergarten, first and second
grades have been enjoying a se-
lection of scary stories during
their visits to the library. Our unit
culminated with a re-telling of
Washington Irving’s classic tale:
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
We have been trying to figure out
what makes a story scary. We
concluded that it is really what
happens in the story that makes it
scary, not the story’s setting or
characters.
Enriching Field Trip
Holiday Stadium Cinemas in oneof our partnering districts of
Wallingford, CT, served as the
setting this past Sunday afternoonwhen 140 Wintergreen students
and families viewed "Where the
Wild Things Are" during theschool-wide Enrichment event.
School Principal and Assistant
Principal Sharyn Esdaile and
Michelle Coogan along withteachers Daniela Amodio and
Ingrid Doviak joined the group
for the exclusive viewing of thefilm. Participants had many
comments after seeing the piece.
Natalie Cassello, grade 5 student
said, "It was really dark. It did nothave the same lesson as the book.
It was more about the monstersthan Max."Grade 3 student
Mackenze Pittman also partici-
pated and had a comment:"I think it was a really nice movie, though
the ending part was kind of sad. I
thought Max was a big part of the problem; the fight that started was because of him. The monsters had
interesting personalities." John
Iassogna, a fifth grader, was alsostruck by the monsters. He said,
"The characters-especially the
monsters-were cool. They looked
just like the monsters in the book." A great time was had by
all, and there will certainly be
more family activities like this inthe future. Stay tuned.
WANTED:
Shelf ElvesThe Wintergreen library is a very
busy place. Between scheduledstory hours and free choice time,
over 100 books circulate a day!
The library is in need of adult
volunteers to help with theshelving of books. If you are
interested, please contact Mrs.
Kaplan, 281-9668 ext. 3052 or
Tech News
We are pleased to announce the
opening of the ACES
PowerSchool Parent Portal. The parent portal is a tool that is used
to increase our home/school
communication and allows
parents to more fully monitor
their student’s progress. This portal will allow parents to
access student grades, assign-ments and attendance. In the
coming week, you will receive a
letter in the mail detailing thewebsite you will need to log
onto and the neces-
sary passwords. It will be very
important that you keep your passwords safe so that only you
can retrieve this valuable infor-mation. We will also conduct
two parent evenings for thosewho need more instruction or
access to the portal. We are very
excited to share this informationwith our parents and look for-
ward to continuing our efforts to
strengthen our home /schoolcommunication.
There’s a New Student
Teacher in Town!
Mr. Desautels is a new stu-
dent teacher in Mrs. Rourke’sfifth grade class. Mr. Desau-
tels started student teachingOctober 26th 2009. He will bewith us for eight weeks end-
ing on December 18th. He has
studied to be a teacher atSCSU and this is his final step
to becoming a full time
teacher.
Mr. has decided to be ateacher after spending twenty-
two years in the Army Na-
tional Guard. He was inspired by his own elementary schoolteachers. “I think that teaching
children and encouraging
them to do their best would bean excellent way to spend the
second half of my adult life”
said Mr. Desautels. We wishto welcome Mr. Desautels to
Wintergreen school!