The Newton School Newsletter

Mission: To develop each child's potential for academic success, engagement and overall well-being. Through this process, we will enrich each child's education with community involvement,

collaboration and outreach.

Friday, March 30, 2018

School Notes and AthleticsMr. Bagnato, Principal

One of our goals this year has been to change the conference format tostudent-led. We received a lot of positive feedback in the fall, but not muchfeedback to our survey after the spring conferences. In an effort to give usmore information to improve the conferences please go to the survey here.

I am also soliciting feedback to a new proposed cluster system. You shouldhave received my letter via e-mail. A copy can be viewed here.

The school's action planning committee met this week to discuss and creategoals for the school over the next two years. One of the goals is to increasecommunication within our school community. We want the above initiativesto be successful and improve the school, so please let us know what you think.

Athletics and School Activities:

5/6 and 7/8 cluster discussion5:30 - Monday in the library

PTA meeting 6:00 - Monday in the library

For school and athletic events. please visit the calendar on our website.

Kindergarten NewsMs. Kicza

Kindergarten learned about making maple syrup.They collected sap in a bucket a t school, boiledthe sap over a fire, and will use the syrup soon.They also tasted the sap before boiling so theycan compare. They heard books and stories aboutmaple syrup. They enjoyed a visit to the Phelps'family sugarhouse to see the process up close,learn more, and of course enjoy some tastytreats! Back at school they drew and wrote toshow the steps of making maple syrup and whatthey most enjoyed about the field trip.

1/2 NewsMrs. Longcore & Mrs. Robinson

First and second graders planted their terrariums this week! Thanks so muchto all of you who sent in jars for us to use. They planted cat grass, because it isvery fast to germinate and grow and is also a pretty, bright green. Most ofthem have already sprouted at least a few seeds just in the last couple of days.Before planting, they learned what each layer of a terrarium must be and why--rocks, a bit of charcoal, soil, and seeds. These will come home when wefinish our plant unit, when spring break begins. Next week we will start plantsfor the school gardens.

3/4 NewsMs. Catalano & Ms. Cote

It has been National Poetry Month, so the morning message hasbeen a different poem a day.

In 3rd grade math, students are focusing on telling time to thenearest minute as well as learning how to figure out elapsed timeby using a timeline. In 4th grade, students wrapped up their unitusing the standard algorithm for addition and subtraction and westarted a new unit on angles.

In Ms. Cote's reading, she has been reading aloud Rules by CynthiaLord about a girl whose brother has autism. In Ms. Catalano'sreading class, students have been working in their book groups and

listening to a read aloud about a girl who is just a little different.

Students have been writing an essay in science about how magnetsare used in daily life. This week in social studies, students wrote anarrative after viewing a picture from Chris Van Allsburg's Jumanji.On Friday, students had a writing celebration where they were ableto read and share their narratives with other students.

Next week, we will be planting on Wednesday as part of ourcontribution to the PTA plant sale. The following week on April10th, we will be heading to the HOOD for our last trip of the year.We are so fortunate to have this as an opportunity for our students.

Middle School NewsMs. Kanoff, Ms. Tieff & Mrs. White

History and Writing: 8th graders enjoying thenew flexible seating. Currently we are learningabout people who have impacted history. Askyour child to tell you about Title IX and theimpacts this civil rights law has had on females inthe United States or what the Green BeltMovement has meant to the people of Kenya.

7th and 8th Reading: As a culminating event tothe Holocaust independent reading project, the students created andpresented a poster about their book. They needed to include graphics and textfor the 5 narrative elements as well as telling us why the book mattered. Atthis time, we are test driving an argument piece of writing for the impact ofsocial media on children and teenagers. This is a unit that Joey Hawkins hasdeveloped to use with teachers around the country.

Math: At the beginning of class, 6th through 8th grade students often workon short problem-solving tasks (also called Number Talks). Pictured below isone such task with student solutions in both visual and algebraic form. Eachstudent had an opportunity to present a way in which s/he saw the patterngrowing.

Car project: The 7th and 8th grade students have completed the car project.Most students learned that owning a vehicle (in this case, a new one) isexpensive, especially when having to take out a loan and being aninexperienced, young driver. Here is Anya's poster.

Spanish NewsSrta. Pratt

On Friday, April 13th, Spanish students in grades6-8 will be traveling to Gusanoz Mexican Restaurantin Lebanon to participate in a traditional Mexicanmeal and practice speaking Spanish with some nativespeaking servers. The program includes typicalMexican food and dessert for $11.50 a person. We are asking for a $5.00contribution per student and the rest will be funded by the Newton Trip Fund.

The week of the field trip we will spend time in class going over vocabularyuseful to dining in a Spanish speaking country.

We will be traveling to Gusanoz Mexican Restaurant in Lebanon by schoolbus. We plan to arrive by 10:45 AM. We will be leaving school around 10:00AM and heading back to school at about 12:00 so we may be 15 minutes laterthan the 12:30 dismissal time. If this happens, the buses will be held atNewton until we arrive.

Please have your student bring in $5 (exact amount) by Monday, April 9th tome, during Spanish class.

Middle School Fundraising News

Please continue to sign up your child for the recycling center. Many Saturdaysavailable. Recycling Sign Up for Middle School Fundraising. Look for a

Palmer isn't sure about Ever & Jesse's robot car

Charlotte's prototype for her digital microscopicphoto project

rescheduled date. Thanks!

Library & Technology NewsMs. Simone Pyle

The 7/8 technology elective is underway,with students working on projects of theirown choosing...and what an eclectic groupof projects! We've had a couple ofstudents work on develop their own font;some are working on 3D printedsolutions; others are coding games inScratch; we've had a robot car being built;and digital art is being created usingdrawing tablets or photography mediums.

It's going to be an exciting trimester!

Brandy & Lexie's 3D utensil project

Ben & Bryar's Scratch game

One Planet NewsMrs. Kiersten Harlow Summer Camp Registration is now open! Finding Or Stride will start after April break!

One Planet Summer Camp 2018 Registration

Art NewsMs. Emily Girdwood

K: Textures and watercolor resist This week, Ks reviewed texture words andremembered how we made texture rubbings withcrayons. I challenged the Ks to cover up theirdrawings with watercolor paints, and they foundthat they could not. What?! We discovered thatcrayons resist the watercolor paints.

1/2: EGGS! This week, we talked about eggs and what couldpossibly hatch out of them. Birds, snakes, turtles,alligators, frogs....dragons, basilisks, aliens..... We worked in clay,remembering that clay comes from the earth and needs to be fired in a kiln.The students made two pinch pots and hid some tiny bits of clay beforesealing up their egg. The students also had some time to create their ownideas with clay.

Kylie's clay egg

3/4: BIRDS!(It's spring). I read an excerpt from the book The Boy Who Drew Birds, AStory of John James Audubon, by Jacqueline Davies.. We learned the JohnJames was crazy about birds and that in his time people thought that birdshibernated in "nests" under water for the winter...or went to the moon (insert

wild laughter here). We are making papier-mâché birds in bits over thesenext few classes, making sure to also have choice time.

Lucy's newspaper bird

5: Caine's Arcade Caine is a boy who, bored, creates an entire arcade out of cardboard. Afilmmaker, Nirvan Mullick, happens by and is inspired to create a short filmabout how a small community in East L.A. embraces this idea of play andcreativity. I did a short demonstration about cutting and scoring cardboard tocreate sculptures, and then the students worked on their projects.

Andrew learning to use the sewing machine

6: Drawing 6's learned my "quick and dirty" method of transferring images. We discussedgraphite pencils and how they have a range of softness and hardness to createdifferent values. We used a soft graphite pencils to make transfer paper andthen transferred lines from a photograph of the students' eyes.

Drawing by Charlize

Photo elective!Oh man. We are having fun. We areofficially magical and able to makephotographs,real photographs, with anempty box of oatmeal.

Health NewsMs. Kerri Juergens

Reminder to Parents - Policies and Updates for Medication Administration:

If your child is in need of a medication to be administered at the school, thefollowing is protocol in the Newton School Handbook and with the State ofVermont; and should hereafter be adhered to or medication cannot beadministered.

- Any medication needs to be in a pharmacy-labeled container when it arrivesto be administered from the nurses office.

- All medications to be administered need to be accompanied by a doctor'sorder to do so with: the name of the patient/student; dosage, route by which itis administered, frequency of dose; and the diagnosis and/or reason forgiving it.

- If a doctor expects that a medication is to be taken by the studentthemselves, it is required that this too be in the doctor's order.

- The nurse or her designee needs to be present when the medication ishanded off to the school- and cannot be handed off to a non-designee of thepatient/student. During this hand-off of the medication, the parent/guardianneeds to count the medication with the nurse/designee and both parties arerequired to sign off on this exchange and count (appropriate form will beprovided at said exchange).

- The parent/guardian and nurse will be expected to communicate via phoneor email, during this period of time when medications are administered.

Thank you kindly for your consideration in this matter. Hope you are all welland enjoying the newly arrived spring season!

News from the Lunch RoomGret Hewes

TASTE TEST SUCCESS!!!

We had our second taste test this week on Tuesday during our lunch periods.It was so wonderful to see so many students trying our Beet and Pear Puree.It was a pretty even result across the board; see the results next week in ourFarm to School section of the Newton Newsletter! Print out the recipe to try itat home!

The Farm to School Program is always looking for volunteers. Thiscommittee has some wonderful plans for the future here at Newton, and howexciting it will be to be a part of! If you would like more info please contactme, and as always please feel free to contact me with any ideas of fruitsand/or veggies you would like to see the kids trying.

March/April Hot Lunch Menu 2018

Farm to School Ms. Alyssa Catalano

Farm to School had our second Taste Test on Tuesday, March 27th. Tune in

next week for the results!

Our next meeting will take place April 10, 2018 in Reagan Tieff's roomfrom 3:35-4:35. We look forward to seeing you there!

If you have any questions or want to get involved, please get in touch!(acatalano@newtonschool.org)

PTA NewsChristine Bailey-Kellogg & Shannon Varley

Artist-in-Residence CommitteeThe Artist-in-Residence (AIR) committee will be gearing up soon to selectthe artist for next year. The committee is comprised of teachers, parents,community members and students. We are hoping for a parent from eachcluster to participate. If you'd like to help bring a wonderful experience toNewton next fall, be in touch with Eric Walker at ewalker@newtonschool.org.

Next PTA meetingThe PTA will meet on Tuesday, April 3rd in the Newton School library. Wehope you will join us! Thanks!

Announcements and Upcoming Events

Sharon Academy CircusGirls' Science Discovery DaySummer Camp Information

Greg Bagnato, Principal243 Vermont Route 132

South Strafford, VT 05070Phone: 802-765-4351/Fax: 802-765-4785

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"The strength of the teamis each individual member.The strength of eachmember is the team."

- Phil Jackson