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Petersham Center School Winter Break Newsletter 2021

“Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life. Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism.” David M. Burns

We have made it to our Holiday Break! It has been a long road to get to this point but we are here and for the most part, we have been able to stay healthy and remain together. Here at PCS, we are aware of how inconvenient it can be when a student or class must stay home, but it has gone a long way into keeping the majority of students here and learning the safest way possible. Please remember that all of our protocols are in place for the sole purpose of keeping as many students in the building as often and safely as possible.

We have had a very busy few weeks since the last newsletter was sent out before Thanksgiving. We had a police chief retire, some new students start, great professional development, Peace Posters, Gingerbread Houses, and many other things. Not to mention the incredible work that all of our teachers put in on a daily basis to make our school what it is. The students are beginning to find their own way back to a "normal" routine, It has taken some work to shake off the cobwebs of the last few tumultuous years, but with hard work, they are getting there.

We are currently looking to fill a few positions here at PCS. First is a part-time lunch and recess monitor. The position is for 3 hrs per day 5 days per week. Please contact the school if you are interested. The second position comes with the loss of another. Mrs. Haynes, our music and band teacher, has decided she would like to step away from being a specialist teacher and focus on instrumental lessons leaving us with a vacant Friday special block. I am looking to take this opportunity to try and bring a new interdisciplinary position back here to PCS. I am hoping that with the right candidate we can create a hybrid STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) and music position, focusing on aspects of both. Please let me know if you or someone you know may be interested in this unique position.

"Once children learn how to learn, nothing is going to narrow their minds. The essence of teaching is to make learning contagious, to have one idea spark another." Marva Collins:

Kindergarten

Kindergarten is pleased to share we are learning to read heart words. In these pictures, kids are doing a Roll and Read activity. They roll a die then read the words in that row on the paper. Students roll the dice 20 times then read, read, read. Some other students are coloring according to trick words and sorting trick words. More pictures are in their way. We are also working on a surprise gift for families…….ssssshhhhhh. Don’t tell!!! Mrs. T, Ms.Russ, and your Kindergarten friend

Grade 1

Hello Parents and Families! In first grade, we have been very busy working on learning our short vowel sounds and reading those sounds within CVC words (mostly word families). We have also been working on reading sight words fluently and learning new vocabulary words from our Wonders curriculum as well as reading stories from that program too. In math, we have been learning about how addition and subtraction are related and working on our number sense and addition fluency. For social studies, we are wrapping up our citizenship unit and will be starting a new science unit in January.

Grade 2

In second grade we have been learning about habitats and finishing our projects to share with the class. We are learning about place value and how to write numbers in expanded and word form. We are learning about maps and landforms in social studies. We are reading lots of great stories, learning new vocabulary and heart words.

Grade 3

The 3rd-grade students have been practicing sentence structure and story writing and now they are putting those skills to good use! This holiday season 3rd graders have created their own Gingerbread characters! Each student is in the process of writing a creative story about their character and the adventures they have! Our goal is to display our stories with our characters!

Grade 4

Grade 4 friends have completed our unit on the Northeast Region. Students created a scrapbook on the region to show what they have learned.

Grade 5

Grade 5

The 5th grade just finished their unit on the solar system and the moon in science class and are now starting to learn about the Phases of Matter. In Math class they are learning a lot of fun geometry stuff. Ask them some of the fun names of polygons that they learned! We ended our week before vacation with a fun movie.

Grade 6

The 6th grade finished their unit on Plate Tectonics in science and have now started to learn about the phases of the moon and eclipses. In math class they have been working very hard to learn about ratios, unit rates and percentages. We managed to fit in some fun game time right before winter vacation, which included a group of students challenging Mrs.Downing to a Jenga showdown. We were not able to complete it, but I will say that Mrs. Downing was not losing when it was time to end. :)

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Grade 6

Grade 6 just wrapped up the first half of a unit in which they read and analyzed Historical Fiction texts. At the conclusion of their books, they created Character Pressure Maps. These maps helped them to learn more about the characters in their selected text. They thought about how the character impacts and is impacted by the setting, other characters, and the plot. We are also learning how to write formal Responses to Literature. To practice this skill, we are currently reading A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and learning more about the historical time period in which this piece was written. All in an attempt to answer the following question: Which spirit had the greatest impact on Scrooge's transformation?

Gingerbread Houses

Grades 5 and 6 Gingerbread house projects went to a whole new level this year!!! Students were asked to take on the role of a realtor and use descriptive writing strategies to create a paragraph encouraging "potential buyers" to purchase a Gingerbread House. They were asked to create a real estate flyer advertising their Gingerbread House for Sale! They then tried to build a house that matched their description. To purchase items for their house they needed to stay within a given budget which involved some careful mathematical planning. This coming week students and staff at PCS will each make an offer to "buy" their favorite house.

Literacy Work

Our students and teachers at PCS were lucky enough to learn from Joanna Cackett, a reading specialist that works with DESE as an Early Grades Literacy Consultant. She has expertise in the science of reading and has been a classroom teacher and literacy coach. Seen here enjoying a lesson about heart words is Ben Parsons.

Special Education

Holiday Bizarre Shopping!

Whole School Read Aloud

We had some special readers on our half-day before winter break, we even had our friends at home come to join through a Google Meet.

5th Grade Literacy Fair

5th graders worked very hard on their book projects.

Grade 6 Peace Poster 2021-2022

Everyone did an incredible job this year but here is our winner, Lilyana Robichaud, in the middle with our two honorable mentions, Charlotte Carpenter and Matthew Van Scoy, off to her sides. Great work!!

Chief Cooley's Retirement Celebration

We celebrated Chief Cooley's retirement recently with a song and dance for him along with gifts from the whole school. He has been a large part of our PCS family for many, many years and will be greatly missed by all.
A message from our nurse's office.