141 Davis Street, Greenfield, MA 01301, 413.772.1300 (voice), 413.774.7940 (fax)

Gr. K-3

Principal: Joan Schell, EdD
Associate Principal: Donna Gleason

Enroll for Grades 1-3; Enroll for Kindergarten

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Dates to Remember
Feb. 20-24
No School-Winter Break

Feb. 27
No School District Wide In-Service for all Employees

March 2
All School Meeting in the library 8:45 a.m.

March 6
PTO meeting in the library 6:00-7:00 p.m

March 8-9
Kindergarten Registration in the library 4:30-6:30 p.m.

March 14
Bingo for Books 6:00-6:45 p.m.

March 16
All School Meeting 8:45 a.m.

March 21-22
Grade 3 students take the ELA MCAS

March 29
Evening Parent Conferences and Book Fair

March 30
Early Dismissal 11:55 a.m.
½ Parent Conferences and Book Fair in the afternoon

January and February
It seems impossible that these two months are almost over. There's been incredible learning going on, and our winter theme has truly taken "flight." Looking back, we had some very special event. Both events were sponsored by the PTO. The first was related to our theme of flight, The second was a time for families to come together as a community and celebrate the season.

Birds of Prey
The PTO sponsored Tom Ricardi, wildlife rehabilitator and former state wildlife biologist on Friday, February 9. Tom brought a Golden Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, Red Tailed Hawk, a Great Horned Owl and other birds of prey from his rehabilitation center and provided an educational presentation on their lives and habitats. The children had the opportunity to observe these birds close up and understand the unique features of each. Tom ended his presentation with an important story about why you do not pick up a baby bird that you find on the ground in springtime. Baby birds often fall out of the tree when they are trying to fly. They have no scent on their bodies so a predator would not smell them and they are safe on the ground. However, if a person touches the baby bird, then a cat or other predator will smell the human scent and find the baby bird. The children left with many new things to think about.

Winter Carnival
The PTO also put on the first Winter Carnival at the Discovery School. I cannot say enough about how well run and organized this event was. The gymnasium had games like pin the nose on the snowman, snow ball toss, penguin egg walk and others. The cafeteria had a bake sale, snow cones, and popcorn. There were also craft tables where children made name bracelets and snowman. The hallway housed face painting. In the library were several board game stations and a story hour. Everyone who came enjoyed themselves. Thank you PTO for a great event.

Grandparent's Day
This was a day that came about the first year the school opened. The winter theme was bridges and inviting grandparents in for a visit was a way to 'bridge' generations. It was so successful we have done it each year. It is wonderful to walk through the classrooms and see grandparents or substitute grandparents, reading and writing with children, sharing stories, and enjoying each others company. We had over 100 visitors celebrating the day with our children.

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Happy New Year
Looking Back at 2011
Like every year at the Discovery School all the classes started the year by getting to know each other and talking about their Hopes and Dreams for the upcoming school year. The second week of school each class created classroom rules that would allow each student to achieve their goals.

Then, along with mathematics, reading, and writing, children started working on the fall themes of Harvesting, Composting and Getting Ready for Winter. Classes worked in the garden once a week. Vegetables were harvested; soups, zucchini salad, roasted vegetables and chips were made by different classes. Members of the PTO helped peel and cut enough carrots from our own garden to feed every child at lunch for two days.

In November, friends and family had standing room only for our evening performance celebration of our themes.

Looking Forward to 2012
We are actually looking forward to a little bit of sticky snow. There is nothing quite like seeing the children outside in their brightly colored snowsuits, building snowman and sliding on our hill.

Right now children are excited about starting our new theme, 'Flight'. We will kick off this theme in early January. We have a 'flight' mascot, a small dragon who cannot fly. Each class is writing a story on how to solve this problem. One solution will be to use a helium balloon. Children will be estimating how many balloons it will take to life the dragon into the air. (It actually takes 1 liter of helium to lift 1 gram of weight. A 2 lb. object would need 100 balloons to lift.) Their guesses will become part of our left off, when the dragon, indeed, will fly, with the help of helium balloons. Just how many it will take, you'll have to ask one of the children after the experiment. Then each class has their own area of study they will pursue and share. Kindergarten will learn about why some things fly. First grade is working with kites and a time line of the history of flight. Second grade is studying airplanes and rockets as well as flying insects. Third grade will do birds and autobiographies or biographies of famous people in the history of flight.

We also look forward to Grandparents Day in February when a grandparent or substitute grandparent comes in for the morning and shares their memories of school with the children as they share what they are currently doing in school.

March brings Read Across America as we celebrate Dr. Seuss and his wonderful stories.

April will bring us back outside to our gardens. Children will be picking seeds to plant and getting their gardens ready for spring.

The PTO has several family events planned including an evening movie in January, a winter carnival day in February and a school fair in June.

We are looking forward to the new year, the first snow, and snow.
Donna Gleason, Associate Principal

Showcase
The Discovery School put on its first Showcase on November 22 at 6 p.m. There was standing room only. Children from all the classes shared their knowledge of harvesting and recycling. The time and effort students and staff put in certainly paid off.

In-Class Recycling
Right now the classes are talking about recycling in the classroom. Some classes want to start recycling snack items. Children are busy figuring out what kind of system would work best.

Getting the Gardens Ready for Winter
Mrs. Harcourt and Mrs. LaBreck are going to investigate which plants in the butterfly gardens need to be cut back. Other classes are using the straw donated by Bostrom Farms to insulate the raised beds.

 

Getting Ready for Flight
Our next all school theme will be on flight. Teachers have been spending time together and in grade level teams developing plans around this theme. PTO is also helping.

 

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CARROTS CARROTS EVERYWHERE
Last year two classes planted carrots in our gardens.
HURRAY!! We have enough to feed the school. Volunteers are coming to peel and cut up the carrots so they can be cooked and served for lunch on Thursday, October 27th.

Wear Your Caps to School Day

Caps for Kids is sponsoring a fund raiser, Wear your Caps to School Day on Monday, Oct. 31st.

Caps for Kids is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing celebrity-autographed caps to children who have lost their hair as a result of medical treatment for cancer and other life threatening illnesses. Caps for Kids provides caps to more than 90 hospitals throughout the United States and Canada. All funds raised will directly benefit a child.

Oct. 31st. This will be the third year that The Discovery School at Four Corners has participated in this fund raiser.

This is how it works. Children bring in a dollar anytime from now until Oct. 31st. On Oct. 31st they wear a cap to school and can keep it on inside to show their support of this day.

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The Discovery School at Four Corners Now a Monarch Waystation
On Oct. 7, 2011, the Discovery School at Four Corners was notified that our butterfly garden named "The Monarch Rest Stop" had been added to the international registry of Monarch Waystations.  The Monarch Waystation registry is part of an educational outreach program through the University of Kansas entitled: The Monarch Watch Program.

This has been a two year process for our garden.  We selected nectar plants with the help of Monarch Watch that would attract monarchs. We planted milkweed seeds and transplanted native milkweed to feed the caterpillars.  Our garden was in full bloom this fall and many butterflies spotted. Our garden provides resources necessary to support the monarchs as they migrate for the winter.  This is an amazing migration as many monarch travel up to 3000 miles to their overwintering location in the hills of Mexico.

An application had to be submitted to the Monarch Watch Program for approval and addition to the waystation registry. A Monarch Waystation sign will be added to our garden.

The butterfly garden provides students with a hands-on experience that addresses the following Massachusetts standards:

Recognize that animals and plants are living things that grow, reproduce, need food, air and water.

Differentiate between living and nonliving things.  Group both living and nonliving according to characteristics that they share.

Recognize that plants and animals have life cycles, and that life cycles vary for different living things.

Describe ways in which many plants and animals closely resemble their parents in observed appearances.

Recognize that people and animals interact with their environment through their senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste.

Identify the ways in which an organism's habitat provides for its basic needs.

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(pdf)

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THE DISCOVERY SCHOOL AT FOUR CORNERS-HANDBOOK INFORMATION (pdf)

INFORMATION ABOUT THE RESPONSIVE CLASSROOM APPROACH AT THE DISCOVERY SCHOOL (pdf)

Discovery School @ Four Corners-Year in Review (2010-11)

PTO Meeting Minutes

Teacher Sites:

Mr. Sustick-Kindergarten
http://micsus1.weebly.com/index.html

Mrs. Barisano
https://sites.google.com/site/mbarisanok/

Ms. Cronen-Townsend's Web site:
http://msct.crotown.com/

Ms. Ducharme-First Grade Web site
http://msducharmesfirstgrade.weebly.com/

Mrs. Harcourt's Class Web site:
http://mharcourtsclass.weebly.com/

Mrs. LaBreck's class Web site
http://mrslabrecksclass.weebly.com/index.html

Ms. Lavoine
http://paulav1.weebly.com/

Ms. Naughton
http://msnaughton.weebly.com/

Mrs. Pitrat-Third Grade
http://www.melpit1.myclassupdates.com/

Mrs. Weber - ALPS
http://alpsclass.weebly.com/

Page last updated: February 17, 2012

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