141 Davis Street
Greenfield, MA 01310
413.772.1300
413.774.7490 (fax)

Newton School
70 Shelburne Road
Greenfield, MA 01301
(413)772-1370
Principal: Joan Schell, EdD

January 2009 Calendar

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
			1 No School	2 No School
5 PTO Meeting 6:30  PE Today Don't forget your sneakers	6	7	8	9
12 PE Today	13 PE Today	14	15	16
19 No School Martin Luther King Day	20	21 PE Today	22 PE Today	23
26	27	28	29 PE Today	30 PE Today

Download the calendar

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NEWS @Newton School
B. Joan Schell, Ed.D. – Principal
N. Tracy Crowe, Ed.D. – Associate Principal

December ‘08/January’09
Holiday Edition
(pdf version with pictures)

Notes from the Principal

Dear Newton Families,
We welcome the following specialists to Newton School: Rachel Cronen-Townsend (Technology); Christine Russell (Physical Education); and Anna Pertzoff (Art). We also welcome Kathleen O’Sullivan who is helping us run a Learning Lab, game room, and cooperative games period opposite specials so we can eliminate double classes in specials. Children use this class to learn educational games, take Accelerated Reader quizzes, read library books, use technology programs, and engage in other fun but educational activities.

As we approach the holiday season, we at Newton School wish you peace, love, joy, and friendship. May your time together over the holidays create happy memories. We look forward to reuniting with you in the new year of 2009.
B. Joan Schell, Ed.D.

PARENT REMINDERS:
Brrrrrrr! Brrrrrrr!
Greenfield’s cold winter months are here! Please remember to dress students for the unpredictable New England weather ... warm coats, hats, mittens and boots for outdoor recess!
(Indoor recess if temperatures drop below 10° F, taking into consideration the wind chill factor)

GPS Cancellations/Delays announced via:

• CONNECT-Ed (your registered # will be called)
• Television announcement on Channel 22 and 40
• Radio announcement WHAI 98.3 FM or 1240 AM
• Websites www.wggb.com or www.wwlp.com or www.gpsk12.org

2-hour delay- School starts at 9:45
90-minute delay - School starts at 9:15
60-minute delay - School starts at 8:45

Breakfast is NOT served on weather delay days.

Penny Wars!
Newton School has just completed the ever-popular PENNY WARS, its annual school fundraiser. This fun event raises money for Warm the Children, a fund that provides warm coats and clothing for needy families in Greenfield. It is a great way for our students to get involved in their own community and to help others! Classes compete to win a pizza party by collecting the most pennies…BUT here’s the trick…others can throw in nickels, dimes and quarters which then get subtracted from that class’ total!

This year Newton raised $1244.49 !!!!

AND…the grade with the highest total and winner of the class pizza party is Grade 3

Students in the other grades will be treated to a special snack in recognition of their effort and support.

Congratulations to all classes for their wonderful and generous effort to help others during this
holiday season.

Reading First!
Parents….please don’t forget to read, read, read to your children over the vacation break! Curl up on the sofa on one of those cold, winter nights and read a book to the whole family! It’s so important for our students to continue to improve the skills they have acquired thus far and to show you how much they have learned in school. Read to them and then let them read to you!

Kindergarten
In Ms Encarnacao’s we spent the past 2 months discussing the importance of family, holiday celebrations and daily routines. We will now focus our learning on how to dress ourselves warmly for the cold winter months…how to zipper, buckle, tie and put on our outdoor clothing...please remember to label our clothing!

Family is also the focus of discussions in Ms. Konieczny’s kindergarten class where we even learned about animal babies and their families. Learning about how different holidays are celebrated and working on projects will keep us very busy for the rest of this year!

Grade 1
In Ms. Warren’s we are learning about community workers, authors and their writing, the long i sound and the digraphs wh, ch, and tch. In math, we are learning math facts and how to solve problems by drawing pictures. In social studies, we studied our beautiful state and created our own books containing lots of fun facts about Massachusetts.

Ms. Jordan’s class finished reviewing short vowels and will now work on the long vowel sounds for words with a silent e. Our theme is Communities – in cities, towns and even nature- and we made a board of the community workers in Greenfield. We enjoy doing our daily Minute Math and we are starting to do research for an oral report on a mammal of our choice.

Please encourage us to read at least 15 minutes each day at home so we can practice our new skills! And we would appreciate any resources that we could borrow for our research

Grade 2
In Ms. Weissman’s class we learned about reading, writing, math and science. Studying maps in the unit “Where in the World”… helped us learn about 7 continents, 5 oceans and the U.S. borders. Please visit our mini art gallery of colorful and creative compass roses displayed outside our classroom.

In Mrs. Iacuessa’ class we work on our listening skills with audiobooks and then write information about author, illustrator, characters, setting, and genre. We read or "chant" poems to work on fluency. We practice vocabulary and spelling by completing crossword puzzles and doing word searches. Some of us work on the Accelerated Reading Program that Newton recently implemented. We’ll become lifelong learners and better readers by reading, reading, reading everyday!!!

Grade 3
Ms. Mackin’s and Ms. Herlihy’s students worked hard on place value, money, and addition and subtraction with multiple digits.

We just completed a cumulative math assessment and will now begin studying time, data and graphs. In science, we tracked and graphed weather and temperature. We also learned about four types of clouds and the water cycle. Our next science unit will be on sound and matter.

P.S. We need hand sanitizer, Kleenex, and dry erase markers for our classroom please!

Thank You To

• Jackie Morrissey for her donation and planting of bushes to beautify our school
• Mrs. Lajevnesse for her donation of warm hats and scarves for our children
• Parents who did the “fall cleanup” at Newton last month
• The Facey family for a generous donation to the school
• Our wonderful PTO
• FMC Nurses for donating school supplies

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Afterschool Program News

Dear Parents, Children, and Friends of Newton School.

Once again, this year, the Newton School Afterschool Program is sponsoring a redeemable bottle and can drive.  This campaign will last for the remainder of the year. 

Proceeds will benefit the Afterschool Program supplies and our snacks.

There is a large recycle box right outside of the Afterschool room where anyone can drop off their clean, non-alcoholic, bottles and cans.

Thanking you in advance for your support.  It’s one more way for us to keep Greenfield and America GREEN!!!

Sincerely,
Anita Falco,
Afterschool Program Site Coordinator

MORE ABOUT OUR PROGRAM We start off with snacks, homework help, followed by enrichments.  We teach art, cooking, dance, math, and music.  The students just planted a tulip garden in the front of our school.  They call themselves the Hawks, come fly with us!  For more information call Anita Falco at (413) 658-8495 about signing up.

 

 

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To view the art slideshow, click here! "Art is essential to learning--not just an educational frill. Learning about the visual arts gives students a window onto the rich and interesting world around them, teaching them about their own history and culture, as well as those of other people. It cultivates self-expression, imagination and creativity as well as critical-thinking and problem-solving skills. Students who learn about art develop their capacities to weigh meanings and make evaluations and judgments. Understanding and making art can teach students how to work cooperatively in groups and how to work hard to achieve a goal." The Value of Art Education: Education in the Arts and Through the Arts (National PTA & Getty Center for the Arts, http://art-smart.ci.manchester.ct.us/pta_art.html)

 

Page last updated: December 18, 2008

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