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From the Desk of the Head of School
| Congratulations to our 8th Graders
This year's 8th grade students applied to secondary schools far and wide, and have chosen where they will go next year. The Grammar School is very proud of them; the competition to be accepted to secondary independent schools, both as boarders and day students, has become fierce. Our local public schools also welcome and appreciate our students. Congratulations to each of you and your families. Our students have chosen to attend: Brattleboro High School, The Putney School, Stevens High School, Kimball Union Academy, Northfield Mount Hermon, and Vermont Academy. They were accepted to all of the schools above as well as: The Dublin School, Miss Porter's, Emma Willard, and Loomis Chaffee. Once again, congratulations and we are confident you will do very well wherever you attend school.
Steve Lorenz
Head of School |
| FROM THE DEVELOPMENT OFFICE | |
Ken Burns at Landmark on Friday, April 20 at 7pm
Please join The Grammar School and Landmark College for a special evening of entertainment and discussion with award winning filmmaker Ken Burns as he presents footage from his highly acclaimed film, The National Parks: America's Best Idea. A question and answer session will follow the presentation. This event will be held at Landmark's Fine Arts Center, River Road, in Putney, VT, at 7:00pm.
Ticket prices: $8.00 students/seniors, $12.00 general admission. Seating is limited. Pre-event tickets are available for purchase by contacting Pauline O'Brien at The Grammar School, 802-387-5364, Ext. 106, pobrien@thegrammarschool.org. Remaining tickets will be sold at the door. All proceeds benefit The Grammar School.
Our Student Council will be manning the concession sales and we are looking for adult volunteers to help with directing traffic to designated parking lots, prior to the event. Please contact Pauline if you can offer your assistance.
Annual Fund '12 Update: Thank you to all who have generously contributed to this year's Annual Fund. We have reached a total of $65,000, which is nearing 2/3 of our $100,000 goal! Please help us keep this great momentum going by encouraging members of our community who have not yet given to make an Annual Fund contribution. We have received 100% participation from our Board and hope to reach the same percentage rate with parents, staff, and faculty.
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The Bard Is Back!
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THE BARD IS BACK!!!
For Never was a story of more woe, than this of Juliet and her Romeo! Second and Fifth grades will present Romeo and Juliet on: June 6th at All School Meeting amd June 7th at 6:30 pm. A special sneak preview of Scene 7 will be presented during Grandparents day on May 18th.
Admission to all performances is free. Mark your calendars -- we'd love to see you!
Art Work by Abby B 5th Grade
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DONATIONS NEEDED FOR SPRING AUCTION
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On Friday, May 18, TGS parents will host the annual Spring Dinner/Auction. This fun evening of fundraising and community building will be the second and final parent-driven fundraiser for the school year. The event will feature music, a catered dinner, and both a Silent and Live Auction. The dinner/auction event is very important to our school, since all proceeds directly impact financial aid for families, teacher salaries, and curriculum programming. We are expecting 125+ in attendance and the goal is to raise a minimum of $20,000. Each TGS family is asked to contribute to the event by donating time, labor, and resources. One way you can be especially helpful is to donate an auction.
The success of the auction is dependent on the generosity of regional and national businesses, and TGS families. From restaurant and gift certificates, to travel items, vacation homes, vintage wines, cultural activities, and goods for children, TGS's auction is well know for its superior quality.
Please help us reach our goal by donating an auction item of your own or by soliciting a donation from an individual or business. Auction Donation forms are available. Your generosity is greatly appreciated and we will prominently display any promotional materials you may have to accompany your donation. Thank you for your time, consideration, and commitment to TGS. Should you have any questions or need assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me at pobrien@thegrammarschool.org or 802-387-5364, Ext. 106.
Best regards,
Pauline Blake O'Brien
Director of Development
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SPRING SPORTS BEGIN NEXT WEEK
| Spring Sports Begin April 23 - Sign up now!
Please email Mary by Friday, April 20 at noon to sign up for spring sports.
Soccer (8 student minimum) for 1st-8th graders Mondays 3:15-4:30 Coach Chris Harlow
Zumba (3 student minimum) for 7th and 8th grades Mondays 3:15-4:30 Coach Pauline O'Brien
Mountain Biking and/or Running for 1st-3rd graders Wednesdays 3:15-4:00, with supervised play until 4:30 Coaches Amy and Zach Caldwell
Mountain Biking for 4th-8th graders - Wednesdays 3:15-4:30 - Coaches Charlie Boswell and Mary Heller Osgood
Yoga for K-8th graders - Thursdays 3:15-4:30
Coach Paul Hopkins
Lacrosse (12 student minimum) for 1st-8th graders Fridays 3:15-4:30 Coach Jay Clarke (ASSISTANT NEEDED - Please let Mary know if you are interested in helping to coach lacrosse.)
Children may participate in as many activities as they like, at a total cost of $20 for the spring. Please contact
Mary by Friday, April 20 if you would like your child to participate.
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MONTREAL STUDENTS VISIT TGS
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TGS students with their friends from Montreal last weekend
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WORK DAY APRIL 28 9AM-NOON!
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 WORKDAY REMINDER
Workday at The Grammar School is Saturday, April 28 from 9-noon with a BBQ to follow. Hot dogs, hamburgers, veggie burgers, chips and beverage will be provided.
Please bring rakes, shovels, gardening tools, painting clothes, chain saws and weed whackers. A small wheelbarrow is also helpful. Make sure you clearly mark your tools so we can return any that may be left behind.
There will be tasks for everyone, young and old, rain or shine, which will include gardening, raking, transplanting, pruning, and mulching. We have some painting as well. There are plenty of jobs for those who are comfortable with chain sawing and weed whacking.
This is a fun and productive morning with results we can all take pride in. Thank you in advance and remember, many hands make light work.
Chris Harlow
 
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PUTNEY FOOD SHELF
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PUTNEY FOOD SHELF: The kindergarten crew and Libby are heading the April collection! Please feel free to bring items to their classroom or to the box outside Tammy's office. Happy Spring and Many Thanks!
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SUMMER IS COMING!
SAVE THE DATES FOR TGS SUMMER CAMP! |  SAVE THE DATES! TGS SUMMER CAMP WILL RUN JULY 9 THROUGH 27! THREE ONE WEEK LONG PROGRAMS TAUGHT BY LOCAL ARTISTS AND OUTDOOR ENTHUSIASTS!
Course descriptions and signup forms will be on the website by Friday, April 20.
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STUDENT COUNCIL NEWS
| The Student Council has been invited to run the concessions and help with ushering at the Ken Burns event Friday evening at Landmark College. Thanks to the generosity of Landmark College, the SC gets to keep all proceeds made that evening!
Three TGS students joined the Putney Student Corps for its first volunteer work day on Saturday, April 14. Many thanks to 7th graders Toby, Sophie, and Libby for contributing their time and energy. In addition, the Community Service Committee continues to help provide lunches to local seniors at Putney Cares in town. Julie Forsythe will be meeting with the SC later in the spring to help us get organized for fall projects. We are all excited about the prospect of having a VISTA Volunteer coordinate and administer the Putney Student Corps.
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Students place luminaries to celebrate Cancer Awareness Week
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Last week's Cancer Awareness Week, coordinated largely by a Student Council committee, proved to be a huge success. Over $400 was made through T-shirt and bracelet sales! The final Luminary Ceremony on Friday, with all classes participating outside, was particularly moving. Many thanks to Tyler, Aly, and Isabel for their efforts during the week, and to Phil and Cindy Blood as well.
The TGS Talent Show was a big success! Thanks to all the participants, and to the SC members who helped organize the auditions and the show itself.
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Matt plays in the Talent Show
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Following the SC meeting on Friday last week, Steve invited all SC members to accompany him on a brief tour of the TGS Solar Panel Installation site. Steve remarked how proud he was of the Student Council for initially suggesting we look into solar power for the whole school. Now, many months later, that vision is about to become a reality.
Finally, the Student Council has announced plans to host another middle-school dance on Friday, May 25 from 7-10pm. Parent chaperones are needed, and we will be asking middle school families to provide some snack or dessert-like item for refreshments, as well. More later!
Respectfully submitted for the Student Council,
Ken Brautigam
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| HAPPY TOGETHER MAY 2-5 | |
Wednesday through Saturday, May 2-5, at 7:00 PM, the 7th and 8th grades at TGS will present their annual musical, a treasured rite of spring for our community.
No less than a world premiere comes before us on this occasion. Happy Together is the name of the show, a musical extravaganza that originates with the Bard himself, and more specifically his most performed comedy, As You Like It.Thanks to The Putney School and Vermont Academy for sponsoring the show.
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PROPS NEEDED
| Hello TGS Community! This year's musical, Happy Together, by Vicki Gohl, is just two weeks away from production week! A list was sent out yesterday and your response was quite amazing. Below is an updated list. You will see that fake food is added and suitcases are all that's left after this morning. Thank you all for your generosity. If you have any of the following items kicking around your house or garage, and are willing to let us borrow them, please send an email to bjh@dartmouth.edu.
We need:
- 2 large hard-sided suitcases-ideally absurdly large and garishly colored
- fake food - fruits and veggies, bread loaves, cheese blocks-anything you have.
Thank you for your help in gathering the last of the props together.
Happy Together Prop Scouts, Sarah Messenger, Victoria Oxholm, JoNell Hamilton
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TGS and the Strolling Heifers
| This year's "Strolling of the Heifers" parade will be on June 2 in Brattleboro. Once again TGS students will march in the parade to represent the school, and show our presence in the community. Following last year's success, after the parade TGS will have a booth on the Retreat lawn where we will have marketing materials for the school and sell crepes!
The parade is the signature event of a weekend of farm and food friendly activity that some estimate draws 50,000 people to the Brattleboro area. It is a great thing to be a part of, and important for TGS to have a presence. We are still working on a theme for our participation, ("Healthy food makes great kids?") and William will help with a creative project for kids to make. We will have T-shirts for all "Strollers" to wear.
Details on location to meet, exact timing, and other logistics will come later, but it has generally been on Flat Street at 9:00, and the parade is done by 10:30 at the Retreat.
We will need some parent chaperones to walk with the students and carry a school banner and we are still finalizing the help we will need on the retreat lawn, manning our booth and cooking crepes. Contact Michael Hornsby (mhornsby@brimstoneconsulting.com) if you are interested in joining in. |
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Tick Information
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Notes from the Nurse
It has been brought to my attention that the TICKS are back and have started to come home with our students. I would like to provide some information about Preventing Tick Bites and Removing Ticks as well as some resources where you can go for more information. Please share this information with your children. The TGS teachers and staff will be helping to remind and reinforce these ideas with students.
Preventing Tick Bites
Avoid direct contact with ticks.
Walk in the center of trails.
Avoid leaning against trees or sitting on old logs.
Avoid wooded or bushy areas with high grass and leaf litter.
Wear long sleeved shirts and long pants.
Tuck pants into boots or socks.
Repel Ticks with DEET or Permethrin
Products containing permethrin can be used to treat clothing and gear, such as
boots, pants, socks and tents.
Repellents containing 20% or more DEET (N, N-diethyl-m-toluamide) can be
applied to the skin, and they can protect up to several hours. Always follow product instructions! Parents should apply this product to their children, avoiding hands, eyes, and mouth.
Other repellents registered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may
be found at http://cfpub.epa.gov/oppref/insect/.
Find and Remove Ticks from Your Body
Wear light-colored clothing to more easily find ticks that are crawling on you.
Conduct a full-body tick check using a hand-held or full-length mirror to view all parts of your body upon return from tick-infested areas. Parents should check their children for ticks under the arms, in and around the ears, inside the belly button, behind the knees, between the legs, around the waist, and especially in their hair.
Examine gear and pets.
Shower soon after being outdoors.
Tick Removal
If you find a tick attached to your skin, there is no need to panic. Most tick bites are probably harmless and may cause no problems. Ticks that have never fed, if handled properly, will not cause any harm. The earlier a tick is removed, the less the likelihood that the tick transmitted any disease. Therefore prompt and proper tick removal is very important.
How to remove a tick
1. Use fine-tipped tweezers and protect your fingers with a tissue, paper towel, or
latex gloves. Avoid removing ticks with your bare hands.
2. Grasp the tick as close to the skin surface as possible and pull upward with
steady, even pressure. Don't twist or jerk the tick; this can cause the mouth-parts to break off and remain in the skin. If this happens, remove the mouth-parts with tweezers. If you are unable to remove the mouth easily with clean tweezers, leave it alone and let the skin heal.
3. After removing the tick, thoroughly disinfect the bite and your hands and the
tweezers with rubbing alcohol, an iodine scrub, or soap and water.
4. Once removed, don't crush the tick because you may transmit disease. Rinse it down a sink or flush it down a toilet.
*Avoid folklore remedies such as "painting" the tick with nail polish or petroleum jelly, or using heat to make the tick detach from the skin.
Follow-up
If you begin to experience a rash or fever within several weeks of removing a tick, see your doctor. Be sure to tell the doctor about your recent tick bite, when the bite occurred, and where you most likely acquired the tick.
This information is from the CDC's website (http://www.cdc.gov/ticks/) and the emedicine health website (http://www.emedicinehealth.com/ticks/article_em.htm) both of which contain lots of information about ticks and tick borne illness.
Sara Dunbar, School Nurse
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| ORDER TGS T-SHIRTS AND SWEATSHIRTS! | |
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COMMUNITY NEWS
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TGS Alum Jem Wilner at NEYT
"The thing I want to emphasize is, don't get the impression that life ends, just because you're knees aren't functioning properly."
Jem Wilner, in collaboration with New England Youth Theatre and Hilltop House, presents a new play, Stories of a Lifetime, a compilation of monologues and dialogues based on the interviews with residents of retirement communities across America.
Written and directed by Jem Wilner, Stories of a Lifetime is a compilation of monologues and dialogues based on the interviews that Jem conducted with residents of retirement communities, Hilltop House being among them. Jem has been an active student at New England Youth Theatre for many years and feels that the community there has helped him grow and cultivate his love for acting. This is the first play that Jem has ever written and directed. He will also be acting as the narrator of the show.
The show plays at New England Youth Theatre, 100 Flat St. Brattleboro on Friday, April 27 at 7pm, and Sunday April 29th at 2pm. Tickets will be by donation and are only available at the door. Suggested donation of $5, with the profits going to the Hilltop House activities fund, and the 'Angels in the Wings' Scholarship Fund, which helps children to enjoy the incredible programs New England Youth Theatre has created for the kids of the Brattleboro area.
SAVE THE DATES for Vermont Academy's Spring Musical: Crazy for You, a light-hearted musical featuring several Gershwin tunes, will run at Vermont Academy's Horowitz Performing Arts Center on Friday, April 27 and Saturday, April 28 at 7:30pm, and Sunday, April 29 at 3pm. Tickets are available at the door.
TGS graduates Eamon O'Keefe and Molly Brennan lead the show with several other familiar TGS faces in supporting roles.
The show is directed by Julia Tadlock, step-daughter of TGS' own Laurie Fichter!
Host a student from Spain - Host a student from Spain this summer with Home Stays USA. Every year students come to this area from Bilbao, Spain. "The experience for us was excellent. Our student was easy going, helpful, very pleasant and very motivated to learn English. We also really liked her as a person and became friends. We'd like her to come back! This was also such a great experience for my daughter to see how brave our student was to come here for a month. I hope that my daughter will consider a program like this to learn Spanish!"
Host mother Karen from Vermont
This year the dates of the program are June 29- July 30. The students range from 13 years to 17 years. Visit the organization's website at homestaysusa.org.
The host family receives a $600 stipend and the head leaders of the program will be here during the summer as well.
Please feel free to contact Liz Jackson (parent of Nathaniel in 1st grade). She has been working with this organization for a few summers now and can answer some of your questions.
!Gracias!
Liz Jackson (lizzyole@gmail.com)
Unearth Your Passion! Putney Earth Day 2012
The Putney School is hosting a community Earth Day on April 22, 2012 in collaboration with the Putney Co-op to celebrate the earth and raise awareness of the environmental movement. There will be numerous workshops on a variety of topics taught by members of the community including vermiposting, compost bin-building, bike maintenance, nature walks, bird banding, foraging for wild foods, permaculture, wool spinning, energy education, net-zero building tours, writing letters to our Representatives, grass-roots organizing, and meditation. There will also be workshops geared for children and families, including gardening, environmental games, art and music, bird songs and making birdfeeders, ecology, ocean ecosystems, and kite making. A pamphlet outlining all of the workshops will be made available by mid-April. Additionally, the Co-op will be hosting an area to highlight local farms and their services and will organize a seed swap. The festival will also feature local vendors who will provide us with food, crafts and information. There will be music and speakers throughout the day, including our keynote speaker, Tom Wessels. The day will wrap up with an uplifting sing. There is a check-in time in the morning for those who'd like to stay the whole day, or participants are encouraged to stop in at their leisure to join a workshop, meet a farmer, listen to some music, or peruse the many booths that will be set up. Please spread the word!
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