|
|
|
Greenfield Center School
Monday Bulletin | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dear Families-
This past weekend was filled with sadness for the Center School staff as we grieved with Terry the loss of her husband Bruce. Bruce died on Friday morning, at home, after enduring four short months of stomach cancer. Many Center School staff members and parents have had opportunities to work and play with Bruce. He was on our Board of Directors and attended the January 12th meeting despite his weakened condition. In addition to his work on the Board, Bruce was involved with the Center School in a variety of ways, including but not limited to supporting his wife Terry to leave nursing to become a Primes teacher! Bruce was an internist here in town for almost 30 years. Bruce founded Hospice of Franklin County and was the hospice doctor there until two weeks ago. 
Bruce and Terry travelled all around the world and brought back to the school many stories, artifacts and memories. Bruce loved being outdoors, was passionate about history and political science, was a talented and versatile athlete and had a great appreciation for lively debate. Most of all Bruce Van Boeckel loved Terry Kayne. And so does the Center School. Pure and simple.
There is a service for Bruce at Bella Notte in Bernardston on Sunday, Feb. 15th at 1pm. Donations to Hospice of Franklin County can be made in Bruce's name.
Jane |
|
Uppers Program Information Night
by Teresa Podlesney
Friday's Uppers Information Night was a demystifying tour of the world of the Finer building for us brick building parents. You should have been there! In the gracious and welcoming setting of the Katy Robbins and Peter Garbus home, we mingled and feasted before sitting back to learn about how the Uppers program works. The teachers (Do you know their names? We do now!) set the scene with details about program structure and classroom approaches, which was extraordinarily informative. Both current and alumnae students were on hand to share their positive perspectives on the program-how it serves them now, and how it serves them as a foundation for high school study. Parents asked straightforward questions of all participants, and were gifted with straightforward answers. All Uppers folks agreed that the program enables rigorous and focused learning by providing a considerate environment in which to work through the middle school challenges of identity formation. The teachers encourage the students to see their developmentally-appropriate passionate quest for identity as part of a larger quest for knowledge of the world, which results in the students' desire to learn deeply. If you were unable to make the event, you can still find out about the Uppers program by walking over to the Finer building and talking to the teachers: Barb, Bob, Erin and Megan. They welcome your interest! | |
|
|
|
|
|
Raise Money for Center School One Click at a Time
We have signed on with a fundraising effort called Fund-it BenefitBar, which allows you to financially support our organization without taking a dime out of your pocket...the dime comes from Yahoo! There is no cost to our organization and no cost to you.
Thanks to our new relationship with Fund-it BenefitBar, Center School receive ten cents each time you click on a sponsored link when you search through our new customized toolbar. No purchases are necessary. Fund-it has created a customized toolbar for our organization; you simply download it to your Internet browser and do all of your searches through the Yahoo! search engine. As an added benefit, our custom toolbar includes additional helpful links. There are no pop ups, spyware or adware; your privacy is protected and it will not replace your existing toolbars. The download process takes less than a minute and the toolbar is un-intrusive.
Please take a minute to go to http://www.benefitbar.com/benefitbar/subscribe/toolbar.php?toolbarId=2315 and simply download our toolbar and help us meet our financial needs.
Thank you so much for your continued support. Let us know if you have any trouble with this download. Thanks for helping the Center School, one click at a time! |
Mid Ums North
Mid Ums North cartographers are completing their scavenger hunts this week. With three competing groups, it's a race to see who can find the hidden puzzle pieces and put the puzzle together first! We are also saying good bye to Lillian this week. Thanks so much for a great six weeks! We'll miss you!
 |
|
Mid-UMs South
Archipelago, butte, plateau, tributary, can you define each of these landforms? The Mid-UMs can! As we continue to work on mapping and geography we explored many different landforms this week. As we learned about them we created imaginary islands and labeled each landform. This week we'll be finding the same landforms in the real world and marking where to find them by using points of latitude and longitude.
We had a great time at the Hot 8 Brass Band performance at UMass last week. Thanks to all the drivers who made it possible. If you'd like to spend more time with us come to All School this week on Friday the 13th! On Friday we will also celebrate Valentine's Day. Anyone who wants to bring in Valentine's must have one for every one in class. Use your phone directories or read Emily's letter for a complete list.
Check out this photo of (most) of our class inside our cool ice-chunk fort:
|
|
Mups
The MUPS are amazing letter writers. All took great care to thank Mr. Howell of the Deerfield Planetarium with their most vivid words and drawings. The lost art of letter writing is alive and well here at the Center School.
 
The trip to see the Hot8 Brass Band of New Orleans was sizzling. When the band threw Mardi Gras beads out to the audience, the MUPS (and everyone else) went wild. It was as though we had been transported to Bourbon Street.
After two weeks of exciting field trips, this week we stay close to home (well, except for Skiing and Skating). Our focus will be on art; painting with inspiration from Vincent van Gogh. We have noticed his broad, thick brush strokes and use of complementary colors. In writing, we hope to complete and 'publish' our fables.
On Friday, we will have a Valentine's Day Party during snack.
|
|
UM6
This week will have UM 6 students finishing up many projects they have been working on. In lit last week, students made some really wonderful shadow puppets based on Greek mythology about Perseus. This week we will be working on putting the puppet show together and performing it for the MUPS on Friday. We will also learn about how to find the constellations the story tells about.
 Students are also finishing up their models of the Universe. (See above and below.) It has been really neat to see their understanding of the Universe evolve as they built their models. They are all so different even though they convey similar information about our "galactic address." The community is invited to see these models of the Universe, as well as students' individual astronomy projects, this Thursday from 2-3:30 at the first ever UM6 Astronomy Fair!  There is an organization called the "Farm to School Network" which works on getting farm fresh food into schools. They are having a contest where students can make a video about their interpretation of "real food" and have the chance to win $1000 for their own school's food programs. I thought this tied in perfectly with some of our garden curriculum, hunger curriculum, and food system curriculum that our students have studied over the past few years. I offered 'video making' as an optional project to the class. Six students took up the offer and made two videos. You can view them at http://www.youtube.com/group/farmtoschool Cameron, Leylee, and Izzy's video is titled Super Healthy Hero and Collin, Robert, and Seamus' video is titled Healthy Foods by SCR Films. Check them out. |
|
Uppers
The Uppers are finishing up stories this week that they have been working on during the Fiction Writing Workshop. It has been an incredible journey through the adolescent experience and view of the world. These young people have an amazing amount of empathy, creativity, and humor. We will be jumping back into the Labor unit in Social Studies before break and have a special visitor in science on Friday!
 (Here are some Uppers watching the inauguration.)
|
|
Primes
The Primes had an unbelievable week last week. We began the week studying the weather data that we've been collecting since September. We found out that so far this school year there have been 41 sunny days and 33 cloudy days, with just 6 rainy days and 2 snowy school days. In spite of the cold, our outside time has been filled with building snow walls and collecting ice jewels out on the playground. Our week ended with a hike out onto Rocky Mountain to leave food to feed the wild animals, This trip turned out to have a Norman Rockwell moment when we discovered that the snowy hillside was slippery enough to slide back down through the woods. The Primes had a delightful time sliding down then trudging up the hillside and returning back down the wooded hillside again.
"I am made of carbon atoms! Atoms make everything!" wrote one second year Prime in her journal this past week. Day after day several others even carried their folded periodic tables out onto the frozen snowy playground for outside time. Still others brought in printouts from their home computers. One hilarious item we watched on computer was a version of Tom Lehrer's 1959 'Elements' song, found at http://www.privatehand.com/flash/elements.html This flurry of chemistry is quite amazing. While some Primes are relishing and more importantly reading the strange names of elements such as ytterbium, they are also fascinated with the unusual properties of metals, non-metals, reactive halogens and inactive noble gasses. In the coming week to extend their conceptualization of how the periodic table expresses structure we may do some simple experiments looking at how elements combine in definite forms and ratio's. We welcome suggestions from Prime and non Prime parents and students for experiments we could (safely) explore.
These images from Primes journals are in both straight narrative and in "K/W" formatting, (which stands for "Know/Want to know.") Primes have recorded what they already have learned and what they want to learn about the elements.
This week promises to be busy. Parents should come in to our classroom and sign up for Parent Teacher Conferences that will take place March 5th and 6th. We will begin the week with our last Primes/Mups Skating trip on Monday (2/9), and end the week with our in class Valentine's Party. During the week we will revisit our "Night Tree," which we stocked with broccoli, snow peas, sunflower seeds, and carrots. We hope to find out what the wild animals will eat and by studying their tracks find out who is visiting the tree for a nibble. Perhaps if we can think of some way to do it we will celebrate Darwin's 200th birthday on Thursday! |
|
Announcements, Announcements, Announcements......
1. HELP US STOP THE BAD LABOR PRACTICES AT TIMBERLAND SHOE COMPANY!
THE CONTINUED HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS NEED TO STOP!
For more information on what to do go to our website:
Thanks, Micky, Zephyr, and Aliza 2. Hi Center Schoolers. I made a website called "A Piece Of Peace." The address is
apieceofpeace.weebly.com
I would love for you to check it out.
Hope you enjoy it.
Peace Out,
Sophie Rose
From the Uppers
3. From Cody and Jacob in the Uppers:
Four reasons to stop buying Tropicana
The equivalent of 3.75 pounds of carbon dioxide are emitted into the atmosphere for every half galleon of Tropicana orange juice.
About 1/3 of the carbon footprint of Tropicana is from growing the oranges.
Juice production causes 60% of Tropicana's carbon footprint.
Tropicana uses nitrogen fertilizer which requires natural gas to make and can turn into a potent greenhouse gas when spread into the fields.
Help us save the rainforest by boycotting Tropicana!!!
4. Deerfield Academy is making an effort to locate a few local families who would be excited to host a Deerfield student over March Break (6th to 22nd).
Two girls from China and two boys from Africa are still needing to be placed. The kids tend to want to relax and are low impact, but do enjoy "being part of the family". The only host requirement is a CORI check.
If you are interested or would be willing to reach out directly to people you know, please contact Lynne Robbins at lrobbins@deerfield.edu
5. Josh Traeger, beloved former staff, current board member and ski day volunteer has lost his goggles. They were left at the mountain last week. Emily brought them back and put them (unwittingly) with the other lost and found stuff on the bench in the brick building. By yesterday, they were gone. Please look through your child's stuff carefully. He/she might have mistaken them for theirs'. Josh's goggles are black with a orange lens.
Thanks! | |
|
|
Center School
CRAFTERNOON
March 13th
Come one come all to an event for the entire school community. It's not a fundraiser. It's not an admissions fair. Just good times together - crafting, teaching and learning, playing board games if you prefer, and a pot-luck supper. 5-8 pm in the Finer building, more details soon. Think about whether you might have a craft or game or other skill to teach...crafternoon, coming soon! |
|
Message
Next Week is February Break:
Do you know where your children will be?
Vacation Camp is in danger of not happening due to low enrollment. If you are thinking about signing up, please act now!
Hi all! We are having MidWinter After School Camp the third week of February, the 16th through the 20th. As usual, kids can be signed up for any number of days, from just one to all five. We will open the camp at 8am each day, and have morning circle around 11am, ("brunch circle") Children should definitely arrive before 11, so they can be part of the circle and eat lunch with us. Please pack your child with plenty of food and a change of clothes, as well as snow pants, hats, mittens, boots, coats and any extra sleds. We will be making afternoon snack (and maybe a few surprises), but lots of food from home is still essential. Kids can listen to ipods and use electronic equipment during quiet time only. At all other times, ipods must be played for everyone through our speakers and electronic equipment cannot be used. Cell phones cannot be used at any time. If you need to reach your child, please call the after school number: 774-1700.
How to sign up:
Each day of camp is $30/child. Please put payment in the "After School Payment Folder" (on the wall as you walk in) and sign up on the Big MidWinter Sign Up sheet you will find there. Please do this by the end of Wednesday, Feb. 11th. Please note that there is a $10 late sign-up fee for payment after Feb. 11th, (per child, per day.)
Take good care,
Olover and Evelyn
| |
| Upcoming Events |
February 2--Ski/Skate
February 6--Uppers Information Night for current 4th-6th grade parents (see sidebar for full details.) February 11--Last day to sign up for February Break camp at After School
February 20--Financial Aid Applications are due.
March 5 and 6--Parent Conferences
March 13--Crafternoon |
|
Contact Information |
|
Greenfield Center School
71 Montague City Road
Greenfield, MA 01301
413-773-1700
|
|
|
|
Earn
$100
|
If you refer a family to the Center School and they end up enrolling, we'll gladly thank you with one of the following one hundred buck options:
1. $100 applied to your tution bill
2. $100 gift card to the grocery store of your choice
3. $100 donation to the charity of your choice
Thanks for helping us keep the school full and vibrant.
|
| Offer Expires: When we are full | |
|
|
