Family Newsletter

 Dear Families,

Stay safe and warm today and this weekend!  It is cold out there.  

Here is our week in review:

Social-Emotional Learning:

• This week, second graders continued their work on empathy and compassion.  We explored how active listening and focused attention help us understand other peoples’ feelings and perspectives better.  These skills for learning can be improved with continued practice, positive self-talk and strategies for a calm body. We played a game called “Mum’s the word”, a brain builder game that allows the children to practice these skills in a playful setting.  Ask your child to explain how we played it.  Perhaps they can teach you at home too.

• We had another restorative circle with Ms. Nicole too.  These weekly circle times are very special times to us.  The children are showing an increased self-awareness about their own feelings and needs while also showing a better understanding of those of others.  

Reading:

• This week in reading, we switched our focus to nonfiction books and features.  While we will still be reading fictional books and stories, the students will be immersed in nonfiction books during our guided reading groups and read alouds.  This week, we started reading short stories about different famous scientists and we learned more about their true childhood experiences as told in the book “Kid Scientists” by David Stabler.  In the month of February will read biographies and books exploring Black History Month as well.

Writing:

• The students worked on age-appropriate proper English language conventions in our handwriting classes this week and they continued to add pages to their google slides reflecting their book recommendations.

Math:

• This week, second grade mathematicians continued their work on measuring.

• This week, second grade mathematicians had the opportunity to rotate through several math stations to deepen their understanding of subtraction, place value and money/coins.  Ask your child to explain how our workstation log works to encourage student accountability and work.

• Mr. Matt led us in several Number Talks this week, focusing upon different subtraction strategies.  It is wonderful to listen to these students share their mathematical understanding and solutions with each other.

• Here is a reminder again that the students have access to Dreambox, an online math learning program.  We strongly encourage parents to use this at home.  To access Dreambox from home, please use this information: Passwords and usernames were sent home earlier this school year.

This is the Web page link or use the school portal (scroll all the way down to Williston Schools and Dreambox).  Thanks for supporting math learning at home!

A message from our school principal, Angela Filion:

Dear ABS Families and Caretakers, 

We wanted to reach out and share with you that we have seen an increase in the amount of students who are coming in wearing smartwatches.  While we understand that these can be fun for kids to have, we are noticing that they are becoming more of a distraction to the magical learning that is happening in the classrooms.  Per the policy in our handbook on electronics, we are asking that you refrain from having your student(s) wearing these at school to better meet the focused learning needs of our students and to reduce social and emotional distractions that they often cause.

To increase focus and decrease distractions during the school day, the expectations are:

● Students will not wear a smartwatch (or have other personal devices) with them during the

school day. 

● If a student is observed to have their smartwatch/ device with them or using it during the school day, he/she will be asked to give it to their teacher for the remainder of the day.

● Prior to dismissal, students will retrieve their device to take home and a friendly reminder will be sent home to discourage them from coming to school again.

Thank you, in advance, for understanding that student learning is at the center of this decision.

Be well,

Angela Filion

ABS Principal

News and Reminders:

• It is cold outside and our playground/fields are covered in snow.  Please remember to send your child to school daily with weather-appropriate clothing.

• Please take a moment to go through your child’s backpack periodically.  Many times, soggy/wet clothes are left in the various pouches, or at the bottom, making papers and books wet as well.  Checking your child’s backpack daily is strongly recommended.  In fact,Harmony House encourages all families to encourage their own child/children to start taking some responsibility at home with packing and unpacking backpacks.  For example, encourage your child to pack the library books on Mondays, and unpack the backpack daily.  Not only will this empower your child and improve their confidence and independence, we also hope families will notice if any items of clothing are missing.  Our Lost & Found racks/bins at ABS are overflowing with left-behind winter gear and sweatshirts.  We encourage families to inventory items of clothing that might be missing and encourage their children to look for them at school.  Please also label your child’s clothing clearly.

• Winter gear gets wet and soggy quickly.  We encourage families to send in a grocery bag for these clothing items as backpacks often are too small to fit boots, mittens and snow pants.  Having an extra bag for packing winter gear will also reduce frustrations and stressors for our young learners’ end-of-the-day dismissal procedures.  Thank you.

• Report cards will go out next week due to the school closure today.  Please read the report with your child and return the envelope signed and emptied for our school to use again.  Thank you.

Have a great weekend,

Maria