Friday,  September 28                                                    Hearing Screening, K - 6

Ice Cream Social, 6:30 PM

     BOOK FAIR             September 28  -  October 5

Monday,  October 1                                                       Pelham PTO, 7 PM

Wednesday,  October 3                                               Pelham School Curriculum Night, 7-8 PM

Thursday,  October 4                                                      Pelham School Committee, 7:00 PM

Monday,  October 8                                                       No School

Wednesday,  October 10                                                Field Trip,  grades 4, 5, 6

Thursday,  October 11                                                    Field Trip, grades K, 1, 2

From the Principal: 

Problem:  Students and staff are finding money on the playground, in the halls, and in the classrooms.  Parents, we are asking for your help.  Please have students bring lunch money in envelopes if at all possible—we have some old change envelopes if anyone needs them—and ask them not to bring “extra” money to school.  You may always pay for your child’s lunch by the day, week, or month with a check.  We know that sometimes your child will need money for special events at or after school, and we will be glad to keep student money in our locked cabinet in the office during the school day.  We do not want this to be an issue during our Book Fair next week, so please discuss this with your child and let us know how we can help.

Reminder:   The Pelham Parent Curriculum Night will be on Wednesday, October 3, 2007 for grades K-6. 

                                                Class Presentations--Grades K, 1, & 2                         7:00 - 7:20 PM

                                                Class Presentations--Grades 3 & 4                               7:20 - 7:40 PM

                                                Class Presentations--Grades 5 & 6                               7:40 - 8:00 PM

This is a parent/guardian only event, a time when teachers share with you important information about their classrooms and their curriculum.  Most teachers will have a sign up sheet for parent conferences.  Teachers will begin their classroom presentations promptly at the time on the above schedule. We hope to see all of you there!  Please call the school office by October 1 if you will need childcare. Rena Moore

 

FOUND:  Pink and black back pack with diapers and other baby things inside.

You may retrieve it at the Pelham School Office (253-3595)

 

A BETTER CHANCE – FALL FOLIAGE WALK OCTOBER 13, 2007

The Amherst A Better Chance Fall Foliage Walk will return this year on Saturday, October 13th with all of the fitness fun it has provided for the past 35 years.  A tradition in Amherst, the Walk is the ABC program’s most important fundraiser.  People of all ages and from all parts of the community come out to support the seven scholars who are seeking better educational opportunities at Amherst Regional High School.  The 22 kilometer walk begins at the Mill River Recreation Center from 8-10 a.m. or at Amethyst Brook from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. and ends with a mid-afternoon reception at the ABC House at 74 North Prospect Street in downtown Amherst.  The House will be welcoming some alumni back, too.  It’s OK if you don’t do the whole Walk; even if you can’t walk at ALL on that day you CAN still participate by seeking pledges for an alternative activity.  Pledge forms will be available to Pelham students and families from Meg Gallagher after permission slips go home.  To learn more about the A.B.C. Program, go to amherstabetterchance.org or to the national website, abetterchance.org. 

 

The Apple Harvest Crafts Fair and Children's Festival

Saturday, September 29th on the Town Common, 10am -5pm.

The Festival raises money for the Amherst Family Center. This year we will also have guests artisans from Katrina ravaged, Bay St Louis, Mississippi.  The Children's Festival will include games, crafts, a jumpy castle, pony rides, a petting zoo and Hayrides (in the afternoon)!!  For more information contact, Randa Nachbar, Amherst Family Center

 

Easy, On-going Pelham School Fundraisers

Box Tops for Education	Campbell Soup Labels	Printer Cartridges	A+Bonus Bucks at Stop and Shop
Found on General Mills products, please cut and send to Pelham School	Please cut and send to Pelham School office	Send your used cartridges to the Pelham School office.	Please fill in your number and return your form to Pelham School or your local Stop and Shop

 

 

 

Mr. Lipman’s Class

 

Umass Entomology Field Trip  Last Wednesday’s trip to the Entomology Department at UMass was a wonderful opportunity to learn more about insects.  Annie and Liz, two graduate students showed us slides, displays and let us handle live insects from all over the world.  We had a chance to ask many questions and to show our fledgling knowledge of insects.  After enjoying a snack in the Japanese garden behind Durfee Conservatory, Michael Formosi, the head horticulturalist, showed us many plants and let us enjoy the many different climates represented inside the greenhouses.

 

Another Field Trip!  Elizabeth Chilton, Emmet’s mom, has invited us to visit the Anthropology Department at Machmer Hall, Umass to learn about her field of study and to participate in a mock site dig.  We will depart Pelham School by school bus at 9 AM and return before lunch on Wednesday, October 17.  Please pack your child a hearty snack and drink, and be sure he or she is dressed for the weather.  Please drop me a note if you would like to help chaperone our trip.

 

Monarch Butterfly Release Party and Parade  On Monday, October 1 at 1:45 PM, we will celebrate the release of the bulk of our monarch butterflies with a party, parade and release ceremony (weather dependent).  Leanne Hasbrouck or Ruth Carolan may contact you sometime soon to provide food and supplies for the party, and you are all welcome to join in the fun.  Some of the monarchs raised by your children have been released already as they have emerged to keep them fresh and strong for their journey to the mountains of Mexico.  They have been tagged with information provided by the University of  Kansas, which hopes to recover tagged monarchs to help in their study of migration.

 

Reading, Writing and Arithmetic  You may have guessed that our integrated monarch butterfly unit has included the 3 R’s, but you may not know that your children have begun formal study in language arts and mathematics.  Children have begun to learn new sight words, are writing in journals, and are accumulating books at their specific reading levels in a plastic Ziploc book bag.  These books are introduced and practiced, and will start going home in homework folders for you to hear.  I will introduce homework folders at next week’s Curriculum Night and hope to see you there.  In math, we have been doing lots of counting, graphing and data analysis as we have sneaked into every classroom to find out how many students are there.  We have waited until a class is off to lunch, recess or specials and then in we sneaked to count things like desks, chairs, charts, mailboxes and cubbies.  We then made an educated guess as to how many children were there and baked chocolate chip cookies to deliver as a “Thank You” for letting us snoop.  The math program is both exciting and engaging as children experience concepts through real world problem solving and hands-on activities.  Children also practice basic skills through practice sheets in their individual math packets.  

 

 

Second Grade News

 

September seemed to fly by.  We have been busy Bubbleologists.  The big idea of this unit was to learn how to use the 5 steps of the Scientific Method while having fun with bubbles. The children designed some very interesting experiments and did a great job recording results and drawing a conclusion. The children and adults had a great time during Bubble Extravaganza Day, the conclusion of our unit. A BIG thanks to all the parents who came to help and enjoy!! The weather was perfect.  We had some wonderful bubble making. Stop by and check out the display next week.

 

Science/Social Studies: In our next unit we will study forest and wetlands. We will talk about animal habitats, how animals adapt to their environment, study where rivers start, and finally explore a stream near our school. In conjunction with the Harvard Institute, the children will collect data on the stream throughout the year. The children will need old shoes or rubber boots in the  next few weeks.

 

Reading:  We have just finished the last of the reading assessments this week.  We have been using this time to learn about story structure—finding the characters, setting, problem, events, and solution of a story. We have also been reviewing letter sounds and building words.  Next week we will begin assigned reading books for small group instruction.

 

Math: We have started some new classroom routines, which use the clock, number lines, and the hundreds chart.  Our main focus has been to develop strategies  for accurately counting a set of objects by ones and in groups and to develop an understanding of the sequence of numbers to 100.

 

Homework will begin next week. The children will bring home a packet on Monday for the week. The homework needs to be returned on Friday of each week. Please set aside a quiet space for your child to work. Help them to organize their time and be responsible for getting the homework back on time.

 

I hope to see all of you next week at next week’s Curriculum Night.

 

 

 

 

DISTRICT UPDATE:

 

 

Dear Amherst, Pelham, and Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools Parents and Guardians:

 

Every year I enjoy attending every school’s Open House (and thank you all for not parking in fire lanes—I know the fire chiefs are pleased, too).  Listening to the enthusiastic presentations of teachers, I am taken by each teacher’s care for your children, knowledge of their subject areas, and philosophy.  Their comments range from “Your fourth graders will need to know their times tables by the end of the year” to “We’ll be applying these algorithms to Poe’s The Pit and the Pendulum.”

 

We will include this “Districts Update” in school newsletters, periodically.  If you would like more routine communication about district initiatives, School Committee agendas, and other updates, please send a “subscribe” email to learning@arps.org.   If you are interested in periodic information about state and federal legislation, you can “subscribe” at legislation@arps.org.

 

This Update includes critical  information about school safety and security and  two district committees.  I look forward to sharing information about curriculum development, student achievement, and student accomplishments in upcoming updates, as well as in learning@arps.org emails.  Thank you!

 

 

Jere Hochman, Superintendent

 

FOOD SERVICES COMMITTEE

This year concludes a five-year contract with Chartwells, the vendor who manages food service for all schools.  Prior to this five-year contract, the schools provided food service internally.  The Regional School Committee, after reviewing the pros and cons of an internal program vs. use of a management vendor, decided to develop a Request For Proposals (RFP) for the future.  We will continue to examine other districts and how they approach food service. 

 

A Committee is being formed to research food service operations in all three districts, to survey the parents and students, and to develop criteria and priorities for an RFP.  If you wish to be considered for this committee or wish to send in comments, please contact Debbie Westmoreland at 362-1823 or by email at westmorelandd@arps.org.

 

AMHERST SCHOOL DISTRICT:  SCHOOLS' ORGANIZATION COMMITTEE

The Amherst School Committee has been discussing concepts and principles related to the organization and attendance areas of our schools.  Last year, data were collected on our schools, a study of district demographics was completed, and audits of district facilities were conducted.  At a recent meeting, the School Committee drafted a set of Guiding Principles and Points for Consideration to initiate the process.  With this information and additional research, the School Committee will now explore options for the future. 

 

Specifically, the charge of the committee will be:  To determine a variety of district configuration options, including the current configuration, for schools and attendance organization citing the pros and cons of each and, specifically, the impact on the children, staff, and the community based on the Guiding Principles and Points for Consideration for Schools and Attendance Organization. 

 

If you would like to participate, or have suggestions for committee members, please contact Debbie Westmoreland at 362-1823 or westmorelandd@arps.org.

 

 

moorer@arps.org

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