Dates to Remember:

12/16- Early Release- 1:20

12/17- Pelham Students perform for Pelham Council on Aging- 10:00 a.m.

12/24-1/1- Holiday Recess

Dear Pelham Families,

Pelham School has an annual tradition of reaching out to Pelham School families in need and

supporting them to purchase gifts or warm clothing items for their children for the holiday

season. If you are willing and able to donate, please send cash into the office in an

envelope marked for this purpose by Friday, December 18. Any amount will help! If you

choose to remain anonymous, that will be honored as well. We do have several families who

could really benefit from some help at this time of year. We appreciate all the efforts of staff,

parents, and community members in making a difference in our students lives.

During spring of 2015, Pelham School students took the PARCC assessment in the areas of

ELA and mathematics. All districts in the state of Massachusetts had the choice to choose

either MCAS or PARCC for this testing period and the Pelham School Committee voted for the

school to take PARCC. We have received the results of the PARCC assessments which indicate

that Pelham students did considerably well. For both the ELA and mathematics, students in

grades 3-6 performed at least 25% above the state average, with the majority of students

meeting or exceeding expectations. Parents should have receive results through the mail this

week and are urged to contact the school if they have any questions. The state has mandated

that districts that participated in PARCC will do so again for the spring of 2016 in ELA and

mathematics. We are very proud to announce that the accountability level of Pelham School is

at a Level 1. Level 1 schools have PPI scores that are at the highest level for the aggregate and

all subgroups, and are meeting all their goals and showing growth. Level 1 schools do not

require state involvement because of their achievement and growth. I’d like to acknowledge

students and staff for their efforts in achieving this status.

The Turkey Trot event in November was a huge success! The entire school participated in this

all-school event . Donations for the Amherst Survival Center totaled 218 pounds, which was

nearly double the amount students contributed lat year! A huge thanks to all of those families

that sent in snacks for the event! Students enjoyed having a treat after all of their exercise.

Sincerely,

Lisa Desjarlais , Principal

Pelham Press

Vol. 26, No. 7 December 11, 2015 http://pe.arps.org

Third Grade News

Meg Gallagher

Much learning, creating, fun, and hard work has been going on in third grade. We are

currently in our traditional literature unit. We have been determining the central message in

each tale and explaining how it is conveyed through key details in the text. We took an

extensive look at Aesop’s fables. Your children wrote some amazing comparison papers

comparing an ancient fable to a modern one. Now we are looking at folktales from around the

world. Children are learning to identify common elements of folktales and find examples of

these in the tales they choose to read. Myths are our next component to this unit. We will be

exploring a number of myths from around the world. Within this unit we also read tales in play

form, and before the Thanksgiving break, your children took a part in “The Fox and the Boar”

one act play. They were very theatrical! Students also wrote about how the moral: Think

ahead and be prepared, related to their own lives. I found these enchanting.

We are still finishing up our fabulous personal narratives. Once completed, children will

have a chance to read their story to second graders. This is always a fun experience to have a

new audience. Soon we will begin our next Lucy Calkins unit called: Changing the World –

Persuasive Speeches. Children will practice writing an introduction, stating their opinion,

giving reasons and evidence to support that opinion, organizing their writing, acknowledging

counterclaims, using transition words, and writing a conclusion. Last year I ended up getting

my first farm share, because I was so convinced by a student’s speech about it!

Our third math unit is cruising along. Students are using place value to develop and

practice strategies for addition and subtraction of 2- and 3-digit numbers. They will also

represent multiplication using arrays, and use these representations to develop strategies for

solving multiplication facts. As children become more fluent in their addition, subtraction,

multiplication, and division basic facts, these strategies become easier to use. Children have

the addition and subtraction triangle cards at home to study with. I notice that passing the 20

subtraction fact test is challenging for a number of students. Using these cards five minutes a

day might be just the thing they need to get over the hump. Thank you for any help you can

give your child in this area.

In science, we have begun our Variation and Adaptation unit. This is a Seeds of

Science/Roots of Reading unit that emphasizes the connection between science and literacy.

Children learn to bring their inquiry skills and comprehension and composition strategies to

bear on issues and problems they encounter across the curriculum. We are currently covering

Investigation 1: Comparing Living Things. Students are learning about the variation among

living things on Earth and about groups of related organisms with shared characteristics. They

will also practice making inferences based on observations and what they read. Students will

learn about genes and inherited and acquired characteristics. So far, I see many children

excited to role-play being scientists!

Fourth Grade Pelham Press

The fourth grade is putting the wraps on a regions unit. We have been reading about

different areas in the United States and discovering what each has to offer.

Specifically, we studied economy, history, culture and geography. Students took notes

on a specific region and developed them into paragraphs with themes. They did a little

more research on the internet to supplement the text information. They used their

paragraphs to structure a Google slides presentation and found images from the web

that went along with their sentences. We had a good time last Friday sharing our

slideshows with the class. Another project we are just finishing up is making posters

about a specific region. The children worked on either the southeast or southwest

region. Again, students took notes from text to create captions that went well with

pictures they found on the internet. The posters are really colorful and informative and

feature the four topics we have been studying. All this will help us with our next social

studies unit on immigration. It will be important for them to have an understanding of

the different places immigrants have settled in the United States.

We have been busy writing at two o'clock. We spent a lot of time this first part of the

year learning planning strategies to help us compose realistic fiction stories. Students

used these techniques to develop stories with a problem and solution, believable

characters, and highlights that constitute the heart of the story. We used a writer’s

checklist to help understand what elements needed development. We critically looked

at writing samples to see what makes some stories stronger than others. We just

recently completed a two-day writing activity where we practiced what we had been

studying. We will cycle back through the revision process and share our work with the

class.

We will be getting fish in the classroom shortly after December vacation. If you have

well-water that you know is fairly free from impurities, I will need a regular supply to

keep the brook trout healthy. They are a clean-water indicator species. Let me know if

you can help. I can never have too much water for this unit.

Mr. Shaw

FROM THE LIBRARY

We’ve had a great start to the school year and students have now settled into a routine for

library visits. Library days are as follows:

Tuesday – Preschool – 4th Grade – 1st Grade

Wednesday – Kindergarten

Thursday – 3rd Grade – 2nd Grade – 6th Grade – 5th Grade

Please help your child/children to remember their library day and return their borrowed

books.

Thanks to your support of the Scholastic Book Fair this year the library was able to

purchase over 45 fiction and non-fiction books from Scholastic. These books are now

processed and on the shelves so please come and check them out! I would like to extend a

special thank you to the following people for organizing and helping with the fair: Lisa

Desjarlais, George Graiff, Lennie Ware, Janet Scott, Kevin Schmith, Andrea Allees, Monica

and Danna Brown, Jessica Hanson, Aisha Hiza, Melissa Miller, Susan Montgomery, Darci

Palmquist, Maia Porter, Tracy Walker, Amie Weddleton, Crystal Wolaver, UMass volunteers

and especially to Emily Marriott.

We always need volunteers at the library so if you can spare an hour or two a week please

contact me through the school.

I wish you all a good holiday break,

Rosalba Baroni-Booth

After School After Thoughts for December 2015

IMPORTANT DATES: Dec. 10 – January tuition is due Dec. 16 – early dismissal “gap” care is being provided (If you do not need gap care, yet you have a child who usually attends on Wednesday, that child is more than welcome to come back to the program at 3:00 P.M. for their regular afterschool experience.) Dec.23– last day of program before December break

SHIRTS: I ordered some extra shirts, which are available for sale. See Lennie for color, size, and style choices. Tees are $8, long sleeved are $12.

AFTERSCHOOL PLAY REQUEST:

Going on vacation? Have a special holiday tradition? Have a special spot in your house or on

your property? Have a beloved pet? Enjoy a sport or fun activity? If so, then perhaps you could help

with our play.

This year’s afterschool play will include a photomontage and I am hoping that many afterschool

families will be involved. If interested, here’s what you should do:

1. Get an inflatable alien from Lennie.

2. Set it up with your afterschool student and/or family members (like a selfie) in an interesting way or in

some special place.

3. Take a photo or two or three.

4. Send it to Lennie at clwarepel@comcast.net

5. Return the inflatable for another family to use.

(Be aware that this montage may be posted on social media.)

HOLIDAY GIFTS

Although I appreciate the goodies that I personally receive each year, especially kid generated cards or artwork, I also welcome donations to the program. We can always use snacks and art supplies. I have limited space on my shelves for items such as board games, but computer games or Leapster games don’t take up much room. But honestly, just enjoying your kids is the best gift of all!

Please check out some pictures from Mix-it-Up Day 10/30/15