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Friday,  November 21                                                              Teacher Curriculum Day,  No School

Monday,  November 24                                                               Principal Open Office Hour, 5 – 6 PM

    Thursday,  November 27 and Friday, November 28    Thanksgiving Break              No School

Wednesday,  December 3                                                          Pelham PTO, 7 PM

Thursday,  December 4                                                              Pelham School Committee Meeting, 7 PM

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From the Principal:

November 17-21 has been set aside as the nation's ninth annual International Education Week with the theme "Fostering Global Responsibility."  At Pelham School we strive to meet the challenges of our globally interconnected world by developing the skills and knowledge that students require for their futures in the 21st century.  International Education Week provides an exciting opportunity to infuse existing curriculum with a global perspective and to celebrate the rich diversity that exists within our classrooms.  Often this diversity is not apparent at first at Pelham School, but we have students whose first language was Khmer, Chinese, Spanish, German, and Hindi.  Families in Pelham come from countries and cultures around the world.  The K-6 Spanish Language Program provides Pelham students with a window into another culture and helps them learn more about themselves and others.   For more information, please review the International Education Week website at http://iew.state.gov/.

 

ONGOING FUND RAISERS:  Pelham School collects the following:

 

Box Tops for Education	Campbell Soup Labels	Printer Cartridges	A+Bonus Bucks at Stop and Shop	BIG Y Education Express
Box Tops/UPC from General Mills Cereal, Ziploc,Hefty, Betty Crocker, Kleenex, Scott, Cottonelle, Cascadian Farm, Old El Paso, Yoplait, Nature Valley, Pop Secret	Labels from Campbell Soup, Pepperidge Farm, Franco-American, Swanson, Prego, V8, Market Day	Used Inkjet and Laser Printer Cartridges	You may sign in online at stopandshop.com/aplus and designate Pelham School as your school of choice, or sign up at your local store.  The Pelham School ID # is 05202	You may sign in online at bigy.com/education/  and designate Pelham School as your school of choice, or sign up at your local store.  The Pelham School ID # is 6252

 

ANCIENT AMERICA CUISINE OF NEW ENGLAND

WHAT DID NATIVE AMERICANS EAT BEFORE THANKSGIVING?

November 24, 2008

7 PM, Pelham Library

 

Professor Elizabeth Chilton, an archeologist at UMass Amherst, will show slides of artifacts representing the 13,000 year history of Native People in New England before colonization.  She will focus on the changing diet and plant use as interpreted through artifacts.

 

With Thanksgiving coming up, this talk is timed perfectly to help refine our understanding of who the Native People were in ancient times and their continuity to contemporary Native peoples. This event is geared for adults and children, as well.

 

The idea for this talk came about when Prof. Chilton visited the Pelham library on the day that a several thousand year old stone bowl found in Pelham was passing through the library on its way to the Historical Society.  This spurred the idea for the talk.  Come and see the bowl the ancient Pelhamites would have used and learn about them.

 

Please come and join us for this rare and unusual event.

 

 

Quinlan’s Quill

 

            As winter approaches fifth graders are working hard.  Our American Revolution Unit is well underway, and students will be taking their first of two unit tests before Thanksgiving break.  Students seem to enjoy learning about this time in our history.  I teach a part of the unit, and then we watch a video that corresponds to what I have taught.  This gives the students two ways to get the information.  We are also working on a time-line of important events so students can visually see the important events and when they occurred.  We will be finishing this unit in December and move right into The Constitution Unit.  Students will learn about how our government is set up and how it all works.  This will be an exciting time for this unit due to the historical inauguration that will be occurring in January. 

            Also before Thanksgiving, our literature unit will wrap up.  Students have enjoyed the Revolutionary War books and now will move into Immigration books.  Students will read stories about immigrants coming to this country and the challenges they faced.  We will continue to work on reading skills along with our writing skills in our reading groups.  Students are learning what is expected in writing, which is a challenge for many kids. 

            We continue to work on writing well developed paragraphs.  Students are using facts to answer a prompt that has to do with the American Revolution.  We are also editing our work for content as well as mechanics.  We will continue to work hard on writing.

            Our math curriculum has moved to long division.  This is a challenge for many students as it requires students to plan, organize and follow a pattern.  We will continue to work on this skill through December.  We also continue to work on our problem solving skills.  Students have learned strategies such as Guess and Check, Draw A Picture, Make an Organized List, Logical Reasoning, and Interpreting Remainders.  Problem Solving uses many skills and can be challenging.  I am seeing lots of improvement and look forward to watching them continue to grow.

            I feel that these 5^th grade students have made great strides this fall.  They are coming together as a class and are working for class goals.  They are benefiting from structure and consistency, and I hope that this will continue. 

                                    Thank you for continuing to support the 5^th grade program and me.       Suzanne Quinlan

 

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SIXTH GRADE NEWS

 

We had a number of “visitors” in 6^th grade last week. The students dressed in costume, recited their monologues, and challenged their audience of 5^th graders to guess “Who Am I?”  People like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Anne Frank were easier to guess than Galileo, Sojourner Truth, and Jane Goodall.  Every 6^th grader looked the part and did a fantastic job. This ended our biography unit, and now we are preparing for our next literature unit.  Students have discussed the meanings of stereotyping, prejudice and racism, reflected on them in written journal entries, and will begin reading either Iggy’s House or Roll of Thunder next week.  Also in language arts we have begun capitalization packets and rule books, as well as exercises on finding the main idea in a passage. These activities will help develop our reading and writing skills.

 

Our measurement unit in math is starting to wind down.  We have learned the formulas for various polygons, including rectangles, parallelograms, trapezoids and triangles.  We have cut and pasted the diameters and radius squares of circles to learn how to find circumference and area.  Last week we practiced finding volume and surface area.  Next, we’ll look at word problems and elapsed time.  We’ll start a unit review and expect to take the unit test after the Thanksgiving break.

 

On Tuesday we visited the Pratt Museum of Natural History at Amherst College in conjunction with our Maps and Globes unit.  We’ve been studying our place in the universe – specifically our galactic address, and we’ve looked briefly at the age of the universe.  In one activity, we compressed all of time into one calendar year, creating a “cosmic calendar” with the Big Bang occurring on January 1^st. Dinosaurs wouldn’t appear until Dec. 25, and would be extinct on Dec. 30. (Humans appear Dec. 31^st in the late evening!)  Next we’ll look at our solar system, and then focus on where we are on earth, using maps.

 

We are very grateful for the tissue boxes many of you have sent in. You might imagine we are going through them at a fast rate – if you can send in another box, we’d appreciate it!

 

Margaret Light

 

 

ALPACA HOLIDAY FARM EVENT

 

Craigieburn Farm Alpacas will again be hosting a holiday event this year.

Our farm will be open for visitors to see alpacas, learn about living the

alpaca lifestyle, and shop in our store for luxurious alpaca products.

Alpaca fiber is softer, stronger and warmer than wool.  It's hypoallergenic

and doesn't itch.  Come and feel for yourself!  We have locally produced

alpaca yarn, rovings, and some handcrafted scarves.  We also have a variety

of alpaca socks, gloves, shawls, sweaters, and teddy bears.  We will be

serving refreshments.

 

We will be open from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, November 29-30, and December 6-7.

Our farm store will also be open at other times if you want to give us a

call (413-253-4485).  Visit our website for details.

www.craigieburnalpacas.com <http://www.craigieburnalpacas.com/>   We are

located at 243 W. Pelham Rd in Shutesbury, about 1 mile south of the school

on the west side.

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