Explorer 09 10

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October 30, 2009 An ACES Interdistrict Magnet School vol. 12 , issue 10 

Daylight Saving Time ends thisSunday, November, 1, 2009 at

2:00 a.m. Don’t forget to set your 

clocks back one hour.

"What's going on in that

head of mine?"

Kindergarten pull-out Enrichmentstudents met as a group for the

first time on Monday after-

noon and took part in a discussionon special gifts that they all pos-

sess. They took delight in a work-

shop called, "What's going on in

that head of mine?" where theycreated gigantic "heads" with

icons representing their likes and

gifts. It was a great way for eachstudent to brilliantly become self-

aware of themselves and their sur-

roundings. This very lesson setthe tone for upcoming lessons fo-

cusing on self and divergent

thinking.

Pennies for Peace

Walking down the hallway

Wednesday morning, teachers

were greeted by Primary studentsin charge of collecting pennies for 

our school wide service learning

 program, "Pennies for Peace", thatcoincides with the book Three

Cups of Tea. This project has

made Wintergreen students aware

of empowering communities

through education in Pakistan andAfghanistan!

By participating in "Pennies for Peace" we Wintergreeners are

making a positive impact on a

global scale, one penny at a time.

While a penny is virtually worth-less, in impoverished countries a

 penny buys a pencil and opens the

door to literacy.

 November 3,2009 is Election

Day. This year,

we will be vot-

ing for state andlocal officials.

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Scary StoriesFor the last few weeks students in

kindergarten, first and second

grades have been enjoying a se-

lection of scary stories during

their visits to the library. Our unit

culminated with a re-telling of 

Washington Irving’s classic tale:

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

We have been trying to figure out

what makes a story scary. We

concluded that it is really what

happens in the story that makes it

scary, not the story’s setting or 

characters.

Enriching Field Trip

Holiday Stadium Cinemas in oneof our partnering districts of 

Wallingford, CT, served as the

setting this past Sunday afternoonwhen 140 Wintergreen students

and families viewed "Where the

Wild Things Are" during theschool-wide Enrichment event.

School Principal and Assistant

Principal Sharyn Esdaile and

Michelle Coogan along withteachers Daniela Amodio and

Ingrid Doviak joined the group

for the exclusive viewing of thefilm. Participants had many

comments after seeing the piece.

 Natalie Cassello, grade 5 student

said, "It was really dark. It did nothave the same lesson as the book.

It was more about the monstersthan Max."Grade 3 student

Mackenze Pittman also partici-

 pated and had a comment:"I think it was a really nice movie, though

the ending part was kind of sad. I

thought Max was a big part of the problem; the fight that started was because of him. The monsters had

interesting personalities." John

Iassogna, a fifth grader, was alsostruck by the monsters. He said,

"The characters-especially the

monsters-were cool. They looked

 just like the monsters in the book." A great time was had by

all, and there will certainly be

more family activities like this inthe future. Stay tuned.

WANTED:

Shelf ElvesThe Wintergreen library is a very

 busy place. Between scheduledstory hours and free choice time,

over 100 books circulate a day!

The library is in need of adult

volunteers to help with theshelving of books. If you are

interested, please contact Mrs.

Kaplan, 281-9668 ext. 3052 or 

[email protected].

Tech News

We are pleased to announce the

opening of the ACES

PowerSchool Parent Portal. The parent portal is a tool that is used

to increase our home/school

communication and allows

 parents to more fully monitor 

their student’s progress. This portal will allow parents to

access student grades, assign-ments and attendance. In the

coming week, you will receive a

letter in the mail detailing thewebsite you will need to log

onto and the neces-

sary passwords. It will be very

important that you keep your  passwords safe so that only you

can retrieve this valuable infor-mation. We will also conduct

two parent evenings for thosewho need more instruction or 

access to the portal. We are very

excited to share this informationwith our parents and look for-

ward to continuing our efforts to

strengthen our home /schoolcommunication.

There’s a New Student

Teacher in Town!

Mr. Desautels is a new stu-

dent teacher in Mrs. Rourke’sfifth grade class. Mr. Desau-

tels started student teachingOctober 26th 2009. He will bewith us for eight weeks end-

ing on December 18th. He has

studied to be a teacher atSCSU and this is his final step

to becoming a full time

teacher.

Mr. has decided to be ateacher after spending twenty-

two years in the Army Na-

tional Guard. He was inspired by his own elementary schoolteachers. “I think that teaching

children and encouraging

them to do their best would bean excellent way to spend the

second half of my adult life”

said Mr. Desautels. We wishto welcome Mr. Desautels to

Wintergreen school!