Happy October from Gill Elementary!

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been here over a month again, but the colors in the trees and crisp mornings don’t lie.

Fall is a magical time at Gill Elementary. We welcome our local fire fighters to do Fire Prevention week. Younger grades get to see the equipment and truck. Older grades get to go to the station and the smoke room. Fall is also when we have our Bon Fire! That is scheduled for 10/18 from 5:00-8:00. The fire department will be there, too, manning the grill and managing the blaze.

Please remember that as fall falls, so do temperatures. We go outside nearly every day for recess, and Thursday is P.E. day. Please do your best to make sure that students are prepared for all kinds of fun weather including rain, sun, wind and cold.

Today, we had our first lockdown drill of the year. It is an unfortunate necessity in these times, and the kids did a great job. All of the troopers and officers who were present were very impressed by the seriousness with which our kids approached the drill and the efficiency of our staff to maintain safety.

This Friday’s All-School Meeting will need to be postponed one week, to 10/11, due to an unavoidable conflict. We look forward to seeing you all there.

Lastly, we have had several inquiries about volunteering. We love volunteers. Ms. Hutchison sent home volunteer forms recently. Please contact her or your child’s teacher with questions.

Have a great October,

Thank you,

-Conor Driscoll-

$aving$ Make Cent$ - first and third Tuesday of each month! Stating Tuesday 10/1!! Meet a Greenfield Savings Bank Representative  At our Open House October 17^th to find out more.

Kindergarten News

Kindergarten has started the year off by learning classroom and school routines, creating their hopes and dreams for the school year and getting to know each other. We have also started our new math curriculum, Bridges. The kindergarteners have spent time learning about shapes, patterns and quantities to five using a five frame.

First Grade News

In first grade, we have been busy learning new routines and building a caring classroom community. We have practiced care for ourselves and our own learning, care for one another, and care for our classroom and the world around us. Part of this caring included rearing Monarch caterpillars, and we are proud to share that we have released THIRTY-ONE beautiful Monarch butterflies back into nature! We are excited for a whole year of our own growing, and have started the year reviewing letters, sounds, and numbers and counting 1-20 to jumpstart our reading, writing, and math work in first grade. With the arrival of fall, we look forward to our first field trip next week to Pine Hill Orchards with Ms. Gobeil’s Kindergarten class, where we will explore our science theme of seasonal changes, pick some apples, and enjoy some tasty treats!

News from Second Grade

         It has been an exciting beginning to our new year.  We have been working hard to work and to learn many 2nd grade routines. We have each declared a Hope and Dreams for our year together, and have created our classroom rules. Following the rules help us in achieving our Hopes and Dreams. In second grade we are expected to take responsibility for ourselves as learners and what we need to achieve our goals.  Learning to respectfully advocate for ourselves will be an important part of our year together.

            If you walk by our room in the morning you are bound to hear us working together as a class or with a partner on our learning math talk.  Students are practicing clarifying their answers and listening to their partners about their math thinking.    We are loving our new Bridges math program.

Our afternoons, have us reading and writing together.  Students have been exploring our class library and finding “just right books” for their book boxes. Our writing focus has been on writing a paragraph.  Our writers are enjoying using their “bear reminders” to help write a topic sentence, and details. Second grade is off to a great start with all 20 learners!           

Gill Elementary Open House Thursday 10/17 5-6pm

Grade 3 September News Blurb…

          Hello third grade families.  Wow, have we been busy!  Math strategies, reading strategies, science experiments, writer’s workshop and much more!

Be on the lookout for a permission form to come home involving our climbing wall.  Mr. Driscoll is a certified instructor, and our wall has been inspected and given the thumbs up.  We will be reading a story next week titled, Cliffhanger.  Mr. Driscoll will bring our story to life by sharing his expertise. Let’s get some third graders on the wall!

Your budding meteorologist should be able to fluently read the weather page in the newspaper and maybe even tell you what kind of weather a low air pressure system will bring! 

Finally, thank you for assisting your personal narrative writer in the design of their writing notebook covers. They are preparing to fill their notebooks with true stories from their life!

Look ahead to information coming soon about our walk-a-thon fundraiser happening the morning of October 23^rd.  Plan ahead to join us if you can!

SCARECROW BUILDING 10/18 STARTS AT 9 AM CLASS TIMES TBD. 

Needed items include:  all sizes of clothes and shoes, white sheets for ghosts

Dear Fourth Grade Families,

We have had a great start to the school year. We have begun practicing strategies for multiplying and dividing in math. During our writing time the students have been mapping out and starting rough drafts for their realistic fiction stories. As a class, we have been reading and discussing the book Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo. It has been a wonderful start to the school year! Once again, thank you to all the fourth grade families who have donated supplies to the classroom.

5^th Grade News

Fifth Grade is off and running! We have had an excellent start to the year establishing routines and rules around classroom behavior and classroom culture.In Ela we are now meeting in reading groups as well as about to finish our whole class read of the book The Hundred Dresses which has helped to grow our classroom in discussion and vocabulary skills. In Math we have been working with cubic volume and surface area as well as factoring. We were lucky enough to do several projects this math unit including working with parent volunteers to find volume of apple crates and make apple cider from our tree right here at Gill School. In science we have begun our study of space and have studied the sun and its relationship to the Earth and will be looking at the moon next.

News from 6^th Grade

The first month or so have been kind of crazy with so many people, but still lots of fun! We have started our classroom economy, and all of us have grown to like our jobs. In Math we have started our unit on ratio rates, and in ELA we have read a couple of short stories, and learned the deeper meaning of them. Lastly in the beginning of the year we made flags to represent ourselves. I’m excited for this year with such a big class!

Press Secretary, Charlotte

Come join us at our PTO meetings first Thursday of the month @ 5:30 pm. Hope to see you there!!

1. Our Next meeting will be Thursday Oct 3rd at the Rendezvous on 3rd St. in Turners at 5:30pm
2. The 4th Annual Gill School Fall Fire will be on Friday Oct 18th more information to come!
3. There will be a winter clothing drive/swap that night as well. Bring your clean, lightly used winter gear (sweaters, snow pants, jackets, boots, gloves, and hats). Clothing can be brought up to the school up to 1 week prior to the 18th.

Our Fall Mums fundraiser was a huge success, thank you all for your participation! We raised $2300 for our kiddos!!! That’s a lot of student enrichment :)

Fall Music News

Welcome back.  Music is off to a great start this year.  We are starting a chorus for grades 4-6 which will meet every other Friday from 2:30 – 3:00.  Our first concert will be at Sheffield Elementary School on January 22, 2020.  Third and fourth grade will be attending The Pioneer Valley Symphony in April.  Fifth and sixth grade will begin bucket drumming this fall.  Fourth grade is beginning to play recorders.  Kindergarten, first grade is singing fall songs and working on keeping a steady beat and matching pitches.  Second and third grade will begin working on reading rhythms and matching pitch.  It looks to be an exciting year in music at Gill.

News from Art

The art room is a busy happy place to be this September! It is so nice to see so many happy faces engaged in art making.Kindergarten artists have listened to the story of "The Dot" by Peter Reynolds and completed dot drawings and self-portraits. First grade has also completed a self-portrait, after listening to the story "Sky Paint". Together we discussed the sky and the many colors it can be beyond blue. Each child drew themselves as an artist and painted the sky! Second and third grade artists have been working on nature drawings of insects and the great outdoors as well as self-portraits. Fourth, fifth and sixth have been learning about radial symmetry and are working on kaleidoscope drawings. Fifth grade artists are also beginning the year by painting with watercolors. I am looking forward to a wonderful, colorful autumn at Gill Elementary!

Come enjoy an evening Bonfire at the Gill Elementary  School.

The Fun starts at 5:00 on 10/18

Happy Fall from the School Nurse!  It is a pleasure to see all returning and new students. Every day at school we try to teach the basics for good health: 

Wash your Hands (well and often),

Stay Hydrated (bring a water bottle with you to school), Eat a healthy & nutritious Breakfast,

Get plenty of Sleep, & Get Up and Move (Energize and Refresh your body and mind)!

Please help your child to have a great school experience by reinforcing healthful habits at home. My goal every year is to help you keep your child healthy so that he/she is ready and able to learn. Thank you for staying in touch about concerns you may have about your child’s health and wellness at school. Contact me with questions anytime.   Carol Varner RN, BSN   ph. 413-863-7458   carol.varner@gmrsd.org

Please keep your child home from school for the following reasons:

• Fever of 100’ or higher.   *Keep your child home until the fever is gone for 24 hours without medication.

• Vomiting or diarrhea.       *Keep your child home until symptoms are gone for 24 hours.

• Coughing excessively.    *A constant cough is uncomfortable for your child and it is also disruptive to the class.   Your child may need to be evaluated by a medical provider.

• Strep throat.   *Your child must be treated with antibiotics for 24 hours before returning to school.

• Eye symptoms such as redness, discharge, itching, etc.   *Your child should be evaluated by a medical provider to  rule out “pink eye”. If it is a confirmed case of pink eye, keep your child home until s/he has been treated for 24 hours.

• Unusual or draining rash, wound, or sore.   *Your child should be evaluated by a medical provider to rule out infection.

• Too tired or sleepy.     *If your child is too tired/sleepy from an illness to profit from sitting in class all day.

Gill School will soon start our Fluoride Mouthrinse Program sponsored by the Dept. of Public Health, offered weekly for 1^st through 6^th grades throughout the year. Please contact the nurse anytime to sign up for this valuable free service. Fluoride mouthrinse remineralizes and hardens the tooth’s outer surface, and is recommended even if your child already takes fluoride in pill form or has sealants. Fluoride has been shown to be safe, inexpensive and extremely effective, preventing tooth decay by up to 20-40%.

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