TO: RSU #74 Board of Directors
FROM: Jean Butler
DATE: February 28, 2024
PreK-5 ELEMENTARY REPORT
Whether March comes in like a lamb or a lion, we are ready for the last month of winter to arrive with spring just around the corner. We haven’t had a lot of snow, but there has been enough for students to play in at recess. There have only been a few days when it was too cold to go outside. We try to get our students outside for exercise and fresh air at recess as often as we can.
The winter session of the After-School Program ended on February 15th. The third and final session will begin on March 5th and run through April 10th. During the spring session we hope to involve students in more outdoor activities as the weather gets warmer and drier. An exciting activity we have planned for all three schools’ programs is an “Eclipse Party” on April 8th, the day of the solar eclipse. We have ordered solar glasses for all PreK-5 students in our schools, and they will be invited to stay after school that day to experience the eclipse, which is scheduled to take place around 3:30 PM. We will prepare the students by teaching them the science behind solar eclipses.
Our fifth graders from Garret Schenck, Solon, and CCS will go on the annual Fifth Grade Ski Trip to Sugarloaf Mountain on March 1st. This activity brings together all of the fifth graders for a day of outdoor fun. Sugarloaf charges each student $49, which includes equipment rental, a lesson, and a lift ticket for the day. We are fortunate that our PTO’s pay the cost for students whose families can’t afford this fee to enable all students who want to ski to be able to do so. We always have a large number of parents who join us for this activity, which is organized by our physical education teachers Heidi Day and Paul Kaplan.
Solon Elementary School will hold a carnival-themed Literacy Week during the week of March 4-8 in conjunction with the Read Across America project to promote reading. Each day will feature a guest reader, and this year we have invited students who are now in high school or college, including School Board member Bob Lindblom’s son Bobby. We think these students will be great role models for the younger students. On Friday, each staff member will choose a carnival or circus themed book to read to a multiage group of students and an activity to do with them.
On March 19th and 20th, we will have a visit from our coach from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the publisher of our new K-5 literacy program, Into Reading. Devan Fountain from HMH will be here to work with each grade level group of teachers for a couple of hours. She will provide training in the small group instruction and writers’ workshop aspects of the Into Reading program and answer questions teachers have. This will be Devan’s third visit to the district, as she presented a day-long workshop in June to introduce teachers to the new program and she returned for two days in November to work with grade level groups. We believe that by offering ongoing professional development and support when teachers are using a new program, we can ensure that teachers will implement the program with fidelity so that student achievement levels increase. We hope to have another Into Reading workshop for teachers in late August before school starts.
Thanks to grants from the Anson Academy Association, both Garret Schenck and Solon Elementary Schools will expose students to a chance to explore space through the Challenger Learning Center in Bangor. Solon Grades 3 and 5 students will visit the Challenger Learning Center on March 28th because the science curriculum in those two grade levels includes a study of the solar system. On March 29th, staff from the Challenger Learning Center will visit Garret Schenck to offer programs for students in grades 2-5 at the school. We greatly appreciate the support of the Anson Academy Association to make these special programs possible for our students.
If you have questions about anything in my schools, please contact me.
Enjoy the last weeks of winter and the coming of spring!