June

June is a month full of mixed emotions. We celebrate the growth, tremendous at

our level, made over the last 180 days. While excited about the prospect of mov-

ing on to a different class, different teacher, and for some a different school, stu-

dents often feel a sense of loss. The familiar routines will change. For many stu-

dents this can be unsettling. Planning a play date, knowing that you will see this

friend again even after the school year ends often helps the transition to summer

for children. Sharing family summer plans, creating new routines and involving

children promotes a smooth transition. Registration for FIZZ BOOM READ, the

Hopkinton Public Library summer reading program will begin in June. This will

be a great connection to friends, activities, and of course reading.

I have repeatedly commented, “I can’t believe it’s the end of the year!” We have

had a fantastic year at Center School. I have thoroughly enjoyed my first year in

Hopkinton. The students, families, and staff are what make our school a wonder-

ful learning environment. Working together is key to the success of our school. I

thank you for your part in this true partnership.

The poem below sums the emotions of June nicely:

Great Expectations

It's time to say, "Good-bye."

Our year has come to an end.

I've made more cherished memories

And many more new friends.

I've watched your children learn and grow

And change from day to day.

I hope that all the things we've done

Have helped in some small way.

So it's with happy memories

I send them out the door,

With great hope and expectations

For what next year holds in store. by Maria Cuellar-Munson

News from our Principal

May 2014 Volume 8, Issue 6

Center School Times

IMPORTANT

DATES Monday, May 26 NO SCHOOL Memorial Day Tuesday, June 3 You’re Invited! 5:30-7:30 pm Spring Book Fair and Art Show Friday, June 6 Step-Up Day to Elmwood First Graders Monday, June 9 Kindergarten Field Day Raindate June 10 Friday, June 13 Early Release Day FLAG DAY PROGRAM 9:15 AM in the gym Monday, June 16 First Grade Field Day Raindate June 17

Wednesday, June 18

Brown Bag Picnic on the Town Common for

Kindergarten students

Assigned times

A Trip To the Hospital or

The Hospital Comes Here (Milford Hospital)

Page 2 Center School Times

As we are all too aware, it was a very long and very cold winter. As a result, we had many, many indoor recess days.

First grade teacher Jen Kane taught her students how to crochet and that is what they did during indoor recess. Stu-

dents made brightly colored scrunchies and headbands and before long they had quite a collection of handmade items.

What to do with them? It just so happens that Milford Hospital’s emergency room is undergoing a huge expansion and

will have a designated pediatric area designed to make the ER experience less scary for young patients. Teacher and

students decided to donate them to Milford Hospital in a special box called Josie’s Joy. Josie’s father is an emergency

room physician at Milford Hospital. Dr. Jeff Hopkins and Milford Hospital CEO, Mr. Frank Scaba, made a special

visit to Center School to pick up the students’ donation. Mr. Skaba brought along the expansion plans showing the

new area specifically for children. Dr. Hopkins walked the boys and girls through an ER visit with daughter Josie as

his patient. After putting on a hospital gown, Dr. Hopkins checked Josie’s heart with his stethoscope. With Josie pre-

tending to have hurt her arm, Dr. Hopkins passed out copies of an arm x-ray to each student so they could look for the

miniscule break. After bandaging and putting Josie’s arm in a sling, Dr. Hopkins announced that she would be able to

return to class work immediately. Each student received a “My Trip to the Hospital” booklet to take home. Many of us

have made several trips to the Emergency Room with our children and we much prefer it when the hospital comes to

us!

Volume 1, Issue 1 Page 3

First Grade Step-up Day to Elmwood Friday, June 6, 2014

All first graders will travel by bus to Elmwood school to meet Elmwood School Principal David Ljungberg, meet a second grade teacher, and tour the school.

We will be leaving right after morning announce-ments at 9:05, so please ensure that your child makes it to school on time.

Field trip permission slips must be returned to your child’s classroom teacher no later than Thursday, June 5, 2014. If we do not have a permission slip for your child, he (she) must remain at Center School.

LIBRARY NEWS

Massachusetts Secretary of Education

visits Center School Massachusetts Secretary of Education , Matthew Malone, made a visit to Center School. He toured

the building with Superintendent Cathy MacLeod, Principal Lauren Dubeau, first grade teacher,

Mark Boisvert, and State Rep. Carolyn Dykema and Senator Karen Spilka. His advice for students,

"Be nice and do your best always.” For more on his visit, please click on the link below.

metro west daily news article

https://www.flickr.com/photos/masseoe/14205187393/

During kindergarten visits, the students have been learning about some amazing authors. Such as:

Jan Brett, Leo Lionni, Eric Carle, Don Freeman, Kevin Henkes, and Tomie DePaola. In most cases we

have shared information about the author’s life, shared a book, and shown a video of the author

talking about their work. This helps to bring the author to life. Our big art project will be based on

the book Corduroy by Don Freeman. Look for the Gallery show during Center School’s book fair/art

show in June.

In first grade, we read “Library Mouse” by Daniel Kirk. It is a story about a well-read mouse named

Sam that lives in a hole in the wall of a public library. After filling his mind with thought, ideas, and

images of far off lands, Sam decides to write a book of his own. In fact he writes three books that

are soon discovered by the young patrons of the library. The children (and curious librarian) want

to meet this now “famous author but Sam convinces them that books can be written by anyone and

everyone. This book is a wonderful introduction to writing books for children. There is a natural

progression from reading about Sam to wanting to share their ideas in a book. The students are

planning (storyboarding) a book and will work most of the month on creating these stories. We will

have an entire class period spent sharing and celebrating our students as authors.

A special thanks goes out to our library volunteers. This amazing program is coordinated by Liz Da-

cey, a parent and volunteer coordinator extraordinaire. Yes, our volunteers help put away books

but they do so much more! We have worked on changing our picture books from E (for everyone

fiction) to PB (for picture book). This change makes much more sense to our students and our par-

ent volunteers helped immensely in the endeavor. First grade parents have probably seen the lovely

bookmarks created by their children during December and January. Did you know one parent volun-

teer mounted and laminated all of the bookmarks so that the students’ hard work could be enjoyed

for many years to come? A special thanks to Anita Boothroyd for all your hard work. On a daily ba-

sis parents help students locate books, keep the books in order, remind students to focus on their

task at hand, and simply support the librarian in making the library experience fun, meaningful,

and productive for our Center School Students.

Simply put: Our library would not function without our volunteers!

A sincere thanks from the library, the students, Mrs. Jennings, and Susan Mello, MLIS

Please do not hesitate to ask a question or state a concern about your child’s experience in library.

smello@hopkinton.k12.ma.us

Kindergarten Field Day

Monday, June 9 rain date June 10

Please send your child to school ready for fun!

Students will need:

a water bottle

sneakers to participate

and previously applied sunscreen

Students should wear a t-shirt in their team color:

Team Cowell-Room 13-White Team Homan-Room 9-Green

Team Brennan-Room 14-Yellow Team McCaw-Room 1-Blue

Team Chagnon-Room 15-Red Team Ferguson-Room 6-Yellow

Team Robinson-Room 8-Blue

Page 6 Center School Times

First Grade Field Day

Monday, June 16 rain date June 17

Please send your child to school ready for fun!

Students will need:

a water bottle

sneakers to participate

and previously applied sunscreen

Students should wear a t-shirt in their team color

Team Davis-Red Team Allen-Navy Blue Team Barry-Yellow

Team Jacob-Yellow Team Denault-Red Team Farrell-Blue

Team Kane-White Team Sanford-Orange Team Williamson-

Team Woods-Green Team Boisvert-Green White

Volume 1, Issue 1 Page 7

Dear Parents,

Music with your children has been a delight at Center School. What a pleasure to work with your children and help

them grow into such fine musicians! Our diverse musical activities help them to have a comprehensive understanding of

music and the many facets, which are a part of the musical experience. We are ending our year with lots of fun and crea-

tive activities: singing delightful songs, playing instruments, listening to fine music, and enjoying some favorite singing

games and dances!

First graders have completed their study of Mozart with some coloring activities based upon his music. They are now

enthralled with the French composer, Frances Poulenc (1899 – 1963) and how he set music to the classic children’s

story, Babar. They love to hear all the different emotions Poulenc portrays in his music: joy, peace, sadness, silliness,

and exuberance. They have learned how to be expert listeners of fine music. Throughout the year, Kindergarten students

have also listened to program music (music that tells a story): Prokofiev, Vivaldi, Saint-Saens, Gershwin and many

more. What colorful pictures they have created, depicting their understanding of this music!

Center School musicians have been learning songs in German, Japanese, and Swahili, as well as English. We have been

singing about spring, birds and flowers, and we have worked hard on our Patriotic Songs as we prepare for Flag Day in

June. We will continue to devote much music class time with their favorite music games and activities such as passing

“Mr. Pom-Pom” on the beat, the African stone-passing game, clapping games, partner games, circle games, and tradi-

tional dances.

Please encourage your children to continue singing over the summer. They have all discovered that singing can bring

them so much joy!

Have a happy and restful summer.

Musically yours,

Mrs. Moran

Music News

Mr. Sanford’s class performing at our last All School Meeting.

In First Grade Health classes, students have been learning how to be safe around medicines

and poisons. Students learned that medicines can be helpful or harmful depending on how

they are used. Students learned the Medicine Safety Rule: Only take medicine if it is given

to you by a doctor, parent, or other trusted adult. In a recent lesson, students successfully

applied and practiced the medicine safety rule in role-play situations!

We have also been learning about poison safety in Health classes. First graders have

learned how to recognize and avoid common household poisons, along with learning the

Poison Safety Rule: If you aren’t sure something is safe, don’t sniff, taste, swallow, or play

with it. Students also learned to look for warning labels and to ask an adult for informa-

tion if they are unsure about a product.

Family Tips: Medicine Safety: As you give medicines to your child, talk about the amount

of medicine the doctor has prescribed or the amount that is printed on the bottle. Poison

Safety: Help your child by playing “detective” with him or her. Search for poisonous prod-

ucts in your home, then put them out of reach of young children and pets.

For more information: Go to the National Capital Poison Center: www.poison.org or visit

Safe Kids Worldwide: www.usa.safekids.org.

Healthy Living by Mrs. Lewinsky and Mrs. Ryder

All School Sing

Last Day of Kindergarten

Friday, June 20, 2014

Morning kind. 11:30 am

Afternoon kind. 3:10 pm

Last Day of First Grade

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Early Dismissal 12:05 pm

No Lunch Served

On behalf of the entire Center School staff, we wish

you a wonderful summer!

For those families moving on to Elmwood, the time

has flown by, I’m sure. You’re ready to move on!

For our families moving out

of town, we wish you well as

you get settled in your new

community.

For our returning students,

we look forward to your re-

turn as first graders!

To all our volunteers, we

couldn’t have done it with-

out you—thank you!