Swift River

Important Dates

March 3, 6:00 PM: School Committee Meeting

March 4, 5:30 – 8:30 PM: Books in Action

March 26: Pancake Run

March 29: PTCA Bowling Extravaganza

April 16, 10AM – 3PM: Run4KidsMA

April 18 – 22: Spring Recess

NOTES FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK

Greetings,

Welcome back! I hope everyone enjoyed the winter vacation! Today was an exciting day in Preschool as students shared their Stone Soup experience with us!  Many parents and extended family members joined in the festivities.  There was Stone Soup Yoga demonstrated by the Preschool students, decorations made by Preschool students, yummy treats donated by families, and lots of stone and root vegetable soup made by Preschool. The best part was everyone visiting together in the Café.

On Thursday, March 3, the School Committee will continue their discussion about Opting Out of Standardized Testing. Please attend if you are interested and want to receive more infomration.

We were very fortunate to receive a Stars Cultural Council grant for Motoko, a Japanese Storyteller, to teach our students about Japanese culture. Students also worked with our art teacher, Sally Stuffin, on the Japanese art displayed around the school. Please join us at Community Sing on Friday, March 4 for the culmination of this collaboration as we Celebrate Japan! Sing will begin at 8:50 AM in the Café. All are invited. Our thanks go out to Motoko, Michael Cortina, and Dänika Tyminski for bringing this wonderful experience to Swift River School, and to Sally Stuffin for her collaboration with Motoko to guide our students in the creation of exquisite pieces of artwork.

Attached to this week’s Current, you will find some tips to talk to your child about the death of a loved one. As many of you may have heard, we lost the parents of one our students this week.  This information has been reported on the news and in the newspapers. We are aware that students are talking about this event at Mahar. We wanted to offer support to families if your children begin to ask questions.  

Fondly,

Kelley

PTCA UPDATE

Our next meeting will be on Thursday, March 10 at 6:30 PM. Free childcare will be provided. We hope to see you there!

Dean’s Beans Coffee Fundraiser

Dean’s Beans is a local, organic, and fair trade coffee roasting company. Please use the attached form to place your order, or you can order online at: http://srsdeansbeans.weebly.com. All orders are due by Friday, March 4. Contact Nan Mead at the School if you have any questions. Thank you for supporting our PTCA!

Library Lines

MCBA Update:

Students in Grades 4, 5, and 6 have been focused on the MCBA book list, with two exciting events coming up next week.  Next Tuesday, March 1, nine teams of four students and one teacher team will compete in the Battle of the Books! Teams will answer questions based on the MCBA books and the team with the most correct answers at the end of the competition will receive medals.

I am excited to report that for the first time ALL of the students in Grades 4, 5, and 6 have qualified to attend the Books in Action Party! To qualify, a student must read at least 5 of the 25 MCBA books. Great job, students!!!

The Books in Action Party will be held on the evening of next Friday, March 4, at Shutesbury Elementary School.  There will be activities based on most of the 25 MCBA books. Students from Shutesbury Elementary School and Leverett Elementary School will join us. I am looking forward to this exciting event!

Parents who have volunteered to help with the Books in Action Party will be contacted soon with details.

Six Flags:

Thirty students have earned their free Six Flags tickets by participating in the “Read to Succeed” program and reading for six hours.  The tickets will arrive in May.

Make time to read,

Betsy
 

Student Council Scoop

During our last Spirit Day, Slipper Day, SRS collected a HUGE bin of pencils, crayons, and pens for the Pencil Project. Thank you all for your generosity!

Our next Spirit Day will be CRAZY HAIR or HAT DAY and it will be on Friday, March 11. We will be collecting money for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.

Also, mark your calendars for March 26.  The Student Council will be hosting the first Annual Pancake Run—a 5K run and pancake breakfast!! All proceeds collected from this event will be used for the creation of The Enchanted Forest Scholarship Fund. Please keep your eyes open wide for a flier with more details about this exciting new event from your favorite student council!!!

Celebrate Japan!

Swift River School has been very fortunate to have a cultural resident work with our students over the past two months. The STARS Residency Program provides grants of $500-$5,000 to allow schools to support creative learning residencies in the arts, sciences, and humanities. Our cultural resident, Motoko, has been working with all students from Preschool to Grade 6 to study different aspects of Japanese culture. Preschool, Kindergarten and Grade1 students have learned various Japanese songs and dances. Students of Grades 2, 3, and 4 have been learning about Japanese festivals, folktales, and celebrations. Grade 5 students have been busy studying Japanese mythology, and have written their own original stories in traditional Japanese style. Students of Grade 6 have been working on their performance of a comedic play. All grades will participate in a culmination performance on the morning of Friday, March 4, at 8:50 AM in the Swift River Café. Motoko and the students of Swift River invite you to come experience what they’ve been working on.  We hope to see you there!

SNAP

Two weeks ago, a representative of the Western Massachusetts Food Bank, Rob Powell, came to Swift River School to help families apply for SNAP benefits. The guidelines for those who receive benefits have changed; this program is now being geared towards working families. Rob also explained that families don’t need to worry about receiving benefits that they feel other families might need more; there will always be benefits for eligible families.  We would like to extend this opportunity to more families in our community.  If you are interested in learning more about SNAP, we encourage you to contact SRS. If enough people are interested, we will set up another date for Rob to come to Swift River and meet with families. Please call (978) 544-6926 with any questions or to express interest. 

Bus Notes

Whenever possible, we ask that you send in a bus note with any changes to your child’s afterschool plans. While we understand that phone calls are sometimes necessary and that plans do change, bus notes are the best means of communication. If you would like us to send home extra copies of the yellow bus notes, please let the Office know, and we will be happy to do so.  Otherwise, a scrap of paper will do in a pinch!  We thank you for your consideration. 

Reminder

When you have a change to your telephone number, please let us know immediately. New telephone numbers are quickly dispersed to the appropriate personnel and updated in our emergency forms, the Nurse’s records, and on our Parent Reach Program. This will help keep you up to date on snow days, cancellations, delays, and events!

Recycling Fundraiser

Please help to protect the environment by donating your used and unwanted cell phones and ink jet cartridges. We do not accept laser printer toner cartridges. Your used item(s) may be tax deductible and will be recycled in accordance with EPA regulations. 100% of the proceeds will help fund Swift River School

Please drop off any items you would like to recycle at the drop box on the bench in the front entrance of the school. We thank you for your support!

Cancer Connection Campout

Once again, our friends Teri Nelson (Swift River School teacher) and Jessica Carlson-Belanger (Shutesbury Elementary School Administrative Assistant) will participate in the winter campout in downtown Northampton, MA to raise money for Cancer Connection, a non-profit organization that provides free services for patients undergoing cancer treatments and for their caregivers. It is a great organization (see more at http://cancer-connection.org/). The 2016 overall Cancer Connection goal is to raise $100,000!!! That is a lot of money (and a lot of camping in the winter)! Please consider making a donation to Cancer Connection in Teri and Jessica’s names. You can do this in one of 3 ways: 

1. Send a check payable to the Cancer Connection to either of their workplaces: 

Swift River School,  201 Wendell Road,  New Salem, MA 01355,  ATTN: Teri Nelson

or

Shutesbury Elementary School,  23 West Pelham Road, Shutesbury, MA 01072, ATTN: Jessica Carlson-Belanger

2. Donate online at http://cancer-connection.org/. Remember to put "Campers Jessica and Teri" in the memo line. 

3. Join us at the Cancer Connection Campout in downtown Northampton on the old courthouse lawn on Tuesday, March 8 after 1 PM, or on the morning of Wednesday, March 9, and drop off your donation there. Having visitors is always fun for campers, and you can meet the man behind the campout, radio personality Monte Belmonte! 

You can also listen to WRSI, The River (93.9 FM), during the campout to keep posted on the progress of the event. Thanks in advance for your donations!

New Salem Library Teen and Tween News

In March at the New Salem Library:

• Dress Making 101. That’s right, we’re making dresses.
• Want to make a 3-D object? Come try out our new 3-D Pens!
• Deconstruct It. Maybe you prefer taking things apart? Some electronics? Cameras? How does that work?

Free snacks, computers, games, movies, for 11 to 18 year-olds, from any town. Every Wednesday afternoon, from 1:30 to 5:30 PM. Call (978) 544-6334 for more information.