Volume 8| March 25th, 2022

The First Branch Newsletter

A bi-weekly newsletter from Principal Mark Blount and Principal Michael Livingston featuring photos, stories, and updates from the Chelsea and Tunbridge schools.

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To be sure you are staying up to date: Visit our First Branch School Website! Follow us on the newly created First Branch Facebook page!

The old Facebook Pages are no longer being updated. Please be sure to follow the new page in order to get updates and weekly photo and video snippets of school life.

Upcoming Dates to Note: March 21-31st: Parent Teacher Conferences. March 25th: Report Cards sent home. March 31st: Half Day, noon dismissal. April 1st: No School, In-service day. April 15th: Half Day, noon dismissal. April 18th-22nd : Spring Vacation, no school.

Dear Parents and Guardians, We are happy to report that our first weeks with an optional mask policy have gone smoothly. The children are modeling tolerance and acceptance with these changes. If you have questions or concerns about this new policy, please contact either of us, or the school nurses to talk about it further. We want to take time to thank our respective town road crews for doing an incredible job on the seemingly impossible as we live through one of the worst mud seasons in memory. We appreciate the agility with which parents have had to adapt to the temporary bus routes as we wait for the roads to stabilize. Last Friday was a good reminder to be sure we have your most up-to-date contact information, including cell and home and work phone numbers. Our Principal-to-be, Janet Cash, is currently in the middle of hiring an Associate Principal. She is working with the hiring committee, interviewing candidates and we will update you as that process unfolds. Respectfully,  ~ Mark and Michael

Kindergarten News

In Chelsea: Ms. Crocker and her kindergarteners joined eighth grade students in the woods to learn how to measure and collect sap for sugaring.  Mr. Anderson and his eighth grader's showed the kindergarteners how sap is boiled to make syrup in the sugar house.

In Tunbridge: Elizabeth Dutton's kindergartener's spent a recent muddy day reading to each other.

First & Second Grade News

In Chelsea: Sue Connolly's First Graders drew Leprechauns for St. Patrick's Day. They are also learning about the Floss rule for spelling. To help introduce this topic they created banners with words that fit in this pattern with dental floss and tooth visuals. Students learned that if a word was a one syllable word, had only one vowel, and ended in an f, l, or s, it needed 2 ending consonants.

‌ Tunbridge and Chelsea 2nd grade students have started a pen pal correspondence to get to know each other. In addition to the fun of getting to know each other, students are learning the important elements of a letter, reviewing paragraph writing and the writing process.

Middle School News

In Tunbridge: Emily Marsia's 7th & 8th graders began part reading Shakespeare's Macbeth this week in Humanities class. Lessons on Old English and Medieval England helped set the stage for the read aloud. Melting snow and drier days means four square is back in full swing during Tunbridge recesses. Many days, there are two games happening simultaneously. It is a favorite in Chelsea and Tunbridge for all ages. Gaga Ball is the latest craze during Tunbridge recesses. The object of the game is to be the last one standing in the 'pit,' but you can only hit other players below the knees with the ball. Middle school students play as often as they can, keeping each other honest and staying in line with the game rules introduced to them by Ms. Amy.

Karen Colby's 5th and 6th graders celebrated PI day on March 14th. Students spent time measuring circumference and diameter of circles then found the ratio to discover the value of Pi.  The math students have also been working on some 3D designing and printing projects.

In Chelsea : Jill Interlandi's 6th graders designed and engineered strong bridges that could withhold increasing weight and gravitational pull. It was an engaging experiment for all!

Erik Anderson's 7th and 8th grade gathered sap and boiled but have not made any syrup as of today. In the classroom they are running experiments to learn about the relationship between sugar content and boiling point.

One Planet News

One Planet with the Tunbridge Public Library had an amazing first day. They began with running down to the fairgrounds. Everyone happily ate their snack of a muffin and an apple and filled out a questionnaire about future ideas for our after school program. Almost every child answered the question "Who do you know that has skills you would you like to learn from?" with a family member as a response. Then they sat down and enjoyed a story from Ms. Howe. Finally, the kids headed back to the library where everyone had the choice between Chess, fiber group, comic club and LEGO's. A lot of kids tried new things which was really fun to see.

Middle School Town Meeting in Tunbridge

After Introductions to each other in Ukrainian the middle school performed an exercise called World Café in which they divide into four groups to share thoughts and ideas with each other as they move successively to each station. The main theme of the day was social courage. The World Café had four stations:  1. Social courage 2. What can we do for the people of Ukraine? 3. What we love about our school that we make sure we incorporate in our new middle school configuration next year? 4. How can we connect with Chelsea students this year?

Physical Education in Chelsea

In Chelsea all students have been working with PE teacher Abbie Lesure on a fitness unit involving various movement activities focusing on Cardio vascular endurance, muscular endurance and muscular strength!