Friday, April 1, 2022
Dear RSU 71 Students, Families, Staff, School Board, and Community Partners,
Happy April Fools' Day! I hope that you've worked a little fun into the day.
This week, our numbers of people testing positive for Covid-19 continue to decrease. As I visit schools, many students and staff still wear masks, sometimes to protect against the coronavirus and other times to prevent catching or spreading colds and stomach bugs that are going around.
Pandemic Update
This Week's Data
Good News, Reminders, Information
Ames Elementary School - Many of us enjoyed reading aloud to the wonderful students in Mrs. Brennick's class!
East Belfast and Kermit Nickerson Elementary Schools
Last Friday, handmade cards for the McCrum workers and the Belfast Fire Department were made by the East Belfast and Kermit Nickerson students. They were wonderfully made, showing empathy, grace, and compassion for those impacted by last week's fire. The lady receiving the cards at the McCrum office started to cry. She said there's a meeting on Monday with all employees, and she knows "they will love them." This week, many area first responders commented about the cards and mentioned taking the time to "read every card made by the students."
Kermit Nickerson
Baking Bread - Miss Toman's class at Nickerson baked bread last Friday with Miss Sara, their Food Corps teacher. King Arthur's Bake for Good Program was the sponsor and supplied all the ingredients and a few tools. Each child was able to take home a canvas bag with four or five rolls, a recipe booklet, and a dough scraper. Kneading the dough was the best part - aside from the eating, that is!
Chewonki - Nickerson enjoyed a visit from the Chewonki Foundation's Traveling Natural History Program on March 22. We learned about biomimicry and welcomed special guests: Luna, a Barred Owl; Linus, a Box Turtle; and Five Spot, a Yellow Spotted Salamander. Several families attended a virtual event the following afternoon and completed a related engineering activity. Each Nickerson family also received the book, Real Engineering Experiments, to continue exploring science and engineering concepts at home!
Bee-Bots - What's all the "buzz" about? Bee-Bots of course! Miss Smith and Mrs. Fogg welcomed Mrs. Larrabee into the classroom to instruct the 4th and 5th graders on operating Bee-Bots. Bee-Bots are kid-friendly robots that help students gain an understanding of early programming skills. They learned about cause and effect, directional language, and persistence. All students coded their robot to maneuver around products and factors. They had a blast and look forward to another visit with Mrs. Larrabee.
Captain Albert Stevens School
Student Newspaper - Here is the link to the latest CASS Times. A special thank you goes out to Mrs. Nickerson and the Newspaper Club for working on this monthly publication.
CASS Student and Staff on TV - WABI-TV5 did a news story on our 5th grade integrated curriculum. Watch the segment here.
Life Program - This week we are sharing some news from our LIFE program, which is celebrating a few accomplishments. Join us in celebrating second-grader Kameron Johnson's FIRST basket. He's been practicing for a while now and finally met success yesterday afternoon.
PASS Program - And . . . school spirit is alive and well at Captain Albert Stevens School, where the Incredible PASS Program supports our learners in a way that is, well, incredible!
Troy Howard Middle School
The Republican Journal - Harbor Hill Comes toTHMS
Weekly Newsletter - The THMS newsletter is attached to this email.
Unified Basketball at Nokomis: Video of Unified Game with Nokomis
STEAM Grant - Technology Integrator Melinda Larrabee shares that in partnership with AthenaHealth, THMS received a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) t in the fall. With a portion of these funds, THMS was able to purchase a 3D printer and filament. The first installment of Lithophanes has been designed and printed by an 8th-grade Advisory group. A lithophane is an etched or molded artwork in very thin translucent porcelain or plastic that can be seen clearly only when backlit with a light source. More to come soon!
Belfast Area High School
Waldo County Technical Center Goes to Skills USA - Congratulations to Levi Woods, who received a silver medal in this year's Skills USA Competition for Knowledge Test Electrical Construction Wiring. Kudos to Wesley Cowan, Tristan Bannister, Stephen Boyle, and Michael Farrington who also competed this year.
That's the news for now. With warm wishes for a fun, happy, and safe weekend,
- Mary Alice
