Ellis School - SAU 83

Our student ambassadors and their peers had an amazing Getting to Y Data Retreat Day last week, thanks to Mrs. Diorio and Mrs. Sonia. They began the day with an overview and an icebreaker activity, followed by the Circle of Courage exercise. This framework encouraged students to reflect on the strengths within our school and broader community. Following this activity, students divided into six groups to review the results of last year’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey completed by students in grades 6–8. Each group rotated through different topic areas and classified each survey item as a strength, concern, or neutral. Through this process, students identified their top three areas of concern. Students then participated in a root-cause analysis by circulating through stations and adding their ideas to each topic. They concluded the day by generating potential solutions to address their identified root causes. Their goal is to continue brainstorming the solutions and developing multiple action plans to present to the community!

Mrs. Diorio, Mrs. Sonia, and our student leaders would like to extend a special thank you to the Fremont Police Department for allowing us to use their space, to Fremont Pizzeria for donating a pizza lunch, and to SoRock for their collaboration and for purchasing a tray of fries! We could not do this work without generous support from our community!!!

The Music Room is abuzz with preparation for the upcoming Winter Concert! Mr. Letendre and Mrs. Bolduc have been very busy getting students prepared. Come see our Grades 1-4, chorus, and band on December 17 at 5:45pm at The Stockbridge Theatre at Pinkerton Academy.

Thank you to our Ellis School current and former students who caroled at our Fremont Tree Lighting on Friday! And thank you to Mrs. Bolduc for organizing such a fun caroling experience!

Mrs. Rosenberg had so much fun in one of our co-taught math classrooms this morning! During this lesson, Mrs. Kane and Mrs. Pysarenko led students in problem-solving tasks related to the Pythagorean Theorem. In these pictures, you can see our students working together to solve a range of problems on their vertical dry erase surfaces!

The day before Thanksgiving Break, we had a number of exciting learning opportunities taking place
1. Dr. Profeta visited eighth grade science to discuss her role as a Principal Scientist and how she provides chemometric support for unknown material identification. Students were able to learn about these devices and used them to identify materials.
2. After training with Suffolk University's Center for Restorative Justice Program, Mrs. Diorio led her first circles with middle school students to discuss bullying, what it is, our policy, and how to respond to it.
3. Our kindergarteners visited all of our classrooms for their annual Silent Turkey Parade!

A reminder that 3L and 3G are doing a drive for Poplin! Please see the flyer attached for more details.

On Wednesday, 12/3 Ellis School will have a 2 hour delay to give our town road crew time to clean up from last night's snow and ice.

Dear Families,

Unfortunately, Purple Bus broke down. As a result, Purple Bus students are now riding with Orange Bus. As a result, we anticipate that there will be delays to Purple and Orange drop-off times.

Thank you all for your flexibility and patience,

Mrs. Rosenberg

Ellis School will release 2 hours early Tue 12/2 due to weather. If the forecast shifts, we may adjust to no school or a regular day in AM

The Great Stone Face Challenge is starting for students in Grades 4-8. Check out the Literacy Team's flyer at this link for details: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eqCgx7wILp6A3ZaYpFUtnsRWuin5ErdP/view?usp=sharing

Ms. Perkins and Mrs. Rosenberg would like to wish you a happy and joyful rest of the week. We can't wait to see you all again on Monday!

Last Friday, our fifth graders showcased their volume zoo projects. This is one of our favorite annual traditions. This project combines the following skills: math computation (volume, specifically), problem-solving, creative thinking, research (to learn about the animal's role in the ecosystem), and collaboration. We are very proud of the beautiful creations students made for this year's volume zoo!

We had such a productive and fun first-ever Ellis School Book Club last Thursday! During this time, Mrs. Mack facilitated a discussion on The Anxious Generation, by Jonathan Haidt. We, caregivers and educators, talked about how to support our children through free play, screen time limits, and waiting to give them access to certain types of technology, like smartphones. Thank you so much to those who attended! We are hoping to do this again very soon!

Good Morning!

A friendly reminder that our Anxious Generation book club will meet tonight to discuss the book and thought provoking questions about caregiving in the digital age. We will meet at 6pm in the Ellis School library. Hope to see you there--even if you didn't finish the book--all are welcome!

Our Robotics Team participated in their first qualifier today and would love to give a huge shout out to Durham School Services for sponsoring their trip and to Nichols Environmental for sponsoring their competition registration. We are so fortunate to be part of such a generous community!

We had such a lovely celebration of our veterans last week. Thank you all for your service and for sharing your morning with us! We appreciate you!

A friendly reminder that our support staff will be holding their annual winter swap tomorrow during conference times!

Our Girls on the Run team is getting super excited for their upcoming run in Concord! For one of their team projects, they designed uplifting and encouraging posters to put up around the school. Check out some of their awesome creations!