Hello, Howard!

It's hard to believe we've only been back to school for 7 days. We are back in the swing of things: the hallways are bustling, the classrooms are active, and it's like we never left!

For those of you new to Howard - welcome! If you have questions or concerns, please reach out to your child's teacher. There is a button at the bottom of the newsletter that you can use to email me at any time as well.

Happy New Year!

You'll notice lots of photos of the back of kids heads in this newsletter. I want to make sure families have given us necessary permissions before sharing student photos. You can make sure you're up to date with your school paperwork - yes, it has to be done every year! - by clicking here.

Howard students marked the 25th anniversary of 9/11 today. 4th grade walked to the WBFD memorial in the morning. Students walking with me pointed out the flag at the Council for Aging, proudly telling me it was at half-mast - a vocab word from a previous lesson. The 6th spent the day exploring the history and repurcussions of 9/11 in Social Studies with Mrs. Mills. 5th grade visited the WBFD memorial in the afternoon, and were joined by Superintendent Bodwell, who shared some history of the event with students.

Curriculum Night is this coming Thursday, September 17th. Full schedule is below.

Tuesday the 15th - Fall Picture Day

Thursday the 17th - Curriculum Night, 5-6:30

Wednesday the 23rd - Early Release, dismissal at 11:30

All cell phones and smart watches should be turned off and stored in backpacks during the school day.

Students are allowed to ride their bicycles to school. Please remember that MA state law requires riders under the age of 16 to wear a helmet and follow traffic rules. Please review safe riding practices with your child.

For safety reasons, students are not allowed to ride their bicycles in the areas highlighted in the map below. These are highly trafficked areas without sidewalks, and children riding there put themselves at risk. Students can ride their bikes on the sidewalks to and from the school; we ask they that walk their bikes in front of the school and across the crosswalk.

MA state law restricts kids under that age of 16 from riding an E-Bike or E-Scooter that can go faster than 20 miles per hour. Helmets are required. Please review safe riding practices! The WBPD has shared this guidance with us.

Welcome back everyone! Here is some helpful information as we aim to keep everyone safe and healthy while at school this year.

Please complete the Annual Student Health Update form at your earliest convenience, if you haven’t done so already. Please also send an updated physical if your child is a fourth grader this year.

If your child requires any medications to be given at school, please bring in labeled medications in the original containers with physician orders. Please DO NOT SEND ANY MEDICATIONS WITH YOUR CHILD TO SCHOOL.

Communication throughout the school year is very important, so please reach out to me if any health information changes or if your child isn’t feeling well. I will be checking in periodically if anything arises while your child is at school or to follow up on prolonged absences.

Otherwise, we want to keep everyone healthy while at school so please keep them home if they are not feeling well. Please refer to our Sick Child Guidelines and school health policies at https://www.wbridgewaterschools.org/page/health-services and reach out to me directly with any concerns.

Childhood Cancer Awareness Month is recognized every September around the world. With a goal to increase awareness and support, we encourage everyone to wear gold (or yellow) on Friday 9/25 in honor of children with cancer.

As always, please feel free to reach Nurse Mando if you have any questions or concerns: smando@wbridgewater.com or 508-894-1250 ext. 3115.

Exciting News! We are working on a new Food Service menu page on the district website. Until the new page is up and running here are the Breakfast & Lunch Menus for September .

As always, breakfast and lunch are free for all students! But we also have additional snack items for purchase at lunch. Items range from $0.75-$1.50. To add funds to your students account you can send cash or check into school or visit MySchoolBucks https://www.myschoolbucks.com/ver2/login/getmain?requestAction=home to pay online.

The FloWater station has been repaired and will be operational on Monday! Please remind students to bring a reusable water bottle to fill up at school.

For example, they’re learning that a digit in one place is 10 times the value of the same digit in the place to its right. This helps build a strong foundation for understanding bigger math concepts and explaining their thinking clearly.

The fourth grade students have done a great job transitioning to the Howard School. We will continue to work on these new routines and procedures. We will also focus on the PRIDE theme of respect and discuss ways we can show respect towards others.

Thank you to the Hutchings family for their generous water donation during our recent mini-crisis! We are so lucky to have such supportive families here in WB!

In ELA, fifth graders will begin Module 1 of Wit & Wisdom, featuring the historical fiction text Thunder Rolling in the Mountains. Students will explore the text closely while building their skills in understanding characters, events, perspective, and historical context. We will begin our writing work with an explanatory paragraph, where students will learn to clearly explain an idea and support their thinking with evidence from the text.

Students will be learning about photosynthesis and how plants make the food they need to grow and survive. They will explore how plants use sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to produce food and release oxygen.

This month in math, we will be beginning our Algebra unit. Students will explore exponents, evaluate numerical and algebraic expressions, and learn and apply a variety of mathematical formulas. Throughout the unit, students will participate in a combination of hands-on activities, collaborative lessons with their peers, and individual assessments. These varied learning experiences will help students build their understanding of algebraic concepts while developing confidence in applying their math skills.

Students are starting the year with a unit on cells. We will start with the cell theory and the scientists who developed it. From there we will learn about the organelles in different cells and compare plant and animal cells. In the next few weeks we will complete a few different labs using microscopes as well.

Welcome back! We are easing into the year by emoijing ourselves through Social Studies and choosing a goal for the year. Students picked an emoji that represents them, and then added their personal goal to the back. We are starting the year reviewing google skills, organizational,and Social Studies skills. We will learn about how to read maps, timelines, and analyze primary and secondary sources. By the end of the month we will start our first unit on Early People!

The first days of school have been dedicated to building routines, STAR and Diebels testing, and building classroom community. Soon we'll begin our first class read - Restart by Gordon Korman.

On October 19th, the 6th Grade is going on a Field Trip to the Hall at Patriot’s Place. Students will participate in a STEM based collaborative learning activity related to the 6th grade curriculum frameworks. We only need a few chaperones to help support our staff that attend the trip. Students will be split up by homeroom and there will be at least 2 adults with each class and classes stay together the entire trip.

Field trip permission forms will be passed out in homeroom on Friday, 9/25. Field trip forms and payment are due Friday, 10/2/26.

If you are interested in helping chaperone the field trip, please email Mrs. Mills (amills@wbridgewater.com) by Friday, 10/2/26. You must have a current CORI on file with the school. Chaperones will be picked through a lottery. Thank you for volunteering!

We are kicking off the school year with some fun team-building activities before diving headfirst into math! This trimester, students will engage in hands-on STEM challenges and math exploration, tackling everything from multiplication and division to decimals, fractions, and data graphing. Expect lots of active problem-solving, collaboration, and practical application as we build a strong foundation for the year ahead!

We will begin the year with some self reflective activities, and students will practice their Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing in English, as they engage with their favorite genres of literature! Then we will move ahead with lessons to advance comprehension, and we will begin preparing for the WIDA ACCESS for English Learners test, which will be administered in January 2027.

Little Leo’s is a community service club sponsored by the Lions Club of West Bridgewater. The motto for Lions Club International is “We Serve!” If helping people is something you want to do, then this is the club for you! We meet every Tuesday from 2:45 until 3:15 PM in the Gym (except the first week of the month). There will be an information booth at Howard Curriculum Night for parents to ask questions about the club. There will be an interest meeting on 9/29 after school until 3:15 for anyone interested in joining. Here are some important dates for the club: 9/15- Old member meeting to plan Curriculum night. 9/22- Old member meeting to plan Interest meeting and make posters. 9/29- Interest Meeting for new members 10/2 - Deadline for applications/paperwork & club dues all members. Paper work will be a digital application and paper essay & behavior contract. 10/12- First official meeting with new members.

Little Leo's volunteers will be on hand this Thursday to help families navigate the building.

Finn Connelly is nothing like his dad, a star athlete and firefighter hero who always ran toward danger until he died two years ago. Finn is about to fail seventh grade and has never made headlines . . . until now.

Caught on camera vandalizing a cemetery, he's in big trouble for knocking down some dead old lady's headstone. Turns out that grave belongs to a legendary local mountain climber, and her daughter makes Finn an unusual offer: she'll drop all the charges if he agrees to climb all forty-six Adirondack High Peaks in a single summer. And there's just one more thing--he has to bring along the dead woman's dog.

In a wild three months of misadventures, mountain mud, and unexpected mentors, Finn begins to find his way on the trails. At the top of each peak, he can see for miles and slowly begins to understand more about himself and his dad. But the mountains don't care about any of that, and as the clock ticks down to September, they have more surprises in store. Finn's final summit challenge may be more than even a hero can face.

To start the year, I've made short videos to introduce/review Howard School expectations with students. I'm sharing them here in case you are interested in watching.

Dismissal and bike expectations

Student Introduction to PATH

School Safety and Bus Rules

Recess Expectations

Classroom Expectations

Chromebook Expectations

Cafeteria Expectations