Dear Mary Hogan Families,

There were SO many events this week at Mary Hogan that it is hard to highlight them all in the newsletter. Here is a quick run down of some of the highlights for me:

• Our incoming superintendent, Dr. Wendy Baker, visited Mary Hogan and got to read Can I Play Too? to kindergartners
• Jane Lindholm and Melody Bodette from the But Why? Podcast came to talk about llamas and how they wrote books from their podcast
• Lora Senf, author of The Clackity, came to talk with 4th and 5th graders about her book and the craft of writing.
• Buddies read together after school in the library and crafted.
• Miss Tricia read Princess in Black during library lunch to 1st grade.
• Miss Vermont USA came in as a mystery reader for Kindergarten
• The North Gym was an obstacle course of fun for all grades
• And of course... Book Character Dress Up Day!!

There were many, many things in between. And, I am completely bowled over by the number of hours we have read together in these first 2 weeks of February - 2897 hours. That is over 120 days of reading combined. Keep reading over break and let's see how many total hours we have all together!

Enjoy February Break!

Jen

February 18-24 Mary Hogan Benefit Sale at The Vermont Book Shop. Mention the word “Hawks” and a portion of the proceeds from your purchase will be donated to the Read-A-Thon. You can also shop online and mention the word “Hawks” at checkout with your order! (see below for more info)

Monday 2/26 - Author visit - Ted Scheu with preschool classes in the morning

Tuesday 2/27 - 8.40am - Author visit - Ashley Wolff with K/1

• 2pm - Author visit - Tamara Ellis Smith with grades 3-5
• 3-4pm - Buddy Reading for Grades 2 and 5 - sign up for Grades 2 and 5

Wednesday 2/28 - 3-4pm - Buddy Reading for Kindergarten and 3rd graders - sign-up for K and 3

Thursday 2/29 - End of Readathon, Turn in those reading logs!

• MESA teacher appreciation event

Friday 3/1 - No school - PD Day

Tuesday 3/5 - Kindergarten and 5th graders go cross country skiing at Rikert

Wednesday 3/6 - Walk and Roll to School Day

• 9am - Readathon Closing Ceremony
• Early Release Day - preschool at 11.30am, K-5 at 12.35pm.

Thursday 3/7 - We will hold our spring bus evacuation drill.

The kindergarten and 5th grades will be going cross country skiing on March 5th. To make this happen, we need to know your child's shoe size and approximate weight.

If your child is in kindergarten or 5th grade, please fill out this survey by 2/28 to help us get ready.

Highest % participation by class

Ms. Collins with 100% participation

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Class with highest number of minutes per student (i.e. total minutes divided by # of students in a class to account for different class sizes)

Grade 3: Corrigan

Grade 4: Burke

Grade 5: Collins

Mary Hogan R-A-T participants read over 1,556 hours as a school during the second log period. Every group read more this log period than they did last log period!

Total read so far this Read-A-Thon (Logs 1 and 2 combined): over 2,897 hours.

Buddy Reading for Grades 2 and 5 on Feb. 27, and for Kindergarten and 3rd graders on Feb. 28th

Children can sign up to stay after school on February 27th or 28th to read with a Reading Buddy. The students will read in the Mary Hogan Library from 3:00-4:00. Space is limited to 20 students per grade.

Reading Buddies sign up for Grades 2 and 5

On Feb. 28th, students can stay after school with Senora Jimenez to read some books in Spanish and complete an activity.

We have author visits with Ted Scheu, Ashley Wolff, and Tamara Ellis-Smith the week we get back!

Students in Plant and Wildlife Biology wrote children’s storybooks and boardgames about endangered species that they researched as part of a unit on wildlife and global environmental issues. The storybooks and games were created as a way to engage and educate the preschoolers at Mary Hogan Elementary School. This past Tuesday the preschoolers came to MUHS and got to play the games and have the stories read to them. Everyone had a great time and the books and games were donated to the preschoolers so they could engage with them in their classroom.

Get ready...a total eclipse is coming to Vermont on April 8, 2024! What you need to know:

• April 8, 2024 will be an early release day! We will end school early because parts of our district will be in totality (darkness) around 3:30pm and Route 7 is expected to be busy with tourists visiting our area for the eclipse. We will follow our usual early release schedule.

• Salisbury 4th grade teacher, Amy Clapp is leading the way in partnership with colleagues across our schools to plan fun eclipse activities for our PK-12 students leading up to the eclipse. We’ll be sharing more details about activities for school and home soon.

• We have eclipse glasses for every ACSD student! These will come home closer to the event. Thanks to our Salisbury students for modeling them!

Not sure what a total eclipse is... Check out the video below!

This year, ACSD is partnering with Dr. Rebecca Eunmi Haslam of Seed the Way LLC to advance our commitment to equity and justice. Dr. Haslam’s focus is on understanding the impact of racial and bias-based harm in our schools. Her work is designed to inform ACSD’s policy and procedures, increase more inclusive classroom practices, and leverage decision-making in meaningful ways. We hope this work will increase the restorative and reparative experiences for students, staff, and faculty in the ACSD community.

Dr. Haslam has completed the first phase of her work at MUMS and MUHS which included meeting with students and staff directly. She is now set to begin phase two which will focus on students and staff in ACSD’s elementary schools. The complete announcement and plan for phase two will be shared with all ACSD K-5 families in March, with a phase two completion date of June 30th. Please be on the lookout for the invitation to participate in this work.

Upon completion of both phases, Dr. Haslam will share findings with incoming Superintendent Dr. Wendy Baker in preparation for ACSD’s implementation of the ACSD Strategic Plan for Equity.

Free tickets for students and chaperones! The VSO is pleased to announce our annual kid-friendly concert on March 3 at 3pm in Rutland. This program includes free admission (pre-registration required), online prep materials to help students engage with the music, and a kid-friendly pre-concert talk. Students may attend as school groups or with their families. More info and sign-up available here: vso.org/student insiders

Want to know more about the Volunteer Process? Check out more information HERE.

For more awesome photos, check out the Instagram account, below!