Hello, Howard!

Determination is the name of the game for Howard students this October. What does Determination look like? Sometimes is sweat dripping out of a football helmet or a cleat-shaped bruise on a shin. Sometimes it's trying, and trying, and trying again when learning a new math concept. Sometimes is reading something super boring, and then writing a paragraph about it, even when you don't WANT to! Sometimes it's refusing to be match negative energy when kids around you are being unkind. Determination is not giving up! It's getting knocked down 4 times and getting up 5. Talk to your kiddos about determination. What does it look like in your day to day life? How can determination help them when they encounter academic or social challenges?

The new elementary building project is movin' right along! Join us at a committee meeting (we have one this coming Tuesday!), attend a public forum, or check out our progress at the dedicated website. It's exciting work! We anticipate a town vote in January/February of 2026!

https://wbesbuildingproject.com/

October 6th - 6th grade Gillette Stadium Field Trip & School committee, 6pm

October 7th - School Building Committee, 5:30pm

October 9th - SSS Curriculum Night

October 14th - Columbus Day, no school

October 21st - School Council, 2:45

October 22nd - early release day. Dismissal at 11:30.

October 23rd - 4th grade Harvard Museum of Natural History Field Trip

October 29th - 5th grade Sturbridge Village Field Trip

Student Council is excited to announce their first THEME DAY - costume day! Students are invited to wear a costume to school on Friday, October 31st.

Costumes should meet the following criteria:

• No masks
• No weapons
• No inflatables
• Nothing that interferes with student safety
• Nothing that interferes with learning

Costumes should be easily removable.

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.

Sincere thanks to the Masons! Their Angel Fund recently donated 5 helmets to the Howard School. Mrs. Giuffre has been policing the bike racks; if a child comes to school without a helmet, they won't be leaving without one! Helmets are meant to be loaners, but if you need help purchasing a helmet, let us know. We will help!

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!

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy fall season! Thank you to everyone who continues to send in updated physical forms and immunization records. Letters regarding missing health documents will go out this month. Please reach out to Nurse Mando if you have questions on these to ensure that your child’s health file is complete.

Please complete the Annual Student Health Update form at your earliest convenience, if you haven’t done so already. 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.

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.

Menus for breakfast and lunch can be found on the district website:

https://www.schoolnutritionandfitness.com/index.php?sid=1560351497546&page=menus

This year we have a new water filling station for students in the cafeteria! In an effort to use fewer single-use plastic cups, we would love for students to bring in their water bottles to fill up.

Also, this week we started selling ice cream! While breakfast and lunch are free, ice cream and other snacks do cost extra (.50 - $1.50). To add money to your students account for a la carte items you can go online here:

https://www.schoolnutritionandfitness.com/index.php?sid=1560351497546&page=prepaidacct or have your student bring in cash to the office.

We also hope students are enjoying trying some of our fun veggie options - fresh stir fried veggies, Greek salad and corn on the cob!

In ELA, we are working on answering the focus question: What is a great heart, literally? by reading and examining the nonfiction text The Circulatory Story. During our exploration of this text, students are working on the following skills: main idea & details, summarizing, text features, identifying text evidence, making inferences, elements of poetry, capitalization, paraphrasing, informative summary writing, using commas, informative paragraph, narrative summary writing, figurative language and more. We will revisit the figurative heart through our next text Love That Dog.

We are wrapping up multi-digit addition and subtraction in math. Next, we will learn about factors and multiples. Later during the month, we will move onto multiplying multi-digit numbers by a 1-digit number.

In Social Studies, we will be completing our unit on continents and oceans and map skills.

For science this month, we will be focusing on adaptations and how they help an animal or plant survive in its environment.

For the month of October, 4th grade will be exploring the theme of Determination. As a class, we will discuss in class what determination means to us. Students will be interviewed on how they demonstrate determination in their day to day life.

The 4th grade will be going on a field trip to the Harvard Museum of Natural History on Thursday, 10/23/25. Be on the lookout for permission slips and chaperone slips.

Thank you to the PTO for buying copies of Fenway and Hattie for our visit with Victoria Coe!

Students are continuing to explore the Nez Perce culture and will be completing their first expository writing piece. Later in the month, they will begin to read Thunder Rolling in the Mountains by Scott O'Dell.

In math, students are completing Topic 2 and starting Topic 3: Fluently Multiplying Multi-digit Whole Numbers. Please make sure to practice your math facts at home.

In Science, students are beginning a unit on Sun, Shadows, and the Rotation and Revolution of the Earth.

For this month's pride theme, students will read about DETERMINATION. They will write and illustrate poems about what determination means to them.

On October 29, fifth graders will be traveling to Sturbridge Village to experience life in the 1830s.

ELA class just finished the novel Bud, Not Buddy. We explored the things that sustained people during the Great Depression and how our main character changed as a result of his journey. We will continue this exploration of adversity and challenges through our next book Out of the Dust, telling the story of a girl's experience in the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma.

In October, we are continuing Algebra with learning how to solve equations and inequalities. After that, we will be working with rational numbers. The October homework calendar went home this past Tuesday!

This week students worked on a cell organelle comparison project. They compared the parts of a cell to their favorite show, sports team, house and more! They came out great. Next week students will wrap up our cells unit with a test on Wednesday!

We are learning about major turning points in Prehistory in our Early Man Unit. We are figuring out the difference between the Paleolithic and Neolithic Ages. We will have a major project in two weeks and our first unit test in three. So far, we have learned about survival skills, cave art, the importance of fire, and how people and their skills have changed over time.

For our Pride theme of Determination, students will write about a time they faced a challenge. They will explain the challenge how they were able to persevere through it.

The 6th Grade will be going to Patriot’s Place for a field trip Monday, Oct. 6th. Students are encouraged to wear their favorite football team attire and weather appropriate gear. Students do not need to bring anything but themselves (no additional money or phones please). Food and drink is not allowed at the hall, so please leave water bottles at school and back packs are not allowed. Water fountains are available at Patriot’s Place. Students should arrive at school on time to get their snack/breakfast, and we will back from Gillette before dismissal.

Thank you to all the parents who volunteered to chaperone! We sincerely appreciate your support! All chaperones who are going on the trip should receive an email Friday with details for Monday. Thank you so much!

The first Outdoor Classroom payment is due Monday, October 20. The total cost of the trip is $400. (This payment has been lowered from $475 thanks to a generous donation from the Howard Trustees.) The first payment is $135. Checks can be written out to the Howard School. A full payment schedule was handed out at curriculum night or sent home with your student if you did not attend. Please reach out to Mrs. Giuffre (mgiuffre@wbridgewater.com) if you are in need of financial assistance.

We are also looking for chaperones for the Outdoor Classroom trip. If you are interested in chaperoning please email Mrs. Wenzel (mwenzel@wbridgewater.com) to be added to our list!

This month in Health and Wellness, our 4th to 6th graders have been exploring what makes each of us unique by identifying personal traits such as strengths, weaknesses, likes, and dislikes. Understanding these helps students become more self-aware and better equipped to support their own well-being. We’ve also been learning about moods and emotions, focusing on how to recognize and manage our feelings to adapt positively to different situations. It’s been a valuable journey in building self-awareness and emotional resilience!

All students at Howard are creating a self-portrait. The students learned about proportion -the study of the size, placement, and relationships between facial features to create a harmonious and lifelike depiction of a human face. Each grade is creating a different project incorporating different elements about them. When we are finished we will be starting a unit on drawing the human figure using proportion.

In October students start the Soccer Unit working on their manipulative skills and team work. We also had as an introduction lesson to Bocce! The Unified Bocce team is open for sign ups for grades 5-8 and if students are interested they can sign up with their parents using this link provided below!

https://students.arbitersports.com/programs/west-bridgewater-2025-2026-west-bridgewater-athletics-registration

Unified Bocce starts on Monday for students in grade 5-8! Our wildcat athletes will start practicing to gear up for upcoming matches this month and our end of season jamboree (date TBD). Follow along with our wildcats on their Bocce journey on Facebook at "West Bridgewater Unified Sports"!

Student Council is off to a great start with our canned food drive. The homeroom in each grade to collect the most donations will win an extra recess. Thank you for your support in helping those in need.

Important Dates:

10/7- Deadline for Little Leo's Applications, and club dues of $5.00

10/14 - 1st official Meeting - 2:45 to 3:15 PM

10/21 - 2:45 to 3:15 PM

10/28 - 2:45 to 3:15 PM

We had a great turnout to our interest meeting on 9/30/25. Students who are interested in joining Little Leo's should turn in their completed application, and club dues to Mrs. Mills by Tuesday 10/7. Once both paperwork and the club dues are received, Students will be added to Google Classroom to let students know they are part of the club. Our first meeting is Tuesday, 10/14.

We will be starting our annual Little Leo's Coat Drive to help Anton's Coats for Kids. You can donate gently used coats of any size at the box by the front office starting 10/15. Thank you for your support!

YouTube isn't playing nicely wth Smore today, so I can't embed the book talk video. But here is a link!

The day that Christopher saved a drowning baby griffin from a hidden lake would change his life forever. It’s the day he learned about the Archipelago—a cluster of unmapped islands where magical creatures of every kind have thrived for thousands of years, until now. And it’s the day he met Mal—a girl on the run, in desperate need of his help.

Mal and Christopher embark on a wild adventure, racing from island to island, searching for someone who can explain why the magic is fading and why magical creatures are suddenly dying. They consult sphinxes, battle kraken, and negotiate with dragons. But the closer they get to the dark truth of what’s happening, the clearer it becomes: no one else can fix this. If the Archipelago is to be saved, Mal and Christopher will have to do it themselves.