Notes from Eddy

Hello Eddy Families,

We will have a two-hour delay tomorrow, Monday 12/15/25, with arrival at 9:45am.

I hope you enjoyed the snow this weekend! What a wonderful opportunity to talk about weather, temperature, precipitation, speed (sledding down a hill, of course), and the beauty of snow on trees - what a nostalgic moment for kids.

If you celebrate Hanukkah, I wish you a happy first night of Hanukkah.

This week we have a spirit week (same as Stony's spirit week), and tomorrow is winter hat day...so please join us by encouraging your student to wear their favorite winter hat tomorrow! The Eddy and Stony spirit days this week are:

• Monday: Winter/Holiday Hat
• Tuesday: Pajama Day
• Wednesday: Nauset Color Day (gold and black)
• Thursday: Holiday Outfit
• Friday: Flannel Friday

Don't forget: our holiday concert is this Thursday, 12/18 @ 9am. We hope you can join us.

Here's to a great week of learning!

Respectfully,

Steve Guditus

Principal and Lead Learner, Eddy Elementary School

Please join Eddy and Stony Brook in our joint spirit week!

We will hold our annual schoolwide Scripps Spelling Bee finals the day before the holiday break on Tuesday, December 23. Each classroom will hold its own in-class spelling bee to crown a winner and a runner-up during the month of December. If your student would like to practice their spelling for their classroom and/or schoolwide spelling bee, this is the official practice list from the Scripps Spelling Bee. Our school winner will take a written test in school in January, and may qualify for the regional competition, en route to the Scripps National Spelling Bee finals in Washington, DC.

It’s exciting to see all the bright blues and yellows of new play structures coming together for our new Stony Brook playground! Lots of progress has been made, from removing huge boulders to grading the area for the play equipment.

One of the next steps is to install the poles that will hold up the safety netting. The netting will help protect children in the playground space from stray baseballs during the Whitecaps season on the adjacent field.

The new poured-in-place surface will be installed in the spring, as soon as the temperatures are warm enough. It’s a real improvement that will make the playground fully accessible for all our Brewster children.

With a "safety first" approach, the area will remain closed until the project is fully completed. We greatly appreciate everyone's support as we look forward to May 2nd, our tentative date for the playground ribbon cutting!

- Katie Jacobus, Brewster School Committee Chair

- Marie Enochty, Brewster School Committee Vice-Chair

Believe it or not, we are already starting the transition for fifth graders to become sixth graders in middle school! All Eddy fifth graders will visit Nauset Regional Middle School (NRMS) on Tuesday, January 13, 2026 during the school day. Students will take a bus to NRMS, be paired up with a sixth grade Brewster student, meet with NRMS Principal Dr. Cohen and meet NRMS Guidance Counselor Mr. Saum, who will loop with students starting next year and be their guidance counselor for all three years. Students will attend classes with their sixth grade buddy, and have an opportunity to eat lunch in the cafeteria (at no charge, and students may opt out and bring a lunch from home). There will be additional opportunities to build the bridge between Eddy and NRMS throughout the winter and spring. One big opportunity for families to put on your calendars is the NRMS Parent Information Night, on Wednesday, January 14, 2026 from 6-7pm at NRMS in Orleans.

I've recently started listening to the podcast "Good Inside," hosted by Dr. Becky Kennedy, a clinical psychologist, whose podcast covers a variety of topics focused on supporting kids and parenting, and most recently, she hosted Dr. Jean Twenge, who wrote the book 10 Rules for Raising Kids in a High-Teach World. Dr. Twenge is a researcher who has written a book about navigating how to raise and support kids around smartphone use and AI. In the podcast, Dr. Becky and Dr. Jean discussed the importance of clarity and consistency, and establishing simple family rules to help provide healthy ways to use technology in productive ways:

• Keep phones out of bedrooms at night. Removing the temptation to use the phone at night will ensure that kids can truly stay focused on going to sleep and staying asleep. Both Dr. Jean and Dr. Becky say this is the #1 thing you can do to help provide smartphone use structure.
• Delay smartphone ownership until a child truly needs one, which Dr. Jean and Dr. Becky says could be when students get their drivers license or has more independence such as late middle school or early high school when students start making independent plans with friends and may need to call you for a ride. Do so when it makes sense for your family.
• Set predictable daily limits on entertainment screen time. These kinds of routines help kids feel safe, reduce power struggles, and give parent/caregivers confidence about how to respond as technology becomes a bigger part of children’s lives.

Another key takeaway from the conversation is the importance of staying connected with your student, even in homes where adults are also on their devices. Dr. Becky encourages parents to choose small, intentional habits, such as:

• Put phones aside during key moments like dinner or the ride home from school.
• Name it out loud when you do need to use your phone for a specific purpose (“I have to send this one work text, then I’ll be fully with you."
• Create “tech-free pockets” each day when everyone in the family unplugs together.

1. Most kids in 2025 are getting their first cellphone when they are 10 or 11 years old;
2. Unrestricted access to the internet and social media can have significant negative impacts on kids' well-being and mental health.

These small steps model healthy balance and open the door for ongoing conversations about digital safety, responsibility, and independence with kids. Families don’t need to be perfect, they just need to have clear, consistent guidelines that work for their household. Dr. Becky and Dr. Jean suggests that when parents and caregivers are ready to provide a cellphone to your student, don't go straight to the latest iPhone or Samsung model, but instead consider providing a safer model, providing more restrictions to content and social media apps. Here are four suggestions: The 4 Best First Phones for Kids from Wirecutter Magazine and the New York Times.

If you'd like to listen to the entire podcast, you can do so here: https://www.goodinside.com/podcast/15031/raising-kids-in-a-world-of-smartphones-ai/

Escape the winter chill and spark your child’s creativity at Brewster Recreation's Winter Wonderland Art Workshop!

• Dates: Monday, December 29, 2025- January, 2 2026 (No Art Lab on Thursday, January 1, 2026)
• Time: 1:00PM-3:00PM
• Ages: Grades 3-6
• Location: Brewster Bay Property: Arts Center
• Price: $95R/$105NR/Per Child

Guided by experienced art instructor Molly Driscoll, young artists will explore a variety of mediums ranging from watercolor and mixed media to chalk and oil pastels allowing them to craft their own seasonal masterpieces. Each session encourages imagination, builds confidence, and introduces new artistic techniques in a fun, supportive environment. All supplies are provided. Just bring your creativity! Please contact Brewster Rec directly to register your student or for questions about this program.

As we grow our Farm to School programming and initiatives, if you are interested in assisting in some way, please fill out this Farm to School (FTS) Volunteer Interest Form here. If you have any questions, please contact our Nauset Farm to School Coordinator, Natasha Iannuzzi at iannuzzin@nausetschools.org. This past week, we held a staff meeting where we dug in more deeply to our hydroponic garden, coordianted by Nurse Miller, our new outdoor garden with FTS Coordinator Natasha Iannuzzi, and discussed possible curriculum connections in the classroom. As the weather gets warmer in the spring, we will reach out for assistance planting our spring crops!