Mary Hogan Family Newsletter

Dear Mary Hogan Families,

What a week! It has been full of fun learning and community building here at school. Kindergarteners had their first bus field trip, venturing down to Rutland. 1st graders had the game warden come visit them on Friday, as they continued to learn about the concept of adaptation. Everyone enjoyed the snow at recess, building couches, houses, and going sledding. We also celebrated the start of the Readathon together, watched the video (see it below), and got new bookmarks to help us remember where we stopped in the books we will be reading. More to come next week!

One thing to note is that next week we will be practicing a relocation drill as a whole school. A school relocation drill is a practice exercise that moves students and staff to a predetermined alternate location. There is no emergency but it is just a practice. Teachers will talk with their classes about the drill and help support them afterwards. We do hope that this will be just a walking field trip.

💙, Jen

Monday Feb. 3- 9.30 - Corrigan, Conklin & Burke go ice skating at the rink!

• 3-4pm - After School “Book and Craft” with Liz and Ms. Palmer (grades K-2). Ahoy there, Mateys, Let’s go on a Pirate Adventure! Sign-ups required.

Tuesday Feb. 4th - Author visit with Dan Abdo-

• 8:30-9:15 Kindergarten- 2nd grade (Blue, Barry & Pancakes books)
• 9:20-10:05 3rd-5th grade (Barb the Last Berzerker series)
• 3-4pm - Reading Buddies Grades 1 & 4 Sign-ups required.

Wednesday Feb. 5th- Winter Walk and Roll Day!

• Morning - Corrigan, Conklin & Burke go ice skating at the rink!
• 3-4pm - Reading Buddies Grades 2 & 5, Sign-ups required.

Thursday Feb. 6th - Character Dress-up Day!

• Feb. 6, 13,20 - 5th grade Storytelling club with Tricia. 3:00-4:15. Sign ups required.

Friday Feb. 7th- Turn in Reading Logs!

• 3-4pm - After School Poetry Writing Workshop with Ted Scheu (grades 3-5). Just so you know… you have to be ready to laugh and also bring both your imagination and your heart to this Poetry Club. Sign-ups required.

We had over 125 students sign up for after school events in the next three weeks. You will receive an email (over the next few weeks) if your child is staying after school for an event. We tried our best to make sure that all students got into at least one event that they requested.

Families will be receiving several important updates about your child’s progress to date:

• Progress reports will be sent home in backpacks on Friday, January 31 for all students in grades K-5. In the next two weeks, you will also receive a brief call from your child’s teacher to clarify any questions about your child’s progress report. If you have more in-depth questions, the spring conference window opens next month. At that meeting, you can speak to your child’s teacher in-person about their overall school experience and their academic and social emotional growth.

• If your child is on an IEP, they will also receive an IEP progress report.

• If your child is in grade K-3 and their recent screening results indicate a need for further support in reading, your teacher will share that information on their call, and you will also receive a letter that shares our plan for supporting your child.

We kicked off the Readathon on Thursday morning this week with an All School Assembly, led by Miss Julie and some 5th graders. Students were thinking about book recommendations, how many minutes they needed to read, and some of the awesome prizes that come with the readathon.

One thing we need your help with is that the Readathon is one of MESA's biggest fundraiser and allows us to go on awesome field trips and enriches our school in so many ways. Please support your child in asking family and neighbors to support their reading in the readathon in any way they are able. Thank you in advance for your help with this!

Look for your child's reading log, which will go home today! Record on the log if your child meets their target reading time.

Target times:

• Preschool-2 - 20 min/day
• 2nd & 3rd grades - 30 min/day
• 4th & 5th grades - 40 min/day

Reading can be the student reading, someone reading to them, listening to an audio book. It can also be at different times so you can read for 5 minutes in the morning and then 10 in the afternoon and 15 before bed and that is 25 minutes overall!

Each student at Mary Hogan will be coming home with a Readathon bookmark. The winning bookmark was designed by a 5th grade student and the top 4 bookmark designs will be posted around Mary Hogan this week. Keep your eyes out for them when you are at school.

Kindergarteners went on their first bus field trip this week! They went down to the Wonderfeet Museum in Rutland. They had a chance to explore the exhibits and they also were scientists with some experiments that involved the weather. There was a LOT of fun had by all and it may be a new tradition!

Thank you to all the community members and parents who donate during the Readathon to MESA, since the field trip was entirely possible due to MESA funding!

MESA has been busy planning lots of fun events and fundraisers!

Read-A-Thon!

The Read-A-Thon is MESA's biggest fundraiser. It's a month-long celebration that encourages reading. We have lots of fun things planned for the month, including an Opening Ceremony January 30th, 9am and a closing ceremony, February 21st at 2pm. There is also a Literacy Night Thursday, Feb. 13th from 5:45-7:15. Come have dinner, meet other families, and attend literacy workshops. See the link for a full list! Read-A-Thon Events

Middlebury Parks and Rec 5/6th Grade Basketball Tournaments - Feb 1st/2nd and Feb 8th/9th - MESA will once again run the concessions booth at both the boys and girls tournaments. We will be looking for food donations and for volunteers to run the booth. Please see the two sign up geniuses.

Girls Tourney: Girls Sign up

Boys Tourney: Boys Sign up

Vermont Bookshop - special event Wednesday, February 19 - Saturday, February 22. Use the codeword "HAWKS" at checkout and they will donate 20% of your purchase total to MESA. This is a great collaboration with VBS.

Mary Hogan Benefit Bake at American Flatbread - Middlebury - Wednesday, Feb 26th - $3 from each small and $4 from each large flatbread goes back to MESA. This includes dine-in and take out!

Join UVM Computer Science Professor Lisa Dion on this introduction-to-coding journey!

In this 4-H World Changers series, you will learn how to use foundational coding concepts to build your own customizable quiz game! You get to choose the theme, characters, questions, and animations using the Scratch coding platform. By the end, you'll get to test friends and family in a fun interactive game! You do not need to be in 4-H to join.

When: Wednesdays from 4:00-5:00 pm, February 5-March 5, virtual program

For: Youth in 4th-8th grades

Free event but registration is required. You will receive a link to join via email. Sessions will be recorded and available after the live session.

Register here: https://go.uvm.edu/0h7ei

Contact Margaret Coan at margaret.coan@uvm.edu or 802-656-7634 for more info.

Crayola Creativity Week is a free program for schools, libraries, and homes that will take place Jan 27-Feb 02, 2025. Participants will get access to 7 days of downloadable resources, celebrity activity videos, and giveaways.

Discover Engineering is a day of hands-on learning and exploration for youth in 5th-12th grades to learn about engineering, build skills, and network with college students, professors, and professionals in the field. Organized by UVM’s College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences (CEMS) and UVM Extension 4-H, the day includes an Engineering Scavenger Hunt (interactive exhibits showcasing various types of engineering and career pathways), and an afternoon of learning through hands-on workshops. Lunch provided. Sponsored by the Lola and George Aiken Fund. Register for this free event taking place on UVM campus here: https://go.uvm.edu/2025

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