What's Bruin at Pierce School?

Health and Wellness

Next week Mr. LeGraw will be back. He will be working closely with the NHDI dancers!

Pierce School will be having an After School Ski/Snowboard Club that will travel to Crotched Mountain for a 6 week program this Winter. More details will be forthcoming soon, but for now if you are interested in your child participating in this club please contact Melinda Adams at melinda.hay.adams@gmail.com to be added to the interest list. Melinda will contact all those on the list when details have been finalized.

Cooking Club

Pierce School is excited to offer Cooking Club with the Cornucopia Club! This is an opportunity for grades 3 and 4. Please fill out the survey by October 20 if you are interested!

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Thank you to....

We’re excited to welcome back the New Hampshire Dance Institute (NHDI) the week of October 20–24! Throughout the week, each class will work with NHDI instructors to learn a special dance routine.

To celebrate their hard work, we’ll host a dance recital on Friday, October 24, from 5:00–6:00 p.m. Families and friends are invited to join us for this joyful performance and see the amazing dances our students have been preparing. We can’t wait to see you there!

It's Fire Safety Week!

A big thank you to Bennington Fire and Rescue volunteers for visiting today! We started the morning with a practice fire drill, and students quickly and quietly exited the building. Afterward, they participated in a question-and-answer session, getting an up-close look at EMT and firefighter uniforms. Students then traveled to the fire station, where they saw the fire trucks, sprayed the hoses, toured the building, and practiced staying low in smoke. We are so grateful for our local volunteers and all the thought and hard work they put into keeping our community safe!

News from Ms. Besson

In Ms.Besson's class we had help during math from the awesome fourth graders! We really enjoy building and creating new things with task cards!

News from Ms. Powell

In Mrs. Powell’s class we have been working hard on our phonics and reading some fables like The Boy Who Cried Wolf and The Goose and the Golden Egg. We compared and contrasted two of the stories and talked about the moral of each story and what we learned from it! In math, we have worked on different ways to sort collections and how to group them to gather data. We have had some great math talks about all the different ways we can sort objects.

Let's Compare and Contrast a Few Things!

Ms. Suttons class spent the week working with the story of Stellaluna,, a bat who lands in a bird’s nest! We compared and contrasted birds vs. bast using Venn Diagrams. Students also started opinion writing and learned about topic sentences, how to add reasons to back up their opinions and what transition words are. Would you rather be a bat or a bird? Share three reasons with your child. Our class also spent some time preparing for the arrival of our turtles! Stay tuned next week for more information!

4th Grade Happenings

This week our friend Mrs. Sysyn came in to share her annual leaf printing project with 4th graders.

Mrs. Sysyn is a retired teacher who taught for the majority of her career at Pierce School.

Each school year she volunteers at Pierce as a guest reader, and also brings projects and treats for our students.

Fourth graders have the privilege of learning how to sew with Mrs. Sysyn! Sewing lessons will begin this fall.

We are very grateful to Mrs. Sysyn for her time and generosity towards Pierce School.

For the leaf print project, students enjoyed choosing leaves and daubing them with their favorite colors and

transferring them to a piece of muslin prepared by Mrs. Sysyn. Behold the natural world in a myriad of

colorful creations!

What's on the Horizon?

Hello friendly faces!

During our first meeting in September we voted in our chair members: Melinda Adams as Vice President. Devon Hubert as Treasurer. Leslie Holcombe as Secretary, and Tanisha Lowell as President. Next we discussed the open house to include Crotched Mountain Ski Club sign up, and Melinda Adams will be running the program again this year! Please contact us if you have any questions about signing up, or have financial difficulties that might prevent your child from participating. Melinda and the team are working to help everyone attend this awesome program. We also voted to spend $500 on the toys for the students to keep in the shed and use at recess. We have ordered six sleds and many other items that will arrive on Oct. 10 from Ace Hardware in Antrim. If you have any gently used and safe kitchen utensils to use for sand play, please drop them off at the front office. Thank you to everyone who has supported Pierce School with your financial contributions.

How are we already in October?? Bennington Recreation is hosting a Trunk or Treat on October 25th, so come and visit us at our booth and enjoy the new and fun ideas Bennington Rec is creating.

Looking to November, mark your calendars for our HOLIDAY CRAFT FAIR being held on Nov, 15th!!!! Crafters can rent spaces for $25 and a donation to the raffle tables. Do not miss out on this awesome event!

The Pierce PTO can't do all this great stuff without your support. We look forward to bringing fun events, needed items, and support to our awesome school throughout this school year. Please join us at our next meeting October 8th at 6pm, entering the school at the cafeteria doors. Come to one meeting or come to many! You can contact us at ptopierceelem@gmail.com if you have any questions or ideas you'd like to share. We appreciate you all!

Tanisha M. Lowell

Pierce School PTO President

What's Happening in Title I

We are starting to get into a groove here and we like it!!

Kids are working hard all over the school.

I have seen many kindergarten students working hard on letters and sounds... and their enthusiasm is building for our classwide letter name and sound challenge!

Keep up the practice at home!

Students in Grades 3 and 4 are taking home their Chapter Book Challenge Forms. I do ask them to stick to books with actual paragraph structure, rather than graphic novels. I know that those books are very fun to read, but seeing well written paragraphs while learning to perfect paragraphs and essays is really helpful to that process. So, for the 10 book challenge, try to stick to traditional chapter books!

On another note, I am working on a fun, new vocabulary activity to do with students. Be on the Lookout for a permission slip from me to record short videos recordings of kids and teachers discussing their favorite words! With your permission, I will include the video clips in this newsletter.

Thanks,

Mrs. Pope

A Great Start!

Hello and welcome to Pierce Elementary School. My name is Sarah Kotwicki, and I am the school counselor at Pierce, Francestown, and Temple Elementary Schools. I am at Pierce three days a week: Monday, Thursday, and Friday. This year I will be supporting the Second Step curriculum with the classroom teachers. Second Step is a social emotional curriculum that focuses on understanding and recognizing emotions in yourself and in others. We will work on developing strategies to respond in healthy and productive ways. The Second Step program helps our students develop skills for getting along with their peers and finding success in school. In addition to these lessons, I will be meeting individually and in small groups with students throughout the year. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to reach out to me any time. I look forward to getting to know your children and you!

Find your Inspiration and the Lantern Festival

Our students continue to expand their creative practice as they imagine, plan, create, reflect, and share. Students are very excited to be invited to carry their beautiful lanterns with the ConVal community again this December 6th. It is always a treat to create and celebrate art with Mrs. Connelly. The 2025 Lantern Festival will be scheduled on the weekend of December 5th in Peterborough with a Garden of Light lantern parade at 6pm on Saturday, December 6th. Please visit https://www.childrenandthearts.org/annual-lantern-festival for updates and more information about program events.

Understanding Aimsweb Assessments

Students in Kindergarten through fourth grade take Aimsweb literacy assessments several times a year. ConVal elementary schools administer these in the fall, winter and spring. These short, one-on-one assessments help teachers understand each child’s reading skills, such as letter recognition, sounds, fluency, and comprehension. The results guide instruction and help us track student growth over time so we can provide the right support for every learner.