Hello Cornwall families,

 

 

There is LOTS of information below. Please keep reading for updates on health and safety and a new progress report format as well as an introduction to a new staff member and some information about soccer.

 

 

Health and Safety update

As we shared in Tuesday's email about updated COVID guidance, we will no longer be performing traditional contact tracing. However, we have adjusted Tuesday’s guidance for elementary schools. 

We will be sending an email notification to any elementary class with a positive case, contagious at school. All positive COVID cases, elementary and secondary, will be reported each day on our COVID DASHBOARD, where we will also note which class, or classes, were impacted. You can check the dashboard by 3pm each day. 

To request a home COVID kit, please contact your school nurse directly. Due to uncertain supply, we encourage everyone to sign up to receive a free test kit from the USPS. Please read COVID Coordinator, Kelly Landwehr's, full weekly updates here. 

 

 

 

Welcome to Cornwall!

We’d like to introduce Kellie Meyer, a new paraprofessional now working at Cornwall School, primarily with Ms. Harvey in the third grade classroom. Kellie was born in Connecticut and grew up in Vermont. She lives in New Haven with her cat, Candy Corn, whom she loves to spend time with. In her free time, Kellie enjoys reading, taking walks, and is a fan of early American/Vermont history. Kellie also likes watching opera musicals and classic Western TV shows. She is a student of History and American Studies at Charter Oak State College. Kellie has worked in elementary schools for over 11 years because she enjoys it! She is looking forward to working with the Cornwall School community!

 

 

Addison United Soccer Club

Please see this  flyer for more information.

 

Progress Report Update

 

Progress reports will be going home with students on Friday, February 4th.

 

When you receive your child's progress report, you will notice it looks different than in past years. A committee of teachers and administrators met in the past two years to design a document that is informative to families and is aligned with International Baccalaureate practices. 

 

What's New? 

Approaches to Learning

Besides the new format, teachers will be reporting on the Approaches to Learning skills (ATLs - see the illustration above). This will replace the "behavior checklist" of the past. 

Evidence for ATL progress indicators come from units of inquiry, all subject areas and daily observations. For example, self management skills are taught, practiced and observed daily at recess, meals, and during instruction. Students may demonstrate these skills “some of the time”, “most of the time”, “consistently” or “not yet.” We believe that someone who is doing well is showing a skill most of the time. Consistently demonstrating a skill is less usual. 

 

Subject Progress Indicators

Something else that is new are the subject progress indicators. You can see these in the chart below. This area of the progress report may be the one most affected by the pandemic as the progress is measured against grade level standards, yet instruction has been disrupted in the past two years. 

 

Students who were just acquiring new skills in the Spring of 2020 may not have mastered them solidly enough to hold on to them through the various disruptions to school we've experienced. You may notice your student receiving a "beginning" indicator. 

 

A student may receive a “beginning” indicator if he or she meets some, but not all of the standards in a given area. “Beginning” may mean that the student is getting closer to meeting the standard than they were at the start of the year. We are addressing gaps and providing "just right" instruction in order to get students "on track". What might be more informative about how your child is doing are the comments accompanying the indicators, which state the growth and progress your child is making and the next steps that they will be working on.

 

This progress report is only one part of a reporting system that includes parent conferences and unit summaries. It looks for very specific information on common expectations district wide and is one way by which we measure student success at school. It represents a snapshot in time.  

 

Children learn best when all adults, inside and outside of school, know the progress of learning so that we can identify where school staff can further support all students in meeting grade-level expectations. Learning takes time and practice, and the identification of what needs additional practice is an essential component to student success. 

 

Some of the best gifts students bring to school are not measurable or contained in our standards, yet we experience these gifts each day we share with your child. It is the myriad of these unique gifts that makes us a community. Please keep in mind the limitations of any reporting tool, and know that we appreciate your entire child, not just those parts that we measure. Please feel free to follow up with your child’s teacher if you have any questions regarding your child’s progress report.

 

Cornwall School on Instagram

I realized it’s been a while since I pointed out the Cornwall School Instagram account. The photos there are AMAZING and look so much better than those on our website (even when it’s the exact same photo!).

 

Find it here - cornwallschoolvt

https://www.instagram.com/cornwallschoolvt/?hl=en 

 

Important Dates

2/2/22           Early release day. School dismisses at 1:05pm.

2/4/22           Progress Reports go home

2/21-2/25/22 February break - no school

 

 

Warmly,

 

Heather

Hello Cornwall families,

 

I have been away the end of this week at a leadership conference. Spending that time away and focusing on learning together has prompted me to further appreciate the work the teachers and staff do every day. They are our rock!

News and announcements will be brief.

 

Please look for:

A message from Superintendent Burrows and Nurse Kelly Landwher coming out later, most likely Monday of next week.

 

And in next week's newsletter, I will include some information about upcoming progress reports.

 

Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont

The Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA-VT) invites you to eat more local this winter, with help from the Crop Cash and the Farm Share Programs. 

 

These programs offer financial assistance to Vermonters so they can buy more local foods at Farmers Markets and CSAs all year round.

 

See the link to learn about this winter's programs and be sure to share it with anyone who would benefit from them. https://nofavt.org/cropcash

 

Important Dates

1/17/22 No school, Martin Luther King Day

1/18/22 No school, Teacher work day

2/4/22 Progress reports go home

Warmly,

 

Heather

Hello Cornwall families,

 

Happy New Year! Welcome back to school this week, and happy snowy day today! Snowy days make for fun recesses.

 

And thank you, once again, for supporting the school community and each other as we continue to navigate through the pandemic.

 

Speaking of..... please see the

Health and Safety update from Kelly Landwehr

Please take a look at this week's health and safety update.

 

Class Highlight, Music Notes from Kendra Gratton 

This week was Day 16 in the Cornwall Music Room.  For such a relatively short time, we have been very busy singing, moving, listening to, and making music! 

 

For grades K, 1, and 2, this has included appreciating the beautiful music of Pyotr Tchaikovsky and watching selections of the ballet, “The Nutcracker”.  We moved with scarves,  tapped paper plates, tiptoed, marched and danced.  We have been talking about the concepts of forte/piano (loud/soft), and have used tempo words such as presto/largo (fast/slow). We also had the great experience of sharing a beautiful song “Just One Candle” with each class in the school just before Winter Break. 

 

Grade 3 has been learning about rhythms using quarter notes and eighth notes and has been using bucket drums, boomwhackers, and a variety of rhythm instruments to create and duplicate musical patterns. We’ve also moved like frozen scarecrows to Kabalevsky’s music, and created blacklight spooky drawings to music by Saint-Saens. Grade three also requests to sing the Cornwall School Song every Friday. 

 

Grades 4 and 5 have been creating and reading musical rhythms using bucket drums and boomwhackers. They were able to create an original sound effect accompaniment to a Mickey Mouse cartoon using instruments in the music room, and learned a challenging and fun clapping game called, “The Dum Dum Song”, which they shared with others at recess time.  They also perfected a stick challenge to the Dutch song, “Sarasponda”. Looking ahead, Grades 4 and 5 will be using the online software notation program, “Noteflight” to create original works to share, print out, and play.

 

Drama Club for grades 3-6 has been a delightful exploration of the wonderful world of “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”. We have cast the show and are creating scenes and songs as we learn about some of the Elements of Drama and have discussed character, plot, and setting. It is an energetic and dedicated group of 22 thespians!  We have a few weeks left in this term (Jan 7, 21, 28) and will begin a new term in February to finish up our "Wonkavision " and then move to a theme of Mary Poppins and other Disney favorites. 

 

 

 

Important Dates

1/17/22      No school, Martin Luther King Day

1/18/22      No school, Teacher work day

2/4/22          Progress reports go home

Warmly,

 

Heather

Hello Cornwall families,

 

Thank you to FOCS for filling the flower boxes outside with winter greenery! This is the last Friday newsletter before break, and there is a lot of info below - please take a look.

 

Health and Safety update from Kelly Landwehr

Please take a look at this week's health and safety update.

 

Trout in the Classroom

Cornwall School is one of many schools in Vermont who received a grant for materials to participate in the Trout in the Classroom program!  We began a few years ago and took a break due to Covid but we are now back at it!

 

This program is connected to Trout Unlimited and strives to give students the opportunity to learn about our native Brook Trout and importance of water quality. We are readying our tank for our egg delivery in the new year and will raise trout from eggs to release in a local river.

 

Currently, we have no Trout in the Classroom volunteer for Addison County. This person would learn about tank setups and ecosystems, support classrooms in Addison County that may run into questions or issues, and will be a part of distributing eggs to our schools.

 

If you would be interested in learning more about the Trout in the Classroom volunteer responsibilities, please contact Valerie Calzini (vcalzini@acsdvt.org) and she will connect you with the TIC leaders!

 

 

Plant Project

Kindergarten and first grade are hoping to do a gifting plant project in the New Year and we need your help! We are looking for easy to grow cuttings! Things like spider plants, jade plants, aloe, inch plants, succulents, or others that you might know about would be wonderful donations! We are hoping to gather a bunch of cuttings the week of January 10. If your cuttings have a story or history, even better! We would love to hear about it and share it!

 

Contact Mrs. C or Ms. Erin if you have any questions!

Marble Ramp Project

Beginning this week, the 1st and 2nd grade students will collaborate on science based projects on Thursday afternoons. This week we are going to start thinking about energy, motion, measurement, mass, and data by creating marble ramps.

 

 We are looking for: 

-- rolls of masking tape

-- toilet paper tubes

-- paper towel tubes

-- longer cardboard tubes (such as gift wrap tubes, mailing tubes, tubes from a fabric or furniture store)

-- small plastic yogurt or cottage cheese containers

 

If you have any of these items please send them in with your child. Thank you in advance for your help

 

Food Resources

Hunger Free Vermont has created a flyer on accessing Vermont food programs.

This electronic flyer contains live links that will allow people to quickly connect with a variety of food resources and assistance.

Contact: Rosie Krueger at Mary.Krueger@vermont.gov

 

Class Highlight - Guidance, from Tammie Johnson

Cornwall students have been hard at work in guidance classes this fall and winter! It has been a joy to watch students make connections and build skills.

 

Kindergarten, first and second grade students have focused on skills for learning: listening, focusing attention, following directions, self-talk and being assertive. They have also been learning about empathy, recognizing feelings in themselves and others, and calming down strong feelings.  If you know a kindergarten or first grade student, ask them about Puppy and Snail, the puppets who sometimes help with guidance lessons.

   

Third Grade students have been learning about stress, recognizing feelings in themselves and others, calming down strong feelings, coping skills, predicting feelings, and how the brain and body changes when calm versus stressed. They recently wrote letters home to teach their families about their guidance lessons. 

Fourth and fifth grade students have been working to create their own guidance newsletters focused on empathy and skills for learning. Fourth grade topics have included: empathy and respect, listening with attention, being assertive, respecting similarities and differences, understanding complex feelings, understanding different perspectives, and conversation and compliments. Fifth grade student topics focused on empathy and respect, listening with attention, being assertive, predicting feelings, and taking others’ perspective.

 

Please see reflections from all grades here.

Little Free Library

We encourage you to use the Little Free Library located near the school garden. Feel free to take a book or two to read at any time - you don’t even need to bring them back! You are also welcome to leave books in the library for others to use. 

 

The library is available for anyone to use, even if they are not currently connected to Cornwall School, so please encourage friends to stop by and check out the books as well.

School Library Books

Please gather up any library books during breaks so that they can be returned or renewed in the New Year! 

 

For pictures of buddy classes creating structures out of newspaper and making winter crafts, and for pictures of Guidance lessons, please take a peek at the Photos of the Week!

 

Important Dates

12/23/21-12/31/21      Winter break

1/3/2022                        School resumes

1/17/22-1/18/22          No school

Warmly,

 

Heather

Hello Cornwall families,

 

As you have seen in the messages sent home, we have experienced positive cases here at Cornwall School. Please make sure to read Kelly Lanwehr’s Health and Safety update below, and please reach out to myself or Nurse Gina with any questions you may have.

 

I would like to extend several thank yous - to Nurse Gina, Kelly Landwehr, and all the school nurses for the work they are doing every day, to families for being diligent about following the health and safety guidelines and for your understanding as we strive to keep school a safe and healthy place, and to all the teachers, staff, and students for your continued understanding and flexibility.

 

We were able to hold our second vaccine clinic for students here at school this week!

 

Health and Safety update from Kelly Landwehr

Please take a look at this week's health and safety update.

 

Winter Crafts Fun!

FOCS and parent volunteers have been creating winter craft kits for all of our classes. Starting next week, teachers will be dedicating some time for students to make their crafts. Thank you to everyone who helped come up with ideas, gather materials, create instructions, etc! 

We’re looking forward to some winter crafts fun!

 

Class Highlight - Library, from Rachel Hoff

The Students at Cornwall are learning about the organization of the library, as well as digital literacy during their Library class time.  We review the layout of the library space and how items are found in the collection, including introduction to the Dewey Decimal System through searching the online catalog.  Basic computer skills, including typing and searching the internet are also regularly performed.  Students are also learning how to be good citizens online.  We still regularly do read out louds, story time, and book reviews in class as well.  It is always fun to come to the Cornwall Library!    

 

 

 

 

Please take a peek at the Photos of the Week!

 

Important Dates

12/23/21-12/31/21 Winter break

1/3/2022 School resumes

 

Warmly,

Heather

Hello Cornwall families,

 

It was great to come back to school after break and have SNOW to play in! As one staff member said, “Snow + recess = joy”!

Health and Safety update from Kelly Landwehr

Please take a look at this week's health and safety update.

Class Highlight - Spanish, from Profe Sands

 

Cornwall Spanish students have been working hard at learning some of the most commonly used verbs in Spanish.  Over the last couple of weeks, they have used that new knowledge to collaboratively write and illustrate their own class stories.  The finished products will be shared among the grades.  Students should be proud of the Spanish they have produced as well as their creativity!  Pictured below are third and fourth graders holding their illustrations.    

 

 

 

Monthly Flyer - Social Emotional Resources and Ideas

 

Please see this resource which can be used by both families and teachers - ACSD Community Care - Kindness for December

 

Please take a peek at the Photos of the Week!

 

Important Dates

12/8/21     Early Release. School dismisses at 1:05pm!

Also, please remember that Cowboy’s bus does the route in reverse on early release days.

12/9/21     Second dose vaccine clinic for students

12/23/21-12/31/21 Winter break

1/3/22       School resumes

 

Warmly,

Heather

Hello Cornwall families,

 

Wishing everyone an enjoyable break - restful, busy, active or whatever way you prefer a break to be!

Health and Safety update from Kelly Landwehr

Please take a look at this week's health and safety update.

 

Thank you to the nurses for organizing and facilitating vaccine clinics at school!

 

They did so quickly and efficiently, and we appreciate the work they are doing every day.

Introducing the Snow Eagle!

On Wednesday, a snow plow named by Cornwall School students, arrived at school for all to see! Ben, the plow driver, takes care of Rte. 30 and parts of Rte. 74 and said he loves the name “Snow Eagle” because he loves eagles. If you see the plow out and about, look for the name on the side, and give Ben a wave!

 

 

 

Gallery Walk and Gratitude

When buddy classrooms met this week, they created artifacts to show what they are grateful for.

 

Each group created unique visuals with their buddies. Today (Friday), near the end of the day, we will hold a Gallery Walk so that all students can visit and see the artifacts that were created. Please see the Photos of the Week! for images.

 

We are also grateful to FOCS and the school community for providing lunches for teachers and staff on Thursday. Thank you for your thoughtfulness!

Class Highlight- PE, from Ms. Morrison

​​This week in PE we are wrapping up our jumping unit. Kindergarten, First graders and Second graders worked on some math skills and did some jumping stations. While Fourth and Fifth grade had some fun outside on an obstacle course. Third grade has been working extra hard and earned the opportunity to pick a game they wanted to play in PE. They all had a blast playing capture the flag!

 

 

Again, enjoy the break, and we're looking forward to seeing everyone back at school November 29!

 

Warmly,

Heather

Hello Cornwall families,

 

First, I would like to express my gratitude and thanks to all of you for supporting the students and all the teachers and staff here at school. Thank you for the encouragement you provide for all of us!

 

Seeking Advisory Members

ACSD seeks Community Advisory Members for our next Strategic Plan! A Strategic Plan is a chance for a school district to name priorities, make value statements, and be accountable to the community. ACSD is working to understand equity issues, identify inequities within our district, and make equity-informed decisions that meet the needs of our entire community. 

 

The committee will have 13 members. Particular attention will be given to selecting members who hold underrepresented identities.

 

Members will include: 3 students, 2 parents/caregivers, 2 educators/staff, 4 community members at-large, 1 principal and the Director of Equity and Student Services. We anticipate about 10 meetings (some in person/some by zoom) over a 12 month period and a financial stipend will be offered to each participant to support attending. Every effort will be made to support language and accessibility.

 

Applications are due by Monday Nov 29th at 9am. To apply, visit https://www.acsdvt.org/Page/6561, find a link to the application form HERE or contact Emily Blistein eblistein@acsdvt.org 802-382-1183. 

Health and Safety update from Kelly Landwehr

Please take a look at this week's health and safety update.

Thanksgiving boxes from HOPE

THANKSGIVING Food boxes, containing turkeys and other ingredients, packed according to family choice and size, are available for anyone up to 200% of the Federal Poverty Level.

Families should call HOPE 802-388-3608 to register. HOPE will be distributing boxes for Thanksgiving beginning on Wednesday, November 17.

Boxes can be picked up between 9 and 3. They will also be open on Saturday the 20th from 10 – noon.

 

 

Class Highlight - Art

Following our heART-

“First I’m going to choose the most powerful tool in the world...a pencil.”

-Quote from a 5th grade learner

 

In art classes this year, we have all been practicing to be open minded thinkers in order to communicate our personal voices through visual art processes.

 

Currently fifth graders are each identifying character traits in order to create a new species that represents their spirit animal. We definitely have some interesting combinations emerging!

 

Third and fourth grades are working on compositions which map out the many layers of Earth beneath us, inspired by their classroom studies. We read the book “What’s Under the Bed” which helped to spark some ideas.

 

 

Kindergarten, first and second grades have been exploring the concept of patterns in a variety of ways. We have discussed what a pattern is and different places where we can find patterns in art, in music, in math...so many ways!

 

 

There is so much creativity and originality that shines from our kids at Cornwall!

 

Lost and Found

We have a lot of articles of clothing in Lost and Found, some of which might be from last year!

Next week, from Monday through Friday, items will be on tables in front of the school. Please come by to see if any of it belongs to your family.  At the end of the school day Friday, any remaining items will be brought inside.

 

Important Dates

11/22/21 - 11/26/21 No school, Thanksgiving break

 

Have a great weekend,

 

Heather

Hello Cornwall families,

 

Thank you for taking the time to conference with teachers! Today’s message focuses only on the most recent health and safety update which references vaccine clinics, winter sports and activities, covid testing, and zoom information sessions.

 

Health and Safety update from Kelly Landwehr

Please take a look at this week's health and safety update. 

Important Dates

11/10/21 Early release day; school dismisses at 1:05pm

11/22/21 - 11/26/21 No school, Thanksgiving break

 

Have a great weekend,

 

Heather

Hello Cornwall families

 

Thank you to everyone who helped make Harvest Fest possible this week! That includes the teachers and staff, Laurie and Chef Dan, families who helped gather and purchase supplies, families who leant or donated materials, and volunteers who helped set up. Especially considering the cold rainy weather we had to start the week, we had fantastic weather for our outdoor celebration!

 

Health and Safety update from Kelly Landwehr

Please take a look at this week's health and safety update. 

 

Winter Survey

From Nurse Gina - please complete this survey regarding winter gear.

 

Bus Expectations

If your child rides the bus, please take a moment to review bus expectations with them.

In school, bus expectations have been discussed in each classroom, with buddy classrooms, and outdoors with the bus drivers. Unfortunately, we are still experiencing some unexpected behaviors and are hopeful that review from home in addition to review at school will help.

As stated in the handbook, here are Betcha Transit’s bus rules:

• Remain seated, with your seat belt fastened, while the bus is moving
• Obey the driver’s requests
• Speak respectfully to others at an acceptable volume
• Board and depart in a safe and orderly manner
• Keep all body parts in the bus at all times
• Ask permission before bringing large objects onto the bus
• Place trash in appropriate containers
• No eating on the bus

 

In school we frequently talk about expectations in the context of “Take care of yourself, take care of others, and take care of the environment.” Each of Betcha’s rules can be discussed through this lens as well. We will continue to talk about them at school as well.

Thank you!

 

Class Highlight - First Grade

As part of our How We Organize Ourselves unit, Kindergarten has been discussing the learner attributes of being Principled, Caring, and Open Minded! 

We’ve talked about how to help create an environment that helps us get our responsibilities taken care of, lets everyone do their learning, and helps everyone feel safe and respected at school. This is our first unit of the year and is a longer one because the learning done in this unit helps us to establish a strong class culture.

 

Kinders showing what it looks like to be principled at calendar time

 

PLAY! We have been learning through play every morning! During this time, we learn to solve problems, be open minded and listen to the ideas of others, assert ourselves, and explore learning about individual interests!

Recently, the children have become excited about a story called, The Leaf Men by William Joyce.  They have taken interest in creating artistic renditions of the Spider Queen and the Leaf Men characters.  The children love to color and draw, create different play situations in the house-keeping area, and build with blocks, legos and k-nex.  They have come up with lots of different imaginative games and have had to find ways to honor the ideas of others, negotiate for what they want, and decide when to follow along, lead, or change their activity

 

 

Math: Kindergarten is focused on understanding ten-frames as a tool, recognizing and making patterns, creating combinations to make 5 and 10, writing numerals 1-5, and working with a partner in Work Places to practice and solidify skills.

 

 

Reading: The children have been deeply exploring letters and the sounds they represent.  They work to learn how the letters are written. The group practices names and sounds of letters through activities and games, in the whole group and in small groups.  We have started to practice reading to a partner with our letter books!

 

 

Harvest Festival

Kindergarten has been preparing pumpkins for the traditional pumpkin bread share for our Harvest Festival! Last year the first graders (as Kinders) planted the pumpkins. This year, the new Kindergarten students will make them into pumpkin bread!

 

A Celebration!

 The learner attribute that we have spent the most time learning about has been that of being a CARING learner. We’ve talked about different ways to show caring and discussed the feelings that we help others to feel when we do caring things.  Our WARM FUZZY activity was a challenge to have children notice and share about when someone did something caring for or with them! We call it the WARM FUZZY challenge because the feeling you get is all warm and fuzzy inside. We used pom poms to represent our feelings and had different times during the day when we shared caring things that had been done for us. Then the children delivered the pom pom to the person who had been caring and used words to tell them of their appreciation for the action.  Warm fuzzies included inviting someone to play, helping someone when they needed help with an activity, helping someone when they were hurt, checking in on a friend who looked sad, including and welcoming others when they asked to play, honoring the ideas of others during play, helping pick up spills, and more!

 

`

 

Important Dates

11/3/21 Picture Day

11/5/21 No school, Parent-Teacher conferences

11/10/21 Early release day; school dismisses at 1:05pm

11/22/21 - 11/26/21 No school, Thanksgiving break

 

Warmly,

 

Heather