Spring at New Marlborough Central
The Family Picnic and 4th Grade Recognition Night will take place on Monday, June 16th at 6:00 pm.
Field Day will take place on Thursday, June 12th. The Rain Date will be on June 17th. This annual event is put together by gym teacher, Kelly Milan and includes a variety of favorite activities including parachute games, tennis matches, obstacle courses, and the sponge toss. Many parents and, often, young NMC alums come to help. Families are invited to join classes for a special outdoor picnic lunch.
Kindergarteners and the 2nd-3rd Grade class will make a joint excursion to the Berkshire Museum, taking in programs on Reptiles and Simple Machines.
Thanks to a Creative Schools Grant, dancer Amie Dowling and the Dance Generators (a multi-generational dance ensemble) will be visiting NMC in June to work with students and teachers on projects that integrate math and science content with dance.
The school garden this year will be a modeled after a Native American “three sisters garden,” featuring corn, beans, and squash, which were known to the Native Americans as “the three loving sisters.” When seeds of the sisters are planted together, the corn stalks provide support for the beans and the prickly squash leaves protect the other plants from animals. Each class will play a role in planting, tending, and harvesting this garden.
Thanks to a grant from the New Marlborough Local Cultural Council students will work with guest teacher Wendy Jensen to construct a Native American wigwam on the school grounds and Wingmasters presented a special assembly for Kindergarten through 4th Graders on birds of prey important to the Native Americans. Students were thoroughly impressed by a live Red Tailed Hawk, Barred Owl, and Golden Eagle.
Another Local Cultural Council grant has supported the work of the 1st-2nd Grade class who have been working on a local history project with their “Grandfriends”—older New Marlborough residents who have been coming to meet with students, sharing stories and photographs of their younger days. The students created graphs, diagrams, and pictorial timelines which will be displayed as part of the Town’s 250th Anniversary Celebration next year.
The North Winds Ensemble presented a program introducing our students to wood wind instruments thanks to The South Mountain Association and our PTA. They will perform a mix of pieces from other countries and historical periods. During the program the musicians will highlight the function of each instrument, demonstrate how it produces sound and explore concepts of composition such as melody. The program concludes will a piece that calls on audience volunteers to perform with the quintet in a rendition of “Rags” by Scott Joplin.
SBRSD Elementary Music Concerts took place for 3rd and 4th graders on Thursday, May 1st (this will also include the 2nd graders in Miss Rote’s class) and for Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd graders on Friday, May 2nd. Both concerts will be at 7:00 pm in the TAC PAC at Mt. Everett High School.
On Cinco de Mayo--Mexican Independence Day--students will share the work that they did in mixed-age groups throughout February and March in the All-School Shared Discovery of Mexico. This work includes folding codex books, edible maps of Mexican products, and short re-enactments of events from Mexican history. Older children will take home the piñatas they made with Mrs. Lampman and Miss Rote and the Kindergarten children will test out the big piñata!
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