October 30, 2009 An ACES Interdistrict Magnet School vol.

12, issue 10

"What's going on in that

head of mine?"

Kindergarten pull-out Enrichment

students met as a group for the
first time on Monday after-
November 3, noon and took part in a discussion
2009 is Election on special gifts that they all pos-
Day. This year, sess. They took delight in a work-
we will be vot- shop called, "What's going on in
ing for state and that head of mine?" where they
local officials. created gigantic "heads" with
icons representing their likes and
gifts. It was a great way for each
student to brilliantly become self-
aware of themselves and their sur-
roundings. This very lesson set
the tone for upcoming lessons fo-
cusing on self and divergent
thinking.

Pennies for Peace

Walking down the hallway
Wednesday morning, teachers
were greeted by Primary students
in charge of collecting pennies for
our school wide service learning
program, "Pennies for Peace", that
coincides with the book Three
Cups of Tea. This project has
made Wintergreen students aware
of empowering communities
through education in Pakistan and
Afghanistan!
By participating in "Pennies for
Peace" we Wintergreeners are
making a positive impact on a
global scale, one penny at a time. Daylight Saving Time ends this
While a penny is virtually worth- Sunday, November, 1, 2009 at
less, in impoverished countries a 2:00 a.m. Don’t forget to set your
penny buys a pencil and opens the clocks back one hour.
door to literacy.
 Scary Stories It was more about the monsters
For the last few weeks students in than Max."Grade 3 student
kindergarten, first and second Mackenze Pittman also partici-
pated and had a comment:"I think
grades have been enjoying a se-
it was a really nice movie, though
lection of scary stories during the ending part was kind of sad. I
their visits to the library. Our unit thought Max was a big part of the
culminated with a re-telling of problem; the fight that started was
Washington Irving’s classic tale: because of him. The monsters had
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. interesting personalities." John
We have been trying to figure out Iassogna, a fifth grader, was also
struck by the monsters. He said,
what makes a story scary. We
"The characters-especially the
concluded that it is really what monsters-were cool. They looked
happens in the story that makes it just like the monsters in the
scary, not the story’s setting or book." A great time was had by
characters. all, and there will certainly be
more family activities like this in
the future. Stay tuned.
Tech News
We are pleased to announce the
opening of the ACES
PowerSchool Parent Portal. The
parent portal is a tool that is used
to increase our home/school
communication and allows
Enriching Field Trip parents to more fully monitor
their student’s progress. This
Holiday Stadium Cinemas in one portal will allow parents to
of our partnering districts of access student grades, assign-
Wallingford, CT, served as the ments and attendance. In the
setting this past Sunday afternoon coming week, you will receive a
when 140 Wintergreen students letter in the mail detailing the
and families viewed "Where the website you will need to log
Wild Things Are" during the onto and the neces-
school-wide Enrichment event. sary passwords. It will be very
School Principal and Assistant important that you keep your
Principal Sharyn Esdaile and passwords safe so that only you
Michelle Coogan along with can retrieve this valuable infor-
teachers Daniela Amodio and mation. We will also conduct
Ingrid Doviak joined the group two parent evenings for those
for the exclusive viewing of the who need more instruction or
film. Participants had many access to the portal. We are very
comments after seeing the piece. excited to share this information
Natalie Cassello, grade 5 student with our parents and look for-
said, "It was really dark. It did not ward to continuing our efforts to
have the same lesson as the book. strengthen our home /school
communication.
WANTED:
Shelf Elves
The Wintergreen library is a very
busy place. Between scheduled
story hours and free choice time,
over 100 books circulate a day!
The library is in need of adult
volunteers to help with the
shelving of books. If you are
interested, please contact Mrs.
Kaplan, 281-9668 ext. 3052 or
akaplan@aces.org.
There’s a New Student
Teacher in Town!
Mr. Desautels is a new stu-
dent teacher in Mrs. Rourke’s
fifth grade class. Mr. Desau-
tels started student teaching
October 26th 2009. He will be
with us for eight weeks end-
ing on December 18th. He has
studied to be a teacher at
SCSU and this is his final step
to becoming a full time
teacher.
Mr. has decided to be a
teacher after spending twenty-
two years in the Army Na-
tional Guard. He was inspired
by his own elementary school
teachers. “I think that teaching
children and encouraging
them to do their best would be
an excellent way to spend the
second half of my adult life”
said Mr. Desautels. We wish
to welcome Mr. Desautels to
Wintergreen school!