 SOCIAL THINKING WITH TRICIA (K5)
The focus before the holidays was gratitude. Executive Function skills were was built into the Secret Santa party and gift shopping, which included planning, organizing, and following through. Everyone enjoyed their gifts! A big thank you to the parents for shopping with your kids and helping to make this lesson a success. With the New Year, we are continuing to work on gratitude, adding in empathy and compromise over the next several weeks. We will connect empathy with the Martin Luther King, Jr., recognition and Black History month. This can also be a continuing conversation at home. Students have many questions about Martin Luther King, justice, and injustice. Keep conversations simple and answer only the questions your child asks in order to encourage understanding at their maturity level. Expanding too deep into the topic before they are ready can cause feelings of anxiety and confusion. Keep it simple. – Tricia Keener, Speech & Language Pathologist ONLY AT STANBRIDGE
We ended the year with a visit from the one-and-only Stanbridge Santa and lively performances at the Annual Holiday Concert. A highlight of the concert is the leadership of performance arts teacher Tobias Banks, he certainly makes our students shine bright. Thank you all for supporting this annual event. (Stay tuned to social media over break for lots of pictures... and get a sneak peek in the weekly collages below!) Thank you to the Stanbridge community for your thoughtfulness, generosity, and support. We appreciate the gifts and the snacks that were brought in for the staff on Tuesday, as well as through the rest of the week. We were able to feast on savory and sweet treats all week long! ANNUAL FUND UPDATE We have now reached over 85% participation in the 2024-25 annual fund from our parent community! A special thank you to our Advancement committee members Cindy Kuenhle, Kinga Czegeni, and Sherrie Shagong for sending emails and making calls to help us close the gap. It takes a village – we appreciate all you do for our community. We all wish you health and happiness as you head off into Winter Break to celebrate the holidays. Spending time with friends and family to laugh, relax, and recharge. Wishing you joy to come in 2025. Happy Holidays! Julie Smith & Danny Martin  ELEMENTARY
Elementary students have been exploring all sorts of different ways of building things. We’ve built cities, bridges, and towers with simple materials: crafts sticks, cups, clips, and wood blocks. Students are learning to play with balance and work against the forces of gravity! MIDDLE SCHOOL Middle School students are looking at various simple machines with Class 1, 2, and 3 Levers. Figuring out how they each help make work easier has been an eye-opening experience. We’ve engineered simple catapults out craft sticks and flung marshmallows all over the middle school hallways. The fulcrum is the point of motion for a lever arm and all objects have a balancing point or what is called the center of mass. It’s been fun balancing blocks and sticks in precarious and unexpected ways! When we come back from break, we will explore more with ramps and pulleys! – Tasha Hudick, K-8 Science HIGH SCHOOL – Science Gets Ready for Showcase in January! Thursday, January 30th, 2025 is the High School Showcase. All high school friends, family and countrymen are invited to see everything our students have done so far this year. It will be an afternoon of letting our students shine and opening our classroom doors to the greater High School Stanbridge community. We all know that teenagers rarely say more than "we did a thing" when asked about their classes, so the Showcase is a great chance for loved ones to actually see that "thing" in person. To those ends, HS Science has been doing activities, labs, and projects to make sure families will get a real show! In Biology, we are creating models mRNA from DNA and then creating models of proteins from those genetic instructions. Chemistry did a project about seeking balance in our lives, which we are now investigating through the lens of atoms seeking balance. Physics is currently working on a project preparing lessons about Newton's Law of Motions for our upper elementary students. And Systems of the Human Body students have been creating amazing wall diagrams about the systems that keep us alive. I hope to see you all on Thursday, January 30th so our students can finally brag about all their hard work in Science! – Jay Huston, High School Science Talking With Your Child About Their Diagnosis
Parents often ask our counselors how and when to talk with their children about their diagnosis. This excellent article from the Child Mind Institute gives guidelines for beginning and continuing this conversation. Even if you have discussed this with your child, the article may be helpful. You'll discover how the ongoing conversation may change as your child grows into adolescence and adulthood. There are additional links on the web page to insightful articles about how to talk with relatives and others about your child's diagnosis. HS Social Learning High School students are using Social Learning time to consider how we communicate with words, body language, and gestures. We've looked at slang and when it should be used, how to determine whether teasing is friendly, annoying, or malicious, and the pros and cons of gossiping. Students have had robust discussions about using group chats and how to keep them positive. – Mary Stadler, Director of Counseling It's hard to believe that we have just one more week of school before Winter Break and the new calendar year! It will be a busy week ahead full of festivities and, of course, continued learning. We hope to see all of you on campus for our All School Holiday Concert on Friday from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. Thank you for your generous response this Giving Tuesday in support of our annual fund. Our community has raised over $160,000 so far with over 70% of our parents contributing. Our annual fund supports all aspects of our program – from Social Learning to scholarships, from Middle El's extensive civic studies to High School Student Government. Application approval for outside grant funding often relies on 100% participation from our community, including trustees, staff, and the parent body, too. There is still time to make a year end gift to our school and to help us reach 100%! Our Board and Parent volunteers will be making phone calls soon to get us to 100%, so avoid the call and make your gift today. Every gift, of any amount, is an appreciated investment in a child’s future here at Stanbridge, and will make a real and significant impact. Stay Strong, Bulldogs! Julie Smith Head of School   ELEMENTARY
There's holiday festivity in the air! Lower and Middle Elementary have been getting in the spirit of the Winter Holidays by reading; learning songs; playing games such as I Spy (with my little eye) and dreidels; and writing about different holidays celebrated around the world. They compared and contrasted Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa. Upper Elementary, on the other hand, has been learning about the age of exploration focussing on European explorers finding the Americas. They read and listened to books, made maps and acted out historical routes! – Harriet Mukisa, Middle Elementary Lead MIDDLE SCHOOL After we wrapped up the Q1 study of indigenous people in North America, we moved on to learning about the European explorers and colonizers who unwittingly came to the Americas in search of the riches of Asia, only to find and settle in a whole New World. We discussed the impacts of the Spanish and French explorations; how they shaped Central and South America, as well as Canada; and how they have affected the world of today. We are now firmly entrenched in the 13 British colonies, having already learned about the New England, Middle and Southern colonial regions and their similarities, differences, and unique characteristics. Students are learning about what life was like in the colonies for the various groups of people who inhabited them, as well as the multitude of reasons why people moved there in the first place. Our next step on this journey will be the Revolutionary War and the formation of our Union – plus all of the documents, planning, and coordination that came with this period in our country's history. It has been a good first few months of classes; we are now much more settled into the routines and systems of our day to day. Looking forward to finishing 2024 on a strong note next week and starting January with some valuable learning and fun historical deep dives! – Drew Vinson, Middle School Social Studies HIGH SCHOOL 1st Period US Historians have been busy learning about the various causes that members of the Progressive Movement fought for, including ending child labor, safer and fairer wages for workers, an end to government corruption, and the women's suffrage movement, to name a few. Students learned that Progressive presidents, such as Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, enacted reforms to improve their respective states, while governors, and also when they were president. 4th Period US History – Students are delving into the tactics that advocates of the Women's Suffrage Movement utilized in order to grant women the right to vote. Students learned about how Carrie Chapman Catt encouraged the lobbying of Congress to pass a suffrage amendment, as well as having advocates travel to individual states to pass statewide measures granting women the right to vote. Students also learned about the tactics of Alice Paul who utilized more aggressive tactics, such as marches in front of the White House, and hunger strikes to demand women be given the right to vote. Students learned that a combination of these two approaches ultimately led to the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920, which finally gave women across the entire United States the right to vote. 5th Period Government – We have been learning about the two houses of Congress, the House of Representatives and the Senate, and the different requirements of those who seek to be elected to these chambers. Students have learned that the requirements to be in the Senate are more rigorous, and that members of the Senate need to focus more on the national needs of the country, rather than focusing on the needs of specific districts in states, which is what members of the House of Representatives tend to do. Students engaged in a discussion about term limits for members of Congress, and in the process gained an understanding of the pros and cons of enacting such term limits on members of Congress. 6th Period Government – Our Junior-Senior group has been learning about the different types of powers delegated to members of Congress in Article I of the U.S. Constitution, which include expressed powers, inherent powers, and implied powers. One such power students learned about in-depth was the Commerce Power, and students had a thoughtful discussion about whether certain aspects of society fall under Congress's jurisdiction under the Commerce Clause. For example, students learned that the internet qualified as an appropriate area to be regulated by Congress, because commerce happens via the internet. – Kenny Katz, High School History The winter holiday break is fast approaching and the weather is turning cold. A reminder that the campus opens at 8:00 a.m. Students should be dressed warm enough to be outside in the morning and should not be dropped off prior to 8:00 a.m. when the front door is unlocked. Teachers are often preparing for classes and there is no supervision on campus prior to that time.
Winter Clubs started this week and are off to a successful start! We still have a few openings in Sports Center on Thursday. Basketball, Sports Play and Thursday Bowling have limited slots still available, too. Please reach out to Linda with any interest in these after school enrichment courses. This Tuesday the 10th, we have an Open House for prospective elementary students for the 2025/26 school year. If you know of any non-Stanbridge families looking for a place for their neurodiverse student to land next year, please have them reach out to Emily Mitchell, Director of Admissions. They can also take a look at our website that has plenty of information about Admissions to get them started, including a direct inquiry form. The Winter Concert is coming up on Friday, December 20th at 1:00 p.m. This is an annual event highlighting our K-12 Music program and sending us all off on our holiday break. Nearly every music student performs! If your student will be absent, please let the Front Office know as soon as possible so that we can be prepared. Stay Strong, Bulldogs! Danny Martin Principal ELEMENTARY
After popping in to observe the Elementary's Language Arts periods, it is wonderful to see the Kinder to 5th grade progression in literacy! Lower Elementary has been focusing on learning beginning, middle, and ending letter sound recognition in consonant-vowel-consonant (cvc) words. Moving to Middle Elementary, spelling practice is continued. Reading sight words, responding to writing prompts, and verbally answering follow up comprehension questions to read aloud materials are other language arts activities occurring. Advancing into Upper Elementary, students are independently reading nonfiction passages, forming key vocabulary word banks, and retelling information learned by writing an expository paragraph. All classes are conducting teacher read alouds and dedicating a portion of time to Lexia online reading program. Elementary teachers encourage all households to have dedicated family literacy time – a time for adults to read their own books alongside their children, modeling reading for pleasure. – Michele Sumpton, Elementary Division Lead MIDDLE SCHOOL This week, students in English-Language Arts received their Creative Writing Journals. The response was overwhelmingly positive! The prompt for our story this week was for students to write how they would respond if they arrived at school and there were no teachers. Henry Lu chose to write his composition about Ben Grigsby.
– Emma Woods, Middle School Language Arts HIGH SCHOOL During the first quarter of High School English, we learned about story arcs and used plot maps to outline the arc of three short stories by authors like O. Henry, Edgar Allan Poe, and several others. Some of the stories we read were text-only, and others were in graphic novel form. Through our short stories, we learned about the use of irony in literature, with a focus on verbal, dramatic, and situational irony. In our current unit of study, we’re honing our skills as essay-writers, exploring several different literary concepts such as allegory, similes, metaphors, and story elements like setting and characterization. We’ll soon be applying these concepts to our novel studies of The Wizard of Oz (as a political and monetary allegory) and the first book in The Wild Robot series by Peter Brown. As a capstone project for the unit, we will write persuasive or informative essays with evidence from a variety of sources. – Kantodeia Schnabel, High School English Hello Families! This week in Social Thinking, we are practicing executive function skills which include planning and organizing ourselves, our things, and our time. To work on these skills we are having a gift exchange (Secret Snowman) the week of December 16th. Leading up to this, students are writing down three interests or favorite toys for a wish list. We set a buying limit of $15-20 per gift and we will be exchanging in our SEL groups: Lions, Tigers, or Bears. We talked about where you can buy things – online or going to an actual brick and mortar store. If you have time, we encourage families to take your child to a store and pay in cash. This develops skills of decision making, money management/understanding, planning, and organization since you have to find where items are in the store. We will have a mini party and gift exchange the week before winter break. Happy Shopping, Bulldogs!
– Tricia Keener, Speech & Language Pathologist As we head into our Break, many of our families will be observing Thanksgiving. We hope you will have the chance to gather with friends or family and enjoy some special time together. These times, building family traditions and having time together away from the hectic pace of everyday life, form amazing memories for your children. Now that the holiday season has begun, we would like to express our deep gratitude to the entire Stanbridge community. To our families that entrust us to care for and educate your children in an environment where they are seen for their individual talents and skills. To the students who continue to grow academically, socially and emotionally and who bring their unique talents to school everyday. And to our faculty and staff who support the learning and holistic health of our students, you are the heart and backbone of our school. We hope the week ahead will be restful and joyful! When we return from break, there will be many holidays that are celebrated by our diverse community. We wish each of you a restful season with family and friends as you gather to share time together. Stay Strong, Bulldogs! Julie Smith Head of School  ELEMENTARY THANKFUL TREE
 MIDDLE SCHOOL (GRADES 6-8) @ MARIN HEADLANDS Middle School had an amazing trip to the Marin Headlands and Naturebridge’s Bluff campus. We hiked our first day to old military barracks and did a night hike where we saw the San Francisco city lights and the Golden Gate Bridge. The next morning, the weather took us all by surprise with heavy fog and a downpour. Mother Nature challenged our students to hike down a steep cliff in a cloud full of rain. We did our best and ended up on Rodeo Beach with some pounding waves. The rain didn’t let up and we arrived, muddy and wet, to our indoor lunch site! After lunch, the sun broke through the clouds and nature sparkled for us all the way back. While damp clothing was in the dryers, students enjoyed a wonderful spaghetti dinner and had fun making new memories with fast friends during our dorm time. Our last morning we all went down to historic Point Bonita lighthouse for an art project, saw harbor seals bobbing in the water, and took in some fantastic views. Our students were tired but in good spirits, thankful for our time in nature and with our friends. – Tasha Hudick, Middle School Division Lead  Our Thanks to You! ELEMENTARY It's time to to give thanks for our loving teachers, staff collaboration, family support, school maintenance, opportunities to explore, and our hardworking students. Each day students are learning, growing, and exploring the world around them. This week we had a couple reflection times and just 'paused' to be collectively in the moment with nothing to distract us. I am so grateful I can share joyful moments with them. – Michele Sumpton, Elementary Division Lead MIDDLE SCHOOL & HIGH SCHOOL (Tasha is heading back from the Marin Headlands with Middle School today.) As Tasha & I reflect back on Q1, we are filled with gratitude. The amazing experiential trips we went on and all the memories we created bring a smile (& playful groan) to our faces. All the constructions, labs and activities the students crushed in our Science classes were great to witness. The pumpkins we carved and the brilliant Halloween costumes made October inspiring. What a phenomenal three months we have had! But what we are most grateful for is the trust and support the families have given us. Trusting us with your children and partnering with us to help unlock their full potential makes this endeavor magical. Yes, this is our job, but it's also our fuel. Watching a shy student speak out in class, witnessing an "aha" moment, and working with a student to sculpt their idea into a masterpiece is unique to the field of teaching and especially singular here at Stanbridge. We are so lucky to be here and your child helps make Stanbridge a safe, welcoming, and transformative place. Thank you for allowing us to get to know your children, grow with them, and be a part of your lives! Sincerely, – Jay Huston, Head of High School – Tasha Hudick, Middle School Division Lead SAVE THE DATE!   For this week's Student Government update we will hear from Secretary Daniel C. who will fill you in on what the government has been up to:
In Student Government, we decided to change from selling pizza from Pizza My Heart to Costco pizza. Selling from Costco allows us to offer students a new pizza option with good quality that would continue to make profit as a fundraiser. We did a taste test from Little Caesars and Costco and we decided which pizza place tasted better. After discussion we decided to offer Costco for our next Pizza Sale. We are excited for this switch! We have had discussions about purchasing sports items for break time so students can have more athletic equipment to use at break and lunch. We will keep you updated as we figure out exactly what we want to buy. For Halloween we decided that we wanted to have a "guess the amount of candy in the jar" activity [on October 25th]. I think the students had a lot of fun doing it! We are glad so many of you participated in that fun activity. I have continued to love every moment of being in Student Government. My favorite part of being in Student Government is helping out and working the Friday sales. Thank you everyone for continuing to support us for our sales. Next Friday, November 22, is our monthly Bake Sale and also Turkey Bingo. We then have Thanksgiving Break. Have a good weekend, Bulldogs! –Daniel C., 2024-2025 Student Government Secretary  JAMIL ZAKI, PhD CARING, CONNECTION AND WELLBEING How to Become a Hopeful Skeptic: Regaining Trust and Empathy in a Cynical World
Registration and Details Sign up for the Common Ground newsletter to be informed of all our speaker events.  Dear Stanbridge Parents,
It is hard to believe that November has arrived. The Book Fair is here, Turkey BINGO is right around the corner, Winter Clubs will come out next week, and we are looking ahead to the end of our first semester. It’s been an incredible school year already…with so much more to come! This Monday is a day off for students for the second day of online Parent-Teacher Conferences. For those who served in the military or have family members who served, Monday is also for you – we humbly thank you for your service this Veteran's Day and every day. We have a large internal class of 5th graders this year. As such, we have decided to hold another “Stanbridge family only” Open House–this time for incoming Middle School families–to learn more about our amazing program. Upper Elementary families are welcome to join us on the morning of December 3rd from 9:00-11:00 a.m. Come learn about the middle school program, tour classrooms, and get questions answered the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. The heart of our school is our students and we hope that you will continue your journey here with us! (To accommodate the tremendous interest in our Middle School program from families outside of Stanbridge, we will host an Open House for the public the following Tuesday, December 10th.) Read about the Book Fair, learn our first day total, check out next week's hours, and see more pictures by CLICKING HERE! Stay Strong, Bulldogs! Danny Martin Principal  The Book Fair is finally here and what a successful day we had! On opening day, all classes walked through to view and make purchases. Today alone our families purchased nearly $2,000 in books and merchandise! (That's $500 in Scholastic credit for the Stanbridge Library!) TUESDAY (NOV 12) - FRIDAY (NOV 15) 8:00-9:30 A.M. | 2:15-3:45 P.M. Parents can shop after drop off or before pick up! If you are coming in to look at the book fair or to buy your child's books, please plan to park in marked spaces and walk in. (Construction on Claremont is finally done, too!) Cars left without drivers in the drop-off/pick-up line, even "for just a few minutes," can cause lengthy traffic jams in the paring lot. Appropriate parking will help our arrival and dismissal times to run more smoothly. Thank you for your consideration. The eWallet option is very helpful for students and families. It is important to let your child know if you have set up an eWallet for them as some students may erroneously think they have money available. CLICK HERE to get started with eWallet (especially important for shuttle riders)! Anyone can contribute to your child's eWallet, just share the link with family members far and wide for easy gift giving for the holidays – we still get the credit if purchased online by Nov 21. And there's a warehouse full of books online, too! Just create an account so we still get the 25% credit from your purchase before November 21. Finally, we know how exciting the Annual Book Fair is (we are excited, too!). Middle Schoolers may have big feelings that they will be missing part of it due to the awesome Nature Bridge overnight to the Marin Headlands this Wednesday (Nov 13)-Friday (Nov 15). We’ve got great news – they will get additional class time in the Book Fair! MS students can shop the Book Fair during the entire 1st Period on Wednesday morning before they leave on their trip. They can buy a book or two to bring with them (we suggest writing their name in it). Or they can store purchases at school until they return, if they are worried about it getting lost.  Art Quarter 1 The High School Art students have been extremely busy working on 3-dimensional sculptures as well as multiple sketchbook drawings. They spent a lot of time creating an architectural 3-D letter using the first initial of their name. They measured and built the letter out of tagboard, paper cups, and packing tape. Once the letters were built they embellished the surface of them with paint, text, and found objects. Students chose elements that reflected their interests and individual personalities. After that, they began a large-scale sculpture built from scrap cardboard. Each student chose whether their sculpture would be representational or abstract. All students had to ensure that their sculpture met the size requirements of 26 inches high by 16 inches wide. Students are currently working on an addition to this sculpture assignment and they are looking awesome! Middle School Art students worked on a variety of drawings and paintings this past 1st quarter. Using their imaginations, students designed exaggerated sandwiches filled with whacky ingredients. They colored their sandwich drawings with colored pencils. Classes were introduced to the artwork of Keith Herring and his bright, dynamic art style. Inspired by Herring’s figures in motion, students created their own 3-dimensional figures using aluminum foil. Their figures were engaged in activities such as throwing a football, doing a push up, jumping, dancing, running, and other forms of movement. They also created Herring-inspired 2-dimensional work. They drew stylized, simplistic figures of people and animals in motion and painted them using bright acrylics. Students also created a seasonal painting which featured a volumetric pumpkin to which they later added vines, leaves and jack-o-lantern features. They practiced mixing paints to create light and dark shadows in their work. Elementary students have been getting used to the routines and expectations in the art classroom. They have been having fun engaging in the art making process and doing a lot of drawing, painting, and collage artwork. They used paper, markers, and watercolor paints to create name designs and silly paper monsters. Upper elementary students worked on drawing and painting beautifully colored ears of corn and highly detailed haunted houses. Classes also made tiny 3-dimensional pumpkins out of colored pipe cleaners! All of the students’ amazing artwork will be on display in Hayden Hall. Photos will also be taken and shared on social media. –Camille Geraci Visual Art, 2024 |
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