Dear Stanbridge Parents & Staff,
STUDENT SHOWCASES Two successful Division Showcases down and one to go! It was a full house yesterday that came to see our Middle School Division present their slides. Our four Advisory classrooms were packed both with nerves and smiling faces. For many students, this was their first presentation to a room full of people. Each of the student presentations built on their learning from the beginning of the school year, challenging our students in public speaking, presentation skills, sharing of knowledge, individuality and creativity. This coming week, Elementary families will gather in Hayden Hall to see a variety of presentation formats by all students. Please plan to have at least one family member attend and arrive early for parking, as both our lot and the neighborhood are sure to be impacted by these community events. We look forward to sharing this opportunity for you to see your child shine! OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY (OT) Stanbridge has contracted with Therapeeps for OT services that will take place on our campus on Thursdays. This is the first time we've had OTs on staff and we are working to make the most of this time. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions. ADVANCEMENT OFFICE NEWS Our Director of Advancement has been out on medical leave since early November. Please join me in welcoming an Interim Director of Advancement who knows our community well. Please know we will be getting the year-end donation letters out in the near future for tax purposes. If you have any questions or needs prior to receiving those letters, feel free to reach out to me directly. Stay Strong, Bulldogs! Julie Smith Head of School Future-Ready: Students Master AI, Presentations, and Spreadsheets
Students from Upper Elementary to High School are now diving into the Google Applied Digital Skills curriculum, gaining essential tech skills for school, careers, and life. The curriculum includes lessons on how to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) in daily life, create dynamic presentations, and manage spreadsheets. By working with real-world tools like Google Slides and Sheets, they develop problem-solving, critical thinking, and collaboration skills. High School students are working on the Google Slides lessons while upper elementary and middle school are working on the AI lessons. By learning these skills early, students build confidence and adaptability, making them better prepared for an increasingly digital world. With technology evolving rapidly, this curriculum ensures students stay ahead—future-ready and digitally fluent. Middle Elementary has been working on their Google Slides showcase the past two weeks. They are excited to show parents what they've been learning. Prior to jumping into presentation-mode, they were creating VR experiences in Cospaces. Lower Elementary has been hard at play with the basics of coding, the best way to learn for this age. Parents are welcome to reinforce their learning at home in Kodable and Scratch Jr. – Gregory Wilson, PhD., Director of Instructional Technology High School students are learning about self-advocacy and assertive communication in Social Learning, as well as how to set personal boundaries while respecting others' boundaries. We are examining the in-person and online connections we make and how to evaluate the health of those relationships. We also discussed how we use our cellphone cameras – what boundaries we set when photographing people, including ourselves, and posting photos online or sharing them with others.
Here is a helpful link for parents from Common Sense Media: Help Kids Make Friends and Interact Safely Online – Mary Stadler, Director of Counseling MS Art Silly Sandwiches
This art prompt delivered such deliciously silly titles as Dessert Sandwich; the Honey Carrot Cake Donut Sandwich; the Cool Crazy Heart Sandwich; Rainbow Dessert Sandwich; Mr Good Recipe Sandwich on Earth; the Most Hardest, Healthiest, Poisonous, Paperous and COLDEST Hamburger; the Submarine Sandwich (ingredients included a submersible boat!); Unedible School Supplies Sandwich; the Brawl Stars Sandwich; Heart Attack 9,000... and more! Dear Stanbridge Community,
The Stanbridge Academy Showcase series traditionally takes place mid-winter afternoons before dismissal. We invite current parents to experience the learning that your child is engaging in at school. Think of Showcases as what used to be called (in our school days) a traditional school open house. Each division showcase builds on previous learning to challenge our students in public speaking, presentation skills, sharing of knowledge, individuality and creativity. Please see your division schedule and plan to have at least one family member attend the event. Also plan to arrive early for parking, as both our lot and the neighborhood are sure to be impacted by these community events. HIGH SCHOOL DIVISION High School classes will have two to three student speakers per class period. We will follow your individual student's daily schedule. Please pick one up in Hayden Hall prior to programming.
Middle School Advisory Groups will present slide decks about life in Middle School. We will meet in Advisory classrooms. Please pick up your individual student's daily schedule in Hayden Hall prior to programming.
Families will gather in Hayden Hall to see a variety of presentation formats by all students.
Stay Strong, Bulldogs! Danny Martin Principal ¡VAMOS 2025!
We just started 2025 and now we are working and preparing for everything that is coming to us in this wonderful year. In LowerEl we are reviewing basic vocabulary: colors, numbers, days, months, animals, transport, school supplies, foods, and drinks. Short Spanish cartoons, some Spanish songs, and games such as Spanish BINGO help reinforce our learning. Middle El is reviewly vocabulary similarly to LowerEl, but we also learn sentence structure and basic expressions in Spanish – How are you? How old are you? Where do you live? What do you like to eat/drink? What is your favore movie/tv show? and more. We start focusing on Spanish pronunciation. There is always new vocabulary to learn and Upper El students practice a lot during class. Spanish movie scenes help students hear proper pronunciation and learn new vocabulary. Certainly it is a challenging exercise but they are doing very well. In Middle School, we learn to recognize vocabulary with wordsearches, and we practice pronunciation by reading aloud small paragraphs and sentences. We continue to learn and use many of the basic questions for communication in Spanish. We use iPads for educational Spanish games or for finding Spanish slides that help in our class. Like the other levels, Spanish films continue to be a helpful learning tool. High School classes learn vocabulary through puzzles and wordsearch. Almost daily, we type a good number of sentences in Spanish and complete corrections to improve our grammar. We read each sentence aloud, as well, and try the best pronunciation. Practicing basic conversations is important, so we try to speak as much as we can in Spanish every day. In Spanish 3, we reached a goal to speak only Spanish nearly the entire class! Recently we are working hard to prepare for next week's Showcase. Students are excited to show their parents what they are learning. We have good expectations for the rest of the year. We will keep working more and more to improve our Spanish learning process. Before I finish I will thank all of you for your support and understanding during my medical leave. I am doing very well now and ready to continue. Muchas gracias. – Ruben Nunez, K-12 Spanish 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 |
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