Amherst Lions Club Ski, Skate, & Snowboard Sale - this coming Fri & Sat, Jan 8th-9th

At Crocker Farm:

Fri, Jan 8th, 6-9 pm
Sat, Jan 9th, 9 am-2 pm

Items can be dropped off for consignment or donation: on Fri, 4-6 pm.

Proceeds go to a variety of great causes including the Crocker Farm PGO, & this has been one of the PGO's biggest fundraisers in recent years.   Please encourage friends & family to support this sale.  They can also donate winter sport gear they no longer need for the sale.

Also, the Crocker Farm PGO is looking for Crocker Farm volunteers to help with the sale on Friday and/or Saturday.   If you are available to help for a few hours Friday or Saturday, please contact the PGO at CrockerFarmPGO@gmail.com.   Thanks in advance.

January School Lunch Menu

The menu can also be viewed at this link:  School_Lunch

click to enlarge

Crocker Farm PGO's December Letter to Families

                                                                                                December 2015

Dear Crocker Farm Families,

What a busy fall it’s been. Here’s a quick recap of some of the great events the Crocker Farm Parent & Guardian Organization (PGO) has held so far this year and the ways in which we’ve worked to support our school and school community.

Ø  Harvest Fest (October) celebrating Crocker Farm’s gardens and the fall harvest, included craft activities, and much delicious hearty fall food prepared by parents. Thank you, Crocker Farm bakers and craft organizers.  It was great seeing so many families there. 

Ø  Winter Coat & Clothing Share (November). The coat share was coordinated with the PGOs of all the Amherst public schools and the ARPS Family Center. We gave away most of the coats, snowpants, boots, hats, and mittens we collected; and passed on the rest to the other schools. Many thanks to everyone who donated items for the Coat Share, and a special thanks to the Evaluation Systems group at Pearson in Hadley who collected coats and other winter clothing on the schools’ behalf. 

Ø  Coffees with the Principal. We have had great attendance and great discussions at these monthly events this year. Thank you to Maria Kopicki and her helpers for organizing these gatherings. Among our special guests have been the Superintendent Maria Geryk, the Assistant Superintendent Mike Morris, School Committee Chair Katherine Appy, Guidance Counselor Tara Luce, and School Psychologist Amy Baver. Next Monday, December 21st, 8:45 am, Mike Morris will be attending again for a discussion about the elementary school reconfiguration project. All are invited to join us to learn more and share their thoughts. In January 2016, the Amherst School Committee is slated to take a vote on which grade configuration option they support moving forward.

Ø  Fundraising. In November, the PGO hosted a school bookfair at the Hadley Barnes & Noble. Thank you to Miss Leticia and her students for performing at the bookfair, and to Preschool Teacher Amy Coulthard for doing storytime. We also held a Crocker Farm night at the Toy Box toy store in downtown Amherst, and participated in the national GivingTuesday after Thanksgiving. Combined, these fundraisers raised about $800 for the PGO and our school. Donations to the PGO are always welcome and tax-deductible. Donations can be made through a link on our web site or by envelope addressed to the PGO. All the funds we raise are used to support our school community. The PGO has recently funded start-of-year donations for classrooms, a ball and jump rope cart for the playground, a clothing rack for the lost and found, family photo printing at Open House, and also helped with grant applications for field trip funding. 

Upcoming events and activities for the PGO (& opportunities to volunteer!) include:

·         PGO Coffee with the Principal and special guest, Assistant Superintendent Mike Morris, Monday, Dec 21^st, 8:45 a.m., as described above.

·        Chess club. (For 1st-6th graders). The PGO is planning to run our afterschool chess club on Fridays, 3:15-4:15 pm from January 16th to April 1st,with 5 weeks for 4-6th graders & then 5 weeks for 1-3rd graders. Registration forms should be returned by Dec 22nd.  We are still in need of parent volunteers for both sessions (people can volunteer for just one), chess expertise not required.

·        Amherst Lions Club Ski & Skate Sale, at Crocker Farm, scheduled for January 8th (6-9 pm) and 9th (10 am -2 pm).  This is a major fundraiser for the Crocker Farm PGO, and also a fundraiser for the Lions Club to support their grants to the Amherst schools.  Volunteers are needed to help setup, cleanup, and during the sale. People will also be able to donate or consign their ski and skate items on Friday, January 8th, 4 to 6 pm. 

·    Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration, in January. In the past, the PGO and families have helped provide food for the celebration breakfast.  Stay tuned for more information. 

·      Movie Night/Games night(s)  (January-March). The PGO has had great movie and games nights during the winter in the past. If any volunteers are interested in coordinating such an event, the PGO Board can help.  Please get in touch.   

More information on all the above activities will be coming shortly. Subscribe to the PGO’s blog (www.crockerfampgo.blogspot.com) or “Like” our Facebook page (Crocker Farm PGO) for all the latest news.  If you are interested in helping with any of the above activities, please get in touch with one of the PGO board members or email us at CrockerFarmPGO@gmail.com.  All of our PGO’s activities are made possible only because of our volunteers and other supporters.  Thank you all!

One last item before closing this letter: the Crocker Farm Lost & Found. As mentioned earlier, the PGO purchased a new clothing rack for the lost and found area. Toby Bobbitt, School Adjustment Counselor recently organized all the lost items. Thank you, Ms. Bobbitt!  If your child is missing clothing or other items that came to school and never returned home, please come take a look. The school will be bagging up and donating unclaimed items to the Amherst Survival Center over the holiday break. 

Wishing you and your family happy holidays and a restful break.  See you in 2016!

Your Crocker Farm PGO Board

Tracy Zafian, Eva Fairchild, Amanda Lawall, & Alicia Lopez

December Crocker Chronicles & Letter from Mr. Shea & Ms. Conklin

The full Chronicles can be downloaded HERE.
------------------

Dear Families:

We hope this finds you and your family well as we head into the Winter Vacation.

December and January are filled with special events in our school. In December, our music teacher, Agnes Zsigmondi, organized our 3rd and 4th graders and our 5th and 6th graders to present chorus concerts to our school community. The time and energy it takes to bring a group of students to the level of a performance is extraordinary. We hope you have had a chance to hear some of the beautiful music they shared this month, and a big “Thank you!” to Ms. Z. for leading this work.

News and Information:

· As you may recall, in the spring of last school year, we completed our Crocker Farm Family Survey. (See attached results) We were incredibly fortunate to be able to enlist the help and expertise of Crocker Farm parent, Dan McMurrer, with this project. Dan develops, organizes and analyzes surveys in his professional life, and we owe a great deal of gratitude to Dan for volunteering to help with our survey. Many thanks to Dan.

· On December 14th, our School Governance Council, which includes parents and staff, met to review the spring 2015 Family Survey results. As you will see in our survey results, we are proud of the countless areas of strength you reported. At the same time, we are also mindful that we have areas to improve. To that end, our SGC group decided to focus on two particular areas for potential growth/improvement for the coming year:

o improve how we collect data from families (We had a 66% response rate last year, but in the upcoming year we aim to hear from every family)

o build on strong teacher/family communication practices in regards to teaching and learning

Our SGC group is off to a strong start, but we continue to seek membership for the current school year. Please contact the school if you are interested in joining our January meeting.

· Our School Instructional Leadership Team (SILT), which is comprised of building administrators and teaching staff, recently met with Ron Berger, co-author of Leaders of their Own Learning: Transforming Schools Through Student-Engaged Assessment. Ron will be helping to guide our school based professional learning. Our teachers explored the following quote from the book at our last staff meeting: “Student engaged assessment changes the primary role of assessment from evaluating and ranking students to motivating them to learn. It builds the independence, critical thinking skills, perseverance and self-reflective understanding students need to college and career.” We plan to share more of this work with you in the coming month.

Parent/Guardian Pick up: Please be reminded that if your child has a change of pick up plans, you must send a note to the office or your child’s teacher in the morning. This lets staff know who your child can be released to at the end of the day.

Enjoy your vacation time together.

We look forward to seeing you in the New Year,

Derek Shea and Sharri Conklin

"Las Crónicas" de Crocker Farm diciembre de 2015

El boletín completo del PGO está aquí
---------

Estimadas Familias de la escuela Crocker Farm:

Esperamos que esta carta les encuentre a Usted y a su familia disfrutando estos días tan cálidos y llenos de anticipación como entramos a estas vacaciones de invierno. Diciembre y enero son meses que llenamos de eventos especiales para nuestra comunidad escolar. En diciembre, nuestra profesora de música, Señora Zsigmondi, organizó a nuestros estudiantes de tercer y cuarto grado y nuestros estudiantes de quinto y sexto grado para unas presentaciones de coro para toda la comunidad escolar. El tiempo y la energía que cuesta para llevar un grupo de estudiantes al nivel de un rendimiento es extraordinario. Esperamos que Ustedes han tenido la oportunidad de escuchar la música tan hermosa que se compartió y les mandamos las gracias a la Sra. Zsigmondi por sus esfuerzos maravillosos.

Noticias e información:

· Como tal vez se recuerdan, la primavera pasada, nosotros hicimos una encuesta familiar (ver anexo los resultados). Fuimos increíblemente afortunados poder conseguir la ayuda y conocimientos de un pariente, Dan McMurrer, con este proyecto. Dan desarrolla, organiza y analiza encuestas en su vida profesional y le debemos una gran agradecimiento a Dan por ser un voluntario único en su dirección de la encuesta. Muchas gracias a Dan.

· 14 de diciembre, el grupo de consejeros /gobernadores del sistema escolar, quienes incluyen a los padres y miembros de la facultad, se reunieron para revisar a los resultados de la encuesta familiar de la primavera anterior (2015). Como se verá en los resultados, nos sentimos orgullosos de las innumerables zonas de fuerza. Al mismo tiempo, también somos conscientes de que nos quedan unas áreas para mejoramiento. Para ello, nuestro grupo decidió centrarse en dos áreas de crecimiento y mejora para el próximo año:

o Mejorar como recogemos los datos de las familias (la encuesta tuvo una tasa de respuesta de 66% el año pasado, pero, en el próximo año nos gustaría tener datos/respuestas de cada familia, entonces 100% nivel de participación.

o Mejorar las prácticas de comunicación entre los profesores y las familias con la meta de hacer la comunicación más fuerte y apoyar la enseñanza y el aprendizaje

Nuestro grupo de aconsejadores han hecho un esfuerzo fuerte, pero continuamos a buscar a miembros para el año escolar actual. Póngase en contacto con la escuela si Usted está interesado en formar parte de nuestra reunión de enero.

·  Nuestro equipo de liderazgo educacional de la escuela (SILT / School Instructional Leadership Team) que está formada por los administradores y profesores, platicaron recientemente con Ron Berger, el autor del libro: Lideres de su propio aprendizaje: transformación de las escuelas por medio de evaluaciones con énfasis sobre los alumnos activos. Ron nos ayuda a orientar nuestro aprendizaje profesional basado en nuestra escuela. Los Profesores exploraron la siguiente cita del libro en la última reunión de la facultad, “Evaluación que se centra en los alumnos cambia el papel primario de los exámenes desde evaluación y clasificación de alumnos hacia motivación para el aprendizaje. Participación de alumnos en sus propios evaluaciones aumenta a su independencia, su habilidad de pensar en una forma crítica, perseverancia, y conocimiento autorreflexivo, todas las habilidades que necesitan para su carrera universitaria y profesional.” Nosotros compartiremos las obras que se destacan de este grupo durante el mes que viene.

Parent/Guardian Pick-up: Por favor, si Ustedes cambian de plan para sus niños deben mandar una nota escrita a la maestra y la oficina. Esto nos ayuda a coordinar el fin del día.

Les mandamos los mejores deseos para unas vacaciones lindas entre familia,

Derek Shea y Sharri Conklin

¡Nos veremos en 2016!

Updates from Crocker Farm's Music Teacher, Ms. Zsigmondi

Included in the December Crocker Chronicles.
The full Chronicles can be downloaded HERE.

News from the Music Room 12/11/15 

We are very lucky to have an excellent student teacher, Mr. M, who quickly became popular with the students. He has been teaching many lessons lately and brought in his trombone to show to every class. He shared many interesting facts about the instrument and played it for us. We started most classes with movement patterns to music from American, Chinese and Egyptian musical recordings. These movements often correspond to musical note durations and allow us to solicit creative motions from the children.

Students in 5th and 6th grades learned a two part rhythm pattern from a Southern African tradition. The title of the piece, “Tatenda,” means “Thank you” in the Shona language. After playing these challenging patterns on the percussion instruments, we added a three part xylophone accompaniment and some students improvised on top of this music, using the metallophones. I invited Mr. Shea to hear it, who loved the entertainment.

The same classes are learning the Russian “Troika,” a fast tempo dance with tricky partner changes.

Students in 6th grade also learned a song in the unusual 5/4 meter and performed it with xylophone accompaniment, while 5th grade students got to make up their own rhythm patterns.

4th grade classes continued their study of different time signatures singing the Arabic song “Caravan” in 2/2 meter and enjoyed reciting the “50 states that rhyme” rap to a hip-hop beat. The rap lists the states in alphabetical order. The same classes performed the lovely “Erev Shel Shoshanim,” a slow Jewish dance at the last assembly. Performing interactive patterns using Lummi sticks, or activities with smooth stones, that are passed around the circle are popular in these classes. These activities follow the beat of songs and some go with the elimination of players, one by one on the last beat.

Students in 3rd grade continued their study of scales singing the English round, “Come Follow” and playing various scales on the xylophones. Children sang “My Violin,” a song built on the major scale. They discovered that the melody comes from Beethoven’s Violin concerto and raised their hand each time this theme appeared in the music. These classes just started a big unit on the instruments of the orchestra. Mr. M, who is presenting these lessons, is using short excerpts on youtube, to show the origin, sound and the role of these instruments and their families in the orchestra. 

2nd grade classes are now able to sing simple two part rounds such as “My Paddle,” a song from northern Native American tradition and “Scotland’s Burning.” They were able to notate the first one, and perform an action pattern to the second one with partner changes. They also learned a friendly handshake pattern to accompany their singing of the French song, “Bonjour mes Amis.” The latter one reinforces the knowledge of right and left hand and cooperation with new partners at every turn. Students danced the Canadian “Les Salutes” and created motions to the beat in the African- American children’s game “Down in the Valley.”

Students in Kindergarten and 1st grade practice the steady beat in many different ways. They play a variety of percussion instruments, or they follow and create motions with their bodies as well as different sized rhythm sticks. The use of the single note bells allow the children to hear, play, recognize and discriminate between high and low pitches.

By 1st grade, children are able to play patterns that correspond to specific beats in a song. First grade students used the big and small drums to accompany the Japanese song, “Okina Taiko” and played the sound described in the song at the appropriate times. They also practice identifying the notes of the pentatonic scale in songs such as “Who’s That Tapping at the Window” and “Solomon Cy Walks way High” and play the bells and percussion instrument patterns that go along with certain notes.

Favorite games in Kindergarten and 1st grades include, “Someone is the Leader,” “This is what I can Do,” “Let’s Climb up the Apple Tree,” “Two in the Boat,” “Circle ‘Round the Zero,” “Grandma, Grandma Sick in Bed” and “The Merry-go-Round.”

I enjoy working with your children.

Agnes Zsigmondi  

Amherst Youth Soccer - Indoor Training Sessions - January 2016

AYSA Indoor Soccer January Training Registration is OPEN!

WHEN: Training is January 9 through February 14th.
WHERE: Allsport Soccer Arena, Northampton
COST: $100 for 6 weeks of training
CONTACT: 413-275-4300

REGISTER HERE: https://socceregistration.wufoo.com/forms/soccer-registration/

Starts next weekend:
Jan 9, 1PM: Ages 4-5 Saturdays
Jan 9, 2PM: Ages 6-8 Saturdays
Jan 10, 2PM: Ages 12+ Sundays
Jan 10, 3PM: Ages 9-11 Sundays

Amherst School Committee Meeting, Dec 22nd, agenda & materials

The Amherst School Committee has a full agenda for their last meeting of 2015.  The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec 22nd, 6 pm, at the Amherst Regional High School Library.  

The agenda includes continued discussions on the elementary school building study, a vote on whether to conduct a staff survey about the elementary building options, updates on the FY2017 budget, & discussions regarding new restraint regulations, field trips, and the district's new wellness policy.  

The Wellness Policy (Policy ADF) reflects the district's commitment to promoting wellness for its students in a variety of areas, including related to physical activity & nutrition.  For physical activity, the policy states that in K-6th grades, "recess shall be offered at least once a day, with preference for additional activity for all."  In terms of food and nutrition, the policy gives preference to fresh foods, freshly cooked foods, and locally produced foods for snacks and meals provided by the district.  The policy also states that staff "shall refrain from using food as a reward or punishment and shall whenever, possible recognize celebrations such as birthdays using alternatives to food. Ideas for celebrations will be developed and shared to assist classroom teachers and families."  

The full agenda packet, including supporting materials for the meeting, is available at this link.

AgendaPacket_SC_Dec22nd

Crocker Farm Preschool Openings Starting in January

Contact Michele Regan-Ladd, Crocker Farm Preschool Director, for more information or to apply: 413-362-1610.

Capacidad Vacation Care, at Fort River School, Dec 28-31st

Capacidad Vacation Care for Elementary School Children
Dec 28-31st
Location: Fort River Elementary School
Cost: $65 per day per child

For more information:  email capacidad.programs@gmail.com or call 413-253-5659