August Letter
Tally Lent
Head of Lower School
Dear Lower School Parents,
Happy August! I hope that you and your families have been enjoying this wonderful summer break and that it’s been full of happy adventures, good books, and fun math! I hope that, like me, you are looking forward to a brand-new school year. You will find class lists and other important information in this mailing. I happily welcome you and your children to this new year and to our active partnership together. I am eager to greet each child on our opening day, if not before, and to watch his or her growth and development over our year together. It’s going to be a wonderful year—I can hardly wait for it to begin!
As always, Applewild School has been a busy place this summer: many classrooms were painted, rugs were cleaned, lockers were washed out, and some teachers have moved into new rooms. Teachers worked together to strengthen their curricula and to form cross-curricular connections. Some of our teachers have attended math workshops, participated in a professional reading group, taken advanced training in their areas of expertise, and all have read professional literature. Teachers have new ideas and are enthusiastic about upcoming learning adventures. We all are ready to dive into another great year at Applewild.
It is a pleasure to have new students and their families join our Lower School community this September, and I am excited to welcome our new teachers to Applewild and veteran teachers to new roles. In the veteran category, Jenn Buck and Pam Meehan have moved up to fourth grade, and Sara Sanford continues to teach Art in Kindergarten through fifth grade and adds Upper School Art to her daily life at school. We welcome Amelia Herring, who is our new librarian in the Marshall Library and the Information Center, and Emily Bracchitta, who is our new Admissions Director. Liz Blake will continue to teach fourth and fifth grade French and returns to teaching our youngest students as well. Maura Lyons will add third grade to her Science teaching and I will happily return to teaching first and second grade Science.
Our fifth grade Green and White Captains this year are Grace Lyons and Aidan Zinck representing the Green Team and Madison Lessard and Jamie Aciukewicz representing the White Team. We know that these four students will lead our division responsibly and respectfully!
As you plan for the first days of school, I would like to draw your attention to the drop off and pick up procedures for Lower School students. Students in Kindergarten through fourth grade, both bus riders and carpoolers, will be dropped off at the Marshall Building; fifth graders will be dropped off at the Crocker Building in the morning. Students should be in their homerooms at 8:00; they may arrive as early as 7:45, and no later, please, than 8:05. An adult will greet the Marshall children at the driveway in the morning; students in the first three carsmay let themselves out, greet the adult, and enter the building. Marshall children will go into the foyer where they will wait with a faculty member until they go to homerooms at 8:00. Fifth graders go directly to the Crocker dining room where they wait with an adult until they go to their homerooms at 8:00. Morning Meetings start at 8:15 in homerooms, so it is important to arrive at school promptly. If your child comes to school after 8:15 in Marshall, please walk him or her up to the homeroom; after 8:15 in Crocker the student should check in at the Main Office before going up to the homeroom.
At dismissal in the afternoon, Marshall children who take the bus will be walked up to the parking lot on View Street to board the bus. All other Marshall children will be picked up at the Marshall Lower School Building. Please enter the one-way driveway at the Prospect Streetentrance and form a double line until you reach the bend in the driveway. This helps move traffic off of Prospect Street. At the bend, please merge and pull up in a single file line next to the curb at the front entrance to the building. Teachers on duty will escort the children to their cars, loading the first three cars at a time. Fifth graders who take the bus walk down to the bus parking lot on View Street; carpoolers wait on the bend in the Crocker driveway by the gyms for their cars. The same double line merging into one is in effect in the Crocker driveway, also.
It is a good idea for your child to have a backpack in which to carry items to and from school. A backpack is a great way to help your child become organized. Each night it may be packed, depending on your child’s school schedule, with an extra sweater or sweatshirt, completed homework, sneakers for gym, a snack for the return trip home, a note to the homeroom teacher, and the like. At the end of the school day, homeroom teachers assist your child, as needed, in packing all his/her belongings and papers for the return home. Belongings are kept safe and relatively neat in the backpack, and the backpack provides a good conduit for communications to and from school and home. The children do not have a great deal to carry in their backpacks, so a large backpack is not necessary. In fact, large backpacks don’t fit in lockers easily, and more importantly, tend to get overfilled and heavy. If you are backpack shopping, smaller works just fine and is better for the children’s backs.
Every child will celebrate a birthday this year and, as you think about the way your child may celebrate his or hers, I remind you that any invitations to parties that are handed out at school must include every child in the class. Not every birthday party can or should be a large group affair, but it can be a painful experience for children who are not included. Invitations to smaller parties that do not include all the children should be mailed from home. For the same reason, I also ask that when these smaller parties are held immediately following school, parents are sensitive about picking up groups of party-going children. Your help in this would be greatly appreciated. Of course, you are always welcome to send in a birthday snack for the whole grade to celebrate your child’s birthday.
Speaking of class parties, you will hear from Homeroom Parents in September about upcoming class parties this year. Usually homerooms celebrate Halloween, the Winter Holidays, Valentine’s Day, and the end of the year with low-key class parties. These parties always work best if they are simple affairs: healthy foods, minimal material goods, and teacher-directed. Stay tuned for more information coming in the fall.
Sometimes it is necessary to have a change of clothes handy; please send in an extra set of clothes for your child, including socks and underwear, in a plastic bag. We’ll keep it in your child’s locker. And, please label your child’s belongings: backpack, jackets, sweaters, sweatshirts, sneakers, boots, etc. It really helps us all match owners to lost items!
Logistics keep us all organized and safe, but the real joy and excitement in education is our children. We all look forward to having your children in our Lower School community and getting to know all of you. If you have questions or concerns, big or small, always feel free to give me a call. I am happy to talk with and listen to parents. Communication is an important component of good education. Parents and teachers form the partnership that creates the best learning environment for children and we need to communicate to be effective partners. Throughout the year, feel free to call teachers’ voice mail at school, send a note to, or email your child’s teachers. As soon as they are able, they will call you or send a note or email in response. And, as always, feel free to call me.
Enjoy the rest of the summer. I look forward to seeing you all soon!