At Albion Elementary, Mrs. Quick’s class dissected owl pellets! This hands-on activity is important for fostering scientific curiosity and teaching students about ecosystems and animal biology.
Students at Fairfield Primary enjoyed a music concert in the park with Mr. York! These events are crucial for fostering a love for the arts and enhancing community bonds.
At Clinton Elementary the 4th grade put on a wonderful performance of the Little Mermaid. Students from Mrs. Nutting's class developed the set and the characters for this special performance. Students worked on this play all year during transition times every day. They did an amazing job!
This week our Benton Elementary fifth graders experienced an ocean adventure on Cap'n Fish Boat Tours in Boothbay Harbor. Students saw historical lighthouses, seals, coastal birds, and the occasional porpoise. On top of bonding as a grade level, students had the opportunity to explore the harbor and the beautiful coastline of Maine. The excitement and novelty of a trip like this - outside the walls of traditional school classrooms - create lasting memories for our students!
Lawrence Junior High School students and staff enjoyed a carnival-themed activity on May 30th!
Fairfield Primary teachers in action, engaging children in dynamic learning activities! Their dedication is crucial for fostering a love of learning, building foundational skills, and nurturing the overall development of their students.
Albion Elementary Kindergarteners are teaming up with their 5th/6th grade buddies from Mrs. Quick’s room! These partnerships are essential for fostering mentorship, building social skills, and creating a supportive learning community.
Benton Elementary’s first graders traveled to the Windsor Fairgrounds to attend Kids Day at the annual Northeast Livestock Expo. Students, teachers, and chaperones spent the day visiting with horses, donkeys, oxen, cows, goats, sheep, pigs, chickens, fish, and bees. They also had the opportunity to check out many exhibits and participate in fun, educational activities. It was a beautiful day to explore and learn about farming in Maine!
Lawrence celebrated the underclassmen academic achievement awards on Wednesday evening in the Williamson Performing Arts Center. Freshmen, Sophomores, and Juniors were awarded certificates for High Honors and Honors and Growth and Achievement in the various classes they’ve held this year. Juniors were among those selected for the Junior Book Awards which include scholarships in some of them, should the student choose to go to that college or university.
Junior Book Award recipients were Nadia Morrison, Michael Hamlin, Addison Battis, Paige Goodwin, Taylor Pellerin, Lilly Gray, Alyssa Welch, Kiera Allstrom, Madisyn Niles, Wyatt DeMott, Abigail Taylor, Elizabeth Holden, and Natalee Gordon.
Receiving the ShineOnCass Award for character, volunteerism, and service was Taylor Pellerin. Taylor received a monetary gift from the ShineOnCass Foundation to be used at her discretion to extend kindness and service. This award has been in existence for ten years and was created in the name of Cassidy Jean Charette, then a Junior at Messalonskee High School, who died in a hayride accident. The award was designed to reflect the qualities that Cassidy possessed to recognize a Junior student in each of the surrounding schools of Lawrence, Messalonskee, Waterville, and Winslow. Congratulations to Taylor Pellerin on being named this year’s recipient for Lawrence High School.
Thank you to the Vocal Vibe members, under the direction of Renae Misner, for performing for the audience before the start of the Evening of Excellence.
A reminder that Graduation is on Thursday, June 6th, at 6:00 PM and is outside, weather permitting.
Ms. Racliff’s Pre-K class at Fairfield Primary is busy with gardening-themed centers! These hands-on activities are essential for their development, teaching them where food comes from and the basics of plant life cycles.
Last Friday, fourth graders at Benton Elementary gathered to launch a giant balloon that carried their experiments into the skies above our school. Dr. Rick Eason - Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and head of the University of Maine's High Altitude Balloon Program - helped students load their experiments into specialized boxes attached to the balloon. Students had selected 25 different items to send into the air, including grapes, water & vegetable oil, milk, soda, eggs (both chicken and duck), fresh cut grass, Skittles, gummies, and marshmallows. Control items were placed in test tubes and kept in classrooms for comparison when the high-flying items were returned. The balloon reached a peak height of 116,250 feet during its three hour flight! Dr. Eason and his team retrieved it from a bog about 15 minutes away, and returned all 25 items to our school. Some notable observations: the marshmallow shriveled up and tasted stale, the milk was still cold, the grass was covered in condensation, and the eggs were scrambled. Benton Elementary has partnered with UMO’s High Altitude Balloon program since 2018.
Clinton's Grades K-2 attended the Northeast Livestock exhibition held at the Windsor Fairgrounds last Friday.
The children took part in discovery activities and visited animals and exhibits including; a visit to the Maple Syrup Sugarhouse, Tasting Wyman's Blueberries, A Maine Grains Pizza exhibit, Making butter, The Wild Seed Projects' Native Plant Habitats, The Kennebec Bee Association hives, Chickens, Baby Piglets, Draft Horses, Boer goats, Katahdin Sheep, Oxen, Aquaculture touch tanks, Lambing, Forestry, Wool Science, Pineland Cheese & cheesemaking, Smokey the Bear and more! There was so much to see and do!
The Freemasons of China donated bikes to Albion Elementary School! After a month of tracking their reading, students entered a drawing, with two bike winners per classroom and t-shirts for the top five readers. This incredible program promotes literacy and community engagement!
In some MMTC news: On Friday, May 24th there will be no MMTC classes held as they are having an in-service day for their staff. Our MMTC students will just need to attend their Lawrence classes on Friday. Also upcoming we have a Step Up Day for MMTC students on June 4, 2024. Underclassmen enrolled in MMTC courses next year will be visiting in their programs on the 4th.
Lawrence High School students released salmon fry into the Sandy River in Farmington on Monday. Here is a link to the article in the paper.
https://www.sunjournal.com/2024/05/20/lawrence-high-school-students-release-salmon-fry-into-the-sandy-river-in-farmington/
https://www.centralmaine.com/2024/05/20/lawrence-high-school-students-release-salmon-fry-into-the-sandy-river-in-farmington/
Band and Choral concerts were held this week on Monday night. Wednesday evening the Jazz Band and Vocal Vibe will perform.
Olympia Snowe’s Women Leadership Institute met with the new reps and new members on Tuesday morning. The mission of the Institute is to raise the confidence and aspirations of high school girls by helping them develop the skills required to be leaders in their lives, families, careers, and communities.
Carly Perry, one of our Science Teachers who works with the LEAP students reports that Lawrence will be the site for the 100th tree orchard planted with a grant from ReTreeUS. Richard Hodges came and taught the students how to space out fruit trees and the science behind testing soils for nutrients. The students built boxes to surround the trees and contain compost to ready the ground. The trees will be planted in the fall, with a variety of apple, pear, and peaches. LHS was able to get compost donated from one of the local Albion farms. Tobey Simpson and his son, Tobey, brought the compost to the garden.
Also, LEAP students started to build the greenhouse they bought, which will provide learning opportunities for the students of LHS. This will help with teaching plant sciences, and will provide a place to grow starters for the garden to grow food to be used in our cafeteria.
A couple of reminders - Evening of Excellence is on Wednesday, May 29th at 7:00 PM in the Williamson Performing Arts Center. On Monday, June 3rd at 7:00 PM, we will be holding the Senior Scholarship night. Scholarship recipients will be sent an invitation in the mail. The event is open to all. Graduation is June 6th at 6:00 PM, outside, weather permitting.
Have a great week!
Sixth graders at Benton Elementary have been learning about bridge engineering in preparation for designing and building bridge models of their own. Mark Hume, an engineer for the Maine Department of Transportation, visited with students a few weeks ago to teach them about the various types of bridges, their parts, and design principles. Last week, he joined each of our sixth-grade classes as they toured bridges in Fairfield, Clinton, Norridgewock, Skowhegan, Madison, Anson, and North New Portland. Mr. Hume has supported our teachers with this unit of study since his daughters were students at Benton Elementary, over ten years ago. We are very grateful to have him on our team of educators! Students will use what they’ve learned to design and build toothpick bridges. In June, they’ll be traveling to the Advanced Structures & Composites Lab at the University of Maine to test the strength of their designs.
Exciting day at Albion Elementary as Chewonki visits! 🦉 PreK-1 students explored the world of bugs while grades 2-6 had a close encounter with magnificent owls. 🐛🔍 Bringing hands-on learning experiences like these to our school not only sparks curiosity but also fosters a deeper appreciation for nature and wildlife.
Happy Administrative Professionals' Day! 🌟 At Fairfield Primary Mrs. Oakes' class took the time to express their gratitude with heartfelt thank-you letters to Mrs. Towne. 📝✉️ Recognizing the invaluable support and dedication of administrative professionals like Mrs. Towne highlights the importance of their contributions to our school community.
Last Friday, May 10th, the Clinton Elementary Student Council hosted our first Mother's Day Bazaar.
Students were able to purchase a gift for mom for twenty-five cents to a few dollars. The community donated items for the bazaar including plants and home-made crafts. Volunteers were on hand to help wrap up the surprise gift for Mother's Day! Our Mother's Day Bazaar was modeled like Albion's traditional event. It was such a success, we look forward to continuing it into the future!
⚫The high school has wrapped up Through Year testing in ELA and Math this past week for the Sophomores, as well as Juniors having taken their State Science Test this past Tuesday. Those who missed the tests are making them up within the week. Our goal is to have 95% of the required testers to take them.
⚫On Wednesday and Thursday of this week some students will be taking a field trip to the Colby Art Museum with Mrs. Joler.
⚫This past Wednesday we had a former graduate, Alyssa Bourque - now a Junior at UVM, come back and meet with students interested in Engineering. She related her experiences as an Engineering major talking about engineering options and answered questions from the students during a community homeroom for those interested students. Mr. Brown said that her main message was: “You can do it! Don’t think that just because you are from a small school in rural Maine you can’t go to cool places and do big things!” Thanks to Alyssa and Mr. Brown for coordinating and making this opportunity possible.
⚫On Thursday there is a field trip for a college fair at the Augusta Civic Center. Students have been signing up in the Guidance Office for the past week.
⚫On Thursday and Friday of this week the following students will be attending the All-State Music Honors Choir: Hallie Firmage, Zoe Hutchins, Brock Merrill, and Emma Spaulding. Congratulations to these students on being accepted into the Honors Choir!
⚫On Friday some JMG students will be attending a field trip to KVCC to have a hands-on career event with local employers in four different industries.
⚫Addison Battis, a Junior, will be attending the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts this weekend as our representative for the student session weekend from Friday through Sunday. This is an intensive immersion weekend where she will be learning about a new artistic topic and more about a medium that she is interested in studying. Congratulations to Addison for this opportunity.
⚫A reminder that we have a couple of upcoming concerts next week: Monday, May 16 at 6:30 PM we will have the high school band and choral concert and on Wednesday, May 18, at 6:30 PM, we will have the Jazz Night Concert - featuring the Jazz Band and Vocal Vibe. These will be in the Williamson Performing Arts Center. Please come out to enjoy two evenings of music!
⚫Have a great week!
Last Friday, students at Benton Elementary had an exciting visit from Mr. Drew and many of his exotic animals. From giant turtles, lizards, and snakes to hairy spiders and scary scorpions, students were mesmerized by all the crazy, cool creatures they encountered. Mr. Drew has an educational center in Lewiston, and he also travels around the state educating children about his animal friends and how to interact with them safely. Thank you to our Benton Elementary PTO for organizing and sponsoring these assemblies for all of our students!
