MAY/JUNE SLICE OF THE APPLE
by Tally Lent
Head of Lower School
This is our last Slice of the academic year. It is amazing to me that we are at this point of the school year so very quickly. It is true that “time flies when you’re having fun” – this year with your children has truly flown by!
Each one of your children has grown physically, academically, and socially, and each is deservedly
proud of his or her accomplishments. As we approach our annual Step-Up Day on June 2, we are assured that our students are, indeed, ready to step up to the new challenges that await them next year.
Being ready to move on does not mean it is easy to leave the familiarity of the current grade and well-loved teacher. Lower School students often feel the frantic flurries of butterflies in the stomach when they think about Next Year. And surprising and often frustrating to the adults around them, Lower School children, after making tremendous growth all year long, often revert to their September selves at the end of the year. This slipping back before moving ahead is a natural part of the cycle of child growth and development, and one that requires patience and understanding from all the important adults in the children’s lives.
Perhaps it’s fitting for all of us to look back before we move on. As I reflect upon this year that is almost over, I must say that I thoroughly enjoy each one of your children, and watching them grow, mature and be active citizens of our Applewild community is a genuine delight and privilege for me. Clearly, each one of our children in Kindergarten up through fifth grade is ready to move on to the new adventures that await them. They have worked hard and played well, and your children have grown and thrived and flourished. They are ready to move on soon and we are proud of them.
Before we close this school year, we have more work to finish up and important events and activities to complete. Grandparents/Special Persons’ Day is on Friday, May 7 and that special shared joy between children and their guests is palpable and exciting. Students are required to dress up for this important day. Fifth graders head to the Worcester Art Museum on Thursday, May 12, and second graders visit once more with their Grandfriends at Highlands. Our Lower School Spring Concert is Thursday, May 20 at 2:30 P.M. in the Alumni Theater for Performing Arts. Family and friends are invited, and children should wear Concert Dress. Fifth graders will return to play in the Upper School Spring Concert on the evening of May 20, dressed in Concert Dress. Fifth graders may either leave with their families at intermission or may sit with their families in the Theater for the remainder of the concert. On May 20 at 1:00, fifth grade parents are invited to the Ansin Information Center to hear about the transition to sixth grade and the Upper School from Erica Hager and the Sixth Grade Team. The meeting will last an hour and then parents can head down the hill to the Alumni Theater for the Lower School Spring Concert.
The All-School Spring Concert is on Friday morning, May 21. Concert Dress should be worn at the morning concert, too.
On May 26, third graders will walk down to ARC to have a final activity with their ARC buddies. May 28 is Field Day for students in fourth through ninth grades; it’s a noon dismissal for the whole school, with buses running only at noon. Field Day events will be held at Fitchburg State College, and is a great day of fun for all.
We have Step-Up Day on Wednesday, June 2. Our Kindergartners go upstairs and spend an hour in the first grade to assess what Next Year might be like, while first graders go down the hall to second grade to do the same. Our second graders go up the hall to experience third grade, and this year our third graders trek down the hall to hear about the fourth grade. Fourth graders will move down the hall to the fifth grades and the fifth graders will go downstairs to the sixth grade wing. New students are invited to attend this event. This short period in the next year’s classrooms does a lot to alleviate some worries and the children are usually very excited to move up momentarily and then return back to the security of their current rooms and teachers. Once or twice this spring, we will arrange to have third graders go up the hill to have lunch in the Crocker Dining Room with the current fourth graders.
Tuesday, June 8 is our Annual Lower School/Upper School Teddy Bear Picnic. Students are invited to bring a teddy bear (or other beloved stuffed animal) and a blanket to picnic on. We find that it works best if the teddy bears and stuffed animals that come to school fit inside a backpack; anything larger is too cumbersome for this day. In keeping with this wonderful Applewild tradition, we will eat lunch outdoors, weather permitting, with our buddies.
On Wednesday, June 9 the fifth graders go north to the Mariposa Museum in Peterborough, NH for their last field trip of the year. Thursday, June 10 is the last day of Extended Day.
Friday, June 11 is a noon dismissal for the whole school; buses will run at noon only. This is the last day of school for Kindergartners, first and second graders. We will have our final Common Time and will have an informal send-off for our fifth graders.
Third through fifth graders will attend Recognition Day and Graduation on Tuesday, June 15 and Wednesday June 16. Tuesday is a noon dismissal and on Wednesday the students are dismissed at 11:00. Both days are dress up days, please.
Community Service is an important element of life at Applewild. First graders work with their reading buddies at Head Start, second graders visit at the Highlands, third graders have ARC friends, fourth graders help endangered animals and have helped raise money for wells to provide drinking water in Africa. Kindergartners help keep our Applewild Tree Garden looking nice by picking up litter there and on their hikes on campus and a bit beyond. Fifth graders provide excellent leadership for our Lower School by helping to run Common Times on Mondays, hosting special guests at lunch, and being wonderful buddies to our Kindergartners.
We have a short term reading marathon happening now to raise money for a very worthwhile cause, Operation Smile, with which one of our alumni is actively involved. Please see more information on this marathon at the end of this edition of the Slice.
One of our third grade girls has taken on a personal community service project. Maya Menezes has been growing her hair to donate it to a nonprofit organization called Children with Hair Loss. Through Common Time announcements and a flyer that went home, Maya has invited any other children to join her in this project. The hair cut day is May 22; with a donation of eight inches (or more) of hair, children will get a free hair cut at Scissor Action Two in Pepperell. For more information, please contact Maya’s mother, June Menezes.
In a blinding flash of projects, activities, culminations, and events the year will be over! I hope you enjoy these lovely spring days and delightful moments with your children.