May 6 Announcements

Today’s lunch is:   Pizza, fresh broccoli, fresh fruit, milk

Today’s Quote:  A strong positive mental attitude will create more miracles than any wonder drug.   ~Patricia Neal

Today’s After School Activities Are:  Grades 5 & 6-Hiking, Grades 7 & 8-Hiking, Grades 7 & 8-Softball, Grades 5 & 6-Cheering

Good luck to our baseball team as they travel to play Caravel today.

Please stay off the baseball field until further notice.

Tomorrow, May 7, is Hat Day.  Pay $1.00 to wear a hat.  All proceeds will go to help the end of year activities for 8^th grade.

Order forms for the yearbook are in the wall pockets outside the office.  Yearbooks cost $27 with payment due at the time the order is placed.

History Trivia:  The Eastern Roman Empire’s weapon called Greek Fire was used in ship-mounted flamethrowers.

The secret of how to make Greek Fire was lost with the fall of the Roman Empire.

This weapon so unique and deadly due to the fact that throwing water onto it would only feed the fire. It was almost gelatinous in texture and would stick to things.

It was mostly used in naval warfare, as the large flamethrowers needed for its projectile use could be better accommodated by ships rather than infantry.

The Greek Fire would easily demolish a fleet of wood and canvas ships floating on water.

Random Thought of the Day:  The superstition that walking under ladders is bad luck was probably started by guys who didn’t want to get knocked off their ladders.

May 5 Announcements

Today’s lunch is:   Fish sticks, potato wedges, peas, fruit, milk

Today’s Quote:  Sometimes when we are generous in small, barely detectable ways it can change someone else’s life forever.   ~Margaret Cho

Congratulations to our baseball team who yesterday’s game against Bangor Christian 11-7.

Please stay off the baseball field until further notice.

This Friday, May 7, is Hat Day.  Pay $1.00 to wear a hat.  All proceeds will go to help the end of year activities for 8^th grade.

Order forms for the yearbook are in the wall pockets outside the office.  Yearbooks cost $27 with payment due at the time the order is placed.

The History of Cinco de Mayo:   Cinco de Mayo is a time when Americans celebrate Mexico, and Mexicans grumble that Americans have no idea what they're celebrating.

In Mexico Cinco de Mayo is not a celebration, but a day of remembrance.  In 1862, during the U.S. Civil War, the French Army marched towards Mexico City. Emperor Napoleon III was eager to establish a second Mexican empire favorable to the French, but they were defeated before they could even get there when an outnumbered Mexican army — led by Ignacio Zaragoza, a 33-year-old Texan from Goliad — beat back the French troops in a bloody confrontation. The retreat of the French troops represented a great victory for the people of Mexico, symbolizing the country’s ability to defend its sovereignty against a powerful foreign nation.

The first American Cinco de Mayo celebrations date back to the 1860s, when Mexicans living in California commemorated the victory over France in Puebla. News of the underdog Mexican army beating back Napoleon III’s forces gave new strength to California’s Latinos, who sought to stop the advances of the Confederate army.

The tradition of celebrating Cinco de Mayo has continued in Los Angeles without interruption since 1862, although the original reason and the history have gotten lost.

Random Thought of the Day:  Black holes are at the top of the universe food chain.

May 4 Annuncements

Today’s lunch is:   Chicken and cheese burritos, corn, Mexican rice, fruit, milk

Today’s Quote: "Don't limit yourself.  Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do.  You can go as far as your mind lets you.  What you believe, remember, youn cn achieve."  ~Mary Kay Ash (submitted by Brian)

Today’s After School Activities Are:  Grades 7 & 8 track, Grades 5 & 6 Soccer, Baseball Game – Bangor Christian @ Holbrook.

Students are not able to stay after school to watch the baseball games.  If you want to see the games you must go home and come back with a parent who will remain with you to watch the game.

Please stay off the baseball field until further notice.

Order forms for the yearbook are in the wall pockets outside the office.  Yearbooks cost $27 with payment due at the time the order is placed.

Today is Star Wars Day:   May 4th has become commonly known as Star Wars Day. And who could be surprised? The words, “May the 4th” seem to beg for the rest of the catchphrase to be uttered.

The truth is, Star Wars day represents more than just a quote in a film, the day itself is internationally recognized and is now as much a part of life as some of the most popular holidays you can name, we just have to ask ourselves why this is.

Well, if there is one thing we know for sure, it’s that it started out as a homage to something quite brilliant and, in its infancy, belonged only to the inner circles. As time went on, however, it reached more people and gained traction. 

When we think of Star Wars day now, it’s not only a day, it’s something fun, and it’s also an in-joke that pretty much everybody on earth is a part of. While it may sound silly, something as incredibly simple as Star Wars Day has played a huge part in bringing people together no matter what background they are from.

Star Wars, an epic space opera written and directed by George Lucas, premiered in 1977 and became an almost instant cult classic. Even today, almost 40 years later, Star Wars remains one of the most financially successful films of all time.

As famous film critic Roger Ebert put it: “Like The Birth of a Nation and Citizen Kane, Star Wars was a technical watershed that influenced many of the movies that came after.”

Star Wars was a real game-changer, beginning a new era of special effect-packed motion pictures bursting with excitement, adventure, and imagination that appealed enormously to younger audiences as well as older ones.

Many of today’s most acclaimed film directors, such as Peter Jackson, Ridley Scott, Christopher Nolan and James Cameron, cite Star Wars as a great influence on their careers.

Random Thought of the Day:  There is an “i” in the middle of the word hurricane.

May 3 Announcements

Today’s lunch is:   Chicken and waffles, sweet potato fries, fruit, milk

Today’s Quote: Choose to be optimistic.

Today is Wellness Day here at Holbrook.  We have lots of fun activities planned for you.  Enjoy!

Please stay off the baseball field until further notice.

Order forms for the yearbook are in the wall pockets outside the office.  Yearbooks cost $27 with payment due at the time the order is placed.

Today is Paranormal Day:   Seeing is believing, or at least so the old adage goes. But is it? Because despite how tempting it would be to believe that if you can’t see, hear or touch something, it doesn’t exist, there have been thousands upon thousands of people who seem certain that they have in fact witnessed or even come into direct contact with things science just can’t explain and that there is sometimes absolutely no evidence for. UFOs. Ghosts. Chupacabras. Do they exist? And if not, why have there been so many sightings and close experiences? Paranormal Day is all about trying to answer these questions.

People have been claiming to have seen or experienced things that were impossible to explain for millennia; however, these reports have only been documented for the past few hundred years.

Reported events include teleportation, poltergeist events, falls of frogs, fishes, and inorganic materials of an amazing range, crop circles, unaccountable noises and explosions, spontaneous combustions, levitation, unidentified flying objects, and mysterious appearances and disappearances, to name but a few.

Paranormal Day was created in 2013 to help us give some thought to the things we do not know in hopes of learning more about the universe we live in with all its dimensions, oddities, and great unknowns.

Random Thought of the Day:  When the first child is born on Mars, we will have to add Planet of Birth to our passports..

Download Letter Here

UPDATE: VIRTUAL OPEN HOUSE TUESDAY 8/25/2020

This information has also been sent through email.  Please make sure we have an updated email address for you on file.                  

8/22/20                                                                

Dear Families and Students of Holbrook,         

As we begin our journey through the 2020-2021 school year together, I would like to thank you for all the flexibility and support that the community has shown during our planning stages. Throughout the summer dedicated staff members have been reading, planning, and thinking about the safest and most effective ways to have our students in our classrooms. While we cannot plan for everything, we will continue to work together using the lens of safety, academics, and social-emotional needs for all. Below I have listed many important things to remember as we come together in learning at Holbrook School.

New Staff Members and Staff Changes:

We are excited to welcome Marleina Ford to Holbrook School as our new Music and Gifted and Talented Teacher! We are equally as excited to welcome Sharon Haskell as our new 5th Grade teacher and Zackery Pratt as an Ed Tech III. We would also like to congratulate Michele Archambault on her move to 8th Grade ELA as well as Peter Walsh on his move to 8th Grade Math! We wish them all a wonderful start in their new positions.

Procedural:   

A Pod              Will attend school on Mondays & Wednesday                 First day 8/26/2020

Will have remote learning on Tuesday & Thursday

B Pod              Will attend school on Tuesday & Thursday

Will have remote learning on Monday & Wednesday     First day 8/27/2020

A/B                  Will attend school Monday through Thursday                  First day 8/26/2020    

All Remote Option Students: Pod A students who chose the All Remote Option can pick up their computers/tablets from their school on Wednesday, August 26th from 10:00am until 4:00pm.

Pod B students who chose the All Remote Option can pick up their computers/tablets from their school on Thursday, August 26th from 10:00am until 4:00pm.
(Note:  All Remote Option students will not be counted as absent on Wednesday or Thursday.)

All Remote Option Students need to participate in Friday’s Morning Meeting and complete the Friday assignments.  Because the first week is shorter than most weeks, links to assignments for Friday, August 28th and Friday’s Morning Meetings will be sent through each school’s newsletter/School Messenger emails.   In the future, those and other assignments, meeting links, etc. will start arriving through individual emails from Homeroom Teachers every Sunday evening at 5:00pm.

Everyone will have remote learning on Friday.

For the safety of our students, RSU #63 has a detailed, “medication dispensing” policy that must be followed by our staff.  I have enclosed a copy of the form that explains the policy.  The form must be completed and on file before we can dispense any medication (prescription and/or over the counter) to your child at school.

Pick Up and Drop Off:

I would like to highlight our new pick up and drop off routines. Parent drop off times have changed and are now: 8:10-8:40. Please be aware that prior to 8:10 there will be no coverage and students must stay in cars until 8:10. Parent Pick up times for Holbrook are 3:00-3:30.

·       5th-7th Grade will be dropped off by the hill going up toward the back fields and CHEFS. 

·       8th Grade parent drop off will be by the back steps (near the Central Office entrance door).

·       Bus drop offs will continue to be in the loop in the front of the building.

There will be staff members positioned to help students learn to navigate these new routines safely in the morning and afternoon.

As stated above the regular school day hours are from 8:40 to 3:00.  Students must report to homerooms through their designated door, by 8:40 to avoid be marked as tardy. Any students arriving after 8:40 will enter through the Central Office door adjacent to the parking lot. Students are asked to attend morning meetings with their homeroom every day.  If this cannot occur for any reason please call the office and let us know.

We would like to limit the number of last minute after school plan changes to emergency situations only. We understand that things come up and sometimes plan changes are necessary.  Try to have your arrangements made ahead of time and when changes come up let us know as soon as possible.  Please, make every effort to finalize after school plans no later than 2:20. Thank you for your support as we keep student safety a top priority. 

Parents picking students up at the end of the day are asked to fill all available spaces prior to stopping in the traffic circle. Again, safety is our top priority and the increased number of students being picked up at the end of the day causes a challenging traffic situation.  If you are in the traffic circle please pull all the way around to the exiting side of the loop before stopping. We will have staff on duty to assist students as they travel safely to vehicles. Thank you for your cooperation.   

Bus Schedules
Bus schedules for the year have been sent out by Superintendent Smith. They will also be on the school website. Students will be required to wear a mask on the bus at all times. The phone number for our bus garage is 561-9238.  (If no one answers, it is probably because they are all out driving.  Please call Holbrook School 843-7769 or the RSU 63 Central Office at 843-7851.)

Technology:

 A virtual open house schedule for the evening of Tuesday, August 25th. The links to each google meet are provided below. Please have students log in to meet their teachers and “see” their classrooms.  Copy and paste the link into your web browser's address bar. 

August 25th  HOLBROOK VIRTUAL OPEN HOUSE

Classroom Virtual Open House Links and Times: 

Copy and paste the link into your web browser address bar:

This year all Holbrook students will transition to Google Calendar. We expect all students to use their calendar daily, we will provide support as they learn to use this new platform. Parental support for student use of the calendar is critical in making this an effective tool. We strongly encourage families to sit down with their student (s) and talk about the benefits of staying organized. 

We hope that our website continues to be an easy and effective way to access information such as curriculum, upcoming events, daily announcements, bus routes and so on. The website will continue to host links such as; reporting of bullying or harassment, NutraKids/MySchoolBucks (nutrition services), calendar and the RSU 63 Facebook page.

Mr. Cummings has been working hard to prepare the MLTI laptops (11” MacBook Air) for the Holbrook 7th and 8th grade students. Our 5th and 6th grade students will be issued a Google Chromebook. Both are effective tools for students to access a large host of Google tools (Gmail, Google Docs, Google Classroom, Google Calendar and so-on) that will be used regularly at school.  It is expected that students return with their computer fully charged each day. 

Supplies:

We will provide student supplies for what is needed at school. We are asking that you provide a water bottle and mask. Please contact the office if you need support with this request 843-7769. Backpacks are allowed and will be stored safely while students are at school. Any supplies you might want to purchase can stay at home and become remote learning tools for at home use.

Food Services/NutriKids:  

Students may purchase breakfast; a breakfast cart will come around for students who choose to take it. Breakfast will be served in classrooms from approximately 8:15-9:00.  

We will continue to use the NutraKids and MySchoolBucks program to manage credits and debits to students’ nutrition services accounts.  Each child will have their own account and parents are encouraged to deposit funds electrically into the account to minimize monetary transfers at school. We suggest depositing at least $50.00 at one time to minimize transaction fees (this is out of our control).  With each $50.00 deposit to an account a free meal is provided to offset the assessed transaction fee. The program will confidentially manage students that qualify for free and reduced lunch as well. We encourage you to visit the NutriKids website at: www.nutrikids.com.  The link can be found on the Holbrook School Website.

Students that are eligible for free and/or reduced lunch are also eligible for free and/or reduced breakfast.  Please contact our nutrition services staff if you are interested in having your student bring home lunches during their remote days, they can be reached at 843-7769 (164).              

In closing, I hope you enjoy this beautiful weather and have a fabulous weekend! I look forward to our continued work together and I cannot wait to see kids within these halls again!  If you have any questions, please call the office at 843-7769.

 Sincerely, 

 Ashley Allen 

Holbrook Principal