December 9, 2016

PARENT/GUARDIAN NEWSLETTER

In this issue

From the Dean of School

School News This Week in U.S. History Rep. Steve Shurtleff and Rep. Porter visit Founders Teacher of the Month - Ms. Small Volunteers of the Month - November Wenceslas Play Welcoming New Faculty: Breanna Goodrich-Bundy From the Registrar - Regarding School Delays and Cancellations FLL Team “Robotic Dogz” Does Great Job at the State Championships! Volunteers Needed for Elective Courses Donated Books Midterm Schedule From the Registrar School Cancellation Notifications & Snow Packets

Events Toys for Tots Drive

In the Classroom Citation Awareness in Dr. Yellin’s Writing Labs

Fundraisers Upcoming Chunky’s Cinema Fundraiser Round Table Giving Projects By Ms. Small Snow Shovel Sale

Other News Founders Attire Food Order Forms "Most Needed" Items at Founders: URGENT NEED! Admissions School Calendar Follow The Founders Academy on social media

From the Dean of School

Happy Friday!

Yesterday, the school held a Moment of Silence for Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. You can read what was said over the intercom here. ​ ​

It looks like snow is in the forecast again for this Monday and perhaps Tuesday. There is important information regarding notification for school cancellations in

this newsletter. In addition to an automated call (which is optional), you may also go to your email accounts, WLMW (90.7 FM), WMUR, the school’s web site, Facebook page, Twitter account and others to get fast notice. Please note that not every snow day will be a designated “snow packet day.” Whether or not snow packets are required will be indicated in the automated call and the email blasts.

Please mark your calendars for the Winter Concerts on December 19 at St. Anselm College from 6 to 8pm! The student singers and musicians appreciate your support!

There is always a lot of exciting news at Founders! I look forward to parent newsletters each week in order to share with you a glimpse of what goes on within our school. Please take the time to read through.

Have a great weekend!

Sincerely, Maureen Mooney Dean of School

School News

This Week in U.S. History History 3: Students will continue viewing the musical "1776." Each student has been assigned a particular signer of the Declaration of Independence and will be creating a presentation for the class about his/her assigned topic. This may be a good opportunity to discuss New Hampshire's signers of the Declaration of Independence, a little about their lives and such within Round Table.

History 4: Students will analyze the "House Divided" speech by Abraham Lincoln and do a review analysis of the causes of the Civil War from the Mexican-American War to the firing on Fort Sumter.

Rep. Steve Shurtleff and Rep. Porter visit Founders

On Friday, December 2nd, State Representative Steve Shurtleff (House Democratic Leader) and Representative Marjorie Porter visited Founders. Rep. Shurtleff is from Penacook, and Rep. Porter is from the town of Hillsborough. Both State Representatives were greeted by student ambassadors, and Graham O. gave them an excellent overview of student life. You can read Graham’s speech here. Afterwards, the ​ ​ Representatives toured the school and enjoyed their stay.

Teacher of the Month - Ms. Small

Congratulations to Ms. Small the Teacher of the Month for November!

“The November teacher of the month is in her second year teaching here at Founders. Her favorite part about working at Founders is getting to do what she loves each day and watching her students become confident storytellers, critical thinkers, and bookworms. She also likes to warn students about the dangers of incorrect grammar; particularly savage apostrophes, elegant commas, and sharp sentence fragments. She believes that children need to be prepared to face a world where a misplaced comma or a hungry apostrophe could turn up at any moment. This teacher also writes young adult novels, short stories, and comments on student essays. She enjoys reading books by Annie Dillard and Fyodor Dostoevsky. She uses creative ways to turn every lesson and topic into a great time. Her students describe her as funny, creative, and kind. The November teacher of the month is Ms. Robin Small.” -Emily B.

Volunteers of the Month - November Congratulations to Victoria Sullivan and Denise Violette! Mrs. Sullivan and Mrs. Violette are the volunteers of the month for November! Both ladies substitute taught during a recent transition in certain Spanish classes. Founders is so grateful for its volunteers! Thank you State Rep. Sullivan and Mrs. Violette!

Wenceslas Play

Congratulations to Ms. Mote and all the student actresses and actors in the play “Wenceslas!” The Middle School Drama Production was flawless and everyone had a great time. Drama is so important at Founders and skills acquired through drama are transferable to the classrooms. A tremendous thanks goes to the volunteers who helped with the rehearsals, scenery and other needs of the Drama Club. Bravo to all!

Welcoming New Faculty: Breanna Goodrich-Bundy We would like to welcome Mrs. Goodrich-Bundy to Founders! She will teach a Round Table, Writing Labs 6-7, and a section of English 2.

Hello! I am extremely excited to begin my first year teaching at The Founders Academy. I have been teaching English for several years at Exeter High School, and before that, I completed my Masters in English education at the University of New Hampshire. I will be teaching three sections of Writing, and one section of English.

I can’t wait to meet you all! Breanna Goodrich-Bundy (a/k/a “Mrs. Goodrich”)

From the Registrar - Regarding School Delays and Cancellations Dear Parents -

When The Founders Academy needs to announce school delays, cancellations, early releases due to weather, and make other emergency announcements, we use an automated phone message to spread this information rapidly. Parents have the ability to control what phone numbers this system tries to contact you. Please fill out the following form with any phone numbers you would like put into this system. (You must be logged into your Founders’ account to do this.)

https://docs.google.com/a/tfanh.org/forms/d/1rCJPzi31MSj30Sucev1xZRYKzD9H4IkKoWgKzDr6E-4/edit

If you have more than one child at TFA, please fill out a separate form for each child. This way, if one student leaves the school, but the other one stays, we will still have this information. (You will not be contacted more than once at a number if you list the same number for multiple students.)

Please try to fill this out by the end of Thanksgiving Break - we never know when a snowstorm will pop up. We will try to keep this database updated periodically throughout the rest of the year in case anyone's information changes.

Thank you, Greg McKenzie Registrar

FLL Team “Robotic Dogz” Does Great Job at the State Championships!

- From Coach Amy Forcier:

"I wanted to take a moment & let you know how our FLL Robotic Dogz did at State Championship on Saturday, in Windham, NH.

Our day started at 7am and ended at 6:45pm, needless to say, it was a long day but the team spirit and the Gracious Professionalism never tired!!

There were 48 teams from all around NH competing for the top 2 spots to advance to Worlds in St. Louis in April. Coach Kari & I are proud to say that our Robotic Dogz came in 20th out of 48!!! TWENTIETH!!!! That is just AMAZING!!! We were among the best of the best & we are winners just for never giving up this season when things got tough and for pushing on and over every challenge faced!!

The kids got to meet and present their project, Head Tapper for Veterinarians, to Mr. Randy Pierce, the NH native who's known as the blind adventurer, and one of the Lego missions inspiration!

Thank you for a GREAT season!! We are proud of each of you & the accomplishments ALL students made this FLL season!"

Volunteers Needed for Elective Courses

The Founders Academy is currently reviewing proposals from teachers for elective courses for 11th and 12th grade students for our next school year and beyond. The Curriculum Committee is also looking for members of our school community with expertise in areas that may be of special interest to our students. We are looking for individuals who would be willing to volunteer their time and teach a semester long course in any subject area. Please send proposals and questions to Maureen Mooney. ([email protected]) ​ ​

Donated Books

During this Holiday Season, we have been receiving generous donations from Manchester Barnes and Noble shoppers. Shoppers have bought and donated books from The Founders Academy library wish list. The Founders Academy is very appreciative and thankful for our magnanimous and benevolent supporters.

Midterm Schedule From the Registrar

The midterm schedule and information can be found at this link. ​ ​

School Cancellation Notifications & Snow Packets

In the event school is cancelled (or delayed) due to weather, the cancellation (or delay) will be announced by the following means of communication:

- Email to parents, - Facebook, - www.thefoundersacademy.org, ​ ​ ​ - ch 9 - WMUR, - 90.7FM WLMW - 610AM WGIR, - 95.7FM WZID, - 96.5FM WMLL, - 1370AM WFEA, - NECN - Automated call system.

If the snow day is a designate “snow packet day,” each student is responsible for completing work that is ​ posted on the portals and emailed from the teachers. School work (i.e., "snow packets") will be posted by teachers on snow days by 8 AM. Additionally, teachers will be monitoring the portals and their emails ​ ​ ​ throughout the day. It is a requirement that students (contingent on having electricity and internet) log into ​ ​ the portals and complete assigned work on snow days. It is essential that all students complete the work ​ during the snow day. If we demonstrate participation from our students we will avoid having additional days added at the end of the school year in June. If less than 80% of our students choose not to login and perform the assignments the day counts as a snow day and may result in the school needing to extend the year.

Events

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In the Classroom

Citation Awareness in Dr. Yellin’s Writing Labs Students in Dr. Yellin’s Writing Lab classes are celebrating Citation Awareness Fortnight (because a week isn’t enough time) by making signs with citation rules on them and posting them around school. His classes are also competing against each other to see which one can collect the most bibliographic citations for sources used in Founders classes. Not only are they spreading the word about citations, but they are also preparing for the big research project to come in the third quarter.

Fundraisers

Upcoming Chunky’s Cinema Fundraiser

These tickets will be good for one year from date of purchase. All the flyers and forms for this fundraiser are linked in our website under Forms. ​ ​ ​ ​ Forms can be picked up at the school or downloaded from the link above. This flyer can be shared with anyone who may be interested!

Round Table Giving Projects By Ms. Small Round Table Students and Parents,

We were encouraged by our success raising money for the Liberty House, and we are planning another giving project. We looked at Heifer International's website, and talked about how there are people in the world without enough to eat, or pay fees for their children to go to school. The students came up with many different fundraising ideas, including selling holiday ornaments, decorate your own holiday cookies at lunch, and a pay & play charity football game between students. They have a wish list of animals on the board that looks like this:

Chickens: $20

Pigs $120

Goats:$120

Alpaca: $150

Water Buffalo: $250

Cow: $500

and the total for all the animals on their wish list is $1160.

I have no idea how close we will get to their goal, but I'm going to do my best to help them reach it. Any and all ideas and help from parents would be great!

We also will be assembling care packages for soldiers overseas, and we need help and ideas in that department too. Would any parents like to join us for round table and discuss any of these things, and help us plan?

Thanks!

Ms Small

Snow Shovel Sale Snow shovels are back at Founders!

These tough, durable shovels are made in New England and you can pick one up at the front desk for $20. Please consider buying one and supporting our school while keeping your driveways and sidewalks clean!

Other News

Founders Attire Founders has its own attire now! See the attachments to this email and the order form for polo shirts, ​ ​ fleece jackets, hoodies, etc.

**Orders will be placed once a month on the last day of the month during the entire school year.

**Order forms can be given to the front office or turned into the School Store on Tuesdays and Fridays.

**Payments can be by check (made out to "The Founders Academy") or cash.

**Watch for the Founders' store on the web site coming soon!

Food Order Forms Pizza and Fun Food Friday Order forms for January and February 2017 are available on the website under the parent drop down. If there is no school due to inclement weather on a Monday, pizza will be provided on Tuesday. Thank you for your support!

"Most Needed" Items at Founders: URGENT NEED!

Founders heavily relies on contributions and donations. As of now, the most needed items include:

- Scotch Tape - Paper Towels - Gallon jugs of Expo Whiteboard cleaner - Lunches and snacks for the food pantry! - Cough drops - Tissues - Band-aids of all sizes - Neomycin (antibiotic) - Plastic sandwich bags

Items can be dropped off at the school or call in advance at 603.952.4705. Thank you very much!

Admissions The application for the 2017-2018 school year is now online here: https://appro.rediker.com/apwebonlinereg/index.aspx?schoolid=0075BFD66E3E4EA0A7C23AA580B0F762

Thank you!

School Calendar Regularly check the school calendar online link: http://www.thefoundersacademy.org/calendar ​ ​

NOTE: Dates are continuously added and possibly changed throughout the year. Please check the online school calendar regularly.

Follow The Founders Academy on social media

© The Founders Academy 2016