SOLON & BEYOND: News from Solon Elementary School

by Marilyn Rogers-Bull & Percy
grams29@tds.net
Solon, Maine 04979

Good morning dear friends.

Was so happy to receive the Solon School News, as always, and there was a lot of good information there.

Solon Elementary School held a Secret Santa activity again this Christmas. Students and staff members drew names and each one designed a tree ornament for the person whose name he/she selected. These ornaments looked great on the school Christmas tree in the lobby!

The Solon PTO sponsored a special Children’s Shopping Day on December 17. Students were able to shop for inexpensive gifts for their families at a “store” set up by the PTO. Thanks to parents who donated items for this activity and to the parents who helped at the store.

The Solon Christmas Program took place on December 18. Students from preschool through the fifth grade performed songs and skits for their families and friends. There was a standing room only crowd for this festive annual event.

The Solon Fire Department came to the school and and held a Christmas party for the K-5 students on December 20. They set up games and activities for the students, and they even brought Santa with them. We appreciate the support of the Fire Department all year long.

In Mrs. Waugh’s technology class, one of the activities in early December was for K-2 students to write and type letters to Santa Claus. At the school the fifth graders teamed up with the kindergartners to help them write their letters. And it is understood that Santa wrote back to the students.

Monthly Assemblies Scheduled at Solon Elementary: The school is holding monthly assemblies again this year, and parents and other family members and friends are welcome to join them for those. At each assembly one of the classes presents a topic they have been studying. At some assemblies, they give awards, the Civil Rights Team makes a presentation, and/or we do other activities.

This is the schedule of upcoming assemblies: January 9, Presentation by Grade 1. held at 1:45 p.m. February 6, Presentation by Civil Rights Team, Honor Roll & Attendance Awards; 1:45 p.m. March 6, Presentation by Grade 3, Bookmark Winners announced at 1:30 p.m. April 24, Presentation by Grade 2, Honor Roll and Attendance Awards, 1:45 p.m. And on May 8, Presentation by Grade 5 at 1:45 p.m.

PTO meeting is scheduled for Thursday, January 10, at 6 p.m.

Each year Solon Elementary School holds a contest to see which student can guess the date of the first Snow Day when school will be canceled due to stormy weather. This year’s winner, who accurately predicted that the first Snow Day would be November 16, were first grader Emma Pooler and fourth grader Kaitlin Dellarma. Each of them won a bag of snow-related gifts.

The District Band and Chorus Winter Concert will be held on January 15, at 6 p.m., at Carrabec Community School. Directed by Dan Gilbert.

One thing about our schools in this modern world that had been bothering me terribly, is the fact that cursive writing was not being taught in our schools now.

I had kept thinking I would write a letter to the editor in the paper, {daily paper}, but since it had taken lots of phone calls, and just about a month to get my last letter printed, I gave up on that! But it made my day last week when I read the headline, “Cursive coming back to schools. Writing by hand provides skills in communication. ” ( I would have thought they would have figured that out long before now.)

And now for Percy’s memoir: “You have powers you never dreamed of. You can do things you never thought you could do. There are no limitations in what you can do except the limitations in your own mind as to what you cannot do. Don’t think you cannot. Think you can.” (words by Darwin P. Kingsley.)

I had a very wonderful gift given to me recently. It was a very special pin that this friend had made for me of a cat and he said, “It is in memory of Percy,” and I love it!