SOLON & BEYOND: Solon elementary school news

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

I was very pleased to receive the Solon School newspaper for this week’s column, with a pretty picture of a flower and the words HAPPY SPRING; it made my day!

Will start with the Third Quarter Honor Roll: All A’s, Lane Frost, Olive MacDonald and Jayden McKenney. All A’s & B’s, Isabella Atwood, Maxx Caplin, Charlotte Hamilton, Ethan Plourd, Martin Plourd, Hunter Pouliot, Dylan Priest, Spencer Rogers and Rowdy Taylor. Congratulations! Now for the Principal’s Message: Spring is upon us, and our students are enjoying more time outside. We are happy to be able to open windows wider to bring in the fresh air and to engage our students in some outdoor learning activities.

Many of our remote learners have returned to in-person learning, and we are happy to have them back. After not seeing all of our students last spring, it is so nice to have them here this year!

Next week is Staff Appreciation Week. I want to celebrate the wonderful teachers and staff that we have here at Solon Elementary School. You can be sure that our children are their top priority!Thanks to them to them for their hard work and dedication in this unique and challenging school year.

Plans are already in the works for summer! We are in the process of planning our Summer School programs, and more specific information will be forthcoming. Mrs. Laura Layman is also planning a Summer Rec program sponsored by the town of Solon for three weeks in July here at the school. We’ll share that information with families once we receive it. Families have already received forms to register their children for the town of Solon’s summer sports programs.

Important dates for spring are the public hearing on the school budget, scheduled for May 27, at 6: p.m., at Carrabec High School, and the budget referendum in each town on June 8. Another date the students are looking forward to is the last day of school, June 10! Enjoy this beautiful Maine spring and please contact us with any questions or concerns. Thank you for your support.

Solon School Participates in Walking School Bus. On April 7, students and staff participated in a Walking School Bus activity. They met at the Solon Thrift Store and walked to school, respecting social distancing guidelines. Once at school everyone enjoyed a great breakfast prepared by school cook Cindy Lawrence.

Walking School Bus activities are part of our 5-2-1-0 wellness plan. Our 5-2-1-0 School Champion, Ms. Rich, organized the activity for us. Another Walking School Bus activity is scheduled for May 12.

Solon Elementary School To Benefit From Sales of Shopping Bags: During the month of May, Hannaford Supermarket, in Skowhegan, will donate $1 for every purchase of its $2.50 reusable Fight Hunger Bags to our school for our food pantry. Every month Hannaford chooses a nonprofit organization to benefit from the sale of these bags.

Solon Celebrates the Week of the Young Child; Our school celebrates the Week of the Young Child, April 12-16, with special activities organized by our preschool staff. Our students enjoyed “Tasty Tuesday” with delicious fruit and yogurt parfaits on April 13 and helped clean up the school grounds on Work Together Wednesday, April 14.

Solon holds spring fever festival week: During the week of March 22-26, Solon Elementary School celebrated the arrival of spring with a Spring Fever Festival. Here are some of the special activities organized by Mrs. LaChance: Guest readers videotaped themselves reading spring books, and teachers showed these videos to their students. Our superintendent, Mr. Tracy, came to read to them during lunch time. Each day had a dress-up theme for students to follow such as Tie-Dye Tuesday and Time to Shine Thursday. Students played “What’s in My Egg” using riddles to help them guess what was in two big eggs sitting on the counter by Mrs. McFadyyen’s desk. During one period each day, teachers switched classes. Each one read a spring book and did a spring craft or other activity with that class. Thus, students got to work with four different teachers besides their own during the week. An outside Easter egg hunt was planned for Friday but postponed due to rain until March 31. After the hunt, students received Easter treat bags.

I’m afraid I have used up most of the space for this column already, and there was still more about the Solon School that I will print next week. There will also be some crazy news about our bird friend that is driving us crazy! …and the wonderful week of celebrating my birthday. Many of you know how old I am and I feel blessed to have reached that elderly number!

And here is one of my thoughts, (which I found on the cover of a book that I have, and it says “Age doesn’t matter unless you’re a cheese”

And now for Percy’s memoir: “If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time – a tremendous whack. ( those words were from Statesman Winston Churchill.)