Today the Newcomer Academy and PTA hosted a Solar Eclipse watch party. Students and families were invited to watch a once-in-a-lifetime science phenomenon where the moon passes infront of the sun. From Somerville, we had 92.7% coverage! While waiting for the maximum coverage time to happen, students had a chance to mingle, dance to space-themed music, play with chalk and eat snacks. 

The Winter Hill Community Innovation School PreK Wildcat Class, which is currently housed at the Capuano School, has been studying trains.  The children showed an interest in the subject early on in the year and began building trains and train stations in the block area and drawing trains in the drawing area. Ms. Berkowitz and Mrs. Clark, the classroom teacher and paraprofessional, asked the children what they knew about trains and what they wanted to learn about trains. The classroom quickly became filled with train play, train math, and train word writing. This winter we took a field trip to the East Somerville Train station and rode the Green Line T one stop to Gilman Square. On this field trip the children drew the train and the train station.  We asked the children how they could show they were train experts. They decided to build a train and train station! Together we planned and built a Green Line Engine Car and passenger trains with wheels, lights, buttons, steering wheel, shifts, breaks, and safety instructions!  We also built the East Somerville T Station with signs, a map, ticket station, (with money and Charlie Cards), a traffic light, tracks, and a safety line and sidewalk! We invited families to our Train Learning Celebration and the children shared their learning with their families. Families participated in many train learning activities and were able to tour and play in our Train and Train Station! 

For their Civic Action Project, the 8th graders are leading a community research project about the options for a new Winter Hill building.

This is their mission statement: "We started this project to help students and educators get a better learning and teaching environment. By doing this project, it will help students and educators be heard about their own options about their OWN school building."

Please help us ROAR louder by following along with our project on Instagram, @whcis8thgrade. Thank you!!

Wildcats take the win! This nerve-wracking game had us all on our feet, hiding in our shirts, and clutching our chests. The Winter Hill teachers, students, past students, families, and the community came to support our team. The stands were packed. 

The Argenziano team started strong leading the game 2-0, but that didn't stop our boys. They came back strong for the second half. They stayed focused and worked together to take the lead. The teams battled it point by point until the last second when WH scored to tie it all, leading us into overtime. At the end of the first half of overtime, Argenziano was in the lead. Our players, unsure of the championship rules, thought they had lost. Coach Keegan huddled them up and led them through a mindful moment to calm and refocus them, then explained that they had more to play! Reenergized the team took the field. In the final seconds of the second half of overtime, WH scored and tied the game again! It was now down to penalty kicks. Both teams chose three players. We shot first and scored. Argenziano's kick is blocked. Our second shot goes in. Argenziano's second shot goes in! It is down to the last shot for us. Alex steps up, takes his shot, and makes it! The entire room erupts with cheers, but then there is a whistle. The ref has recalled the shot. Alex has to shoot again. It breezes by the goalie once more. The shot is good! WINTER HILL WINS! Congratulations to all the players and Coach Keegan for an amazing season. We are excited to add another trophy to our case. 

On Monday the team took a celebratory lap around the school and all classes came out into the hallway to cheer them on. They then passed the trophy over to Ms. McWeeny to display it in the office. 

Congratulations on an amazing season. 

VAMOS WINTER HILL! 

First graders in Science have been grappling with an anchoring phenomenon related to light: how can we make our classroom dark? We figured out that after closing the blinds and turning the lights off, there was still light coming through various parts of our classroom. Students realized that we will need to cover the windows to block the sun from coming in. This week, students investigated with different materials to see which ones would block the light. Some materials were transparent, some were translucent, some were opaque, and there was even a reflective material! Take a look at the pictures to see first grade scientists at work!  

Over the last two weeks, all students in grades 7 and 8 went on a field trip to the USS Constitution Museum. Students took a tour of the original ship with and learned about it's history from an active naval officer. Then students worked in teams of 4 to design and build their own ship. Students then raced their ships on water. The fastest ships were 5.8 seconds (8th grade) and 6 seconds (7th grade). All around the students enjoyed their day.  

This week second graders in Mrs. Manning's Class celebrated our hundredth day of school! The students did a wonderful job of demonstrating their math, exercise, artistic, writing, and creative skills while rotating from classroom to classroom doing different activities centered around the number 100. Students had such a wonderful time creating friendships and learning new things during the first hundred days of second grade and they look forward to continuing the fun and learning throughout the next 80 days of our school year! 

🔊In science, first grade students have been discovering vibrations when sound is made. We were able to see and feel vibrations on a guitar, and made our own instruments using recyclable materials. As a culminating activity, we teamed up with Ms Stier for a chance to see, hear, and feel different vibrations with 3 different instruments: the piano, percussion drums, and the cello.

🥁First graders were so excited to get to hear the different sounds an instrument can make, and to feel the vibrations through our bodies. Take a look at the pictures to see musicians and scientists at work together!

👏A big thank you and round of applause to Ms Stier and our 3 middle school students for helping make this Science and Music integration possible!

This week students in grades 7 and 8 ventured to downtown Boston to participate in an educational program at the Lyric Stage. Local directors, lighting designers, and sound designers shared about their roles in making a show. A few participants were called up to help demonstrate how the magic happens. We then got to see a show with all the elements put together. 

3rd graders are working on nonfiction. Here we are identifying main idea by putting together details and figuring out what they have in common!

We have been practicing yoga and mindfulness in third grade.  Today we talked about how having a mindful posture can improve your concentration and lift your mood. Here are my students in downdog pose. Third graders know that yoga and mindfulness is a great way to get your mind and body ready for a great day of learning. 

We've been working hard in room 201. We continue to get acclimated to our new school environment. Every day, we are learning new skills and building friendships. We were super excited to sing in the Winter Concert. We practiced really hard, and all that hard work paid off because we sounded great! We will continue to work hard. 

Winter Hill competed in the Somerville Robotics League citywide competition and showcase at Somernova on Friday December 15.  Students in grades 5-8 had the choice to participate in a "Megasaurus" challenge to build a robot to compete in who can earn the most points by climbing a mountain, collecting eggs, or moving palm trees. Or they could build a showcase robot that would do something creative. The Winter Hill team was awarded two runner up medals in two categories :Sixth grader Marcos Dutra Martins in the showcase division for his silly dancing robot, and Fifth grader Joseph D’Agati for his robot which did a great job climbing the Megasaurus mountain. This years team was represented by stents in grades 5-7 coached by Mrs. Dixon and Miss Lori. A huge thank you to Jason Behrens, district Innovation Specialist, for organizing the SRL and to our SHS Robotics Team members Gerran and Alison for coming to the Edgerly every week to lead the sessions.

This year has shown us just how important it is to be flexible! We have had 2 new classrooms to get adjusted to. Our students continue to work hard wherever they do their learning! We participated in the middle school scavenger hunt where we visited the Highschool and saw some of our old friends. We carved and painted pumpkins in October and did some fun experiments with pumpkin volcanos. In November we learned all about Native American Heritage month ,and this month we made Gingerbread houses with the Engineering students from Tufts! We are excited to watch three of our students play on the school soccer team and we are ALL looking forward Winter Break!  

Students have been hard at work in Ms. R’s class on their IEP objectives and earning fun things! Students have shared sensory experiences, practiced waiting turns, and attended to adapted specialists with the fab five specialist team.  We are looking forward to more hard work and activities to share together in the coming months! 

The 5th graders completed a fun STEM activity the day before Thanksgiving break creating their own balloon floats to be in a parade. We read the book "Balloons over Broadway" to learn about the history of the Thanksgiving Day Parade and how the floats started out as little puppets. 

The 5th graders completed a fun STEM activity the day before Thanksgiving break creating their own balloon floats to be in a parade. We read the book "Balloons over Broadway" to learn about the history of the Thanksgiving Day Parade and how the floats started out as little puppets. 

Last Tuesday, our flag football team won the championship game after THREE overtime. The team had an almost undefeated season. They lost one game to AFAS to come back and beat them in the final game. To celebrate their hard work and HUGE win we did a rolling parade. Each homeroom stood in the hallway cheering on the team as the walked the halls as a team showing their trophy and medals. HUGE congratulations to the teams and Coach Senecal. 

This week our student council planned a fun and inclusive spirit week. Each day had a different theme dress like students/teachers, anything but a backpack day, and twin day. Students and teachers had fun dressing up. On Wednesday our annual middle school Turkey Bowl was rained out. The fabulous specialist team came up with stations football drills, Karaoke, and creating with beds. 

In 7th/8th Grade Newcomer Academy English Class, we are reading fiction stories and looking for story elements like setting, characters, and plot. Here is a plot diagram the students made that labels these elements.

Students in Mr. Keegan's SLIFE English class are learning about the people in our school. They worked on matching a picture of people in our school with their job and their room. Students had fun sorting through the pictures of their teachers. 

This week some 6th Graders decided to use some math skills during Social Studies Class.  While trying to determine what a mystery artifact was in Social Studies, they decided that it would help them to find the Surface Area of the object first! The classes did a big reveal during a joint Morning Meeting between Ms. Luna's and Mr. Collins' homerooms of what the artifact actually was!

Students in Ms. Luna's homeroom working collaboratively on their Unit 2 Review Packet in advance of their Unit 2 Ratios Assessment tomorrow.

Both homerooms have been working with students from the Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Research for weekly STEM challenges.

This week, students had to design a "Chair for Bear" by first planning with their group and then building and testing their design to ensure that the bear would be securely supported by the chair.

Students celebrated our first Character Day on Tuesday. Students had the choice to dress as their favorite character from any book, movie, or TV show. 

This Fall students in grades 6-8 have the opportunity to play volleyball or flag football. Our flag football team is undefeated. Our volleyball team had their first win this past Saturday. 

First Annual Title I Basketball Tournament

We had a wonderful evening of fun and intense sportsmanship last week! Teachers and staff from the two Title I schools in Somerville faced off on the basketball court at the Healey school. The Healey’s team came out on top, but our school came out winning immense goodwill and support! What an exciting time it was! Check out our Facebook page for some of the most perfect pictures of the WHCIS team, taken by our own Nancy McWeeny!

Last night would not have happened without Mr. Senecal and his counterpart at the Healey School, who worked tirelessly to recruit teams. Both sides played to win. Special thanks to Ms. Anzalone for taking on the toughest job of all – being a fair and firm referee. Great job to all the teachers who represented WHCIS. Ms. Barros, we will miss you next year. Because, if the Healey and WHCIS get their way, this will be an annual event, co-sponsored by the two schools.

Ticket sales were a total of $674 (including “Pay What You Can” and “Sponsor a Family” tickets). These will be split with the Healey PTA, netting us $337 each. Separately, WHCIS raised $425 in concession sales. Not a bad night for fundraising!

The Healey school subsidized our popsicle sales – it was a hot day! Ms. Jen Miller subsidized our popcorn sales. Tara Barreira subsidized the cost of a banner we presented to the Healey, made by our very own Eran Blank Phinney.

More pictures of action are coming to our Instagram page soon

Last Friday the entire middle school participated in the annual scavenger hunt. This year Mr. Mac redesigned the scavenger hunt to take us around our new community. Students explored East Somerville and learned about the community that surrounds us.

Students from Tufts visited Ms. Brown's classroom last week to do some STEM activities with the class. Next week they will do a robotics activity.

Students in grade 7 and 8 SEI classes are designing solar ovens and experimenting with which materials will insulate the ovens best. 

Families were invited to meet the teachers at Capuano and Edgerly over the last two weeks. Prinicipal Gosselin welcomed all families back and shared our Wildcat ROAR values. If you were unable to attend please reach out to your student's teacher. 

September flew by! We've been working on increasing our functional communication, learning as a group, and following an independent activity schedule. An activity schedule is a 5 step picture sequence that promotes independence and leisure skills. In addition to our individual student academic goals, we also practice social skills (waiting, turn-taking) in our daily game group. 

Students in the Newcomer Academy practice finding information in a text. Students interact with the text in multiple ways to deepen their understanding. Here they are working with partners to find information in text and share it through written respones.