Summer reading assignments for incoming Pinewood students — This summer, students in Pinewood (entering grades 3-5) will complete a required summer reading assignment. Find out more about the Grade 3 Reading Assignment, Grade 4 Reading Assignment, and the Grade 5 Reading Assignment.

Character Counts at Pinewood — The Pinewood Safety Committee has worked hard to enrich and broaden the Character Counts Program across the Pinewood School Community this year.

Each month Pinewood school focuses on one designated theme, such as respect, responsibility, kindness, honesty and good sportsmanship. Teachers are encouraged to integrate these themes in their planning across all curriculum areas. The Safety Committee and school Librarian, Ms. Holland, provides Web site and other media resources to help accomplish this. Read more.

Pinewood playground nearly complete; Community celebrates at ribbon cutting ceremony — Thanks to community members, local businesses, and families, Pinewood raised over $80,000 to build a new playground for its students. On June 13, the school held a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate all of the efforts of the community over the past three years.

“As the new Principal at Pinewood, I would like to give special thanks to the Playground Committee, Dr. Michael Johnson, former Pinewood Principal, and Todd Shafer, Pinewood's building leader,” said Pinewood Principal Michele Hunter. Read more.

Pinewood community celebrates 19th annual Flag Day — A sea of red, white and blue filled the Pinewood parking lot at the school's 19th annual Flag Day Celebration on Friday, June 13.

The Pinewood band, orchestra and Fresh Fiddlers performed at the special event. The audience enjoyed listening to the patriotic essay contest winners Joshua DuBois, Austen Blanchard, and Nikolas Cotugno, as well as guest speaker "Betsy Ross." View photos.

Helpful reading Web sites for students and parents — View the following list of Web sites that will help students practice reading comprehension and fluency.

Math Olympiad provides enrichment activities for Pinewood students — This year, Math Olympiad provided enrichment at all three grade levels in Pinewood. Third graders met after school with Mrs. Miller and Mrs. Wager, and fourth and fifth graders met before school with Ms. Bromley and parent volunteers. Fourth and fifth grade teams met to learn strategies, “play” with challenging problems and intriguing math games (like Numbers League), and compete. Read more.

Geography Bee puts Pinewood fourth grader on the map — On May 17, Pinewood fourth grade student, Eric Pasquini, won a school-wide Geography Bee at Community Day. Pasquini was crowned champion after competing against third, fourth and even fifth grade students. He was awarded a trophy, which he stands proudly with. Congratulations!

Fifth graders learn about the creatures of the sea — Pinewood fifth grade students have been dissecting squid in science lab as a culminating activity to their oceanography unit. In this popular lesson, students learn about the habitat and adaptations of a squid. Science teacher Ms. Jamack shows her class the squid on a document-based projector before they start this hands-on activity.

Mandatory immunization requirements for incoming sixth-graders — All incoming sixth-grade students born after January 1, 1994 need to show proof of a Tdap booster immunization. The Tdap immunization is a combination of diphtheria, tetanus and Pertussis vaccine. New York State Law mandates that all students entering sixth-grade must have received the Tdap vaccine. This booster immunization must have been given after September 1, 2006 in order for it to be valid. We want to make sure that incoming sixth-graders have enough time before the start of the 2008 school year to get this mandatory immunization. Find out more.

Thank you to community members who donated to Matching Gift Program at Stewart's — During the week of March 3-9, Pinewood School participated in the Matching Gift Program with Stewart’s Shops. Canisters were placed in the Stewart’s Shops on Hamburg Street and Helderberg Avenue. Residents and patrons were very generous. At the end of the week, $828.50 was collected. Stewart's matched every dollar donated, making a total of $1,657 for the Pinewood Playground project. Many thanks go to Andy Burke and Tony Barrone, store managers, for their support of this project. Thank you to Stewart’s and all who donated.

Pinewood Orchestra visits Proctor's — Pinewood Orchestra members, along with HS cello players, recently attended a marvelous concert at Proctor's Theatre. The Canadian fiddle group, "BARRAGE," played for two hours and delighted everyone with their lightning fast bows and upbeat music. Parents and students went early to listen to a pre-concert talk by two of the musicians. Students got to ask questions and found out that the bass player changes his strings about every two weeks. Mrs. Putnam and all of the parents and students capped off the night with a picture of the performers and the kids.

Hannaford helps schools; Awards Pinewood with $1,000 check — The Hannaford supermarket in Rotterdam awarded a very special prize to Pinewood School. The store manager, Tim Carroll, hand-delivered a $1,000 check to Pinewood principal, Michele Hunter, on April 11. 

Pinewood School received the $1,000 prize because its students contributed more register tapes than students from any other school in the Rotterdam Hannaford participation area. Read more.

Box Tops collection continues to build — Pinewood and Bradt students collected an additional $1,000 in box tops! That means that our students saved and clipped 10,000 box tops! We will receive this additional $1000 check in December 2008. This amount can go higher if students continue to participate. This program is not finished, so please continue to send in your box tops. Go to the official site, www.boxtops4education.com, to see what products participate in this wonderful program. 

Five Pinewood students were chosen from a random drawing of box top submissions to win an official BoxTops sticker, bookmark, coupon and some tasty selections from our BoxTops prize bin. The students are: Nicholas Woodward (Mrs. Wager), Ashley Carpenter (Mr. Browne), Rae Kellar (Ms. Furlong), Zachary Schneible (Mrs. Lester) and Devon Simmons (Mrs. Howard). 

We will send home another collection sheet for the spring, so please continue to save your box tops. You may want to consider asking co-workers and relatives to save box tops for our school as well. Any money collected is spent on supplies and equipment that benefit our students. Special thanks go to Mrs. Dergosits (teaching assistant) at Pinewood for her time spent counting and packaging box tops. Find out more.

Harlem Wizards visit with Pinewood students — On the night of March 28, the Harlem Wizards, a professional entertainment basketball team, played the untested but enthusiastic Mohonasen staff. 

During the school day, the basketball players took the time to come and visit with our very own Pinewood students. In addition, special guests—Shrek and friends—visited Pinewood's Reading Extravaganza before the big game! 

Looking at the big picture: What test scores can't reveal — Test scores provide only a “snapshot” of how a child is doing in school, so it’s important for parents to view the whole “photo album” when trying to determine if their child is receiving a well-rounded education. Parents should consider their children’s social and emotional development, in addition to their classroom performance.

“Good exam scores and high grades are what we want for every child,” says an elementary school guidance coordinator. “But we can’t dismiss the reality that in today’s world, children need more, much more, than just good grades.” Read more at the Parent Spot.

Pinewood students jump at chance to raise funds for Heart Association — 110 Pinewood students did a whole lot of jumping to raise money for the American Heart Association this spring through the school’s 21st year of the Jump Rope for Heart program. Physical education teacher Bill Mottola says the students raised $5,896 this year. Thanks to all of the students who participated, and to their family and friends who sponsored them in this good cause!

Pinewood students learn about making healthy food choices — Pinewood students got the okay to play with their food — healthy food, that is — on March 7. Thanks to sponsorship by Hannaford Supermarkets, the entire Pinewood student body watched a performance of "FOODPLAY." Read more.

Drivers need to STOP for pedestrians — People driving on campus, and anywhere for that matter, need to stop and yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk. There are "pedestrian crossing" signs and painted pavement located at all of the schools. With snow banks and low light conditions during the winter, it is even more important for drivers to be aware of students who are walking. Find out more at the School Resource Officers' page. 

Pinewood Playground Almost Done… By Michael Carnavos, 4th grade student
Basketball players and jump ropers will be excited to know that the paved areas on the playground will be done this spring. This past fall two structures have been added to the new playground. One is the Bongo Jungle Climber and the other structure has a web climber, rock wall, and two slides.

About $20,000 still needs to be raised. The last fundraisers include: Webkins sales, recycling cartridge program, and a Stewart’s canister campaign. Grants are still being pursued. The Pinewood Playground Committee is planning a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony that will be held this spring. Pinewood students want to thank all of the community who helped make it possible to have such an amazing playground!

Mohonasen launches new communication tool: Sign up today! — Mohonasen is pleased to announce the launch of the new "School News Notifier" (SNN), a system designed to help keep parents and the community more in touch with what is happening at Mohonasen Central Schools. SNN is an opt-in e-mail alert system for which parents and residents can sign up to receive e-mail alerts from the district. With SNN, district officials have the power to send updates and reminders about district activities or information about emergency school closings and delays. Users can choose to receive any or all of the alerts, and they can unsubscribe at any time. **Your e-mail address will be kept confidential.** Visit the SNN FAQ & Help page for information on how to sign up and log in, what notifications are available, how to subscribe and unsubscribe from notifications and much more. Continue to the School News Notifier home page to sign up for SNN!

Exploring the Grand Teton National Park — Mrs. Rasmusen, Mrs. Osinski and Mrs. Wagschall's classes recently went on a field trip to the Grand Tetons — electronically! Follow this link for more.

Prevention efforts continue in wake of MRSA staph infection cases in our schools — Like most districts around the country, Mohonasen has been taking steps to prevent the spread of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus or MRSA. The district has had three reported incidents of MRSA in students — one case each at Pinewood Intermediate School, Draper Middle School and Mohonasen High School. District officials are working closely with the Schenectady County Health Department to minimize the spread of this antibiotic-resistant bacteria and promote good hygiene practices among students and staff. Health officials say that regularly washing hands with soap and water is the BEST way to prevent the spread of MRSA. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has compiled a list of common questions and answers about MRSA in schools. Additional information about MRSA and what Mohonasen is doing to prevent its spread can be found here.

Parent involvement pays enormous dividends! Decades of research show that when parents are involved in their children's education, students have: higher grades, test scores and graduation rates; better school attendance; increased motivation and better self-esteem; lower rates of suspension; decreased drug and alcohol use; fewer instances of violent behavior; and a greater chance of going on to college and other secondary education. Read more here about the importance of parent involvement in your child's education.

2007-08 district calendar — The full version of the 2007-08 district calendar is available online. Please note that the PDF document might take a little while to download.