A Perfect Day in Gloucester

The children were totally engaged during our recent field trip to the Gloucester Maritime and Whale Museum. They were fascinated by the skeletons of whales and dolphins, learned how to identify whales by the patterns displayed on their fluke tails, enjoyed humming to snails to encourage them to come out of their shells, watched the skates submerge under the sand to hide and camouflage themselves, created fish prints and looked through microscopes to identify animal (zooplankton) and plant (phytoplankton) plankton.

The weather was absolutely perfect for our picnic lunch at the park and your children were respectful learners and listeners. I am so thankful to the parent chaperones for their support and supervision to ensure we had a safe and engaging experience, Mr. Campagna, Mrs. de Buy Wenniger, Mrs. Palazzolo, and Mrs. Zamagni thank you for spending the day with us to ensure a memorable hands-on experience.

Take a peek below and see some of the highlights of our fabulous day in Gloucester!

Feeling Blessed

Teacher Appreciation Week

Each time I enter my room I'm reminded of the support and love of my students and their families.

Dear Families~

Teacher Appreciation Week will be forever seared in my mind and it will always remind me of the generous and considerate Acts of Kindness I received throughout the week. I am so appreciative for the thoughtful gifts, but most importantly the gift of working with your children during my final year of teaching in Topsfield. My classroom is adorned with gorgeous bouquets of colorful flowers, fragrant herbs and toiletries, letters, books and cards written by my talented students and their families, gorgeous note cards and intricate coloring books ready to be artfully completed (as long as I stay in the lines,) a quilting project ready for the making and a class gift that I promise I will enjoy as soon as I make an appointment and can trade my shoes for sandals.  Each gift was a lovely surprise and just reminds me how lucky I am to work with such an amazing group of students and their supportive families.

 A very special thank you to my room mothers, Cathy Phillips and Carey Shugrue as they supervised my students so that I could participate in a school wide Teacher Appreciation event that Mrs. Costa designed and coordinated with the help of so many supportive families. Thank you Mrs. Gustafson, I saw you hiding in the background helping wherever it was needed. Steward School is a very special place and I know how lucky I am to be a part of this supportive community. 

With love and gratitude,

Lena Madden

Happy Mother's Day Mom

Thank You Mom for ALL you do to help me grow.

Nile the Humpback Whale Visits Steward School

Thank you TESPTO for bringing Nile the Humpback Whale to Steward School today. We have been studying ocean animals for a few weeks and have nearly completed our research reports and animal habitat dioramas. We are excited to be traveling to the Gloucester Maritime Museum next week to learn more about how ocean animals live in their habitat and the adaptations that help them survive.

It was exciting to watch Nile inflate before our very eyes and see how big a real humpback whale is in the ocean waters here in Massachusetts. Stepping inside Nile's body was cool and it was an amazing opportunity to learn.  Stay tuned as we are in the process of sharing all we learned today!

Thank you Mrs. McInniss for teaching us so much about how to tell whales apart from one another, how they breathe, what they eat and how they communicate with one another. Thank you for reminding us to use fewer plastics and to be especially careful about disposing plastics properly so ocean animals don't accidentally get caught in the plastic rings or eat plastic grocery bags.