Thomaston Grammar School

Welcome to Thomaston Grammar School

65 Watts Lane

Thomaston, ME 04861

Telephone:  (207) 354-6353

Fax:  (207) 354-6238

Susan Stilwell, Principal

Laura Curtis, Administrative Assistant

Sara Gilfenbaum, Head Teacher

Colleen Kreps, School Counselor

Jim Leonard, Athletic Director

Check the latest happenings under the “News” tab and future plans under the “Upcoming Events” tab!

The 2012-2013 RSU 13 School Calendar (printable) is available at the bottom of the page.

Thomaston After-School Activities (TASA)

May 2012

All Clubs are offered FREE of charge!

DANCE & PERFORMING ARTS: Make, learn and share your own dances! Here's a chance to explore many fun games and to learn choreography—the art of making dances. Learn safe and respectful ways to use the body to create dances as a means of personal expression, learn how to talk about dance and share positive feedback with your peers.

DIY T-shirt Design: Make your own printed t-shirt! Learn to design and craft t-shirts using professional techniques. Make one for yourself or for a friend. Come to play…leave with great results!

FITNESS CLUB: Come and explore some ideas for life-long fitness. Each week, students will have the opportunity to try individual activities that promote exercise, healthy living, and FUN! Climb the traversing wall, workout around a fitness circuit, go on a power walk, hoop, lift free weights, and MORE! All classes will focus on individual fitness, not team sports.  Dress comfortably, wear sneakers, and be ready to sweat!  No child left on their behind!

GAME ZONE: Power up for this game club with Wii games and iPads. Mix it up with your favorite traditional games and have fun on and off the screen.

GERMAN FOOD, CULTURE and CRAFTS: Learn conversational German and how to bake luscious desserts. We’ll explore the culture through food, language, fun and facts.

JOURNALING STORIES: Do you like to write creative short stories? Do you journal? Come share your story ideas and we’ll discuss ways to make your characters and plot jump off the page.

RHYTHM MASTERS: Are you ready to rock? Rhythm Masters drumming program will have you tapping your toes, jamming cool beats, and even writing your own rhythms! No experience necessary, just bring your enthusiasm and be ready to make some music!

SCRAPBOOK ART: Bring your favorite photos and your friends and create your own personal yearbook. Every student will get a scrapbook and lots of cool bling to decorate your pages.

SONGWRITER’S WORKSHOP: Attention all music lovers! The Songwriter’s Workshop is just the club for you! We will listen to your favorite songs, learn how they are written, and how you can write and arrange original songs. If you have an interest in making music, or would like to create songs using any journaling, writing, poetry, or ideas that you have—come and join the fun!

For questions, please call Shannon Parker at 594-9764

Printable TASA PDF schedule information is posted under the All4TGS Tab.

RSU 13 Text Alerts Available

The Director of Information Technology for RSU 13 has set up a server to send out text alerts for the district. If you are interested in signing up please visit:

text.rsu13.org

When entering your cell phone number, the area code is necessary, but do not use spaces or dashes.  Once you submit your cell phone number, you’ll be prompted to enter your “verification code”.  This code will be texted to your cell phone within a few minutes.

UPCOMING EVENTS: 

May

5/18                 In-service day: writing prompt K-12  (no students)

5/21                 TGS 5^th Grade Fine Arts Afternoon, TGS gym,1:30 p.m. 

5/22                 4^th grade Step-up to TGS

5/23                 5^th grade to GMRI (Gulf of Maine Research Institute)

5/24                 6^th grade Guest Speaker – 12:00-1:30pm

Mrs. Hegan’s class visiting Oceanside West 9:30

Parents of Resource Room invited to meet Oceanside West Resource Room

                          Teachers and School Counselors at TGS  1:15

5/25                 Library Services end, Library closes for Testing & Inventory

5/28                 Memorial Day Holiday

5/29                 5^th grade to Botanical Gardens

                          7^th grade to Point Lookout

                          NWEA Testing for LS & 6^th grade

5/30                 NWEA Testing for Vistas & 5^th grade

5/31                 4^th grade Step-up Breakfast for Parents and Students

                        7^th Grade to Oceanside West

                          NWEA Testing Alt Ed & 7^th grade

June

6/1                   ALL Library Books Due

7^th turn in laptops

NWEA Testing for 5^th & Vistas

6/2 (Sat.)         TGS Band & Chorus Funtown Trip, Saco, All Day, Grades 6/7

6/4                   NWEA Testing for 6^th grade & LS

6/5                   NWEA Testing for Alt Ed & 7^th grade

6/6                   NWEA Make-up

6/7                   Celebration of Learning Night – 5:00-6:30pm

6/8                   Celebration of Learning Exhibitions, Sports Awards/BBQ/Yearbook Dedication

/Field Day

6/9  (Sat.)          Rain date for above Funtown Trip

6/12                 7^th grade breakfast, End of Year Assembly, last day of school K-11

Half day – Early dismissal

Year End Library Reminders

It’s been a busy year at the TGS Library! There has been a LOT of reading and as of April 13^th, we have circulated more than 2,600 books. Impressive!

THE LAST DAY TO RETURN LIBRARY BOOKS is June 1^st. So now is the time to look for those books you think you may have lost. Did you look in the bottom of your cubby? Under your bed, the car seat, your backpack or bookshelf at home? If something happened to your book you may be afraid to bring it back to us. Don’t worry, accidents happen, and we will do our best to make repairs.

Please search out your books and get them back to us on or before June 1^st so we can get the library inventoried and put to bed for the summer. Don’t forget to keep reading over the summer! The Thomaston Public and the Cushing Community Libraries have great collections and fun summer programs to enjoy! 

Thank you for your help.

Thomaston Grammar School News

We have twelve students in the Middle Level Alternative Education program. They go to the Herring Gut Learning Center three days a week to conduct their aquaponic business, which is growing fish and plants together as a closed system. This is an academically based program, which integrates all subjects into the HGLC curriculum. They also run the recycling project at TGS, in which they collect and sort all paper, cans and bottles at the school.

TGS has been reconfigured, and has several new staff and students. The staff felt a unifying experience was needed for both staff and students, and to meet that need they selected Tanglewood’s “Building Our Human Community” program. This program is designed to foster positive communication and help students identify the strengths that they bring to the group. It also helps students think critically, problem solve, work cooperatively, and become more effective communicators. Heather Francis, Tanglewood’s School Program Director, provided a scholarship to the school that covered all costs for this program. The work begun at Tanglewood will be continued through “Crew” (the TGS advisory program) throughout the year.

This summer the TGS 5th grade Common Ground Garden donated lettuce to the Rockland soup kitchen. Thanks to the cooperation of Mr. Butler and the cafeteria staff, students have harvested beets, carrots, broccoli, onions, and cucumbers to add to their lunch in the TGS cafeteria! The garden continues to be a favorite learning activity for the 5th grade students at TGS.

  The students in grade seven are becoming a great community of kids. They started the year with two activities to help them become aware of what it takes to be a classmate and friend. The first was the Tanglewood program, followed up by “The Paper Clip Unit” which teaches about respect and tolerance by focusing on the atrocities of the Holocaust and the price people paid for the biases of others.   In math the students have been working on shoring up computation skills and learning how to collect, organize, analyze, and interpret data. In Science they are learning about measurement and the metric system. Social Studies work has centered on a review of geography skills and Maine studies. During ELA, the seventh graders have been assessing Grammar skills, learning about Reading/test taking strategies, and writing acrostic poems about themselves.