Piscataquis Community Elementary School recognizes Students of the Month
GUILFORD — Each month outstanding pupils in grades 5-8 at Piscataquis Community Elementary School are honored as Students of the Month. The 10 March honorees were presented with certificates in front of their peers during morning meeting in the cafeteria on Wednesday, March 27.
“You guys have been doing a great job,” Assistant Principal Jessica Dunton told the audience.
Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
PCES STUDENTS OF THE MONTH — March Students of the Month at Piscataquis Community Elementary School in Guilford are, from left, sixth-graders Timothy MacNeil, Baylynn Grant and Dorinda Feaga, eighth-grader Gracie Talbot, seventh-grader Jada Wyman, eighth-grader Kendall Kimball, fifth-grader Hunter Wyman and eighth-graders Samantha Goodwin and Kaileigh Carson. Not pictured, fifth-grader Hannah Firth.
Students of the Month are selected by their teachers for criteria such as outstanding citizenship and academic performance. Dunton said some of this month’s honorees have demonstrated positive attitudes, helped others, represented the school well on a recent field trip and have taken the lead in group work among other qualities.
The 10 newest Students of the Month at PCES — some of whom have been honored previously — are Hannah Firth and Hunter Wyman, grade 5; sixth-graders Dorinda Feaga, Baylynn Grant and Timothy MacNeil; seventh-grader Jada Wyman; and grade 8 students Kaileigh Carson, Samantha Goodwin and Gracie Talbot.
The morning meeting included the recognition of more than a half dozen PCES “Upstanders,” students who have stood up for their peers and/or others over the previous few weeks. These honorees have assisted a teacher with an arm full of items, assisted a new student, stood up for a peer and more.
All Upstanders are presented with a personalized boomerang made by Guidance Director Jason Schriver to be hung on the wall in the main lobby and scheduled to go home with the recipients at the end of the school year. The boomerangs signify that good deeds come back to you.
“Anyone can nominate for these, you can nominate someone if they’re doing a good thing,” Schriver said. “So keep an eye out for good behavior.”
Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
PCES UPSTANDERS — Each month Piscataquis Community Elementary School recognizes Upstanders, students who have stood up for their peers or others over the previous few weeks and honorees are presented with customized boomerangs to signify that good deeds will come back to them. The latest Upstanders in grades 5-8 were recognized during the March 27 morning meeting.
The previous Friday the entire PCES sixth grade traveled to Portland to visit LabVenture at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute.
“They measured lobsters and dissected fish virtually with a touchscreen,” teacher Emily Chadbourne said after the morning meeting. “The technology was pretty amazing.”
Teacher Julie Bernier said students also set computer-simulated lobster traps to catch the crustaceans and seabass and needed to decide what met the criteria to be kept and what needed to be set back in the water.
PCES sixth-graders were able to see a frozen shark as well as a tuna brought out of the freezer, with the hook still in its mouth, to view staff dissect one of the fish’s eyes.
“The kids got to ask a lot of questions,” Bernier said.
Students learned about climate change and how lobsters are migrating north toward the cooler waters and competed in groups to identify fish species.
The LabVenture experience brings grade 5-6 students from across Maine down to Portland for a day to become scientists and conduct hands-on ocean-related research. Chadbourne said Poland Spring is the lead sponsor of the program — there also are over two dozen LabVenture sponsors and investors — and “there is no cost to schools.”
“They sent a Cyr bus so we traveled in luxury,” Bernier said about the ride from Guilford to Portland and back.