A newsletter for our community as we SOAR together
Our Mission
At Douglas Elementary School, we
aspire to cultivate curiosity and a love
of learning in a joyful community,
rooted in inclusivity, diversity, and
respect for every individual. We strive
to provide a quality and equitable
education to all students to equip them
to be brave, compassionate citizens of
the world.
Principal's Message
It was wonderful to see such an amazing turnout of families at last night's Fall Social. I connected with so many of you and spoke to your children about books they chose and food they were eating. The social reminds me of one of the many things that makes our Douglas community special. Thank you for your support!
Its been a busy week at Douglas. We're officially six weeks into the school year. It's a time that we look at the students in front of us and reflect on where they are both academically and socially-emotionally. We engage in data meetings with our teachers, math and literacy specialists, STEAM and Literacy Coaches, Special Educators and Multilingual Teachers. In these meetings we discuss our students and how best to meet their needs. The collaboration of our staff during these meetings is second to none. Teachers work with each other to strategize the best way to ensure all students can access the curriculum.
The outcome of these meetings includes plans to support students. We check back in 6-8 weeks after conducting an intervention cycle with our students. If they're making progress, we decide whether to continue with the intervention or pause our work. Our staff is passionate about the work they do with students and this is just one step in the process.
Please enjoy a long week with your family!
Update on AB Regional School District Reorganization
The Acton-Boxborough Regional School District is working on its strategic planning and reorganization. This week, the consulting firm presented the AB Forward Steering Committee with potential reorganization options.
The next step is to gather feedback from everyone in the community to help the Steering Committee narrow down the options.
The committee will then present its recommendations to the School Committee for a final decision.
Here's how you can share your input:
Community-Wide Survey: A survey will be published in mid-October.
Public Forums: Attend one of the three upcoming public forums to learn more and provide feedback before the Steering Committee makes its final recommendations:
Tuesday, October 21, 6:30–8 p.m. at ABRHS Auditorium (Acton)
Monday, October 27, 6:30–8 p.m. at Blanchard Memorial Gymnasium (Boxborough)
Thursday, October 30, 6:30–8 p.m.Virtual (registration details will be shared soon)
Thank you to all Douglas School families who took the time to share their perspectives regarding Back to School Night. While the sample of responses was small this year, the feedback received was thoughtful and appreciated and will help us reflect on ways to enhance the evening in the future. Based on your suggestions, we may consider some changes to next year’s format so that the event continues to meet the needs of our community. Specifically, we may consider returning to a more formal evening of presentations from our educators. Thank you for your feedback.
Students must be attended to before school
We've seen and increase in the number of students who are left unattended each morning. Please make sure you don't leave your children at Douglas before 8:35AM. They are unsupervised until then.
Halloween/Wild Hat Day
As we work to create an equitable spirit of inclusivity of all cultures at Douglas, please know we will not be celebrating Halloween in school. We have many families who, for a multitude of reasons, don't celebrate the holiday, and out of respect for them, we will not celebrate the holiday at Douglas. Instead, we'll focus on the autumn season and we will have a WILD HAT DAY, but will not dress in costumes. On Friday, October 31st, students will be asked to wear a wild hat as we create a culture of fun and excitement at Douglas!
Please grab a hat and wear it!
Collection
GIrl Scout Troop 64199 Community Service Project for Acton Boxborough Resource Center. Please donate these things: Reusable Shopping Bags (gently used is OK!),Toothpaste, Deodorant, Shampoo & Conditioner, Tissues, Hand Sanitizer, Soap, Body Wash, Hand soap, Men's Medium Underwear; Please bring in by 10/28/25!
Reminders
Monday, October 13th-No School Indigenous Peoples Day
Monday, October 20th-No School Diwali
Spotlight On
Spotlight On...
5th Grade
Greetings from 5th grade!
In Math, students are solving problems involving division with whole numbers that have answers that are fractions. In the first few lessons, students talk about sharing sandwiches and liters of water! They enjoy drawing diagrams to represent these fun scenarios.
In Social Studies, students discussed the role of cartographers (map makers) in representing the changing North American continent. They practiced analysing maps and other primary sources–some students even started to make their own maps! We have just started to understand the motives, means, and consequences of European Nations in the Americas. 5th grade is excited to keep exploring our American history.
Spotlight on Grade 1
We have launched the first module of EL Education, our Language Arts program. This first module, called Be A Maker, focuses on the question: Why do people invent things? Through our close reading of fiction and nonfiction texts, we learned that people invent things to solve problems, create fun, or both! Now we are exploring how habits of characters (like collaboration, perseverance, and respect) help inventors. Students are engaging in challenges to practice these habits of character, like the Shape Making Challenge, pictured below!
Last week we moved into the section of our math curriculum about sorting and categorizing. Students practiced sorting groups of shapes or objects and naming the categories to describe the way the objects were sorted. Now we are practicing collecting and representing data in various ways, such as tally marks, numbers, and pictograms.
Awesomeness at Douglas!
Week in Review (video)
Ribbon Cutting Sunshade at Rivers Playground
Principal's Coffee Recording from September 25, 2025
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