The Adams School  
P.O. Box 29
27 School Street
Castine, Maine 04421
326-8608
www.adamsschool.com

Todd R. Nelson - Principal 

ADAMS SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
MAY 19, 2006
326-8608
www.adamsschool.com



 

Returned to Sender

 

When Cecelia and Jim Bock went on vacation in the Bahamas, they hardly expected to find a message sealed in a glass bottle by fourth graders at a little school in Castine, Maine! But one day in May, while jet skiing in Nassau, that’s just what happened. When they got home to Maryland, Cecelia called up the principal at the school in Maine—me. Then she wrote an e-mail to the kids in Mrs. McFadden’s class: Alex, Meredith, Paul, and Jasper. “Finding your bottle,” she said, “was the best surprise of our vacation!”

Perhaps you remember when last year’s fourth and fifth graders wrote messages and sealed them in wine bottles along with local natural artifacts, weather reports, Castine history, baseball cards, and an Adams School postcard ready for mailing. Then we launched them: some thrown from the town dock, some from the TV State of Maine, and some from the RV Argo, thanks to Randy Flood. That was more than a year ago. Three bottles have now been found: one by a lobsterman in New Hampshire, “2.5 miles east of Hampton,” one on Great Spruce Island in Penobscot Bay, and now this Nassau bottle, which holds the current distance record.

“While we were riding our jet skis near Cable Beach,” wrote the Bocks, “we saw your bottle and pulled it from the water. When we got back to our hotel room we broke open the bottle very carefully and were very excited to see your letters—all the way from Maine!” Their digital photo showed a beautiful beach, and even the bottle with a couple of clams adhered to it.

We were all curious as to just which route the fourth grade bottle might have taken to Nassau. The Bocks asked, “Could you please tell us how far your bottle traveled in the year it was in the Atlantic Ocean? Where exactly was the bottle put into the water? Just think of all the things your bottle went through.”

We’re thinking, we’re thinking! It is most romantic to assume that the bottle took the scenic route—the Gulf Stream to England, France, Spain and across the equator to the Bahamas. It might also have been dropped from the State of Maine when it was near the equator. If only our bottle could talk.

I e-mailed Captain Wade on the training vessel, cruising mid-Atlantic en route to Barcelona, who e-mailed the Bocks. They’re probably a little surprised at the collateral messages they’re receiving as follow-up to their bottle discovery, since Captain Wade sent his greetings to them from Lat. 38-13.5 N Long. 036-28.6 W.

            We learned a few things from our bottles. Marine epoxy works. After a year in the ocean, the contents of our bottle were dry and identifiable. Bottles are reliable, if slow and unpredictable, forms of “snail mail.” And bottles have a romance and fascination that makes for exciting vacation treasure.  “We hope you are as excited about your bottle being found as we were in finding it!” wrote Jim and Cecelia. Roger that. And Channel 5 News shared our excitement. Susan Farley did a follow-up report, interviewing three fifth graders on the playground on Monday, the same day that the Adams School postcard inserted in the Bock bottle returned to us with a Bahamian stamp on it.

            Randy Flood inspired our original bottle launch and told us his bottle story as we stood on the dock last March. He had a bottle returned to him after ten years—a bottle he dropped in Muscongus Bay that ended up in Galveston. And he’s got a new floating message project for us: a small satellite-linked buoy that we can track on-line—the closest thing to a talking bottle, though it lacks some of the romance of not knowing, like our floating messages. But look at all of the messaging involved in this story: floating bottles, e-mail, television, digital photos, GPS, jet skis and training vessels for modern merchant seamen?

We still have over a dozen extant bottles to hear from—decades worth of potential return mail. Clearly, we’re in this for the long haul.

                                                                                                                               —Todd
 

 

Remembering a poet: “Poetry is ultimately mythology, the telling of stories of the soul. The old myths, the old gods, the old heroes have never died. They are only sleeping at the bottom of our minds, waiting for our call. We have need of them, for in their sum they epitomize the wisdom and experience of the race.”

—Stanley Kunitz

 

Clean-Up Day on Saturday. Come at 9:00am for a couple of hours of spring cleaning on the grounds of the school, if you can spare a little time. Tools needed: garden and leaf rakes, pitchforks, shovels, clippers, string trimmers, outdoor brooms, work gloves. Karen Koos has the chore list…thanks in advance for helping out.

 

Musical visitors abound at Adams! Please join us for any of the following:
 

Kneisel Hall Quartet: Join us for a program of works by Beethoven, Schostakovich, and Gardel next Friday at noon when the annual Kneisel Hall preview series comes to Adams School. This mini concert will take place in the lower level of the historical society.

 

African Drumming, June 1 at 1:00pm. At school. If raining: at Emerson.

 

Bagaduce Childrens Chorus: Emerson Hall, June 6 at noon.

 

MERI Summer Ocean Camp: We have brochures/applications for this summer’s programs at the MERI Institute in Blue Hill. Please have your child pick one up from the office if you’re interested.

 

Kollegewidgwok Learn to Sail Week: This program is offered from June 26-30 at the KSEA Sailing School in Blue Hill. It is open to any resident of the Blue Hill peninsula from students entering 3rd grade through adults. Registration is available online at kseasailing.org. Or you can obtain registration forms and more information by calling Prudy Heilner at 374-5485. The cost is $25 for the week.

 

Memorial Day Parade – Instrumentalists Needed:  Silas Yates, the director of the Castine Town Band, has invited all the 5th-8th grade Adams School instrumentalists to join the band for Castine’s Memorial Day activities.  Players should meet at the Cemetary Road at 9:30 am on May 29th.  The      parade begins at 10:00 am.  Music will be provided.  This is a great opportunity for players to share their talents with the community in celebrating the holiday.  For more info, call Silas at 326-0663. 

 

Readers Theater:  On Saturday, June 3rd the Adams School Readers Theater Troop will be hosting a multicultural storytelling festival from 9:00 am – noon.  Come experience traditional crafts, games, food and stories from around the world.  The festival is open to the public and children of all ages are welcome.  Admission if free!

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ADAMS SCHOOL MENU   May 22nd – 26th
 

Monday – Spaghetti & Meatballs, Salad, Roll, Pineapple, Milk

Tuesday – Chicken & Cheese Quesadillas w/Salsa & Sour Cream, Salad, Roll, Pears, Milk

Weds. – Tuna Sandwich, Carrot Sticks, Chips, Brownie, Apple Juice, Milk

Thursday – Pizza, Salad, Blueberry Muffin, Milk

Friday – Corn Dogs, Potato Wedges, Roll, Fruit Punch, Milk

 

Calendar Update as of May 19:

May

20        PTC Spring Clean Up at School, 9:00-11:00am. 

23        8th grade Art field trip to Farnsworth Museum.    

24        Kindergarten Screening/Step-Up Day.   

26         Kneisel Hall String Quartet preview concert, lower level, 12:00.

26         8th graders to West Side Story, 7:30pm, The Grand (parent drivers)

28-31    8th grade class trip to Boston.

29        Memorial Day: No School.                      
 

June

1        School Board/PTC meetings                

3        Nature center work day.         

5        Scenes from Shakespeare (8th grade class performs).

6          8th Grade Sparks Island trip.

6          Bagaduce Childrens Chorus, Noon, Emerson Hall.

7          Readers Theater to WERU to record stories!

8        Spring Concert, 7:00pm, Emerson Hall.

9        6-8th grades trip to Belfast...by water! Spinazola and Parish boats.

9        6-8th grade sleepover at school.

10       Nature Center Timber Frame Raising!

13       Field Day sponsored by PTC

14        8th Grade Graduation 1:00pm, Unitarian Church.                          

15        Last Student Day of School…backshore picnic.                                                                 

16        Teacher Inservice Day          

Note: final parent-teacher conferences will take place after school, from 2:30-5:00, on June 12, 13, 14. Please call Mrs. Thomas to schedule.