Our Wawaloam Week In Review

Good Afternoon Wawaloam School Families,

I hope our Grade 2 students and chaperones had a wonderful day at the zoo today! The weather was absolutely perfect! I am looking forward to seeing the Animal Research Projects that develop as a result of this visit! They are always so creative and full of detail and extra effort! This trip aligns with the Common Core State Standards that fall under “Research to Build and Present Knowledge”. Thank you Mrs. Levett for sharing evidence that a fun day is under way! 

Our Grade 2 Student Leaders have been working nicely with Mrs. Curry to recognize and acknowledge their peers for making Respectful, Responsible and Safe choices. Students have been checking in at the office in the morning, putting on their Student Leader vests and giving out blue tickets to fellow Grade 2 classmates for the past month. We are in the trial phase to work out the kinks and have this program in full swing next year. This week, we raffled off 4 Wawaloam School T-Shirts to celebrate those positive choices in our school.

It is hard to believe our Grade 2 students will be on their way to Metcalf in a few short weeks! They will be missed terribly! They have helped me all year long with announcements and have been the role models for expected behavior! The time has gone by very quickly, this will be the first group that was here at Wawaloam for Kindergarten! I wish nothing but the best for each one of you! You will be in very good hands with Mrs. Almonte and Mrs. Fish! They are ready and waiting for you J

I have noticed a big change in Grade 1 as well! Each day that passes you appear more and more as Grade 2 students! You are ready!! I am very impressed with the reading, writing and math skills you have secured this year! I hope you will take advantage of our summer reading incentives which we will tell you about in a couple of weeks!

Next week, Kindergarten will go to South County Museum on Wednesday! I am hoping to tag along with the morning group….we will see how the week unfolds. I am so proud of all of our students and I am looking forward to the end of the year Kindergarten Celebration!

The end of this year will bring mixed emotions as we have 3 retirements at Wawaloam. At the end of this year we will lose 3 devoted and dedicated individuals. Mrs. Rotelli, Mrs. Gaulin and Mrs. Zannelli will be starting their next chapter.  Mrs. Rotelli is a Grade 1 teacher, Mrs. Gaulin teaches Grade 2 and Mrs. Zannelli was a teacher assistant here for many years and is ending her career over at Lineham School. I hope they will continue to somehow stay connected to our school as many retirees do! Once you have been part of the Wawaloam Community, you will forever have a special place here……and these are 3 very special individuals. Please feel free to write them a note or a memory or have your child draw a picture commemorating the difference they have made here.

We are in the final stages of drafting our School Improvement Plan for next year. Your input is needed. If you have any suggestions, ideas for making our school the best it can “bee” please drop me a line or two, your opinion is essential…this is our school : Melissa_marino@ewg.k12.ri.us

Hope to see some of you at the last PTA meeting for this school year on Thursday June 5 at 6:30 at Wawaloam School!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Melissa Marino

Busy Bees at Wawaloam School

Dear Wawaloam Community, 

We are officially in the home stretch…. buzzing about with lots of events and field trips coming up! Once again, our PE teachers are also planning a fun filled field day for our students! We have not hit any unbearable temperatures yet, but they are most likely fast approaching. While it can be in the low 60’s in the morning, by the time lunch rolls around we can face some pretty high temperatures throughout the day, layers seem to work out the best. The playground is sunny and can be pretty hot!

Speaking of layers, we still have a pretty lofty collection of lost and found items. Are you missing anything? We would be happy to go through the items for you before the end of the year. Think about winter items too…..we have hats and lonely gloves and mittens!

I was very impressed on Thursday when I visited Kindergarten! Students were building and identifying 3 dimensional shapes using marshmallows and toothpicks! Imagine my surprise when Mrs. Civic asked a Kindergarten student what kind of shape she made and without hesitation she said, “a rectangular prism with a cone on the top”…….They are amazing! I walked out of the classroom awe-struck!

At the midyear point, Mrs. Curry, our school psychologist had sent out a survey to all of you asking what topics would be of interest for workshops and what time of day would be best. She received very few responses but wanted to reach out and let you know that she is available to meet individually with anyone who would like support in the areas that were checked off: Healthy Practices for a Successful Mind, Help Students Develop Responsibility and Managing Your Child’s Behavior at Home. You can reach out to her through email: Susan_Curry@ewg.k12.ri.us

I enjoyed seeing so many girls all dressed up for the Sweetheart Dance! I brought my own Sweetheart with me and we had a really nice time. I have to give a shout out to the PTA for finalizing these details and making it a night to remember! Also, I applaud Allison Jedson for the fabulous job on decorations! What a fancy setting we had for the festivities!

We finally finished our “Happy” video! If you want to be put in a great mood instantly, go to the school website and check it out! We have some grade 2 boys who are very proud of this awesome representation of how our students feel about Wawaloam School!

Hoping you all enjoy the three day weekend!  If you are looking for something fun to do I would recommend checking out the Matty’s Memorial Day 5K Run/Walk for Epilepsy. This will be held on Monday, May 26 and registration is held at the New BankRI Branch on Main Street in Wakefield.  The race for children is at 8:30 AM so you have to get their pretty early to register or you can register online at www.mattyfund5k.com   There is also a post -race BBQ at Mews Tavern.  I know we have some students who are always there and have a great time. One of those students asked me to pass this information along to you!

Whatever you do, enjoy the time and make it count- ask your first or second grader how you can make a day count? We had a conversation about that in our Wednesday meeting this week J

Respectfully,

Melissa Marino

No School Tomorrow (5/16) and Other Reminders

Greetings,

Today I will start with an important reminder that there is NO SCHOOL  tomorrow, Friday May 16. This is a professional development day for our district, as noted on the school calendar.

I hope those of you planning to attend the Sweetheart Dance have a great time. I am intrigued by the Hollywood Lights theme and the red carpet! I am sure it will be a night to remember!

The EWG PTA wants you to know that if you haven't sent in your form for the "Hollywood Lights" dance, it's OK - they can accept walk-ins at all three sessions. You simply pay $10 at the door when you arrive!  The sessions are

·  5-7 pm for Grades PreK-3

·  6-8 pm for families with girls in upper and lower grades

·  7-9 pm for Grades 4-6

They have lots of great raffle prizes, too, including an American Girl doll (Isabelle), Red Sox tickets, gift certificates to local restaurants and businesses, and much much more! 
 
Questions? Email event chair Allison Jedson at thejedsons@aol.com. 
 

Our bandaid collection continues and we are so impressed with the staggering participation! We are so proud of all of our students for helping with this collection. We even heard a great story about a sibling at Lineham who wants to “follow in her big brother’s footsteps” and brought some bandaids to Preschool, leaving Lineham  teachers wondering what they were for ( they made their  way here)!

This past Wednesday, Grades 1 and 2 had a special treat from the Feinstein Foundation. They provided us with the opportunity to have Ray from Buana Iguana present a wildly exciting Reptile Adventure! He taught us about lizards, iguanas, snakes  (one of them was 12 feet long, yikes!) and turtles. We were able to see the whole show outside and enjoyed the beautiful weather at the same time. I was fortunate to have the task of leading students back into the building, otherwise…. I might have had to stand in the holding line for the python! Did your child tell you about this show? They were quite excited to see the live reptiles here at our school!

Hope you all have a great weekend! 

“Bee”  Happy !

Melissa Marino

Dear Wawaloam School Community~

A special thank you, to all of you who are sending in those band-aids. What a difference this will make!! We have had to add another bin out in our hallway, how exciting! We love that Mrs. Larkin organizes this collection each year!

By now I bet many of you are looking forward to the upcoming Sweetheart Dance being held on May 17^th at Metcalf. The Hollywood Lights theme is sure to be a big hit!! PTA is devoting many hours into planning this behind the scenes and I know how much we all appreciate those efforts!

This upcoming week there is an Art Show here on Monday night from 6:00-7:30 PM. It is one thing to see individual student works of art but it is amazing to see so many budding artist pieces on display in our halls like a museum! Thank you to Mrs. Ray and Mrs. Scheff for organizing this for our school.

I am looking forward to the School Committee meeting this week where we have a chance to shine and share the on-goings of our school. I appreciate the contribution of some members of chorus, the Kindergarten teachers, Mrs. Blake, Mrs. Cohen, and Mrs. Corcoran and parents who are helping us to make this a student focused presentation.

I am curious what kind of discussion took place at home after Wednesday’s presentation by the Connecticut Science Museum. We learned an awful lot about bubbles and liquids! Did your child(ren) tell you anything about the show? I know PTA is hoping for feedback as they sponsored this program.

Thank you so much for helping to recognize our teachers this week. They really appreciated all of the well deserved attention. Our wall of fame was a stopping point this week, you just had to stop to admire the pictures drawn by students of our teachers. One teacher told me that was her favorite part of the week!!

It was also fun to observe all of the students who opted to dress like teachers…some even carried a briefcase to school!! 

On behalf of all moms, grandmothers, step-mothers, caregivers and close friends of family etc. ……Happy Mother’s Day. I hope you have a chance to put your feet up and pat yourself on the back for your unending efforts and the superhero endeavors that you accomplish every day.

Respectfully,

Melissa Marino

Happy Sunny Friday!

Good Afternoon, 

Finally, a warmer day with the sun shining! What a difference a day makes!

This was a fantastic week, the Toe Jam Puppet Band was SO MUCH FUN! Even the adults watching were saying their stomachs hurt from laughing so hard! There is something magical about an invitation to be silly! We will definitely invite them back again!

As you know, we brought them here to celebrate Earth Day! We have enjoyed the recycle projects that have been coming in. Classes had the opportunity to visit the cafeteria to view all of the hard work and creativity! Great job to all of you who participated!

A special thank you to Egidia Vergano, PTA President, for securing enough packets of seeds through URI Outreach so that everyone was able to bring home the opportunity to plant somethingJ

Here is some information on the upcoming Sweetheart Dance!

REMINDER!
Don't forget to sign up for this year's "Hollywood Lights" Sweetheart Dance, coming on Saturday, May 17th. Registrations and payments are due soon. 
And moms, we need LOTS of help decorating on Friday, May 16th, and during the event on the 17th. Please consider donating 2-3 hours of your time to help make "Hollywood Lights" a great success!

*The forms to sign up and to volunteer are attached to the email with the link to this blog. 

 

A flyer came home this week inviting families to stop by to see all of the student projects and listen to the Grade 2 chorus on Spring Arts Night on May 12^th from 6-7:30 PM.

We are excited to have started the incoming Kindergarten Screenings this week. It is always so much fun to see all of the new smiles and the siblings of students! We can’t wait for Full Day Kindergarten! If you know anyone who has not registered yet, please encourage them to contact us as soon as possible!

We will be distributing the peanut butter to our local food banks and mailing a package to soldiers next week! Thank you to all for donating! Our band-aid collection will continue throughout May.  This is always the FAVORITE collection for students, they get very excited to add to this "good deed" that has such an impact on patients at Hasbro Children's Hospital. 

Hope you are all looking forward to the weekend, I will be attending 2 lacrosse games and a soccer game. May the sun shine on!!! 

Sincerely, 
Melissa Marino