Bee Thankful

Dear Wawaloam School Community,

Hope everyone is managing to stay warm with the surprising burst of frigid temperatures this week! Please be sure to check the forecast as we do try to get the children outside unless the temperature feels well below freezing and if they are dressed appropriately, it is so helpful. Recess is in the morning so please remind your children how important it is to put on those hats and gloves as well. Helping reinforce those habits makes things more manageable for the classroom teacher who is making sure the whole class is prepared.

If you have a preschool age child (3, 4 or 5 years old), please consider a FREE Child Outreach Screening.  The state of RI has set a goal to screen ALL children before they enter kindergarten.  Please call Robin at Lineham School at 397-3771 to schedule an appointment.  And please, share this information with your friends!

Please check out all of the amazing student art on Artsonia!! Our art teachers put your students art in a Virtual Art Museum and you can give comments to all of our budding artists! You can also compliment our awesome art teachers through this site. I am so impressed with the creativity and detail in the projects in the art classroom. Check it out, you will be amazed!  http://www.artsonia.com/museum/  All you have to do is enter Wawaloam School and you are able check out so many masterpieces! 

Thank you so much to everyone who sent in items for our food drive. It was a great success and shows students how we can all be community helpers. We had the collection of food right in the middle of the hallway for students to see how it grew and grew over the past couple of weeks!

On December 3, Mr. Alan Shawn Feinstein will visit our school for a brief visit in the morning. He will be greeting students at Wawaloam during arrival. If you can locate your Feinstein T-Shirts for those of you who have them from last year, please consider wearing yours on that day!

Check out this great picture of some of our Kindergarten friends with their "Cough Spot" tattoos! This is part of the program Nurse Larkin is piloting along with several other Kindergartens in our state this year.

This week in our grade level meeting, all students heard the story Bee Wigged thanks to the PTA approving a request for a group of books that explore the themes of friendship, kindness and a variety of topics on expectations that can be reinforced through literature. I always know when the students enjoy these stories because they applaud and have big smiles on their faces. This fun story about true friendship was a big hit with students in Kindergarten, Grade 1 and Grade 2 this week!

This week, I asked 5 students the question, "What are you thankful for?"  These are the amazing answers I received:

Lila D. "My brother"

Tyler P. My Ipad I got from my dad"

Zoe G. "My friends"

Cecelia B. "My Family"

Gianluca P. "That I am a student at Wawaloam School" XOXO

With the Friday off next week, there will not be a blog posted so I would like to take this time to wish all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving break with your family. I am thankful to be part of such an amazing place and appreciate everything you so to support the learning of your child and our incredible school community.

                                                                   BEE THANKFUL

Have a great weekend! 

Melissa Marino

@MelissaMarino9

World Kindness Day: Making a Difference in our School Community

 WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE

We had the opportunity to think about World Kindness Day this week which was officially on November 13. Announcements were made to remind us how small acts can have a large impact on some one's day and in our whole grade meetings, we created little notes to leave for people in an effort to maximize joy! Perhaps some of you were recipients? 

We try to reinforce kindness EVERY DAY but we think it is pretty special that there is a whole day devoted to being kind, random acts of kindness, making kind choices and choosing kind words.

          WAWALOAM STUDENTS MAKE A SNOW/LEAF MAN EARLY THIS MORNING!


If you haven't heard, there is an upcoming presentation being put on by the EWG Partnership with Parents and the PTA. The presentation is titled: Social Responsibility/Social Networking and your Digital Footprint. A Journey into being socially responsible while using Social Media.  This is taking place at the Junior/Senior High School Auditorium from 6-8 PM on Thursday, November 20th. For more information, please contact: Catherine_Murray@ewg.k12.ri.us

Our food drive continues here at Wawaloam, our collection will continue right through the holiday season, thank you for continuing to send in non-perishable items. We have the collection right in the middle of the main hallway, students are always excited to add to this great cause!

If you are not aware, there is a President's Challenge Monthly Fitness On-line Newsletter that you can access if you are interested. It is FILLED with lots of fabulous information and resources. The theme this month is Fitness is Fun!
https://www.presidentschallenge.org/newsletter/nov-20121.html

Last week, I asked if anyone had stories to share about ways your children/family are volunteering time and making a difference. Thank you so much to Jenn Spira for sharing how Owen and Annie spent Election Day! They worked in the North Kingstown Food Pantry helping to sort and put away food collected during a local high school drive and election day drive. They were there for 2 hours that day and " had a blast!" 
 
Jenn shared some of what her kids learned: 

• even "non-perishable" food has expiration dates
• pigs love to eat expired human food (!)
• there are many different kinds of beans (black, red kidney, pink kidney, dark red kidney, garbanzo, chick peas and more!)
• many hands make light work, and even kids can make a difference
• work can be fun; and finally, 
• that many of our neighbors are in great need every day!

Thank you so much for sharing this and inspiring others! I hope other families will share too, I know there are a lot of people (including Wawaloam students) doing great things! 

DATES COMING UP:

November 17 Picture Make-up Day (Old pictures must be returned, envelopes available in office)

November 19 Parent Math Workshop Building Number Sense 6-7:30 PM at Wawaloam

November 20 Social Media Event for Parents 6-8 PM

November 27-28 Thanksgiving Recess

December 4 Exeter Tree Lighting Town Hall 6:30 PM

December 6 Holiday Bazaar at Metcalf School 9-3

CHECK OUT ALL OF THE UPCOMING EVENTS AT THE EXETER LIBRARY!
http://www.exeterpubliclibrary.org/

Have a wonderful weekend that provides you with time to enjoy each other. 

Respectfully, 
Melissa Marino
@MelissaMarino9

Honoring our Veteran's at Wawaloam School

Salutations,

It is with great pride that I share our school based effort to honor our Veteran's.  This entire month of school wide meetings will be devoted to giving thanks and how we can be helpers in our own community.

This week, we worked in collaboration with the Coventry Applebee's to create thank you cards which will be distributed to the many Veteran's who will visit the restaurant on Veteran's Day where they are eligible for a free meal. This is a special day at Applebee's and other local restaurant's who have this in place.  Applebee's decided to reach out to the community by requesting that local schools design these cards to show the impact their dedication and service has had on their community. We were so pleased to have the opportunity to be part of this special event.

I also had the privilege of visiting a Veteran from Wakefield, R.I. who was able to obtain red Poppies for all of our students to thank them for participating in this whole school service project. Wawaloam School made a difference!!

Additionally, I wanted to tell you about an upcoming presentation being put on by the EWG Partnership with Parents and the PTA. The presentation is titled: Social Responsibility/Social Networking and your Digital Footprint. A Journey into being socially responsible while using Social Media.  This is taking place at the Junior/Senior High School Auditorium from 6-8 PM on Thursday, November 20th. For more information, please contact:  Catherine_Murray@ewg.k12.ri.us

Also, please consider taking the time to check out the Wawaloam Art blog created by our Grades Kindergarten and 1 art teacher, Mrs. Beaulieu. She has also hung some beautiful art work in our foyer!!  Check it out www.wawaloamart.weebly.com  When I popped into her class this week the first grade students were creating beautiful owl art with chalk pastels!  Take a peek:

Hoping everyone has a fabulous weekend, I heard there is one more final Waterfire this Saturday for the season in Providence and that the Children's Museum has a brand new water exhibit! Two events worth checking out!

Reminder- No School Tuesday, November 10 in observance of Veteran's Day

I have been reading a book recently that continually emphasizes making time for fun and being silly with your kids, they will hold on to those memories. Instead of rushing to put the laundry away, my daughter and I had a quick "sockball fight" and I think I was laughing harder than her! This took about 2 minutes total and felt great, this is something to think about in those moments of haste and changed my outlook on laundry for a moment!

With admiration,
Melissa Marino

@MelissaMarino9 (on Twitter)

PS We would love to hear about special ways that your family helps the community, please email me if we have students doing good deeds outside of school so we can add these to our daily announcements this month!  melissa_marino@ewg.k12.ri.us