Spring Fever!

Dear Wawaloam School Community, 

Hoping everyone had a fantastic week, it is really amazing that we are preparing to send home 3rd quarter report cards in two weeks! We are moving into that home stretch, once April vacation goes by we seem to blink our eyes and the year comes to an end. This year has been incredible! Full day kindergarten, smartboard technology, a computer lab that a whole class can use and our work in the implementation of a Growth Mindset have kept us learning and stretching our brains!! 

Mrs. Donnelly consistently pushes for our addition of PERSEVERANCE as one of our expectations, which we love! When the weather breaks, we will be adding the words PERSEVERANCE and KINDNESS to our Queen Bee outside of our school. I am very proud of the work of our SIT team and our PBIS team for continuing to refine our systems, our work is never "finished" at Wawaloam School because we believe there is always room for improvement and growth. 

I recently read a publication on the subject of bullying and there was a piece of information that I found fascinating in how we can work together to teach a skill that will have a powerful impact! Check out this amazing statistic:

In the world of bullying prevention, the “simpler solution” includes the power of bystanders. Research shows that when a peer bystander intervenes in a bullying situation, the bullying usually stops within 10 seconds. 10 SECONDS. THAT is a powerful intervention worth nurturing! Let us work together as partners to teach this skill and this statistic!!

The article goes on to say:  Let’s be sure to keep our eyes on the importance of relationship building and social emotional skills MORE than entering the slippery slope of “criminalizing” bullying behavior (the person bullying needs our support and guidance too) and thinking the solution lies in ever more structured ways of passing on expectations and norms.  

In one kid-friendly story that I shared, they review how powerful it can be to simply teach children to say, "Stop it!" when bullying behavior is observed. Please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas on this information. 

This past Wednesday, I attended a session on Cyber Safety at New England Institute of Technology. Meghan Martinez, Cyber Terrorism Program Manager for the RI State Police and Leader of the Cyber Disruption Team.  I would encourage you all to become as informed as possible in terms of online safety. They shared some valuable resources for parents and I thought I would pass these websites along to you to review: 

www.netsmartz.org provides tips for families, children, and teens about online safety.             www.netsmartz411.com is parents' and guardians' premier, online resource for answering 

questions about Internet safety, computers, and the Web.

The following sites contain information regarding keeping your child safe online:

McAfee's Internet Safety Plans for the Whole Family                                                                                 

Bright Futures' Safety Tips for Surfing the Internet

Cybersmart Kids' The Risks and How to Deal with Them

Department of Justice's Project Safe Child

ConnectSafely's A Parent's Guide to Facebook

US Health and Human Services' Stop Bullying

We are excited to be participating in the Washington County Coalition for Children "Feelin' Groovy" bookmark contest with our Grade 2 students. The goal is to teach emotional literacy to children and Mrs. Gagner and I have teamed up together to have Wawaloam School participate. I don't know if your children mentioned the Academy Award winning performance she gave to "showing" the children what our different emotions can LOOK LIKE by acting these out. We had so much fun working on this together. We can not enter your child's bookmark if we do not have the permission slip forms returned to school. They will select 1 winner per school to have their entry turned into a printed bookmark that will be shared throughout the state and possibly beyond.

If you have a 2 minutes to spare, check out this adorable cartoon video with a very powerful Growth Mindset message. You have to appreciate the PERSEVERANCE of this sweet little bird.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksiob6KVPDw

Reminders: 

PTA  Meeting Thursday at Wawaloam School 6:30 PM
Spring Pictures- Wednesday April 8th (Spring Pictures are Optional)

Report Cards will come home on Friday, April 17th

Have a fantastic weekend!!

Melissa Marino

Book Fair and Eating Greens at Wawaloam

Dear Families,

Did your children come home and tell you about the smoothies we made with spinach this week?? Mrs. Larkin noticed that our food service provider, Aramark, was hosting a Be Healthy, Eat Green theme for Wednesday of this week! She was inspired and approached me about doing something special for the students to get them thinking about trying some green vegetables or other produce that they may have not wanted to try before. We worked together during our presentation and showed the students how they could "eat a rainbow". The recipe we gave them included spinach, pineapple juice and bananas but we encouraged them to be creative with recipes and to feel free to add different fruits or vegetables if they would like. We added strawberries, blueberries, mango, carrots, and blueberries!

We are so excited about the FEEDBACK we received about this because of the potential for children eating their vegetables! ! We saw some pictures of friends making smoothies at home using their new recipe! We also loved the notes from families saying "It's wonderful to see her excited by a green vegetable!!

This week, grade 2 had a very special presentation by the energetic Materials Lab students at U.R.I.! We were all very impressed with their cool experiments they did with mixing solvents, showing us how the colors are created when fireworks are made and a grand finale of making ice cream right before our eyes by using liquid nitrogen!! I simply love when I can step back and witness the excitement on the faces of students! We were very lucky to have this crew troop all the way to Exeter to put on this complimentary, inspiring presentation!!

Here is a link if you want to see them preparing this for the students, listen to that excitement!!!

COPY AND PASTE INTO BROWSER:     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5uWKIIFiv8

We also had our Spring Book Fair this week during all Reading classes in the library! A big thank you to all of the volunteers who made this possible. We LOVE having the book fair in the library!!!
The students were all so thrilled to share their purchases!!! Don't forget the FAMILY NIGHT that is tonight at Metcalf with Biomes and the touch tanks!!!


                     

Hopefully, you noticed the reminder notice regarding drop off procedures. Please help us keep our students as safe as possible. We have to stick with this plan, it is the safest way to get our students into the school. We really appreciate your help making this so successful for students!

WE HAVE DECIDED TO POSTPONE THE USED SPORTS EQUIPMENT SALE UNTIL A LATER DATE AND WILL CONTINUE COLLECTING ITEMS THROUGHOUT THE SPRING- KEEP SENDING IN YOUR ITEMS! 


FAMILY MATH NIGHT THURSDAY 5:30-7:30 PM COME HAVE FUN WITH MATH AT WAWALOAM SCHOOL.

APRIL 7  PROUD PAINTER FOR ADULTS - WOOD RIVER INN

APRIL 12 BOYS CHOICE BOWLING EVENT

LOOK AT OUR KINDERGARTEN TEACHERS GETTING AN EARLY START FOR ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!

Have a fantastic weekend!
Melissa Marino

FUN WITH OUR LOCAL LIBRARIANS!

The sight the students saw when they arrived on Monday Morning!

Thank you Miss Diane and Miss Shannon!

As predicted, there was lots of exciting Dr. Seuss activity around Wawaloam School this week! We were so happy to welcome Miss Diane and Miss Shannon from the Exeter and Louttit Library! We had a lot of fun  finding out all of the places students like to read and presenting the Dr. Seuss book "I Can Read With My Eyes Shut"! 

While I read this classic and silly rhyming story, Miss Diane and Miss Shannon held up ALL kinds of props to go along with it! All of our students received a Dr. Seuss hat (yellow and black stripes for our bees) and the librarians gave everyone a special Dr. Seuss bookmark! The students also had a chance to design their own silly glasses! Some students gave their art to the librarians so it can be displayed in our local libraries!  A special thank you to Mrs. Curry, Mrs. Blake and Mrs. Ward for doing these activities with Kindergarten during our snowy day yesterday!!

  

Next week, on WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11 our food service provider, Aramark is having an "Eat Green, Wear Green" event to support healthy eating and celebrate foods that are green! The message from Aramark is Wear Something Green-Eat Something Green and Support Healthy Eating! 

Using our Boxtops Funding, Mrs. Larkin and I will be promoting healthy green eating by sharing a smoothie recipe with our students during our weekly meetings next week. This concoction will be comprised of spinach, pineapple juice and bananas! 

Calendar of Events:

March 9-13 PTA in School Book Fair

March 11 7 PM Sweetheart Dance Planning Metcalf Library

March 13- 6-8 PM  Book Fair Family Night with Biomes Touch Tanks Metcalf Cafeteria

March 19  Kindergarten- Grade 2 Math Night at Wawaloam School

April 7  6-9 PM Proud Painter Adults Only Wood River Inn Richmond

April 12 Boys Choice Bowling Event, Kingstown Bowl, North Kingstown

Sign Up Flyers for Boys Choice and Proud Painter will be going home soon! 

A special thank you to our PTA for sponsoring visits from Mystic Aquarium and the Roger Williams Zoomobile this week! The students LOVED these hands on science activities! 

Also thank you to Mrs. Breene, Mrs. Guglielmo, Mrs. Scheff and Mrs. Gagner for their flexibility this week with setting up these programs in their classrooms!! 

CHECK THIS OUT!!   Here is a link to see Mrs. Patty's class checking out a furry ferret!!! 

                                      

                              

Hoping everyone has a fantastic (snow free) weekend!!  We are just a couple of weeks away from the official start of Spring with daylight savings this weekend!

Melissa Marino