End of Week Updates

Popsicles for everyone! 

Dear Wawaloam Community,

We were pleased to have such a well attended Open House last night and would like to extend our thanks to you as our partners in education. When schools and families work in tandem to ensure a successful learning experience, the greatest gains are accomplished! We hope you will celebrate the successes together and encourage your child through mistakes, we all learn from our reflections and continuous meaningful feedback will play a very important role in this educational journey.

Mrs. Lerner is enjoying her Kindergarten students.

We hope you will reach out when you have questions and let us know when there is a possibility of a difficult day on the horizon. Quick calls or emails alerting us about a late night, a morning struggle or other issues that may impact the focus of your child in the classroom can make a tremendous difference. This information gives us a chance to observe meaningfully and decide if a few minutes of 1:1 time is needed before settling into the classroom. We function in an "all hands on deck" manner when it comes to our students. We want your children to have the most successful day possible EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. and while issues will arise that may not make that a reality for ALL children EVERY DAY, I assure you we will give 110% effort toward this goal.

I need to tell you how much I appreciate this faculty and staff......the days have been HAZY, HOT and HUMID! We are all sweating and it has been difficult to find relief! Through all of the 85+ degree days, teachers continue to smile, teach and find creative ways to get past the temperatures. Wawaloam teachers have found creative ways to try to stay as cool as possible and your children have not even complained (out loud to any of us) about the heat. Pretty incredible................ we are hoping for relief but will do everything we can to make every day the best it can "bee"!

Thank you Jenn Spira for this awesome hallway message! 

My focus for the Principal's Message this week will be all about the upcoming Walk-A-Thon scheduled for October 8th. Individual classes will have a 25 minute scheduled time to come out and participate and we are super excited about this for many reasons.

One reason is simply because physical fitness and physical activity are so important. We are "all in" when it comes to breaks that allow for movement and expending energy.

The second reason is because this is the major fundraiser for the year through PTA. It would be fantastic if we could reach an amount that eliminates the need for selling other items. I can not come up with words to tell you how much we appreciate the efforts of the PTA Board and members!

What a special group! Are you wondering what kind of impact they have on our schools? I can tell you that you can not put a $ on the amount of time that is devoted to our students! They are a revolving door when it comes to reaching out and "making it happen". Whether it is organizing our popcorn parents, planning special events, responding to questions and concerns, approving teacher classroom requests, a new laminating machine at Metcalf! funding field trips to make these free or very inexpensive for families, organizing a Holiday Bazaar, dances, bowling events etc. etc. etc.........they (YOU) are amazing!

This Walk-a-thon is going to make all of this possible and so much more! Please consider sending in a donation for this fitness-focused, fun event that your children will remember for many years to come. The support is appreciated, of course, but goes right back into the educational experience of your children. One word to describe this: AWESOME! 

You received some information this week regarding our READ program this week which is a fantastic way to motivate our little friends to READ as often as possible! This week we were so fortunate to receive a very generous donation from the Rafanelli Family which will help us come up with new incentives and rewards to encourage reading as much as we can!! We are very appreciative of this unexpected surprise gesture to support our students! Thank you SO much!!!

*Please see the announcement from the Superintendent located on the front page of the district web site (http://www.ewgrsd.org/) related to student participation in the state assessment program.

 

To end this update today I want to tell you about our special guest today- Johnny the K!! He has been coming to Wawaloam School since long before I was here and this is my 9th year! We love his message which reinforces our school-wide expectations of Respectful, Responsible and Safe choices! Did any of your children come home and tell you about his HAT collection! We bring him back because although his assembly is so much fun, he kicks off our PBIS program by celebrating messages of acceptance and kindness.....when we see him it is like a reunion because our 2nd graders remember and are excited that he is back and our Kindergarten friends are fascinated with his songs, guitar and hats!  (The teachers love him too!)  http://www.johnnythek.com/

How about those Patriots last night!!

Have a fantastic weekend! We are looking forward to our first FULL week of school next week!

Melissa Marino