Happy Summer!

It is officially here!  Can you believe it?? I am passing along a lot of information today, sorry if you are reading this via phone!

Report Cards went home yesterday for Kindergarten and today for Grades 1 and 2. With your report card, you will find a business card sized magnet with a few important “Save the Date” items.  For example, our Back to School Celebration will be held on Monday, August 25 from 1:30-3:30.  This event is a great opportunity to meet your teacher and find out what friends are in your class. We are excited to have “All Hands Drumming” from 1:30-2:15 and “Toe Jam Puppet Band” from 2:30-3:30 booked for this event!  We will also have many resources available for families, you will find our kitchen, the bus company, scouts, karate etc. and of course PTA!

One consideration for summer time fun is the FREE EWG Summer Track Program. Please visit the District website Announcements page for details. This program is available for children 14 and younger. You can also paste this link into your browser:  http://bit.ly/1nk8s6U I plan to go with my daughter it would be great to see you there!

Also, please visit the District website's Community Announcements page for information regarding the "Skills and Drills Youth Basketball Clinic - for Girls ages 7 - 12

As a reminder, our school supports the local food banks, if you are in need of assistance this summer you may contact: Christine Heart Skaggs if you are an Exeter resident  at 294-3176 or Marge Gartleman if you live in West Greenwich at 397-4234. Additionally, you can reach Mrs. Larkin RN if you have any questions at 295-8802.

We are so thankful to those of you who volunteered this year, we could not have done everything that we did without all of you! You have “earned your wings!”

Wawaloam will be a busy place this summer, we are adding new technology and we are so excited about upgrading our mini computer lab!

I did find a pretty cool website called “Wonderopolis”. If you are interested in a summer online learning site, check this out: http://camp.wonderopolis.org/  I have not explored yet but it looks like it will be worth the while.

Congratulations to Jared Sweet and Cameron Lindberg! They were our year end  Grades 1 and 2 PBIS bike raffle winners today!! They were SO excited . Mrs Briggs even got in on the action!! Check out the photos!

Also Congratulations to our Kindergarten Friends for doing such a fantastic job at their celebration today!!

Best wishes to all Grade 2 students at Metcalf next year! Again, we will miss you.

Hope to see all of our Fall  2014 Grade 1 and 2 students at our back to school celebration on August 25 at 1:30!!!

I will check email all summer for any questions you may have. Thank you for everything!

Bee Safe, Bee Happy, Bee Kind!

Melissa Marino

Good Morning~

I hope you all survived the incredible amount of rain we experienced this morning! It looked like someone was pouring buckets outside of the front door when the students were coming in! I suppose it is better now than while all of the baseball, soccer and outdoor events are scheduled!

We had a pretty exciting week here, our two Librarian's, Diane Silva from The Exeter Library and Shannon Darowski from the Louttit Library in West Greenwich. We have been working together behind the scenes to kick-off a very different approach to motivate students to participate in summer reading and visit the library. Recently, we sent home a bookmark with all of the students. It looks like this:

The bookmark has a suggested reading list on the back which was created by Diane Silva this spring. She based the list on books that students enjoy and those that are accessible in the library. There is a question on the bookmark, "How many times will you visit the library this summer?" At the bottom, there are 6 bees. Each time you visit, the librarians will punch your bookmark with a special hole punch. If you visit the library (either one) 3 times, you will receive a certificate and a special pencil that says, "Summer Reading Success". If you visit the library 6 times this summer, we think that is a BIG DEAL!!!  Your child will receive another certificate AND a coupon to celebrate all of this reading with a Free Kids' Meal at Dan's Place! We are very excited about connecting our school, our library and our community this summer! We are very thankful that Dan was excited about being part of our Summer Reading Incentive this year! 

The librarians also wanted to reinforce how easy it is to get a library card, the whole process is super quick and if your child does not have their own library card, now is a great time to get one! Be sure to check out the websites at both libraries to learn about summer events and happenings. They will also be emailing me updates that I will continue to pass along throughout the summer.

Additionally, we sent home an opportunity to earn a FREE book this summer! Barnes and Noble asks students to write the name of 8 books you have read and who you would recommend them to and return the form to them for a Free Book! This is a super simple way to keep your children motivated to read this summer.

According to Johns Hopkins Center for Summer Learning: “A conservative estimate of lost instructional time is approximately two months or roughly 22 percent of the school year.... It's common for teachers to spend at least a month re-teaching material that students have forgotten over the summer. That month of re-teaching eliminates a month that could have been spent on teaching new information and skills.”

It was wonderful to see how many children knew the local librarians already, we are so lucky they could carve out time this week to visit ALL students Kindergarten through Grade 2! 

Also, the reading teachers at Metcalf asked me to include the following information for Grade 2 students: Current grade 2 students should bring evidence of their summer reading to their grade 3 teacher at the start of the school year in August in order to be recognized for their reading.  Evidence could include a copy of the Barnes and Noble form, the child's punch card, or the certificate they earned.  Metcalf also has a "Summer Reading Challenge" that entering third graders may choose to complete.  Please see the Metcalf School website for details.

Hope you all have a great weekend- Happy Father's Day to all of the dads out there! 

Respectfully, 

Melissa Marino

End of the Week Updates for Wawaloam School

……and the countdown begins, 10 More days of this school year!  Some of our Grade 2 friends are off to the RISD museum today, the weather is perfect for their adventure. 

Next week we will be having a special visit from the local Exeter and West Greenwich librarians. We will be working together to share our plans for recognizing student reading efforts this summer. We have come up with new ideas to encourage trips to the library! We are fortunate to have made some great community connections for this summer! I will tell you all about it next week!

I had the joy of attending the final PTA meeting for this year last night where we bid farewell to some friends who are moving on and welcomed in the newly appointed board members.

It will be a pleasure to have Jenn Spira in the role of President, Tom Cale as our Vice President, Maeyee Barrette as our Treasurer, and Jeanne McCaffery and Kelly Fichter will stay on as our Corresponding Secretary and Recording Secretary respectively.

This week, during our Grade 1 and Grade 2 meeting we discussed WORLD OCEANS DAY which is officially on June 8. There are great resources out there. Here is the website that I used to share the information with the students:   http://worldoceansday.org/  

I connected this to the fact that we live in the Ocean State and we shared stories about all of the treasures we have collected from the sea. Some students were exited to learn about my sea glass collection!

How exciting it is to see all of the Grade 2 Animal Projects coming in!! They are awesome! Do you know I actually received an edible EAGLE today! Who knew you could make such a thing! Yum!!

                                                             

Have a super weekend!

Melissa

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