Simplify

Dear Wawaloam School Community,

It is that time of year, holiday shopping and running back and forth and everywhere. Hoping that during all of the hustle and bustle you are carving out the most important thing, time together with your family. I am on a personal mission to worry less about "getting it all done", my plan is to look for ways to simplify while increasing the number of opportunities to spend time together.

The thing is, there is not a magic wand or secret code to make this happen. You have to really analyze the day (the week) and think about ways this can happen. I have learned that the crock pot works as a lifesaver in our house. If I can plan the meal in the morning, when we get back from all of the errands and events from the day, dinner is done. If the schedules are different, the food stays hot and there is less stress involved......and it makes the whole house smell delicious!

Another crazy little lifesaver is using paper plates and cups during the week. First off, I want to say that I HATE THEM.....but it makes for a super quick clean up and increases time to spend together at night. I am sure this is not great for the environment.....but I am using less water because I am not doing dishes....or running the dishwasher......that has to count for something!

This weekend, we are making cookies. My husband and son are probably (definitely) not interested. My plan is to do this with my daughter while the Patriots game is on TV. This will put all of us in the same room while we are accomplishing one of my favorite holiday activities. I actually checked the game schedule and planned the time for making the cookies. This is what I mean by analyzing ways to make this happen.

Do you have any special time saving tricks you can share? I know our Wawaloam Community would love if you would share your own ideas with us! I will post your thoughts if you send me an email or respond to this blog. Let's help each other to simplify!

Next week, December 16th is the last day to turn in your Cards for a Cause orders for the year. I also know that if you add an extra 1.00 or 10.00 all proceeds are being used to purchase gift cards for the local food banks....something to consider.

By now you have probably seen the permission slip for our upcoming whole school field trip to the movies on December 23! We are all very excited about this opportunity to do something so special for our troops, our heroes!

We have already seen some of the items: socks, playing cards and hard candies! Thank you for reinforcing our community project at home and for your support. We can also thank Mr. Feinstein for the funds we will use for our school wide celebration of performing a good deed for others.

I also want to encourage you at home to check out the website called  GoNoodle.com  You can sign on and make a quick account and it is FREE!  On this site you can find many ways to get your children moving, especially on days when it is bitter cold and outside play time is limited. Mrs. Corcoran's class uses this pretty consistently. I have used this during indoor recess with our students and they loved it (well, except for the boys when I played the Frozen song, "Let it Go"). I am sure you can find a few family favorites and it might even become a special part of your routine together!

I asked 3 students to share their holiday wishes and received the following responses: 

Anthony B. "A New Bike!"

Owen S.   "A Video Camera!"

Liam W. "New Pokemon Cards!"

Hoping you all have a weekend filled with lots of time together.  My daughter is in a Holiday Dance Show on Saturday! 

Enjoy~
Melissa Marino

Warm December Greetings

Dear Wawaloam Community,

Make sure you carve out some time on this Saturday to attend the Holiday Bazaar at Metcalf School. 
There you will find nearly 70 vendors with a huge variety of wares, a special kids shopping area with all gifts priced $5 or below, a Penny Social, a 50/50 raffle, Holiday Café, baked goods, and of course pictures with Santa! You will also find so many people who have put in lots of hours to pull this event all together. Don't miss out on the fun! My daughter had a wonderful time last year in the 4-H craft room with Mrs. Kilday!


This week, we had a special visit with Alan Shawn Feinstein. He brought us a message about being a hero and using your caring powers and we are working on plans for a whole school event to show what a difference we can make. More information coming soon! 

Children in Grades 1 and 2 may have told you about the journal we wrote in this week when we met together and recorded our own good deed! Students were proud to raise their hands to show which examples of good deeds they help with at home and at school! 

I have  a follow up email from Mr. Feinstein that I wanted to share with you all:

"To my friends at Wawalaom School:

What a heart-warming visit I had with your teachers and students.  Please tell them how special you all are to me.Would you please inform your Jr. Scholars that these coming weekends, December 7^th , 8^th 13^th and 14^th at Slater Park in Pawtucket between 4p.m and 8p.m – there will be a ‘Winter Wonderland’ of lights and entertainment. The Slater Park Carousel will also be running and all our Jr. Scholars showing their Jr. Scholar Card will be eligible for 4 free rides and popcorn. 

As ever,

Alan"

*As your children complete good deeds during the holiday season, we would love to hear about these and even share these examples during announcements. Please tell us through email, note to school or give us a call. 

This link will bring you to a site devoted to sharing ideas about ways to inspire kindness.

http://www.randomactsofkindness.org/kindness-ideas

The Exeter Tree Lighting was held on Thursday night and the Grade 2 Wawaloam Chorus was invited to sing! We were happy to hear, "Jingle Bells, Rudolph and Here Comes Santa Claus!"
We even saw Santa arrive by fire truck!! 

Thank you Mrs. Scheff for working so hard with our students to put on such a cheerful show!

Hope to see many of you tomorrow at the bazaar! Enjoy the weekend and each other :)
Melissa Marino

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

Happy Halloween

Greetings and Happy Halloween!

While the official month of Bullying Prevention is coming to a close, it does not mean that we will not continue these efforts. I can not tell you how much I appreciate all of the calls, emails and even notes acknowledging the time taken to address this serious topic. I also appreciate the calls that come in when parents are unsure what is going on but notice something is different with their child. These are the type of tips that really help us to get to the bottom of a concern.

The students here really do understand how to help a friend in a situation and go out of their way to do so! They also will report a situation if they feel someone is not making a safe choice. Please feel free to suggest that your children come to see me or even write me a note if there is something that I need to address. Some students have either written or drawn pictures of their ideas for making our school the best place it can be. We would love if you would continue to encourage that!

We did spend a lot of time talking about when a situation is considered bullying and when it is time to address a specific, individual concern. We know that a bully repeats the same behavior over and over again and how important it is to share your concerns with an adult.

We are moving away from this topic (although we revisit often!) and onto being thankful and being a community helper. I love this topic because it typically sparks great conversations about ways students and families are already helping out in the community. If you have specific examples of ways your family helps others, please share so that I can mention you! This could even be events you participate in that benefit others.

First grade had a great time during the Fire and Safety presentation this week! This is always such a memorable visit!

What a great turnout for the Family Bookfair Spooktacular!! Thank you so much to all of the student and parent volunteers! There were so many well thought out events! Coloring, tattoos, games, stories, shopping and snacks! I absolutely love seeing all of the kids in costumes, that is so much fun!! Hope you all had a wonderful time, I know I did!!

Thank you so much for getting into the Halloween spirit and sending in a carved pumpkin!! We have placed them all out in front of the school. They look nice during the day but I can't wait to check them out at night!! They should stay lit through the weekend, they make me feel happy!


Some of our teachers got into the spirit too!  We were all invited to enter a pumpkin decorating contest! The kids got a great big kick out of our designs! Aren't we a creative group??

Question of the week: What are you going to be for Halloween?? 

Adeline C. "AWitch!"

Domenic F. "An Army Guy

Will G. "Olaf!"

Noah T. "An M & M, a blue one!"

Alice B. "Twilight Sparkle Equestrian Girl!"

Overall another great week at Wawaloam School! We love OUR students! 

Respectfully,
Melissa Marino
@MelissaMarino9

P.S. No School Tuesday November 4, Election Day
       No School Tuesday November 11, Veteran's Day

Wawaloam Updates 10/20- 10/24

Dear Wawaloam School Community,

Do you want to know what is better than finding books to share with students? When a student finds a book they think I will like and comes into my office to read it to me- and then invites me to share it with the whole school!!

This week, I had the pleasure of hearing the story "One" by Kathryn Otoshi read to me by Madelyn R.  This book was about a group of colors that were not always made to feel nice by the color red! One day, a gray number 1 comes along and convinces the other colors that it is NOT ok to be made to feel bad by RED and then they all became numbers too. In the end, even the color RED becomes the number 7 with an ending theme that "all it takes is 1" to do the right thing :) This book celebrates differences and making your choices count.

What a great theme to share with all of the students as we continue to think about October being Bully Prevention Month.

 Madelyn R. holding the book "One" by Kathryn Otoshi

Have any of your children told you about our new benches out on the playground? Our PBIS team meets about every 6 weeks or so. We brainstorm ways to make our PBIS program stronger and stronger. We heard about a student who had the idea of a "Buddy Bench" for his school so that when children are feeling lonely or can not find a friend to play with, they can sit on these benches as a quiet code that they would like someone to play with. As a team, we decided that we like this idea and found two small benches so that we could put one on both levels of the playground. We spent time reviewing that the benches serve a purpose and that they are not to be moved around. We role played what a scenario might look like, students shared examples of when they would use the bench. Ideas like, when you can't find your friend, when your other friend is sick, when you don't like what your friends are playing etc.  The conversation went really well and the students seemed genuinely happy to have this option available. Here is a picture of the bench:

                                                                   Friendship Bench

What a great week at the book fair! We are fortunate to have such an awesome group of PTA parents who came and volunteered to help with this in our library. I appreciate Mrs. Gagner, our Reading Specialist working with the PTA to make this happen! The book selections were awesome and it is always fun to see what the children select! 

Don't miss out on the Spooktacular Book Fair Halloween Party, this Friday night at Metcalf from 6-8 pm Come in costume! There will be a Spooky stage and fun games and trick or treating! There will be a crafts station, free refreshments and of course lots of great books for sale! 

Once again we are having a Pumpkin Parade at Wawaloam School. Bring in a carved pumpkin next week and we will display these in front of our bee statue outside. On Friday, we will place them on 102 for a lit display (LCD lights) right our on 102. Last year, this looked GREAT at night~ the more participants the better!
                                                                               

I surveyed 5 students this week with the following question:

What is your favorite Fall activity?

Jordan H.  "When all the leaves come down and look pretty and stuff"

Evan B. and Madelyn R. "Jumping in the leaves!"

Emily M. "Watching the leaves fall"

Tyler B. "Making a big pile of leaves!"

COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS

A message from the towns: Please bring canned goods and pasta on Election Day when you vote on November 4, 2014.

For information about what is happening at the Exeter Public Library go to www.exeterpubliclibrary.org/

Parent Support Network is presenting a workshop for parents on Social and Emotional Learning. Any questions and for registration, please call 467-6855 

Hope you all have an outstanding weekend filled with family fun! 

Respectfully, 

Melissa Marino

P.S. On TUESDAY morning, we are having a safety demo and emergency/rescue vehicles will  be

in front of Wawaloam School. Please do not be alarmed, our Health teachers do this annually 

with Grade 1 students.