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

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DR. SEUSS

Dear Wawaloam Community, 

This community announcement is a sure sign of Spring! 

EWG Girls Softball is now accepting spring registrations for grades K-8, no prior experience is required.  Established in 1982, EWG Girls Softball provides our children a safe, fun and friendly environment to learn and enjoy the game of softball.  Registration forms are now available for print on the Community Announcements page of the EWG District website - let's get ready to PLAY BALL!!

Hopefully this week you received our GROWTH MINDSET FOR PARENTS brochure. This is an outcome from our School Improvement Team. We welcome your feedback and comments and we are always available for questions. 

We are looking forward to a lot of exciting events this upcoming week! 

The PTA has generously made arrangements for all of our classes to have a special presentation connected to our Science Curriculum! 

On Tuesday- Mystic Aquarium will be doing a special presentation for our Grade 1 students all about the seashore.  http://www.mysticaquarium.org/fun-and-learning/teachers-and-school-groups/grades-1-3

On Thursday- the ZOOMOBILE will be here from Roger Williams to talk about animal habitats with our Grade 2 students and on Friday- they will be doing another presentation on animals with our Kindergarten. 

http://www.rwpzoo.org/313/ed-guide

Also- Next week we will celebrate Dr. Seuss' Birthday! During all of our grade level meetings we will have special guests! Our local librarians will be coming in and we will be reading a Dr. Seuss book and distributing commemorative hats to all of our students! This year we ordered them in yellow and black- to emphasize our PBIS expectations! 

We will gladly accept ANY USED AND IN GOOD CONDITION SPORTING GOODS between now and March 18th! Look high and look low and consider donating items that are causing clutter for a great cause! Send these items in to the Wawaloam School office ASAP. 


Have an outstanding weekend- play outside (even just 15 minutes can make a difference)! 
Melissa Marino
@MelissaMarino9

Happy School Vacation Week!

Happy School Vacation!

OUR ICICLES!!! 

 

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY XOXOX

Report cards are coming home today with your child. Please take the time to review the progress that your child is making. At Wawaloam School, we celebrate the Growth Mindset- we believe that all children can learn and we have systems in place to monitor the progress of our students and plan for their individual learning needs. In the next paragraph, you will read about an example of how we collaborate to meet the needs of all students, your children may have already told you about this!! They know all about this amazing news!

We are excited to inform the population of Wawaloam School that sometime in the month of March you will notice a new addition to our student body! This one will have four legs and a tail!!! 

Through fundraising and faith, a family in our school has been granted the gift of a very special dog who will be working to help our Kindergarten friend, Lilly Steiner, have the best days possible! 

Her special dog will be here as a working dog and will be able to detect seizure activity in Lilly and will offer a sense of calm and comfort during her school day.This service dog has gone through intense training and has been specially matched to meet her specific needs. 

As a school, we are preparing our student body for this exciting new canine friend. In order to plan for this, we talked about how to behave around this dog and created our  school wide expectations for when you see the dog in our school. There is a short video clip from the Today Show with a student who presently works with a service dog and how the dog helps him.We shared this with all of our students this week and offered the opportunity for students to ask questions.

 http://www.today.com/video/today/53911441#53911441 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY1kcnhL0b0&app=desktop

We believe wholeheartedly in the “whatever it takes” philosophy for all of our students and we are very proud of the opportunity to support Lilly and her family with this outstanding miracle.  A special thank you to the Steiner family for giving us permission to share all of this information with you.

Speaking of meeting the need of children, Lineham Early Childhood Learning Center will be holding an OPEN HOUSE for those interested in the Preschool program. The date for this is March 27 and will be held at 9:15-10:00 for 3 year olds and 1:30-2:15 for 4 year olds. If you would like to attend, you can call 397-3771 to RSVP by March 20th. 

As we end this week and approach our school vacation, I would like to wish all of you a week filled with opportunities to enjoy each other. There are lots of FREE opportunities for making fun memories with your children.

The Exeter library will be open 10-8 Tuesday –Thursday and 10-5 on Friday and Saturday. They are  having a beach party on Saturday, February 21 at 2:00, games, music, limbo, crafts and snacks!

Brainwaves in South County Commons will offer free crafts 10:30-12:00 ages 2-8 Monday through Friday.

The West Greenwich Library will be open 10-4 Monday and Friday and 10-8 Tuesday-Thursday!

The Kettle Pond Nature Center in Ninigret/Charlestown is a little hidden gem. If the weather is decent, you could plan a short hike. On Wednesday they will have a Wild About Reading event. They will read a nature based story and do an activity to go along with the book at 10:30.

Last week I posted all of the opportunities that the Feinstein card offers to you like the Children's Museum and Mystic Aquarium.

Other inexpensive ideas are:

The Roger Williams Zoo is half price admission during the month of February and it is great to see the cold hardy animals in the winter setting.

Audubon Society asri.com  for the full calendar of events but I noticed that on Wednesday you can meet a live owl at the Smithfield location if you register on line. Admission is 14.00 for an adult and 7.00 for a child.

If you are at home, definitely check out Gonoodle.com. The kids will love it and you will LOVE that they are moving around and getting the Wiggles out!

Try to have an unconnected/ TV free day and see how you can plan for ways to stay busy and have fun. You could create a family art project, work on a “big” puzzle, have a family Lego competition, have an indoor picnic right in the family room, make cards or letters for special people like grandparents or elderly neighbors. Do anything that brings you all together, talking and laughing with one another!

Phonics Centers in Kindergarten

 Art in Kindergarten working on Painted Elephants and learning about India

 Rolling Sight Words and Recording the Data

Don't forget to begin to think about SPORTING EQUIPMENT IN GREAT CONDITION THAT COULD BE DONATED FOR OUR SPORTS RE-SALE EVENT! This is a good week to do this! We will start to take donations on Monday February 23. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask. 

Have a great week off of school together! 

Melissa Marino

@MelissaMarino9

PS Be sure to check out our updated webpage!  ewg.k12.ri.us/wawaloam/

Wawaloam School News

 What is the buzz this week?

                                                                     
Today is day 99 of our school year! That means that our next school day will be day #100! We are thrilled and overjoyed with the number of families who participated in the opportunity to design a project at home! They are admired by our entire school community! On day 100, our whole school will be invited to take a walk to the cafeteria to really appreciate the time and creativity that went into these! I can't believe we are 100 days into this school year! We will accept projects on Monday (or Tuesday) of next week as well.

We are once again watching the forecast with a storm predicted over the weekend into Monday. If you have not done so, here is the link to have text alert messages sent to your phone or email. These come through as soon as a message is posted and you can sign up for the alerts by school district.

http://my.textcaster.com/asa/Default.aspx?ID=6d6b22e1-242f-46b3-ae4f-e01582e9a14c

*A quick reminder that this is the last day for the PTA BJ's membership fundraiser.

Join North Kingstown Youth Lacrosse!

  Open to Exeter and West Greenwich boys and girls Pre-K through Grade 8!! 

 www.nklacrosse.org

We are just about finished with our Mid-Year I-Ready Assessments for Grades 1 and 2. We are definitely becoming more and more tech savvy in our classrooms! The Enoboards and the visits to the computer lab are paying off! Our students are doing really well with logging on and navigating their way through the various online resources we are so fortunate to offer our students!! I thought I would share a few snapshots of what kind of questions students are faced with and what the screen actually looks like while they are taking the assessment. We have a great team of people devoted to ensuring that we have the support we need for the students during these sessions and the progress of this process has been pretty amazing. I am proud of the effort and perseverance of our students!                           

We are working together to make the Wawaloam School website more appealing, user-friendly and useful to all of you. The website is their for you!! Please take a look at it and tell us what you need to be able to access on that page. We are happy to work together to have your needs met. One parent has mentioned the lunch menu and we were able to shift the link for that to the top of the page. We have changed the entire set-up of the page worked as a team to make the decisions for what we want it to look like. We think and we really hope this is a positive shift. We are open to ANY AND ALL suggestions you have for creating a school web page that is used as a resource on a regular basis.

The government has issued a statement regarding safety during extreme cold. Please review the precautions and suggestions in this short document.   http://www.ri.gov/press/view/23968

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend, keep warm and stay safe. 

Sincerely, Melissa Marino

@MelissaMarino9

Lots of helpful information this week!

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Know that your child's health, safety and well being are priorities at Wawaloam School. We continue to encourage frequent hand washing, covering coughs, good nutrition, fresh air, exercise, etc. but recognize that our population is young and learning to master these healthy behaviors. Increased illness at this time of the year is to be expected. Working together, we hope to minimize the amount of illness so our students can be in school, feeling well, and ready to learn and excel at Wawaloam School. Mrs. Larkin and I have been reflecting on information that we feel may be helpful now that we are encountering increased illness. She has shared information that we wanted to pass along so that we can stay as healthy as possible:

Despite our continuous efforts to decrease the spread of illness, this is the time of the year when students seem more likely to become sick. Complicating this year is the report that the flu vaccine has not been as effective as was hoped. In school, the most common recent complaints have been: stomach aches, nausea, diarrhea, headaches, sore throats, ear aches, vomiting, and developing fevers.

This is a reminder that while attendance is very important, it is also very important that your child feels well enough to be in school for the day with his/her classmates and ready to learn. If your child has a fever of 100 degrees or higher, has vomited, has a headache not relieved by an over-the-counter analgesic, a severe persistent sore throat or earache, nausea or stomach ache unrelieved by eating, going to the bathroom  and/or an antacid, it is advised that your child remain at home with a responsible caretaker. Please contact your physician for medical advise if needed. I can be reached at 295-8802 if you have any questions or are unsure if your child should come to school, or wish to discuss your child's health.

As a review, students should remain out of school for 24 hours fever free without the use of analgesics before returning to school. Students who vomit should be able to eat solid foods without further vomiting for at least a day before returning to school. Students with persistent headaches, sore throats, earaches should be evaluated by their physician to determine if medication should be ordered to relieve their symptoms. If your child is brought to the physician, it is advisable to obtain a doctor's note that he/she has been examined. This will document the reason for your child's absence, if prolonged, from school. Students who are prescribed an antibiotic, must take the antibiotic for 24 hours to be noncontagious and able to return to school.

During this time of higher than normal illness, to limit unnecessary exposure to ill students in the health office waiting to be picked up, I have requested that staff continue to use health office passes to send ill/injured students to the health office and to limit the visits of students whose complaints are minor and can be handled in the classroom. For example, during the winter months, having chapped lips is a big distraction for many students. If able, you may send in a lip moisturizer with your child's initials for their personal use.

Please note that during the winter months, unless the temperature, including wind chill, is below 20 degrees, or inclement weather, students spend approximately 15 minutes outside to enjoy fresh air, exercise and sunshine. Please mark all belongings with their initials to avoid items becoming part of our growing lost and found bin. If your child is missing a piece of winter clothing, please encourage him/her to check this bin or send us an email describing the missing item and we will gladly check for you.
If your child is in need of a winter coat, or clothing, please let me know. I frequently receive donations of gently used items to pass on to our students.

 

Thank you so much Mrs Larkin! We certainly appreciate all of these reminders! 



Additional information that we want to share is that we are extending the Flash Food Drive from this week until Monday. Please try to send in one item.  Mr. Feinstein has announced that he will donate 1.00 per item up to $1000.00 to all schools who participate. As of now, we seem to have about 400 items. Anything you can send in is appreciated. 

Don't forget about the Math Workshop next Wednesday at Wawaloam School from 9:15-10:45 AM. This is on the Common Core Math and Tools to Support Instruction at Home and Mrs. Kilday will be the presenter. She can offer this at additional times as well if there is interest. Please let us know. 

Hoping you all have an outstanding weekend and that you are ready for some Superbowl action!! 

Sincerely, 
Melissa Marino

PS- Here is a GREAT site to check out with your child about Groundhog Day which is on Monday, February 2, 2015!  http://www.groundhog.org/

PSS - 100th day of school is now on February 6 (NEXT FRIDAY) we will accept your 100th day of school projects throughout the entire week next week! We already have some AWESOME creations!!