Parent Conference Week

BE KIND

Dear Wawaloam School Community,

One more reminder that tomorrow is Parent/Teacher Conference Day. Teachers have been preparing all week for these meetings to let you know how your child is doing in this first stretch of the 2015-16 school year.

I heard that the Halloween "Spooktacular" was a big success! Many students were still talking about it on Monday. We are fortunate to have a PTA that organizes fun, family friendly events that allow the children to have these social opportunities outside of the school day.

Thank you Exeter Rescue for another great Fire Safety demonstration for Grade 1! 

Last week we were able to get outside and use chalk to draw images that focus on being kind, respectful and accepting of each other. There are two examples on the top of this message today. While the month of October is "Anti-Bullying Month", we address this theme all year long with daily reminders about expected and unexpected behavior. Students in Grades 1 and 2  were very enthusiastic about this activity and hopefully, we will still have the weather to do this with Kindergarten soon!

We are always willing to take gently used books off of your hands for our READ program or for our front basket which is a source of great joy for children who have to wait in the office and for newly enrolled students. Simply label the donations "OFFICE" and we will make sure these books get into the hands of someone that is in need.

Thank you for sending in the pumpkins for our pumpkin parade! They will look beautiful in front of our school on Halloween night. We always get so many compliments from people who notice this unexpected display of happiness!

Have a safe and happy Halloween, enjoy the excitement as you watch your trick-or-treater go door to door! Make sure they have a flashlight or a glow stick and be careful.

Enjoy!
Melissa Marino

October Updates from Wawaloam

Dear Wawaloam Community,

Sometimes it feels as though every time we turn on the news or read the paper there is a story about violence and hatred. The reality is that it is more important than ever to teach our young learners about acceptance and diversity.  Young students are so eager to learn and soak in most of what is presented to them.

We have the power to give them opportunities time and time again to celebrate and discuss differences and how these make us special and unique.  Our art teachers are amazing and I told you about what they were working on a couple of weeks ago and I thought it would only be fair to share the finished product. What is important to think about when you look at this is that it is all of these projects on display together that really add to the beauty and purpose.

We are also given the chance every day to make our students exercise the Growth Mindset and instill in them a belief that if they put their minds to it they can improve and learn more about anything! This week in many Grade 2 classrooms students are building towers as part of the SOLIDS and LIQUIDS science kit! What I noticed in one of the classrooms is that the teacher continually referred to the students as "Engineers" while they were working to build the tallest tower possible using the materials they were provided with. There is no doubt that if we continue to call students Readers and Writers and Artists and Engineers and Mathematicians we will help to develop these qualities and provide them with the confidence building they need to not be afraid to try when tasks are challenging! 

Science Learning

Look at this tower! 

Book Fair and Halloween Spooktacular

The Scholastic Book Fair for all grades runs

Monday, October 19th- Friday, October 23^rd

during your child’s Library special.

Your child will be able to shop for books with their class.

Most books range from $5 to $8.  Please send your child

with cash or check payable to EWG-PTA.

Family Night is Friday, October 23^rd

In the Metcalf Cafeteria from 6:00-8:00pm.

Information about event at High School right before Spooktacular! 

EWG's chapter of National Art Honor Society presents the school's 10th annual Spooktacular!October 23rd from 4:30 to 6:00 pm, come on down to the Senior High for a fun night including a Fortune Teller, Musical Chairs, and Face Painting! There will be a large exhibit showing wonderful artwork done by high school students so bring quarters to vote for your favorite one. Other competitions will include a pumpkin pie bake off, a sculpture contest, and a costume contest! Show up in your favorite costume and get the chance to win best Sci-Fi costume, funniest costume, best kid costume, and so many more! We hope to see you there enjoying the live music, food, and drinks! 

Paint Night

Be on the lookout for Proud Painter Night coming up on November 6! You could paint this:

Read Program Kick-Off (Grades 1 and 2) 

Grade 1 and Grade 2 Families: Today you will find information about the READ program which is our way of motivating our students to read as much as possible. I would like to extend a big thank you to Mrs. Blake for a great Grade 1 and 2 assembly today. We talked about cozy reading spots, how students could earn "links" and took a readers oath! Most important is the question we will be trying to find an answer to this year: How many books will we need to read to earn enough links to go around our entire school?? Students will be earning 1 link for every 10 books they read! We are so excited!! 

Helping your child with Concepts About Print (Kindergarten)

Kindergarten families, look for a special bookmark in your child's folder that will be a great resource at home to supporting your early reader. If you could use this as a guide over and over again, it will make a big difference in the progress you will see! 

Pumpkin Parade!

Look for information about this event coming home soon!

Reminder : Parent Conferences October 30th

Have a wonderful weekend, sounds like we will need to pull out the fleece jackets! 

Melissa Marino

WALKATHON

Dear Wawaloam School Community, 

As you may have heard, the walkathon was a great time for everyone! We appreciate the efforts on behalf of our PTA volunteers for all of the time that went into this memorable, fun, fitness promotion that will benefit EVERYONE! 

Please see the following message from Jenn Spira, our PTA president:

Our walkathon events are over, but the walkathon fundraiser continues!  Please continue to share our GoFundMe address with your family and friends (gofundme.com/EWGSCHOOLS), and encourage them to mail donations and sneaker messages to our schools. We will continue to post the sneakers outside every classroom as they arrive throughout the month, and plan to announce our final fundraising total in late October or early November. 
 
Thanks to all of the families that participated, and to all of the volunteers, teachers and administrators who contributed to the walkathons this week to help us pull them off. A great team effort that shows the best of EWG!

Picture day has come and gone, the children were adorable and very patient when there was an issue with one of the cameras. We ended up extending recess time to make sure that everyone could get pictures taken BEFORE swinging, running, sliding and digging. 

Thank you all for sending in wipes that are safe for handwashing to our Art teachers! We really appreciate this support. This will be a big time-saver and will result in extra time for ART in art class. 

As a result of the extended recess and the Professional Development Day, the only grade that I met with this week was Kindergarten. I am always curious if they can communicate the time I spend with them to you at home. 

This week I read, The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper. I told them that I call this book "an oldie but goodie" because it is a book you can read over and over again and enjoy the story each time (I actually got this phrase from my daughter who is in Grade 1).  

I picked this book to remind them to always believe in themselves and they also picked up on all of the other trains who were not willing to help, children actually said out loud, "that's not nice!"  These are the moments that allow us to connect the events in a story to how they can make a difference in school or at home. I am including a link to the reading of this book in case you want to share the story together at home. 

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

Reminder that there is no school on Monday, October 12- Columbus Day. There are lots of Fall Festivals happening out there! Have a fun long weekend with your family!

Melissa Marino

Lots of Information About Next Week at Wawaloam School

Greetings Wawaloam School Community,

This weekend will be good for planning ahead for all of the events scheduled for the upcoming week, given that the predication for wind and rain will most likely keep us close to home.

The first event next week is Picture Day! This is scheduled to take place in the morning on Wednesday, October 7th. The flyers for Picture Day came home this week and students should have these with them on Wednesday. It appears that on these envelopes there is a method for doing this online as well if you are interested in checking that out.

We are excited about our upcoming PTA Walkathon this THURSDAY, October 8th! The letters have been sent out and the schedule has been distributed. We are fortunate to have the support of maintenance who will be helping us to design a track on our upper field. We are hopeful that the weather will cooperate with us but certain that we will have a great time!


On Thursday, please consider wearing yellow and black or any school shirt that you might have for the Walk-a-thon! We want to see your school spirit on this day! 

A reminder that there is NO SCHOOL THIS FRIDAY, October 9th. This is a Professional Development Day for Elementary Teachers. 

This week I read the book, The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes by Mark Pett and Gary Rubenstein. The children loved this book and the message was an important one: Learn from your mistakes, let go, laugh and enjoy the ride! We sure laughed together when the main character's hamster turned her perfect juggling act into a disaster, in the end teaching a valuable lesson that it is acceptable to make mistakes.

Recently at a table with a group of Wawaloam teachers, I was listening intently to a conversation that hit home for me. The focus was on the learning that can take place in the car, more specifically that the car is a GREAT place to learn! Often, this is a place where children are provided with distractions to help them pass the time. These distractions can take away from some of the key learning and creativity that could be taking place. We were in agreement in regard to our own children that we try to come up with multiple ways to make sure our children "are not bored".

When children have to wait or will be required to be patient, we have become a society that will simply provide them with a hand-held device,  an I-Pads and even our own phones. I am not offering suggestions or even an opinion here, just providing you with a chance to take some time to reflect on this new norm. We agreed that it is not only important, but it is also a life skill to learn how to encounter and manage unstructured time.

Thank you so much to the teachers who joined me last night at the PTA meeting, I know that our families appreciated having you all there!

Have a great weekend!
Melissa Marino

Please take a moment to read the Superintendent's Blog for this week :)

http://erinakes.blogspot.com/

End of the Week Communication from Wawaloam School

Dear Wawaloam School Community,

Thank you to everyone who contributed to making our Kindergarten Open House such a great success. We are so fortunate to have such an involved and committed group of parents and guardians! As I shared, research shows that when families and schools work together, students have greater success. We welcome you at Wawaloam School as parters in the education of your child.

I said this last night and I will say it again, we have AMAZING teachers at Wawaloam School! I visit the classrooms daily, sometimes if I am lucky I get to visit more than once! I always think to myself how fortunate our students are to have exposure to the level of energy and excitement that Wawaloam teachers bring with them each day.

Yesterday, I had the chance to spend some time in the art room with Mrs. Millard's class. Mrs. Ray was beginning a lesson with the students reviewing how to draw a portrait. She had all of the students draw an oval and then helped them to recognize that eyes are really not the shape of a circle, but more the shape of an almond or a football. She went on to the nose and the mouth and then they talked about and observed the different colors that skin can be. She is working toward a project that will celebrate differences around the world and I was in the right place at the right time for the following pictures. I loved listening to this conversation which was truly a celebration of differences as students compared their tones together. Thank you Mrs. Ray for making art class so inspiring!

We are working so hard on following all of the school rules. An area of attention right now with our new Kindergarten friends is keeping our hands to ourselves. When I learn about issues that are happening, I try to think about how I can address these with the groups during the grade level meetings. I found a site that provides great, quick videos that focus on specific lessons and I thought I would put the link in my blog today so that we can also work together to reinforce this important school rule.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iTPPh1d2j8

Thank you again for all of your support and keep the communication coming. Be sure to let us know about concerns BIG or SMALL so that we can work together to make every day the best day possible for all students! 

Hope to see you at the PTA meeting NEXT THURSDAY, October 1st! 6:30 Wawaloam Library

Have a great weekend, 

Melissa Marino

PICTURE DAY IS COMING SOON!

Week Ending September 18

Thank you Mrs. Hurst for sharing your beautiful flowers with us! We appreciate this display of nature's beauty. 

Dear Wawaloam Community,

Monday brought us a taste of fall like weather only to be followed by reminders of summer temperatures for the remainder of this week! We are so proud of our students and teachers who still put maximum effort into these "dog days" of summer. (so called because the Dog Star (Sirius) rises and sets with the sun during this time). 

This week we started to teach and review our school wide expectations of Respectful, Responsible and Safe choices. We are covering how to be Respectful in all areas of the school and defining what this means and what it looks like. We are distributing Bee Bucks to students who are showing these expected behaviors and telling them specifically why they are receiving these reinforcements of expected behavior. 

I had the pleasure of hosting all of the Grade Level Weekly Meetings for the first time this week and I have to tell you what a great job students did with sharing, listening and celebrating our successes. We had our very first weekly raffle and as usual, students demonstrated joy for those who were randomly selected! I am always touched by the genuine display of happiness for others and the applause for friends! 

A reminder that we have popcorn available for students to select for snack every Friday for 50 cents. 

This is an optional snack and students can opt to have the snack they choose to bring if they prefer. The students eat popcorn during snack time in the classroom and it is simply something to look forward to on each Friday! We are so thankful for our "popcorn parents" who come and volunteer to make this happen each week! 

Lastly, I would like to thank families for your partnership in the education of your child. We need your support and reinforcement! We can tell students how important it is to read at home but you are the ones who can make this a reality! Set aside that time each night for reading and watch the difference this will make. 

We are looking forward to seeing Kindergarten Families at Open House on Thursday night at 6:00 PM. This special night is set aside to answer the question, "What is my child doing at school?" Later on in October at Parent Conferences we will help you learn "How is your child doing at school?" 

Have a great weekend, make every moment count! 

Melissa Marino

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