Get Out and Play!

Bundle up for cold day outdoor recess. 

Dear Wawaloam Community,


We would like to let you know that one of our goals is to get our students outside during our scheduled recess time every day. That being said, please be sure they come to school with the layers that will help keep children as warm as possible when it is cold outside. We will gladly accept any warm gear that your children have outgrown as we always have someone who can benefit.

We recognize that playing outside for recess as often as possible is an important goal that we must strive for. Plenty of sources state that getting outside even when it is very cold will help to build up the immune system, provide exercise, encourage the imagination, improve problem solving skills and afford children healthy amounts of Vitamin D. Obviously, we will not go outside during inclement weather or when temperatures are dangerously cold. Thank you for your help with making sure we are bundled up.

During the month of January we are required to practice a second Lock Down Drill.  You may hear about this at some point in the next week or so. Our students always do such a great job following the expected protocol during these drills. Overall, the entire drill takes about 5-7 minutes.

In grades 1 and 2 it has been very popular to write letters about how students have been kind to each other. During whole grade meetings, I have been reading these out loud and it is heartwarming to see the faces of the students light up when they learn that a friend has written about them. This was an idea that stemmed from our PBIS team and so far it has been a tremendous success!

Finally, this week I had the chance to check in with some Kindergarten students who came to show me their outstanding work in their science notebooks. I would encourage you to ask your Kindergartener about the different shapes of leaves. They can also tell you about what trees need to survive! I was very impressed with these little scientists!

Thank you for all that you do to support your children, we truly value this partnership. Your children are AMAZING!

Have a great weekend!
Go Pats!! 

Melissa Marino

January 8, 2016 Wawaloam Information

Happy Friday and Happy New Year! 

We are overwhelmed at Wawaloam by the never-ending Box Tops that come in to our school. We just received a check for over $2000.00 which continues to serve as a support to our student activities and special presentations that we have. Keep these  coming! 

Be on the lookout for information coming home soon about our 100th day of school museum!  The date as of now is February 4th, hopefully the weather will not have an impact on that date. 

EWG Girl Scout Troop 963 is holding a blanket drive through the month of January. New Blankets will be made available to the families in need in the EWG Community. Gently used blankets will be donated to the RI homeless shelters. Any and all donations are greatly appreciated! We have a bin right in the main hallway of our school. 

A special thank you to PTA for the recent approval of an upcoming whole school field trip! More details soon but we are thrilled! 

Community Announcements

There is a notice on the district website under the Community Tab regarding North Kingstown Youth Lacrosse registration. NK is the official league which covers our two towns. Boys and girls in Grades K to 8 can register and play.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/EWGRSDweb/contentweb/CommunityAnnouncements/Lacrpsse-NKYL%20registration%202016.pdf

EWG Girls Softball 2016 Registration: http://s3.amazonaws.com/EWGRSDweb/contentweb/CommunityAnnouncements/EWG%20Softball%202016%20Registration%20form%20%282%29.pdf

​EWG Girls Softball 2016 Winter Clinic Registration:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/EWGRSDweb/contentweb/CommunityAnnouncements/EWG%20Softball%202016%20Winter%20Clinic%282%29.pdf

Have a great weekend! 
Melissa Marino

Holiday Wishes

To the Wawaloam School Community,

Wishing all of you the joy and beauty that make the holiday season so incredible. I always enjoy seeing how excited all of the students are in these days leading up to the break.

We have lots of important curriculum to cover in such a short amount of time but this is the time of year when we really get to enjoy our students and make these exclusive school memories with them.

The weather does not suggest winter, snow or even cold at this point but the date on the calendar and the gingerbread houses and awesome holiday projects say otherwise. We thank you for sharing your children with us each day!

Kindergarten Friends rehearsing for the big holiday concert next week!

Grade 2 Students enjoying the Polar Express in their pajamas! 

We are so lucky to have Mrs. Hurst who leaves absolutely beautiful eye catching floral arrangements in our hallway. This is the treasure she created for us this week, thank you Mrs. Hurst! 

A reminder from a student in Grade 2 who understands what this season is really about.

Over the break, if you do any organizing we love to receive gently used book donations. We just received a donation and it has reached many recipients! Some of the "younger" books will go to Lineham School. We all know about the specific themes that some of our students are so excited to read about and we get those books right into their hands. Some of the books will be added to the prize box giveaway that we have for each grade each week and then we also replenish the books in our giveaway basket which is used for newly enrolled students or any children who have to wait patiently for a parent in a meeting or otherwise. In other words, we LOVE book donations and appreciate you thinking of us!!

Our last day of school before the break is Tuesday, December 22.  As is tradition at Wawaloam School we will have an assembly for our students with the young at heart Dixie Land Band who never fail to get us into the holiday spirit.  We will see everyone back on Monday, January 4 as we reflect and regroup for the second half of this fantastic school year.

Enjoy this enchanting time of the year with your family and friends. Wishing you all the
Hope, Wonder, and Joy that the Season can bring! 
Peace~
Melissa Marino

December News and Updates

As we approach the holiday season, I would like to thank everyone including the participants at Metcalf and Lineham who joined in last Tuesday when we made donations to wear hats or bring stuffed animals to school. Our goal was to help a family struggling with medical bills and together we raised $1600.00 in one single day. I know that this will make a big difference for Diane Silva, Ella and their beautiful family. As a community, we should feel very proud that we could pull together and make this happen! You are all so amazing! 

Holiday Photo Cards

We have a tradition of hanging up all of your beautiful holiday cards in our office, we would love if you start sending these in soon as the season always seems so short! We can't wait to see these! 

BAZAAR

This Saturday, Dec. 5, don't miss the annual EWG Holiday Bazaar, happening at Metcalf Elementary from 9 am to 3 pm. Nearly 70 vendors are on hand to sell their unique gift items, including some of our own EWG teachers, staff and students! Professional Santa photos are available, as well as a full kitchen café, baked goods, kids shopping area (all items $5 or less!), penny social, and a 50/50 raffle. This is a great community event that supports a lot of small businesses as well as our three elementary schools...please join us!

2015 Breakfast with Santa December 19th 9:00-11:00 
Click the link below for information about another holiday event in our district. 

http://s3.amazonaws.com/EWGRSDweb/contentweb/CommunityAnnouncements/Breakfast%20with%20Santa%20Class%20of%202019%20Fundraiser.pdf

SELAC 

The Special Education Local Advisory Committee (SELAC) meets once a month in the High School Library from 7:00-8:30 PM. This is a time to hear from parents, special educators, the director of special services and other invited guests about special education in our district. The next meeting will be held on December 14. For more information email:  ewglac@gmail.com

Enjoy the weekend everyone! Hope to see you at the bazaar!

Melissa Marino

Wawaloam Gives Thanks

As we approach the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, take the time to reflect on our good fortune. I want you all to know that I am thankful everyday that I have the privilege to lead a school in a district full of families that teach children the importance of giving and being kind to each other. We love seeing how happy the children are to add to our food collection.

Thank you to everyone for bringing in so many items for our food drive! We collected over 800 items! Be very proud! This will make a big difference for many local families.

Check out the writing that our Kindergarten friends are producing, every day these early learners are improving on these skills! Mrs. Petrarca's class created success criteria and are all trying their best! 

TEAM ELLA

Be on the lookout for a flyer about bringing a stuffed animal to school. We are happy to help our community friend, Miss Diane from the Exeter Library. Next week will be busy, as short as it it! For a $1.00 donation (optional) we are inviting everyone to help us help others. Her daughter Ella is putting in all of her effort to recover from an injury over the summer and the financial impact has been difficult. Of course, every little bit helps. 

We are also selling raffle tickets to support the basket fundraiser that the library has organized. They have over 35 gift baskets that have been donated to support our community friends. If you are interested, Karen or Claudette in the office can help you out. Please consider purchasing tickets. 

EWG PTA

Holiday Bazaar

& Craft Show

More than 50 Vendors!

Jewelry, crafts, floral, candles, ornaments, wreaths, handmade soaps & more…many new crafters!

Olaf’s Kids Korner Shop

Do you wanna find a bargain? We shopped all year so kids can buy affordable gifts for mom, dad, siblings, pets, grandma and grandpa...all $5 and below!

Pictures with Santa!

A holiday tradition! Digital pictures printed onsite…wallet sizes available too.

Or take your own for just $5!

Holiday Café and Baked Goods Table

Stop by for breakfast, lunch or a homemade baked good…delicious!

Penny Social & 50/50!

Lots of great prizes at the Penny Social table, and enter our 50/50 raffle

Saturday, December 5th

9 am to 3 pm

Metcalf Elementary School

Wishing you all an amazing Thanksgiving holiday with your friends and family, 

Melissa Marino

Wawaloam School Events 11/6

Thank You Veterans

We thank you for your service and for protecting our country. 

We have come to the end of another great week at Wawaloam School. Our Grade 1 and 2 Read Challenge winners were announced today and the kindness mailbox was presented to students in Grades 1 and 2. 

All students are invited to write letters sharing examples of kindness that are happening at Wawaloam School. They can write about someone being kind to them or about an act of kindness that they have observed. These letters will be collected once a week and will be shared in weekly meetings or even over the intercom! We are lucky to have such a dedicated PBIS team coming up with ideas all the time to remind and reinforce the message to students about Respectful, Responsible and Safe choices. 

Mrs. Larkin and I met together this week with Kindergarten to talk about germs, washing hands and staying healthy. Mrs. Larkin showed the students her "stuffed animal" germs and then she had me sneeze out loud while I was holding little pom-poms in my hand. I released these during the sneeze so they could see how far germs can travel......if your child came home and told you I sneezed all over them......this will explain things! Thank you Mrs. Larkin for reinforcing such an important message! 

This week I also had a great visit with two students in Mrs. Corcoran's class. They came to tell me about the Mystery Skype's they have been participating in. This week they were able to talk LIVE to people at the North Carolina Aquarium.  Imagine that you can go on a field trip while you are in your own classroom! 

http://www.ncaquariums.com/

 Students were sharing all sorts of facts they had learned from the session and were quite excited about the topic. We are getting more and more creative in our classrooms about how we  go about learning! While this was taking place, the students had to record data and write fun facts that they had learned.  What a great way to make learning exciting for our students! 

A quick reminder that there is no school on Wednesday, November 11- enjoy the extra day with your family if you can! 

Also, the Proud Painter Fundraiser is SOLD OUT for tonight. 

Have a fantastic weekend! 

Melissa Marino

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