A big thank you to all of you for your support of our early release opening last week. I know it wasn’t easy for families to start school this way, but I can assure you that it was truly time well spent for our staff.
I also want to thank our staff for the tireless work they’ve been doing to create a successful opening week. In addition to the work of our classroom teachers to welcome the children, we also have had a lot of help from staff in other ways:
- Organizing and setting up our shared spaces (eg. our literacy/book room/cafeteria)
- Helping with arrival and dismissal (taking attendance, riding buses, helping with traffic flow)
- Supporting students (and parents) during arrival/drop-off.
- A big thanks to our staff, DAD staff, the YMCA, and the B&G club for supervising students after school from 12:30-3:00.
I can’t say enough about our staff…they are selfless and dedicated to the children…they truly embrace being part of a team and understand that it takes a village to get a new school building up and running.
Facilities Update - I want to thank the families who have begun to advocate with the School Committee for our short and long term facility and instructional needs. As we live in this building over the next few weeks, we will have a better sense of what those needs are. Shortly thereafter, we will be looking to set priorities and timetables for how we can improve our collective experience in the new building. I will share more about our needs in the upcoming weeks.
Lunch/Cafeteria Update - Today was our first day serving lunch in the cafeteria and the first day carrying out the procedures we had been planning over the last couple of weeks. For the most part, things went very well. I wanted to share a few details about how we are doing lunch:
- We stagger two grade levels in the cafeteria, with 10-15 minutes separating grade level groups.
- Students sit in seats that have been assigned by the classroom teachers. Our hope is to start the year in a way that minimizes anxiety that many kids feel when they are new to our school, or for those who have a hard time navigating a large social environment.
- We have made an effort to contact all families regarding student allergies to find out about seating preferences. The goal is to make sure kids are safe, while also not isolating them because of dietary restrictions.
- It is a community effort to clean tables, seats, and the floor between lunches.
One final note…after some discussion with staff today, we’ve decided to try having our Kindergarten students eat in the classroom in the hopes of providing a smaller scale meal experience. We will try that on Wednesday and make a decision about what to do moving forward.
Starting the Year - Below is a bulleted list of activities and ideas give you a sense of how we start our year.
- Getting to know one another and establishing a sense of community - In all classrooms, there are daily morning meetings with greetings, sharing, and a song or activity. In second grade classes, children made collage self-portraits. Children mixed paints to try to get close to their own skin color, cut out paper to design hair styles, and drew features to complete their facial profiles. Also, teachers and staff spend time getting to know students through play, through interactions at recess, and during academic times.
- Establishing routines - In grade 3, teachers model clean-up procedures and then have students practice. 1st grade students learn to use various tools in the classroom...markers, scissors, etc. In music classes, children enter class to the beat of a rhythm before taking their seats to await the daily lesson. 4th and 5th grade teachers introduce organizational systems and homework routines. By spending time on these important rituals early in the year, we can spend more time on learning as the year goes on.
- Assessments - Starting next week, we being the process of gathering information about where we should begin instruction with students. We will assess reading accuracy, fluency, and comprehension levels for all students. We will also administer universal math assessments based on grade level expectations. We will then use the results of the assessment to help target instruction.
Back to School Parenting Article - One common question about the return to school involves dealing with and managing meltdowns, particularly with our K, 1st and 2nd grade students. If you have a child who has been coming home and crying or otherwise melting down, check out this article…https://parentingfromtheheartblog.com/after-school-meltdown-self-regulation/
At the very least, you will know that you are not alone…
Hope to see you all at our Picnic!
Mark Nardelli
Principal
