Melville Message Community Update

In partnership with families and community, the mission of Melville Elementary School is to provide all students with a strong academic foundation through diverse and challenging instruction in a safe and nurturing environment enabling them to achieve their greatest potential while developing self-confidence, respect, responsibility, compassion and a love of learning.

Dear Melville Families,

On Monday March 13th your child will have an asynchronous day of learning while teachers attend Professional Development. Asynchronous learning means that there will be no live lessons and you can set the pace of learning for the day. Learning expectations will be a combination of online and paper pencil tasks.

On Friday, March 10th teachers will email:

• The required Google Form for attendance, which must be completed by 9AM on Monday, March 13th.
• An agenda of learning expectations for the day.
• Some grade levels may be sending home tasks on Friday, March 10th.

Teachers will resend this information the morning of March 13th. Please be mindful that while our teachers are engaged in Professional Development they will not be able to respond to emails and phone calls.

All the best,

D​anielle Laurie

Please click here to view the Unified Arts Activities for the day.

Meeting on Wednesday March 15th at 6PM in the Melville Library

-Free Child Care is available from ALPHABest from 6PM-7PM

-During the Principal's Updates we will also have a presentation on the Report Card

The Portsmouth Local Advisory Committee is hosting the annual LAC Awards on May 11, 2023.
Please consider nominating someone from our school community who has had a positive impact on a student with a disability to succeed this year. Typical persons who are nominated are teachers/support professionals, bus staff, RBTs/Paraprofessionals, coaches, students, and administrators. The deadline for nominations is May 1, 2023.

To build our literacy culture and our school community from March-June we will select a book a month to be our shared read aloud. This book will be read by each class, the class will leave a comment, and then pass the book to the next class until the WHOLE school has read the book.

Our first read aloud will be The Word Collector by, Peter H. Reynolds.

A New York Times Bestseller Named an Outstanding Literary Work for Children by the NAACP Some people collect stamps. Some people collect coins. Some people collect art. And Jerome? Jerome collected words . . . In this extraordinary new tale from Peter H. Reynolds, Jerome discovers the magic of the words all around him -- short and sweet words, two-syllable treats, and multisyllable words that sound like little songs. Words that connect, transform, and empower.From the creator of The Dot, I Am Human, and Happy Dreamer comes a celebration of finding your own words -- and the impact you can have when you share them with the world.

Our first grade team is in year two of implementation of the CAL Grant funded by the Rhode Island Department of Education. With grant funding, all first grade teachers and our librarian Ms. Paknis were trained through DEVTECH at Tufts University on the implementation of the Scratch Junior programming curriculum. Students have been engaged in this coding curriculum since October. They have been engaged in learning the different elements of Scratch Jr. and programming languages. Through play, the children express and expand their understanding of experiences. Use of coding and scratch Jr. allows students to learn about digital literacy through play. As part of this program Students are able to work on open ended projects in areas that are of high interest to them. They learn how to work with others and problem solve through the coding playground. Students are able to use their imaginations and become inspired by themselves and their peers.

Students have been creating codes for different projects including designing a dance party, retelling the story of Ada Lovelace and an unplugged design challenge where students created a snowman out of recycled materials. During this next stretch of the project students will be learning about “debugging a code”, they will create a freeze dance and coding and write and code an original story of their own!

We love to celebrate our students. If they have special news that you would like us to share, e.g. State Wrestling or Cheerleading Championship accomplishments, then please email me at lauried@portsmouthschoolsri.org and we will be sure to include their recognition in our morning announcements.

When you enter the Melville parking lot you may have noticed our Planet Aid Bin. If you have clothing to donate please consider using this bin!

2022-2023 School Calendar

If you would like to order a yearbook then please do so by following this link and use the SCHOOL ID.

Yearbook Order: https://ybpay.lifetouch.com/

School ID: 12072423

If you do not pre order a yearbook, then we may not have enough available to purchase at the end of the school year when it comes out. We order a some extra, but the only guarantee is to pre order, so I highly recommend ordering one ahead of time.

If you have a child in grade 4 and need financial assistance to purchase a yearbook, then please email me directly at lauried@portsmouthschoolsri.org and we will make sure your child gets a yearbook.

We want our families to be partners in all we do. Please complete this Melville Committee Work Volunteer Form to join our teams.

If you are interested in volunteering or chaperoning this school year, then you will need to complete the volunteer approval process. Mrs. McEvoy in our office is a notary and can be of any assistance, so please do not hesitate to reach out!

In keeping with the spirit of giving, our Feinstein Jr. Scholars are excited to start an in-school food pantry that our students and families can donate to and access when needed.

Please help us as we continue to support our community by sending in food items with your child from time to time. Please email

Mrs. Powell: powelld@portsmouthschoolsri.org or

Mrs. Pascoe: pascoen@portsmouthschoolsri.org

if you would like to access our food pantry during the school year.

Securly Home is an app that allows parents to monitor their child’s Chromebook activity at home and add rules for home use. Please take some time to review the slideshow from the informational parent meeting hosted for families.

We encourage you to sign up now for Securly Home!

Google Slideshow

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How to use AmazonSmile on a web browser:

1. Visit smile.amazon.com
2. Sign in with the same account you use for Amazon.com
3. Select your charity Melville Parent Teacher Group
4. Start shopping! Remember to checkout at smile.amazon.com to generate donations for your chosen charity.
   Tip: Add a bookmark to make it easier to shop at smile.amazon.com.

March

13th-Statewide PD Day-Distance Learning Day

15th-MPTG Meeting 6:00 PM

21st- Grade 2 Field Trip

24th- Spring Picture Day

April

5th-

In School Arts for Life

MPTG Meeting 6:00 PM

7th-Good Friday (No School)

10th-14th-Spring Recess (No School)

26th-Early Release for Students (PD for Staff)

May

10th-MPTG Meeting 6:00 PM

11th-Melville Theater Bugs Presents "Annie" 4:00-5:00

19th-Grade 4 Field Trip

23rd-Melville Fun Run

26th-Staff PD Day (No School)

29th-Memorial Day (No School)

June

2nd-Kindergarten End of the Year Celebration

7th-Early Release for Students (PD for Staff)

8th-Kindergarten Field Trip

9th-PHS Graduation (Tentative Date)

14th-MPTG Meeting-Volunteer Appreciation 6:00PM

15th-Grade 1 Field Trip

16th-Grade 4 End of the Year Family Picnic

19th-Juneteenth (No School) 20 or 180th day

Email: lauried@portsmouthschoolsri.org
Website: https://www.portsmouthschoolsri.org/Domain/11
Location: 1351 West Main Road, Portsmouth, RI, USA
Phone: 4016831650
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009159177892
Twitter: @MelvilleSchool