Hello Families,

Are you ready for winter break yet!! Hopefully families will be healthy going into our week off so they can enjoy one another and a little rest and relaxation. A variety of illnesses have been present at South Row over the past couple of weeks, so please take care of yourselves!

Thank you to our PTO for the staff treat today!! You are always so thoughtful in recognizing the hard work our educators do every day.

Our students have worked hard earning Pride tickets and have reached the threshold for our first whole school reward. We will be hosting an administrator vs. administrator game show on December 23rd with the assistance of a few students. We are really looking forward to it!

Respectfully,

Terri and Jayson

Monday, December 19th

• First Day of Hanukkah

Tuesday, December 20th

• No events

Wednesday, December 21st

• Grade 2 Gingerbread Activity, 9:00 AM

Friday, December 23rd

• Last Day to Collect Items for the Wish Project
• School Spirit Day - Silly Socks and Pajama Day
  
• Whole School Pride Ticket Reward
• Grade 4 Snowflakes Activity, 10:00 AM

Monday, December 26th - Monday, January 2nd

• December Break - NO SCHOOL!

SCHOOL RESUMES - TUESDAY, JANUARY 3RD

Monday, January 2nd

• No School

Tuesday, January 3rd

• School Reopens - Happy 2023!

Wednesday, January 4th

• No events

Thursday, January 5th

• No events

Friday, January 6th

• Chelmsford/South Row Spirit Day

Monday, January 9th

• Kindness Matters Day - wear your favorite kindness shirt and/or complete a kind act!
• Student Grade Level Meetings
• Student Council Group A Meeting, 3:30pm
• School Council Meeting, 5:30pm, Conference Room
• PTO Board Meeting, 6:30pm, Conference Room
• PTO Meeting, 7:00pm, Cafeteria

Tuesday, January 10th

• Early Release Day (Teacher Professional Development), students dismissed at 11:45am

Monday, January 16th

• No School - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Friday, January 20th

• Tie Dye Spirit Day - Wear your favorite tie-dye shirts

Monday, January 23rd

• Begins the Great Kindness Challenge Week
• PTO Sponsored Winter Challenges and Activities during specials all week
• Vision and Hearing Screening
• Kindergarten Enrichment: "Mike Bent" Magic Show

Tuesday, January 24th

• Vision and Hearing Screening
• Incoming Kindergarten Registration (Central Office), 9:00am-6:00pm - need appointment more details to follow

Wednesday, January 25th

• Vision and Hearing Screening
• Kindergarten Grades Available on X2
• Incoming Kindergarten Registration (Central Office), 9:00am-6:00pm - need appointment more details to follow

Tissues, Tissues, Tissues!!: We are in desperate need of tissues school wide if you are interested in donating! We are just entering the cold and flu season so anything donations would be greatly appreciated.

Hour of Code in Technology: All of our South Row students participated in the Hour of Code from December 6 to 16. It may look like gaming, but it isn't. Students use block coding to create programs and solve logic puzzles. The Hour of Code event is important for students to learn how to navigate today’s tech-saturated world. We hope it will spark interest in students to keep learning. Research also shows that kids can pick up programming concepts before they know how to read and write. In fact, their brains are more receptive to computer languages at a young age, just like foreign languages. "The Hour of Code is designed to demystify code and show that computer science is not rocket science—anybody can learn the basics," said Hadi, founder and CEO of Code.org. Links are available from home through Clever. Please ask your student to show you!

Save the date: Incoming Kindergarten Registration SY23-24 : This will be taking place on Tuesday, January 24th, and Wednesday, January 25th from 9:00AM-6:00PM in the Central Office Conference Room. Information on scheduling a 15-minute appointment time will be shared on the CPS website the week of January 3rd. Those parents who can’t make either date can walk-in at their convenience after January 25 at Central Office between 8AM-4PM. We wanted to share this information as a save-the-date for now.

Save the date - Science Fair - The Science Fair will be held in person on February 28th with a snow date of March 1st. Registration information will be shared with families in January.

Recently The Wish Project has been struggling to keep items in stock as they have been getting more people in need of their basic supplies every day (currently they are helping between 30 to 40 families a day). The South Row community is getting behind The Wish Project work as we will be collecting these much needed items throughout the month of December:

• deodorant for men and women
• body wash for children
• full size shampoo for adults and children
• full size toothpaste and toothbrushes for adults and children
• diaper cream
• hand soap
• dish soap
• dish sponges

These donations are not expected but they are certainly appreciated. Thank you for spreading kindness throughout our community.

Dear South Row Families,

If your student is sick with fever, cough, vomiting, diarrhea, or muscle aches- I recommend a home covid test to rule that out followed by a call to their pediatrician to check-in.

Returning to school after illness:

If a student has a fever (temperature of 100.0 or higher), they must be fever-free for 24 hours before they can return to school.

If a student has unexplained vomiting or diarrhea (not due to chronic disease), they must be symptom-free for 24 hours before returning to school.

Guidelines for returning to school after illness can be found here.

The full Covid Protocol can be found here.

Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions.

Warmly,

Nurse V.

vandevoordts@chelmsford.k12.ma.us

Please keep the PTO in mind as you do you holiday shopping this year. If you shop via Amazon, please use smile.Amazon.com and choose South Row PTO and they will donate a portion of sales to us! And as you buy your groceries, check for the Box Tops label! If you scan your receipt they will also give us money (there are options for digital receipts too). Both programs use apps on your phone and there is more information about how to set them up on our website SouthRowPTO.com

South Row staff and students are celebrating this week because they have new, whole class reward bins! Thanks to all who attended the November PTO meeting where we heard Mrs. Gilbert and Mr. Ramalho describe the concept of these reward bins and voted to fund these unique reward opportunities. Three have been completed and delivered to the school and staff can start incorporating them for rewards in the new year. Pictures of what's included in the games, crafts, and glow bins are below.

Please find below:

• Tentative Lunch Menu
• Direct Link to Food Services webpage

Dear Parents and Families --

To help better manage food waste and due to labor shortages, CPS Nutrition will begin online breakfast ordering for elementary students only. This will begin after the winter holiday break on Tuesday, Jan. 3.

Orders must be placed the Wednesday prior to the week you are selecting. Due to the holiday, orders for the week of Jan. 3 must be placed by Wednesday, Dec. 21.

Also...WE ARE HIRING! Earn money while your students are at school and join us in school nutrition! We offer school year positions and an annual clothing allowance.

APPLY NOW

---

Set Up Your Account Now

Directions to set up your account and order:

1. URL Link: family.onlineordering.linq.com
2. Sign up now: Email, create password.
3. School District: Chelmsford Public Schools
4. Student ID: This can be found on x2- Child’s student ID number
5. Last Name: (You can also search and add siblings/family members at this time). Once this is completed, student’s name should appear on page.

How to order meals

1. School Menu-breakfast online ordering
2. Scroll to day/week you are selecting breakfast (top right of page)
3. Find date, select meal option
4. Add item to cart/Select Add to order
5. Click on shopping cart icon at top right of page
6. Click Check out
7. Select pick up location: Elementary pick-up location classroom
8. Place order

Please send photos to Mr. Ramalho (ramalhoj@chelmsford.k12.ma.us) to be featured in our Home Link newsletter!

Mrs. Terri Gilbert

Principal

gilbertt@chelmsford.k12.ma.us

Mr. Jayson Ramalho, M.Ed.

Assistant Principal

ramalhoj@chelmsford.k12.ma.us

Email: gilbertt@chelmsford.k12.ma.us
Website: https://www.chelmsford.k12.ma.us/Domain/15
Location: 250 Boston Road, Chelmsford, MA, USA
Phone: 978-251-5177
Facebook: facebook.com/SouthRowElementary
Twitter: @CPSSouthRow

• Mrs. Terri Gilbert, Principal: gilbertt@chelmsford.k12.ma.us, 978-251-5177 ext. 4
• Mr. Jayson Ramalho, Assistant Principal: ramalhoj@chelmsford.k12.ma.us, 978-251-5177 ext. 3
• Mrs. Shannon Vandevoordt, School Nurse: vandevoordts@chelmsford.k12.ma.us, 978-251-5177, ext.2
• Mrs. Debbie O'Neill, Secretary: oneilld@chelmsford.k12.ma.us, 978-251-5177, ext. 0
• Mrs. Kim Sepe, School Clerk: sepek@chelmsford.k12.ma.us, 978-251-5177, ext.0
• Absentee Line: 978-251-5177 ext. 1