Elm Street School

Dear Elm Families,

It has been a fantastic week of learning at Elm. This week report cards became available in the Aspen Family Portal. I encourage you to view the report card with your child(ren). This is a wonderful opportunity for students to continue to see the partnership between home and school. Thank you for all your support!

Please see directions below if you need help logging into your account:

- Go to www.walpole.k12.ma.us

- Under “For Parents” in the top navigation bar, click “X2 Aspen”

- Review portal FAQs

- Click on the Aspen icon and use the credentials provided to you in June to log in

On Tuesday, students in kindergarten, first and second grades will attend a presentation called Stories Celebrating Life sponsored by Metco. Metco is the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity: https://metcoinc.org/. We're looking forward to this interactive story telling presentation that celebrates and appreciates diversity. Dates later in the year for grades 3-5 are being considered.

Enjoy the weekend!

Best,

Carrie

School Committee has approved the school year calendar for 2020-2021.

School Year Calendar for 2020-2021

Today, February 7th, was the 100th day of school. This was a day for teachers and students to reflect on the past 100 days of school and to celebrate their accomplishments and their love for learning.

This week we celebrated our school counselors, Mrs. Pina, Mrs. White and Mrs. Escobar! They work together with teachers, parents and the community to support student achievement both academically and socially. We appreciate their dedication to our students and making our school a happy place to come to each day!

The Parent Advisory Council (PAC) at Elm Street School is a strong and supportive parent/guardian-run organization whose members generate and share creative ideas, plan and execute events, and discuss and resolve issues. They are a community of caring and committed parent volunteers. Please click here to learn more about the Elm PAC and see how you can get involved.

Upcoming PAC Events:

• 2/12 - Bianco's Restaurant Night is Wed. Feb. 12th all day long (10:30am--9pm) No need to print a flier, just mention Elm PAC when you call for your pick up or delivery! Elm’s PAC will receive 15% of the proceeds!!! Thank you, Erica Sharris for organizing this!
• 2/22 - Parents Rock Out , February 22nd, 7pm, Italian American Club featuring "HOTY" (Husbands of the Year Band). Local dads of children who attend Elm and Fisher so both PACs teamed up to host this fun night. A sign up genius will go out Thursday , Feb. 13th and will be sure to fill up so please be on the look out.
  
• 3/23 - International Night at Elm on March 23rd . Thank you, Ellen DeGirolamo & Katie Barrett for helping organize!
• 4/3 - Special person dance, Friday, April 3rd, save the date! Please see Melissa Dunn if you would like to help plan.
• 5/2 - Elm St. Mini Photo Session with our talented Jill Hayward will occur on Sat. May 2nd , place TBD! Rain date May 3rd . Details to follow!
• Spring - Running Club - Who can help organize our running club this spring?!! We may split it into 2 sessions separated by age. (k-2nd and 3rd -5th). Please email Mary Kelley if interested.
• 6/6 - Elm Night at the Red Sox, save the date Sat., June 6 th to enjoy a night out at Fenway with friends! Email Mary Kelley with any questions. Stay tuned for ticket sales.

Thank you to our PAC for organizing the teacher appreciation "Snack Attack" day. The fifth grade parents brought in snacks for all of our staff to enjoy.....It was an amazing day!

SNOWBALLS WILL BE FLYING INSIDE ELM STREET SCHOOL!!

Monday, Feb. 10th through Friday, Feb. 14th, PAC will be sponsoring our annual Elm Street Box Tops Snow Ball Battle! For every 10 Box Tops students turn in on a collection sheet, their classroom will be given a snow ball that they can “throw” at another classroom. The thrown snowballs will be posted on a bulletin board outside of the cafeteria.

Collection sheets will be sent home with each student to launch the contest. Additional collection sheets are available on the http://www.elmstreetpac.org/fundraising/box-tops-for-education/ or online at http://www.boxtops4education.com. Students may turn in any collection sheet from the website as it contains 10 box tops (each sheet = $1.00 for our school!).

Print snowball sheets by clicking on the following

http://www.elmstreetpac.org/fundraising/box-tops-for-education/box-tops-collection-sheet1/

• Please write student’s name and classroom on the collection sheet.
• Check expiration dates on Box Tops! Expired Box Tops will be discarded and will not count toward contest, as we cannot submit them for refund.
• Box Tops collected in baggies or submitted on blank sheets of paper will not be eligible for the contest – must be attached to an official Box Tops for Education Collection Sheet.

Each teacher will be given a stack of blank snowballs. For each collection sheet of 10 box tops turned in, the teacher, with input from the student, will fill in one of the snowballs to “throw” at another class. Check out the bulletin board to see how much snow piles up on each classroom!

The class that throws the most snowballs wins all school bragging rights! We will announce which class was hit with the most snowballs and which class threw the most snowballs. Last year, this contest raised over $1000 for our school!

It’s time to pile up the snowballs inside Elm Street School!

If you desire to have your child excused before the end of the school day, he/she must bring a written request from home. It is also necessary that you inform the teacher/office if your child is to be picked up by someone other than a parent/guardian. All children dismissed early must be picked up at the main office. Please do not go directly to the classroom if in the building. If your decision to pick up your child from school is last minute, please telephone the school office. If there is a change to your child’s normal dismissal procedure there must be a note. Written notes to the teacher facilitate the correct handling of dismissals. Do not rely on email for last minute changes, as staff will likely not check email until after dismissal. No dismissals, unless there is a medical emergency, will occur within 15 minutes prior to the end of school as this is a very busy time for classes and school, in general. If your child is not going to be attending extended day please call the site coordinator, 508-298-2662, and leave a voicemail. It is not sufficient to inform the classroom teacher only. Communication regarding extended day must come directly from parent/guardian to extended day. It is also helpful for the classroom teacher to know if parents are away.

The Homework Club signup for January and February is now available. Signup here.

The Extended Day Program is hosting a February Vacation Camp for all Walpole Students in grades K through 5. More information and registration paperwork can be found here. Individual questions should be directed to Devin Clifford at 508-660-7361 or dclifford@walpole.k12.ma.us.

Click here to view website - Poster Rules

The January issue of The Rebellion is here! In this issue, we have news stories on topics such as Matt Ferraro winning the DAR Good Citizen Award, the opening of Crisp, and the Community Service Club’s food drive. On the opinion page, there are articles on snacking in class, cold-calling, and impeachment. There is also a two-page spread on The Rebellion’s picks on the best of the decade. The sports page includes coverage on girls basketball, a feature on the new boys’ basketball coach, and athletes of the decade. To read up on these stories and more, click the link below!

THE REBELLION JANUARY 2020

Ashley Kuropatkin and Sarah St. George

Editors-in-Chief of The Rebellion

https://walpolestudentmedianetwork.com/

The WHS Green Team 1st Annual Composting Video and Poster Contest: There is so much to learn about this important topic. Start researching...Show us what you have learned. Touch upon a few points or focus on one point about what you have learned on the topic of composting - it is up to you! Have fun! Work individually or as a family! Videos can be a maximum of 30 seconds and can be in any format - stop-motion, claymation, whiteboard animation, live video, slides, etc. Send video submissions to jeelmhurst@gmail.com. Posters submissions can be 22 x 28 inches, submit a photo of the poster to jeelmhurst@gmail.com and dropped off the physical poster at the Board of Health office at the Walpole Town Hall (or at your school). All family, friends, and participants are invited to WHS Auditorium for the Composting Video and Poster Awards Night on March 5, 2020, at 7:00 pm. There will be prizes for the winning submissions and all participants will be recognized. This contest is part of a larger project that hopes to promote a community conversation about the many benefits of composting and the importance of redirecting our food waste out of current detrimental methods of disposal such as the use of garbage disposals and dumping our food waste in our trash which then gets sent to landfills or incinerators

12 - PAC Meeting 7:00 - Elm Media

14 - Early Release Day - Professional Development

17-21 - No School - Winter Break

24 - School Resumes

27 - Elm Family Folk Dance - 6:00 - Gym

March 12 - Parent Teacher Conferences 6pm-8pm

March 13 - Early Release Day (Parent Teacher Conferences 1:15-3:15)

March 18 - Parent Teacher Conferences 6pm-8pm

March 23 - Elm International Night 6pm-8pm

March 31 - MCAS - Grade 5 ELA (See full MCAS schedule above)

Email: cruggiero@walpole.k12.ma.us
Website: http://walpoleess.ss5.sharpschool.com/
Location: 415 Elm Street, Walpole, MA, USA
Phone: 508-660-7374
Twitter: @elmwalpole