Hello South Row Families!

Thank you to our amazing PTO and volunteers that helped at the 48th annual Pumpkin Fair. Like all South Row events, it was well attended and a good time was had by all.

We greatly enjoyed meeting with all grade levels this past week for our October Grade Level Meetings. We discussed the PRIDE core value of Perseverance in addition to focusing on the concept of identity with our students in a developmentally appropriate manner.

This is the last week of our reading challenge, keep encouraging your student to continue logging those reading minutes.

STUDENTS HAVE READ OVER 43,000 minutes!!

We are entering week two of the coat drive. Please consider donating any gently used coats that will be used to support our South Row community as well as the larger Chelmsford community.

Respectfully,

Terri

MONDAY (10.25.21)

• Student Council Meeting (Tice/Duncan) during recess

TUESDAY (10.26.21)

• No events

WEDNESDAY (10.27.21)

• Pool Testing

Thursday (10.28.21)

• Kindergarten Halloween Parade
• Student Council Meeting (Driscoll/Mathews) during recess

Friday (10.29.21)

• Fall Reading Challenge ends
• Orange/Black Spirit Day

• November School Council and PTO Meetings: Please read the below information on these two meetings coming up!

  • The November School Council meeting will be IN PERSON at South Row at 5:30PM. The meeting will take place in the computer lab where we will be able to maintain appropriate physical distancing. Masks must be worn in the building.
  • The November PTO meeting will take place using a HYBRID format starting at 7PM. Families/staff are invited to come in person (cafeteria) or remote in by using a link that will be shared out in Home Link. If you plan to attend in person, please enter the loading dock door and be prepared to wear a mask indoors.

  
  

• Election Day: There will be NO SCHOOL on Tuesday, November 2nd. This will be a full day of professional development for teachers.

• Walk to School Day: First Walk to School Day will be November 3rd! Details to follow! Please see our flyer for more information. You can also reach out to Lindsey Moran (lindsdean@gmail.com) or Leanne Needham (needham.leanne@yahoo.com) if you have questions or would like to get involved. Click on this link for more information.
  

• High Five Friday: Our next high five Friday with CPD is Friday, November 5th!
  

• Veterans Day: There will be NO SCHOOL on Thursday, November 11th.

• Thanksgiving Break: There will be an early release day (11:45am) on Wednesday, November 24th and also no school on Thursday, November 25th and Friday, November 26th.

• Orange/Black Spirit Day - Friday, October 29th
• Kindness Spirit Day - Monday, November 1st
• Favorite Book Character Spirit Day- Friday, November 12th
• Chelmsford/South Row Spirit Day - November 19th

Coat Drive (Monthly Kind Act): We will be hosting a coat drive for families in need in our town and school community. Students/staff are encouraged to donate coats and place them in a box that will be located in the lobby. We will accept donations until Friday, October 29th.

Evacuation Practice: We will be practicing our evacuation routes in an announced drill on the morning of Friday October 29th. Students will leave the building and go with their teachers to their designated rally point. Families will be notified once this drill is completed.

Information from the Music Room:

STUDENT TEACHER: Mrs. Cooper will be hosting a student teacher, starting this week, Oct. 25th through Dec. 23rd. Ms. Richards is coming from UMass Lowell and is excited to get started.

🎃 SPOOKY SONG HOMEWORK : For the past few weeks, your students have been working really hard to learn a spooky song to sing at home. I will be sending home lyric sheets with them this week to help them at home, please keep an eye out for them. I’ve told them to try and sing their song for 3 people (family members, neighbors, phone calls and FaceTime work, too!)

Please feel free to send me any pictures or videos to my email, or tag me on Twitter or Instagram! I’d LOVE to see!

~ Mrs. Cooper, CooperA@chelmsford.k12.ma.us Twitter & Instagram: @SouthRowMusic

Kindergarten - 5 Little Pumpkins 🎃

1st Grade- Old Woman

2nd Grade - Whats that Creature?

3rd and 4th Grade - Ghost of Tom 👻

Fall into Reading Challenge Final Push: In an effort increase reading outside of school our reading challenge continues.Thank you for all of your support. Students have logged thousands of minutes! Please continue encouraging your child to read at home! We will wrap up the challenge on October 29th.

4th Grade Student Council Meetings: We are excited to host our first student council meetings this week. We will be splitting students into two cohorts. Students in Mrs. Tice and Mrs. Druncan's class will meet on Monday during recess and students in Mrs. Driscoll and Mrs. Mathews class will meet on Thursday during recess. We are so excited to get this student leadership club started!

Parent/Teacher Conferences: Parents have the option of either attending conferences in-person OR remotely using a Google meet. The teacher will send a Google meet link to any parent choosing to meet remotely. Parents should join the Google meet using their child’s credentials to work best in our system.

Transportation: At this time there is a local and nationwide bus driver shortage. This has impacted some of our families at school. We completely understand your frustration and wanted to let you know that the bus company is diligently working on filling these positions. In the meantime, we will make sure to inform families as soon as we know of a bus delay expected at dismissal.

Library Volunteers: If you would be interested in volunteering in our school library please reach out to Maria Hamm hammm@chelmsford.k12.ma.us

South Row Gear that is outgrown: If you happen to have any South Row/Chelmsford gear that is outgrown, we will gladly accept donations. Please bring donations to the main office between 10am-2pm or have your child bring the donation to the main office.

Pool Testing/Test and Stay: If you are interested in opting into either of these testing protocols please click on this link to complete the consent form: LINK

Dear South Row Families,

Thank you for working with me to keep South Row healthy! I appreciate your communication and patience as we enter the cold and flu season!

When to keep your student home from school:

If your child has a fever, new cough (meaning the health office does not have documentation of current asthma, tic, or other reason for cough) , loss of taste or smell, shortness of breath/ difficulty breathing, or muscle aches please keep them home and consult their pediatrician or urgent care. These are “stand alone symptoms” meaning if your child has ONE of these symptoms they need either a negative Covid test or a note from a doctor stating they may return to school.

Symptoms such as headache, nasal congestion/runny nose, sore throat, nausea/vomiting, diarrhea, or fatigue alone do not require a covid test or doctor’s note to return to school. If your student has two symptoms from this list then you must contact a doctor for a covid test or note. For example if your child has diarrhea and vomiting, you must consult a doctor and provide documentation before they can return to school.

Test and Stay:

If you have not already done so, please consider signing up for our Test and Stay program!! Test and Stay is the only way to keep your student in school despite an in school Covid exposure. I suggest signing up ahead of time because it takes a few days for the consent to be uploaded to the system! If your child is identified as a close contact they will not be able to participate in the test and stay program until the consent is uploaded into the system!! Here is the link to the consent form: https://forms.gle/79Hv4twPifgrriM57

Please feel free to reach out to me with questions or concerns.

Warmly,

Nurse V.

vandevoordts@chelmsford.k12.ma.us

Pumpkin Fair Recap

A huge thank you goes out to everyone who volunteered at and came out for the Pumpkin Fair! We had a great turnout and everyone seemed to have a great time.

If you took advantage of our photo setup, you can retrieve your pictures by visiting https://www.chrystalbegay.com/pumpkinfair2021 and using the password CPSpride. Many thanks to our resident shutterbug Chrystal Begay for sharing her talent with us.

Thank you to Michelle's Ice Cream Dreams and Heavnly Dogs for their contributions to the PTO at the end of the event!

Volunteers Needed for Playground Painting

South Row PTO is organizing a playground painting day (stencil paintings on the pavement, including: Four Square, Hop Scotch, Mirror Me). We are planning to work late morning (10:30am) to early afternoon (no later than 3:30pm) on Sunday 10/31, with a rain date of 11/7. We need 3 to 5 CHS students and/or South Row parents. PTO organizers will sign off to confirm volunteer hours for CHS students that help. In addition, we are buying pizza for all the volunteers.

Here is the signup genius form where CHS students or South Row Parents can volunteer: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0B4BACAA2BA0F58-playground .

PTO Online Directories

We are happy to announce that the PTO Family Directory and Parent Business Directory have been published to our website for this year! The Business Directory is easily accessible via a link in the sidebar of every page on the website, or directly through this link: https://www.southrowpto.com/p/parent-business-directory.html

The family directory is under password protection to keep our contact information secure. The password for this year is "AmongUs". Please do not share this password with anyone. If you forget the password, you can contact the main office for a password reminder. You can find the directory page at http://www.southrowpto.com/p/family-directory.html. If you missed the notices about being included in the directory and would like to be added, or if you need to change your contact information at any time, please email southrowpto@gmail.com.

Enjoy keeping in touch with classmates and supporting South Row families' businesses!

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