News From The Nest: Issue #13

Friday, November 22nd, 2024

Hello Elm Street School Families and Friends!

It was so wonderful to see so many families Wednesday night at the Elm Family Multicultural Potluck as we celebrated togetherness and community! A HUGE shout out to Ellen DeGirolamo and her team of volunteers for all the work that went into making the event such a success and upholding this important tradition at Elm.

We had a fantastic all school assembly this morning celebrating many accomplishments and all the hard work our Eagles have been putting in this past month. We started the assembly off with our Greeting and students chose between a turkey or mashed potato greeting (ask your child(ren) to share it with you at home). After our Greeting, for this month's Share all of our Grade 2 students bravely stood up in front of the whole school and performed a song all about being grateful and thankful. Once the thunderous applause for their performance quieted down, a few grade 2 students stayed on stage to present about the landscape collage work they have been doing in Art. During Announcements and Celebrations Grade 5 Student Council representatives introduced themselves, we cheered for our classmates who celebrated victories on football and field hockey teams, and we got prepared for next week's Turkey Trot. We closed our assembly with another round of High Fives recognizing students who have been putting in that extra effort and following our SOARing expectations.

In this edition of our weekly newsletter you will find information about:

upcoming dates and celebrations for November
November Counseling Newsletter
Essentialist Newsletter: STEM
Cold Weather Gear Reminder
Elm Street School Spirit Days
December Coffee and Conversation Save the Date
Elm Families First
MCAS Dates
Elm Street School Turkey Trot
Dedham Savings Bank Holiday Card Contest
SEPAC Meeting
Student Support and Attendance Newsletter

I hope everyone has a restful weekend as we head into the extra short week next week. Don't forget Wednesday is an Early Release Day and if you are able, please send your child(ren) into school with a non-perishable item on Wednesday to donate to the Walpole Food Pantry as part of our Turkey Trot.

Jen

Upcoming Dates and Celebrations: November

At the beginning of each month I will share a calendar of some upcoming Elm events as well as upcoming cultural celebrations and heritage months with hyperlinks to more information if you are interested in learning more. Below is information for the month of November.

If there are cultural celebrations that are important to you and your family that you would like to share with the adult Elm community, please email me so I can be sure to include them in upcoming newsletters. If you have any questions about anything you see on our calendar, please don't hesitate to reach out to me directly.

10/31 - 11/1 Diwali
11/1 Native American Heritage Month begins, All Saints Day, School Photo Make-Up Day
11/1 - 2 Day of the Dead
11/2 5:00 - 8:30p Diwali Celebration
11/5 Election Day, School Closed- Staff Professional Development Day
11/8 8:30a Coffee and Conversation- Homework and Executive Functioning
11/11 Veterans Day, School Closed
11/12 5:00 - 7:00p Family Educator Conferences
11/14 5:00 - 7:00p Family Educator Conferences, 6:45p School Committee Meeting
11/15 Early Release Day- Family Educator Conferences
11/20 6:30p Elm Multicultural Potluck, Transgender Day of Remembrance
11/21 7:00p Elm PAC Meeting
11/22 Elm K-5 Assembly (Students and Staff Only)
11/27 Early Release Day
11/28 - 29 School Closed
11/28 Thanksgiving, National Day of Mourning

November Counseling Newsletter

Essentialist Newsletter: STEM

Cold Weather Gear Reminder

As the weather finally makes a turn please help your children remember to bring cold weather gear to school. Some of our first recesses are early in the morning when it is still chilly enough to wear jackets. It's a good idea to dress in layers as some of the afternoon recesses can be much warmer than bus stop temperatures in the morning. Better to have the jacket and not need it then be too cold outside!

Elm Street School Spirit Days

Our Grade 5 Student Council has been hard at work planning and organizing special things to help continue to make our Nest a joyful place for all students. Recently, in addition to planning our Turkey Trot, they have finalized a structure for Elm Street School Spirit Days this year. You can find the plan outlined below.

Every Wednesday- Walpole Wednesdays: we invite all students every Wednesday to show off their Walpole pride by wearing blue and orange, Walpole gear, Elm gear, Walpole sports jerseys, or other clothing that represents Walpole.
Assembly Days- Theme Days: on Elm Street School student and staff assembly days (1x/month) we invite all students to take part in that month's theme day. A full schedule of the theme days from January - June will be shared in the coming weeks to help students and families prepare.

To kick off our Elm Street School Spirit Days we invite all students to wear pajamas/comfy clothes on Monday December 2nd as we return from the extra long weekend and Thanksgiving break.

All Elm Street School Spirit Days are optional in terms of participation.

If you are looking to purchase some Walpole gear for Walpole Wednesdays, please check out the Elm PAC Spirit Wear online shop before it closes on Monday, November 25th. All proceeds from these sales are donated back to PAC which goes to supporting enrichment and special activities for students.

December Coffee and Conversation Save the Date

Our next Coffee and Conversation will be on Friday, December 13th at 8:30a. Stop by starting at 8:15a for coffee, treats, and connections. We will get started with our program at 8:30a. The focus of our time together will be navigating social conflict with students, bullying, and discipline at Elm.

Elm Families First

DONATE A NEW UNWRAPPED TOY AND/OR A GIFT CARD TO

OUR “ELM FAMILIES FIRST” HOLIDAY GIVING DRIVE

November 12th – December 11th

This year we will be collecting toys and gift cards for families within our Elm community.

We will collect toys for kids from 0-13 years of age.

SUGGESTED ITEMS:

TOYS TO LEARN AND GROW
ARTS &CRAFTS
BUILDING BLOCKS
SPORTS EQUIPMENT
BOOKS
PUZZLES
STEM TOYS

We will also collect gift cards to local or online stores.

SUGGESTED STORES:

LOCAL CLOTHING AND FOOD STORES
STOP AND SHOP
BIG Y
KOHL’S
TARGET
WALMART
AMAZON

Donations will be given to Elm families first. Please drop donations off at the Main Office by December 11th.

Thank you in advance for your generosity during this holiday season!

MCAS Dates

Below are the dates for MCAS for grades 3-5. All elementary schools will be following this schedule.

Grade 3 English Language Arts

April 1 and April 2

Grade 3 Math

April 29 and 30

Grade 4 English Language Arts

April 3 and 4

Grade 4 Math

May 1 and 2

Grade 5 English Language Arts

April 8 and 9

Grade 5 Math

May 6 and 7

Grade 5 Science Technology and Engineering

May 14 and 15

Elm Street School Turkey Trot

We welcome all Elm Street students and staff to participate in our annual Elm Street School Turkey Trot! Each grade will be invited outside during their designated time to see how many laps they can run, walk or jog! Students are encouraged to bring in nonperishable food items on the morning of Wednesday November 27, 2024. These items will be donated to the Walpole Food Pantry to help members of the community during the holiday season. We will keep track of how many laps students run and see if we can run as a school as many laps as the amount of donated items. Lastly, please make sure to dress appropriately for the outdoors including sneakers. In the case of inclement weather the Turkey Trot will take place in the gymnasium.

Example of Nonperishable Items: Canned Items (beans, fruits, vegetables, soup), boxed pasta, rice, seeds, oils, etc.

Dedham Savings Bank Holiday Card Contest

For more than 25 years the Walpole Elementary Schools has partnered with Dedham Savings Bank and participated in their Holiday Card Contest. Cards can showcase any winter holiday that is celebrated around this time of year. If students would like to participate in the contest, we are asking that this take place at home.

Here are the details: