News From The Nest: Issue #15

Hello Elm Street School Families and Friends!

What a fantastic week at the Nest! This week all our Eagles were soaring through curriculum and experiencing moments of joy and connection across the grade levels. Our Kindergarten hallway has been transformed into a candy cane and gingerbread house village as students engineered, designed, and built paper ginger bread houses that line the hallway down to their classrooms. On Thursday, we had our Battle of the Books competition with all teams competing in the initial round in the morning. In the afternoon our 6 finalists competed in front of all grades 2-5 students and some families from the finalist teams. Ultimately the Reading Queens came out victorious! We are SO proud of all our Battle of the Books teams and their commitment to engaging with this fun reading competition. Many second graders in the audience shared how they were excited to give Battle of the Books a try when they get to third grade.

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

• upcoming dates and celebrations for December
• Elm Street School Counselor December: topics include- promoting empathy, assistance for Elm families, and upcoming SEL lessons in each grade level
• Essentialist Newsletter: Physical Education
• Silly Socks Day: 12/23
• Winter Maker's Market
• Principal's Office Podcast
• Math Corner: December
• Dedham Savings Bank Holiday Card Contest
• Elm Families First Giving
• Reminders from previous newsletters: MCAS 2026 Dates, Attendance Information, front office reminders, Walpole Food Pantry
• Lunch Menus
• Walpole Virtual Backpack (community notices)

We've got a lot going on at the Nest this month!

If you haven't given our podcasts on Spotify a listen, I highly recommend heading on over to check out some episodes of the Soaring Speakers and the Principal's Office Podcast. This week we recorded a new episode with Nurse DiCicco and some students about all things health and wellness at Elm that should be out next week.

Also, don't forget about the Elm Winter Maker's Market on Wednesday December 17th. There is still time to sign up to sell your crafts! We hope lots of Elm families will show up to shop on 12/17 from 6:30 - 8:00p.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and that I have the chance to see and connect with you this upcoming week at some of the special events and activities at the Nest.

Jen

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 December.

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.

December

• 12/11 Battle of the Books Battle Day, 6:45p School Committee meeting

• 12/12: Early Release Day

• 12/14 - 12/22: Hanukkah

• 12/16 - 24: Las Posadas

Calling all Elm Street School creative crafters! We want you to come show off your talents and wares at this year's Winter Maker's Market. Sign up here to reserve your booth for Wednesday December 17th. You will get a chance to display your crafts and creations and sell them to those looking for winter holiday gifts or something for themselves. Set up begins at 6:00p in the cafeteria.

Not selling this year? Come to Winter Maker's Market from 6:30 - 8:00 to purchase gifts or something for yourself. We will have a gift wrapping station so you can leave with gifts wrapped and ready for the winter holidays.

I am excited to share that our first episode of The Principal's Office Podcast has been released! Give it a listen on Spotify.

In this first episode you will hear from Shannon Findley, Walpole Public School's ELA Curriculum Coordinator on our curriculum resources for teaching reading and writing, how we monitor progress and support students here at Elm, and ways to encourage and support your readers at home. You will also get to hear from some Elm students about some of their favorite books and parts of literacy learning at Elm. Mrs. Findley references a few resources in the podcast which are shared below:

A Case for Graphic Novels

In Defense of Graphic Novels Substack: Nicole Bennett

The Benefits of Graphic Novels: Why They Count As Reading: United Through Reading

Hybrid Book Lists

Chapter Books for Graphic Novel Fans

Graphic Novel Hybrids

For December we will have our Elm Street School nurse, Tina DiCicco on the podcast to talk about and answer your questions about health and wellness at Elm.

As a reminder our schedule of episodes is below:

• November: Literacy Learning with WPS ELA Curriculum Coordinator Shannon Findley

• December: Health and Wellness Tips with Elm Nurse Tina DiCicco

• January: Engaging with Math with Elm Math Coach Jen Torigian

• February: Digital Citizenship and Safety with Elm Digital Learning Coach Kim Farley

• March: Social Emotional Learning and Development with Elm Counselors Shannon Songin and Tori Dore

• April: Student Support at Elm with Elm Team Chair Danielle Nalbach

• May: Grade Level Transitions with Elm Classroom Teachers

These monthly episodes are designed to help give you some additional more in depth information about curriculum, teaching and learning, and what makes Elm such a special place! We hope that this new format of sharing information about Elm helps you feel more informed and connected to our learning community.

With Winter Break only 7 school days away, we thought this would be the perfect time to share some resources to keep those math brains active over the vacation. Of course we want everyone to play outside, relax, recharge, and read a good book, but we also know our students can be like the Energizer Bunny, always looking for the next fun thing to do.

One resource to explore is the special Winter Medley Explore & Extend Activities sponsored by our Bridges Math Curriculum. The links for each grade level are below. Each set contains developmentally appropriate activities under topics like: Math in Our World, Guess My Rule, Which One Doesn’t Belong, Same & Different, Would You Rather and Today’s Number. So many cool things to try that build critical thinking and problem solving skills.

• Grade K

• Grade 1

• Grade 2

• Grade 3

• Grade 4

• Grade 5

Another fun resource, highlighted on our Family Math Website is Youcubed.

Youcubed helps students at home continue to explore and learn math through rich and creative tasks. This is a collection of modified versions of their tasks that are home-friendly, as well as some new explorations designed for learners at home.

Finally, just in case you are looking for some wintery, math books to read with a cup of hot chocolate after playing outside, check out this list for our younger students. Here is another list for our upper elementary students. While the focus may not always be on math, winter is full of wonderful patterns, shapes and events that have math connections! You just might need to dig a little to find them.

For more than 25 years the Walpole elementary schools have partnered with Dedham Savings Bank and participated in their Holiday Card Contest. Though these past years have been a little different we would still like to offer this opportunity to our students. If students would like to participate in the contest, we are asking that this take place at home. Cards will need to be turned in to their classroom teacher no later than Friday, December 19th. Good Luck!

Here are the details:

• All cards should be on 8.5 by 11 white paper

• On the back of the card, please put the student's name, school, and grade.

• The cards need to be returned to school by Friday, December 19th

Below are the generous prizes for each grade district wide donated by the Dedham Savings Bank:

• 1st Prize $100

• 2nd Prize $50

• 3rd Prize $25

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

OUR “ELM FAMILIES FIRST” HOLIDAY GIVING DRIVE

December 8th – December 19th

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 19th.

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

Below is the schedule for MCAS that will take place in the Spring of this school year. We will share more information about MCAS and testing dates as we get closer. For now, please mark these dates in your calendar and help ensure that your child(ren) are present for each testing session for their grade level.

Grade 3

ELA Session 1: Tuesday March 31

ELA Session 2: Wednesday April 1

Math Session 1: Tuesday April 28

Math Session 2: Wednesday April 29

Grade 4

ELA Session 1: Thursday April 2

ELA Session 2: Tuesday April 7

Math Session 1: Thursday April 30

Math Session 2: Friday May 1

Grade 5

ELA Session 1: Wednesday April 8

ELA Session 2: Thursday April 9

Math Session 1: Tuesday May 5

Math Session 2: Wednesday May 6

STE Session 1: Wednesday May 13

STE Session 2: Thursday May 14

Absences: If your student is going to be absent or tardy, please call the absence line and let us know in advance. You may call this line at anytime and leave a message. The telephone number is 508-660-7374 and then press 1

Early Dismissals: Please send a hand written note with your student in the morning or email the classroom teacher and Ms. Torigian in the main office (atorigian@walpole.k12.ma.us)

Afterschool dismissal changes: If your student is changing their typical way of leaving Elm Street School at 3:30pm, please send a note into school with the plan that morning.

*If you haven't already filled out the dismissal plan form sent by Ms. Torigian, please do so as soon as possible.

What is Chronic Absenteeism?

A student is considered Chronically Absent when they miss 10% of the school year. In Massachusetts, this means a student who misses 18 or more days, regardless of an excused or unexcused reason, is classified as chronically absent. Just two missed days each month can lead to this status.

Why is school attendance so important?

Students who are in school consistently are more successful learners. Per the National Center for Education Statistics: A missed school day is a lost opportunity for students to learn and interact with their classmates. Students who attend school regularly have been shown to achieve at higher levels than students who do not have regular attendance. This relationship between attendance and achievement may appear early in a child's school career. Greater absenteeism during the school year can lead to lower achievement in reading, math, and general knowledge. Poor attendance has serious implications for later outcomes as well. High school dropouts have been found to have exhibited a history of negative behaviors, including high levels of absenteeism throughout their childhood, at higher rates than high school graduates.

If your child starts to accumulate absences, we will work with families to figure out the best way to help improve your child's attendance at school.

The Walpole Food Pantry continues to support local families in need throughout the year. Donations of non-perishable food items, household essentials, and grocery store gift cards are always appreciated. You can help by dropping off contributions at the pantry during open hours or at one of the collection boxes located around town. Every donation—big or small—makes a meaningful difference for our neighbors in need.

https://www.wcfp.org/receiving-food

Email: jbuller@walpole.k12.ma.us
Website: https://www.walpole.k12.ma.us/o/ess
Location: 415 Elm Street, Walpole, MA, USA
Phone: 508.660.7374

Instagram: ElmStSchool