Dear OPR Families,

It's been great to see parents at OPR this week meeting with teachers during Parent-Teacher Conferences. Conferences continue next week as well. It's a widely accepted fact that positive collaboration between home and school results in higher achievement for children. Students in grades 3, 4, and 5 will show what they know when they begin MCAS testing later this month. As we head into the testing, a consistent message that is encouraged is of feeling confident, capable and proud to show what they have learned through their hard work over the years.

Be sure to watch the OPR Video News this week. All students learned about the United States of America! Click here to watch today's OPR Video News.

Have a great weekend!
David N. Barner, Principal
dbarner@walpole.k12.ma.us

MARCH

13 PAC sponsored visit from the Discovery Museum to Grade 2 for Physical Changes of Matter

13 PAC Meeting, STEM Lab at 7:00 PM

14 Parent Teacher Conferences from 6:00-8:00 PM by Appointment

15 PAC sponsored Harney Dance Irish Step Assembly for All Students

19 OPR Talent Show Dress Rehearsal in the OPR Cafeteria from 3:00-4:30

21 Gr. 5 walks to Bird Middle School to see Willy Wonka performance

21 OPR Student Council Talent Show at Walpole High School Auditorium at 6:00 - FREE Family Event!

22 Early Release at 11:55

22 Student Council Spirit Day: Wear Your Clothes: Inside Out - Backwards - Mismatched Day

26 OPR Spring After School Enrichment Registrations Opens

26 OPR School Council Meeting at 3:05 in the STEM Lab

29 No School - Day of Low Attendance

APRIL

5 PAC sponsored OPR Spring Dance!

8 OPR Spring After School Enrichment Programs begin this week.

10 PAC Meeting, STEM Lab at 7:00 PM

11 PAC sponsored visit from Discovery Museum to Grade 1: Dinosaurs

12 OPR Student Council Spirit Day: Favorite Sports Team Colors Day

15-19 April Vacation - No School

Arrival: 8:15-8:25 AM

Tardy Bell is at 8:25 AM. (Students must be signed in at the office by an adult if tardy.)

Early Release Dismissal: 11:55 (Dismissal begins at 11:49)

Dismissal: 2:55 PM (Dismissal begins at 2:49)

If your child is going to be absent or tardy, please call the OPR office before school (508-660-7219) and press 1 for the absence line. The automated attendance verification system is in use. Those students marked absent and who have not called in will receive an automated phone call.

During February in each grade, we spent time learning about Lunar New Year and did a variety of coding activities to create programs to show what we learned. Each grade also spent time celebrating two incredibly talented women, Katharine Johnson and Mae Jemison, who helped shape the space program and NASA. We did coding activities that were inspired by these two women.

This week in STEM, Kindergarten and first grade students listened to the story The Cat in the Hat to celebrate Read Across America and Dr. Seuss’s birthday. Kindergarten students completed the “Cat in the Hat: Tallest Hat Challenge” where they were partnered with two other classmates to try to build the tallest Cat in the Hat Hat that they could with the provided materials. They were given two sheets of white paper, two sheets of red, tape, scissors, and one paper plate. It was so fun seeing them collaborate with each other and create their hats.

First grade used the Dash robots to code paths to knock down Dr. Seuss books. They took turns doing different jobs for their group. One student would be the programmer creating the code. Another student would be in charge of placing the books for the coder to knock down. The final group member was the “debugger” and helped the coder fix his or her code to be more successful.

Second grade students also used the Dash robots to retell the story of The Three Little Pigs. They used STEM tools (Brain Flakes, straws, and legos) to build the three houses from the story. Then, they worked with their group to code the Dash robot to be the Big Bad Wolf and travel to knock down their houses.

Third, fourth, and fifth graders have begun Scratch for the school year. We spent time logging into our accounts and reviewing important aspects of the free online program. In the upcoming weeks they will be creating their own interactive stories, games, and animations.

March has arrived! February may have been short, but it sure was busy! All of the students at OPR continue to progress with their digital learning and digital citizenship skills.

Kindergarten continues to use Seesaw to improve their click and drag skills, typing, and editing text. They are becoming much more fluent with navigating their Chromebooks without teacher support. They love engaging with this technology and feeling successful!

Our first graders are beginning a project using the animation program Stop Motion. We are thrilled to use this application to have students create and animate animals in their habitats and to share the animals’ adaptations for survival. This technology is brand new to most of us, so we are embracing the challenge together!

Second grade just completed their Arctic Animal Research projects. We used a combination of Google Slides, Book Creator, Canva Magic Media AI, and iMovie to record students reading their paragraphs as we animated the mouths of AI generated images! We had a blast!

We just completed a Poetry Parade in Book Creator in a third grade classroom, and it came out fantastic! Students app smashed Book Creator and Canva to each create a page in the book to share their original sensory poems. Their popcorn, taco, and ice cream poems were written with excellent descriptive language using all five senses. Great work!

In grade four, we are just beginning a project during which we will app smash Book Creator and Canva and then animate using ChatterPix. Students are researching important women and nominating them to be featured on the U.S. twenty dollar bill. What a creative way to showcase their research and celebrate the meaningful contributions of these incredible women.

In music class, the fifth graders have been working on a Canva project called iMusic! Students researched their favorite musical artist and identified and described their musical childhood, milestones, contributions to the world, and genre. Then, they imported images from Google into their slides. I learned so much about artists I knew very little about prior! Fabulous work, grade five!

Finally, we continue to “travel” around the world during our OPR Video News reports on Friday. Last week we visited Spain and this week, we stayed in the United States and checked out some notable landmarks around our country. We will be heading to Ireland and Ukraine next so be sure to tune in.

Please join us for the OPR PAC Meeting on Wednesday, March 13th at 7:00 PM in the OPR STEM LAB or virtually via ZOOM: https://zoom.us/j/94723533160

Who loves OPR? We do! Sign up here to volunteer to coordinate one of our great events or fundraisers this year. PAC Coordinator Sign up:

https://m.signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/9040e49a4aa2ba2fb6-oprpac1

Massachusetts no longer allows clothing to be disposed of in the trash. Clothing must be donated or recycled. RECYCLE your clothing and textiles in the OPR Collection Bin and OPR receives money.

The collections resulted in the following:

2022 Calendar Year Total - $907.50

January 2023 - $102.00

February 2023 - $83.25

March 2023 - $95.50

April 2023 - $93.00

May 2023 - $88.20

June 2023 - $126.90

July 2023 - $100.20

August 2023 - $92.40

September 2023 - $118.80

October 2023 - $90.60

November 2023 - $113.70

December 2023 - $81.30

2023 Calendar Year Total - $1210.60

January 2024 - $85.80

February 2024 - $104.10

Please contact the Multilingual Learner Family Engagement Center at mlfec@walpole.k12.ma.us or at (508) 660-7257 ext. 5033 for further information or to request an interpreter or child care for the event.

Please note the following contact information for Walpole’s Special Education Parent Advisory Council (SEPAC). Co-Chairs are Sue Pace and Deborah Mulroy. The SEPAC can be reached by email at walpolesepac@gmail.com. Follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/walpolespedpac. Notices of future events can be found in this Weekly Update as they are scheduled.

OPR Mission Statement

The Old Post Road School community educates all students to excel and become productive citizens.

OPR Vision

OPR students will be motivated to learn in a supportive and safe environment. The faculty will foster self-confidence in the students and encourage them to make positive choices. Students will learn to accept responsibility for their behavior and will mature into responsible citizens and lifelong learners. All students will appreciate that they are part of a diverse, global society.

Instagram: OLDPOSTROADSCHOOL_WALPOLE

Twitter: @oprschool

OPR Website

Email: dbarner@walpole.k12.ma.us
99 Old Post Road

East Walpole, MA 02032

508-660-7219