The Peirce Weekly

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We hope this message finds you all refreshed and ready for a fantastic new year! 🎉 We've officially hit the ground running, and we couldn't be more excited to welcome everyone back to the Peirce School community.

We've got a lot of exciting things in store for the upcoming months:

• Family Literacy Night - January 25
  
• Parent/Kid Basketball - TBD
• Bingo Night - TBD
• Peirce Multicultural Night - TBD
• Fun Run -TBD
• Spring Picnic -TBD

All of these events will require volunteers to both plan and execute. Please email us at peirceschool.pto@gmail.com to let us know if you can help us keep up with our commitment to sustaining the vibrant community events the PTO has worked to create over the years.

Whether you're a seasoned PTO pro or a newcomer, your presence and ideas are invaluable, and we can't wait to collaborate and make this year the best one yet!

On December 21 members of the Peirce Community (including Mr. Ahmadi!) came out to socialize, brainstorm, and support local businesses at The Roasted Granola/Arlington Brewing Co. Pop-Up Tap Room. We would love to have more events like this in the future - let us know if you have any ideas!

Our goal is to continue fostering a strong sense of community and support for our amazing school, and we know that each one of you plays a crucial role in making that happen.

If you have any suggestions, ideas, or if there's anything specific you'd like to see happening this year, don't hesitate to reach out. We're all ears!

Let's make 2024 a year to remember at Peirce School.

Cheers to a fantastic year ahead!

Kelly, Laura, John & Beth

Thanks to generation donations from the Peirce community, the PTO is able to fund Fall & Spring Mini-grants to help teachers purchase special materials and supplies for their classrooms. This Fall one grant was given to the 1st grade teaching team to purchase a collection of diverse books for their classrooms. Right before the break they received their order, and sent the PTO this message: "It was a joy to open the boxes full of varied and diverse books to enjoy with our students. We look forward to reading them with our classes. Thank you for your support of this mini grant!"

The Lost & Found is located on the 1st floor by the elevators. We would appreciate it families could label clothes and water bottles to minimize all that has to be donated. We try and take pictures of most items in the lost and found but it does become overwhelming.

Please be sure to check out our google photos for your students lost sweatshirts, water bottles and lunch boxes. The lost and found is already overwhelmed with items.

Join us for a Family Literacy Night on January 25th, from 6-7 pm, where we will delve into the beautiful and powerful world of Lubna and Pebble by Wendy Meddour and Daniel Egnéus.

Student leaders from grades 4-5 will lead engaging discussions with K-3 graders, sharing ideas and impressions of the book.

After the discussions, we will move into the cafeteria to unleash creativity by decorating rocks with paint pens. The painted rocks can be placed around the school or taken home.

Students should bring a small rock to decorate.

All are welcome to join in this literary and artistic celebration.

The School News app by Edlio is an activity feed for alerts, news, and events from APS. It’s a simple way to view the school news feeds and calendars. The app is free to download to your iOS or Android phone and quick to set up:

• Go to the App Store or Google Play and search for “School News by Edlio” to install.
• Open the app and search for Arlington Public Schools; tap “Add School.”
• Enable push notification by going to the Alerts tab and tapping “Enable Notifications.”

All of the news and events posted to the APS website are posted on the app for easy access.

The APS Communication Process Flier is your go-to resource for direction on all your questions and concerns regarding district matters. We believe that clear communication is vital for building a strong and thriving educational community. We encourage you to consult this tool when wondering who to go to first with your question or concern.

Project Arlington Mental Health Initiative (AMHI) is offering FREE Youth Mental Health First Aid Training to any interested community member or organization in Arlington!

What is Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA)?

An evidence- and skills-based training for adults who frequently interact with youth. YMHFA is the help offered to a young person experiencing a mental health or substance use challenge.

• Common signs and symptoms of mental health and substance use challenges in adolescents
• 5-step action plan to recognize and respond to youth in crisis and non-crisis situations
• How to refer a youth to the appropriate professional support and services

Increase your mental health literacy, become more confident when helping a young person in distress, and act as a valuable link to early intervention!

Trainings can be offered in person or virtually

Click here for more information.

All Arlington School Committee meetings are open to the public, and most are held both in person and over Zoom. For additional information on the Arlington School Committee, including its working groups, please visit their website. Agendas and reference material for each meeting will be available at least 48 business hours prior to the meeting and may be viewed on the Committee’s Agendas and Minutes page.

• January 6, 11:00 AM - Arlington School Committee, Community Relations Subcommittee CHAT - Budget and After School Programs - Zoom
• January 10, 9:15 AM - Arlington School Committee, Budget Subcommittee Meeting - Hybrid
• January 10, 2:00 PM - Arlington School Committee - Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment & Accountability Subcommittee Meeting - Hybrid
• January 11, 6:30 PM - Arlington School Committee Meeting - Hybrid
• January 24, 3:00 PM - Arlington School Committee - Policies and Procedure Subcommittee Meeting
• January 25, 6:30 PM - Arlington School Committee Meeting - Hybrid

School Meals are Free for All Students!

Visit https://www.arlington.k12.ma.us/foodservices/ for updates

Questions? Contact Food Services Director, Denise Hunt Boucher at schoollunch@arlington.k12.ma.us

Families who would normally quality for free or reduced lunch are strongly encouraged to continue to apply for this program - this can open access for your family to many other resources in the schools and beyond. More info can be found here.

4-week softball clinic series for Arlington girls, aged 5 through 14, hosted by AYBSA Softball @ the Arlington Boys & Girls Club, Jan 21, Feb 4, Feb 11, and Mar 3.Clinic sessions for general skills, pitching, and catching. Registration is open for softball winter clinics and Spring registration for all Arlington Youth Baseball and Softball programs: https://aybsaonline.org. For more information, email aybsasoftball@gmail.com

Embark on an enchanting adventure at Belmont World Film’s 21st Family Festival, a 4-day celebration of international culture for children age 3-12 that promises an immersive and rich experience. The majority of films are based on children’s books, such as the US premiere of Julia Donaldson’s Tabby McTate (with the voice of Doctor Who's Jodi Whitaker), a celebration of Weston Woods Studios' 70th anniversary featuring never before seen and classic films based on picture books, a program of short films about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his contemporaries (including the premiere of I Am Ruby Bridges), and films based on Mo Willems books.

The festival also features films from around the world in English and multiple languages, including Chinese, Czech, French, Dutch, Norwegian—even sign language. Most films cannot be seen anywhere else in New England. All films with subtitles will be read aloud through headphones, ensuring an inclusive experience for young children and those with difficulty reading.

For the first time ever the festival is screening a film featuring deaf actors, which will be followed by a discussion with an ASL interpreter. The closing film, TOTEM, is about a girl whose Senegalese parents are illegal immigrants in The Netherlands, yet they raised her to believe that she was 100% Dutch. The screening will be followed by a discussion with Ghanaian-American filmmaker Menefese Kudumu-Clavell, who will talk about what it's like to have dual identities. He will also lead a workshop on film camera techniques, especially ones that are unique to foreign films, on Sunday, January 21, from 10 AM-Noon at the Belmont Media Center.

Contact info@belmontworldfilm.org or 617-484-3980 for more information.

Saturday, January 15: Apple Cinemas, 168 Alewife Brook Parkway

Sunday, January 14: West Newton Cinema, 1296 Washington Street
Monday, January 15: Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle Street, Cambridge
Saturday, January 21: Regent Theatre, 7 Medford Street, Arlington & Belmont Media Center, 9 Lexington Street
January 20-21: Virtual Shorts Programs

Thursday, January 25

4:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Town Hall Auditorium

Town of Arlington will celebrate our second annual Lunar New Year Celebration on January 25th at 4 pm at the Robbins Memorial Town Hall Auditorium with performances, activities, games and more. Lunar New Year is the most significant celebration of the year in cultures across Asia and is celebrated by millions of people all over the world as welcoming of Spring. Arlington's celebration is presented by the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Division in collaboration with Enhance Asian Community on Health (EACH), Arlington High School’s Asian American Coalition and Chinese Culture Club, and the APS Mandarin Language Department. We are actively seeking volunteers to help co-create this special celebration, please reach out to Community Engagement Coordinator, Teresa, at tmarzilli@town.arlington.ma.us to get involved!

There is a lot to learn about the Lunar New Year! Did you know that in Vietnamese culture the Lunar New Year is called Tet? Seollal is the name of Korean Lunar New Year where it is customary to hide your shoes lest a ghost steals them and curses you with bad luck! Tibetan culture keeps its own lunar calendar, sometimes Losar (Tibetan New Year) is the same as the Chinese New Year, sometimes it’s a whole month later. According to Chinese legend the fireworks, firecrackers and red clothing and decorations customary of the Lunar New Year is due to the monster Nian who used to attack villagers at the beginning of the new year. Nian was terrified of bright lights, loud noises and the color red, so the villagers used those things to chase him away!