Dear OPR Families,

JiJi from ST Math made a visit to OPR on Friday to celebrate our students who have reached 100% Puzzle Progress on their ST Math journey! Sixty-four students from grades K-5 earned their certificate and got their picture taken with JiJi for our ST Math Wall of Fame. The expectation at this time of year is for students to be at 46% so students have lots of time to reach the 100% goal. We look forward to celebrating more students each month as they strive to hit 100%. See the pictures below.

Be sure to watch the OPR Video News this week. (Link below)

Click here to watch today's OPR Video News.

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

Instagram: OLDPOSTROADSCHOOL_WALPOLE
Twitter: @oprschool
OPR Website

FEBRUARY

5 100th Day of School

5 OPR Winter After School Program begins this Week

7 PAC Meeting, STEM Lab at 7:00 PM

9 Early Release: Dismissal is at 11:55 (beginning at 11:49)

9 PAC sponsored Stay on the Half Day

9 Term One Reports Cards Viewable in the Aspen Family Portal

9 Student Council Spirit Day: OPR/Walpole Day Again! (Wear Walpole or OPR clothing or colors to show your spirit.)

12 OPR Kindness Week!

16 Student Council Spirit Day: Color Day! Each grade wears the col,or assigned to them: Kindergarten - Red, Grade 1 - Blue, Grade 2 - Green, Grade 3 - Orange, Grade 4 - Yellow, Grade 5 - Purple

19-23 No School - February Vacation

28 Grade K and 1 visit from Dental Hygienist and a Puppet to learn about good dental hygiene

29 PAC sponsored STEM Night for Grade 4 and Grade 5 Students and Parents in the Cafeteria from 6-7:30 PM. This experience is free for families. Sign Up Coming Soon.

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.

We are thrilled to announce the commencement of our annual Kindness Week as part of our Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum at OPR. This positive initiative is crafted to celebrate and foster a culture of kindness while enhancing student engagement. Kindness Week is scheduled for February 12-16, 2024. Throughout the week, students will actively participate in various acts of kindness. Our aspiration is that both students and staff will recognize the profound impact of a simple act of kindness, setting off a ripple effect throughout our community. We believe that everyone contributes to creating a kinder community. Please find below a list of activities for the week:

Monday:

Kindness is like a bright sunny day. Wear bright-colored clothes to school today!

We will be creating a wall symbolizing inclusivity in the foyer. Each classroom will receive a precut hand for each student. The students will write their names on the palm of their hand cutout and then display them in the foyer!

Tuesday:

Kindness Card Day

Students will make a kindness card for a person of their choice. This could be a peer, family member, teacher, bus driver, counselor, recess aide, cafeteria worker, custodian, neighbor, or anyone in their community that they wish to show appreciation for!

Wednesday:

Kindness Lunch Compliment Day

Students will write a compliment to a designated person in their class. Each card will have the recipient's name written on the card. This will ensure all students will receive a card. The writer of the card will sign the card. Students will bring the cards to lunch. During the lunches, the students will be told when and how to give the card to the recipient. Students may use both sides of the card and also include drawings.

Thursday:

We will be collecting canned goods for the Walpole food pantry! Below is a list of items that are approved to donate!

• Boxed Crackers & Cookies

• Boxed Macaroni & Cheese

• Boxed Pasta

• Brownie & Cake Mixes

• Canned Baked Beans

• Canned Fruits

• Canned Juice (100% Juice)

• Canned Meat & Fish

• Canned Milk & Dry Cheese

• Canned Pasta (Spaghetti-O, Ravioli & Beefaroni)

• Canned Stew, Hash & Chili

• Canned Vegetables

• Cereal (dry and to cook)

• Coffee & Tea

• Dry Milk

• Dry Potato Mixes

• Jam, Jelly & Marmalade

• Jarred Prepared Pasta Sauce

• Mayo, Mustard & Catsup

• Meal Helpers (Hamburger Helper, Pasta Roni, Suddenly Salad)

• Pancake Mix & Syrup

• Peanut Butter

• Pudding & Gelatin Mix

• Rice (White & Brown)

• Sugar, Salt, Pepper & Spices

Friday:

Friday will be “Sit with a New Friend at Lunch” Day. Instead of requiring students to sit with their classmates, students will be encouraged to sit with other peers or someone they do not usually sit with. Students are encouraged to invite others to sit with them, and no student will sit by themself!

Where: Boyden Elementary School

When: February 20-22, 2024 (Tuesdays, Wednesday, Thursday)
Cost: $80/day (10% discount for educators or siblings)
Registration Link: https://forms.gle/TujRsqvz3vsMHzw39

Doors at OPR are being decorated this month to show learning about Black History Month.

We had a wintery past month in STEM, focusing a lot of our projects around snow! Each grade did an engineering design project where they had to turn one of our classroom robots into a snow plow to push “snow”. Kindergarten students used Bee-Bots as their snow plows. First and second grade students used the Sphero indi cars. Third, fourth, and fifth grade students used Dash robots and legos. Part of that challenge was also creating a code to move the robot around a square to get the snow into a collection pile.

Students in each grade also learned about Wilson Bentley, nicknamed “Snowflake Bentley”. He was the first known man to take photographs of snowflakes that captured their features. Students designed their own snowflakes on the Drawerings app and then built them out of planks.

Kindergarten students also have begun practicing with the iPads in STEM. We used the Bee-Bot app to code the Bee-Bot to collect hot chocolate around a winter scene. First graders used ScratchJr. to create and code their own winter scenes and we shared them on the Touchview with each other. Second grade students completed the Biggest Snowman Challenge where they were given 10 pieces of copy paper and some tape and had to create the tallest, free-standing snowman that they could. Students in the upper grades were given the challenge of designing a hill out of planks for a “snowball” to roll down. This time of year is great in STEM when we get to see all of the fantastic ideas everyone creates.

Wow! January was a very busy month in the OPR Digital Learning World. Students are learning the important skills of digital citizenship and being creative in many different ways.

Kindergarten students continue to work with the Seesaw platform to add text and pictures and to work on clicking and dragging. Some have even learned how to use the “shift” key to make a capital letter! They continue to practice typing words and finding the keys on the keyboard, and to use the “enter” key and the “backspace” key as needed.

First graders have been podcasting away, interviewing community members for their “Community Conversations” project. Some students are recording the podcast at school on Spotify and others are using Flip at home. They are learning about how all the jobs in our community fit together to make Walpole a fabulous place to live and to learn. An emphasis has been made on the value of teamwork, because when we work together, there is nothing we can’t do!

Second grade is currently working on an exciting Arctic Animals non-fiction research project. We are using four different programs! First, we generate an AI image in Canva. Then, we animate the image in Chatterpix, add it to our books and paragraphs in Book Creator and even edit the content in iMovie. Snowy Owls and Orcas and Arctic Hares - oh my!

Third graders have been working with Ms. Bishop on a Canva vision board. Students are identifying personal goals for 2024 and creating a collage to inspire them as they continue to learn and grow this year. What a great way to keep motivated to be the best version of ourselves that we can be!

Fourth grade is busy as well. Another class completed their greenscreen projects for the Extreme Weather unit and added their videos to their Google Slide shows. The other classes continue to work on improving their typing skills and practicing excellent digital citizenship behaviors.

Grade five continues to grow as digital learners as well. A Harry Potter podcast will be starting soon and we are planning another exciting project for Social Studies. We want to give a big shout out to Ms. Udahl! She is the first person to be interviewed on our OPR Video News! We are learning about each others’ cultures by traveling around the world to different countries. Ms. Udahl showed us how powerful technology can be! We all learned about the essence of Norwegian culture through her interview, in which she shared experiences on behalf of her dad, who lived there for 27 years. We look forward to exploring the cultures of as many OPR families and staff as we can!

Please check out this link along with the flier that is being sent home with your child during PE class:

https://www2.heart.org/site/SPageNavigator/ym_khc_get_started_guide.html

Every year, we educate students on the importance of exercise, water, sleep and eating colorful food for a healthy heart. We include jump rope as the exercise to recognize our heart beating and the importance of such an important muscle. For the next few lessons, students will practice all different jump rope activities, learn about heart healthy habits. Students are encouraged to help raise money for the American Heart Association to help others and support heart research.

Please join us for the OPR PAC Meeting on Wednesday, February 7th at 7:00 PM in the OPR STEM LAB or virtually via ZOOM: https://zoom.us/j/94874010193

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

The Town Forest Committee along with Walpole Cultural Council is excited to enhance students' experience of connecting Art and Science. The DCR theme this year is "Healthy Trees, Healthy Towns" this statewide contest is open to all third, fourth and fifth graders. Please see attached for guidelines/ rules of this contest.

Per DCR rules only one entry can be chosen per grade level from each elementary school. Please submit any OPR student entries to Ms. Kroll, OPR Art Teacher, by February 27th. The link to this contest can be found here.

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