Cole Miners' Dig
October 3, 2025
We had the first Connections meeting of the year on Monday morning where all students K-5 had a morning meeting (greeting, message, sharing, and activity) focused on the PERSISTING Habit of Mind. Students stay in the same Connections group for their entire time at Cole School, helping to build relationships between students in different grade levels and with the same teacher each year.
This morning, students participated in fun games that required persistence, such as Wordle, puzzles, building a house of cards, passing a hula hoop, and creating a smiley face with markers on a string. Be sure to ask your child about their Connections meeting. Students shared that they have persisted with back bends in gymnastics, trying to be a Student Government rep., doing subtraction with regrouping math problems.
The MCAS dates are posted below and can be found on the Norwell Schools website.
MCAS results have been uploaded to Aspen for students in grades 4 and 5. If you would like a paper copy rather than the digital results, please contact Mrs. Tracey (joyce.tracey@norwellschools.org) and she'll happily send you home a paper copy of the results.
Please join me in welcoming Mr. Steve Fantes and Mrs. Lauren Maloney as the two new parent representatives for School Council at Cole School.
Student Government at Cole School will be taking place for grades K-5! Ms. Boyd and Ms. Chin will be the faculty advisors. Each classroom will have one representative. Permission slips have been sent home and are due to classroom teachers by October 24th. The representatives will be chosen through an election process that will take place in classrooms. Candidates will be given the opportunity to give a brief (2-3 minute) speech to their class about their interest in serving as their class’s representative during the week of November 3rd with voting taking place by November 7th. Student Government meetings will take place at 2:45pm in the cafeteria on the third Tuesday of each month.
We celebrated National Custodian Appreciation Day yesterday to show gratitude for the hard work of our three custodians - Mr. Shedd, Mr. Ash, and Mr. Defaria. They were so pleased to be recognized and celebrated for their hard work to keep us shining brightly!
October:
October 6 - Fire Prevention and Safety Week
October 8 - District Wide PTO Meeting
October 8 - PTO Meeting 7:00pm
October 13 - No School
October 15 - School Council Meeting 3:30pm
October 20 - Community Meeting 9:00am
October 20 - Gr. 4 Field Trip - 2 classes (Thank you, PTO!)
October 21 - Congress of Councils for School Council
October 23 - Early Release Day - Conferences (all students dismissed at 12:20pm)
October 24 - Wear Norwell gear to celebrate Homecoming Weekend
October 24 - PTO Monster Mash 5:30-7:30pm
October 27 - Gr. 4 Field Trip - 2 classes (Thank you, PTO!)
October 27 - Gr. 1 Eyes on Owls enrichment (Thank you, PTO!)
October 27. - Occupational Therapist Appreciation Day
October 27 - Connections Meeting - Managing Impulsivity Habit of Mind
October 31 - Early Release Day (all students dismissed at 12:20pm)
October 31 - Wacky Day - no masks or weapons please
Looking ahead:
November 2 - Daylight Savings Time
November 3 - Gr. 3 Field Trip (Thank you, PTO!)
November 3 - Kindergarten Field Trip (Thank you, PTO!)
November 3 - School Psychology Week and School Psychologist Appreciation Day
November 4 - Picture Retake Day
November 5 - PTO Meeting 7pm
This week, I wrapped up teaching about Growth Mindset & Goal Setting from Second Step. Students will now continue with the remaining three units in their classrooms throughout the year. October is also National Bullying Prevention Month. Teachers will be using the Second Step Bullying Prevention Unit this month and next to reinforce awareness and strategies to keep our school safe and comfortable for everyone. There is information on this curriculum, and home resources, here.
PE Happenings
K-1 continued their toss and catch challenges with a choice of using a bean bag, fleece ball or a foam baseball. They also worked with partners tossing underhand (step, swing and point) and catching (thumbs together for a target). Grade 2 learned a new throwing, catching and fleeing game called Pickle and were introduced to the lead pass. Grades 3-5 practiced their throwing skills in a game of Monster Ball. Third graders' played a throwing and catching game of Invaders/Defender. Fourth and fifth graders practiced their underhand, overhand and lead passes in a game of Dice Bonk. Working together as a team, strategizing, defending, moving to open space and using their adding skills from the numerical dice. Lots of movement, teamwork and fun!
Art Room Happenings
We have had a busy start in the art room. Every grade has been working on a school wide lesson. The theme was Zentangle leaves with a fall feeling. Zentangle is a method of meditative art that combines the concepts of "Zen" and "Tangle" to create abstract and repetitive patterns called tangles. All grades learned about cool colors and warm colors and had to choose one for their background. They also had to fill in the spaces with designs. Check out the results.
Kindergarten worked on shapes and colors. They learned how to draw houses and the process of watercolors.
