We packed quite a bit in during this four day week! Kindergarten students had a visit from the Norwell Police and Fire Departments. Bus meetings continued this week with many good reports coming in from the bus drivers - way to go, Cole School! We'll continue to work on lowering the volume on the bus and remembering to stay seated for the length of the ride. School Council met for its first meeting on Wednesday and prepared for the district Congress of Councils coming up next week. The budgeting process really kicks off at the Congress of Councils so stay tuned for updates as we begin this yearly process. Lastly, the staff came together on Friday morning to celebrate Mr. Tarr's upcoming wedding in November. Congratulations to Mr. Tarr and his fiance, Danielle!

We will have our first Community Meeting of the year on Monday at 2:30 pm with our 4th graders hosting and focusing on RESPECT. Parents and community members are invited to attend.

October 31st is Halloween and an Early Release Day. At Cole School, we celebrate Halloween with Wacky Day where anything goes (no masks and no weapons). Students can dress in all or part of their costume, wear wild patterns/colors, put all of their clothes on backwards, or dress in any way their imagination takes them!

Conferences are coming the week of October 21st. The Lost and Found will be displayed in the hallway that week. We have many items that need to be claimed. Please put names on coats/sweatshirts/lunchboxes so we can get them back to students quickly.

As principal, I am tasked with the responsibility of monitoring student attendance and finding ways to improve student attendance wherever possible. We did an amazing job as a community last year improving our percentage of chronically absent students from 8.3% in 2023 to 2.6 % in 2024! We are, however, trending upward. Currently 5% of our K-5 population has missed 3 or more days or 10% of the school year thus far. This is likely due to some of the respiratory viruses we saw in the building this fall and some vacations. Thank you for your ongoing support to have your children in school on time and for limiting dismissals and absences when possible. As cold and flu season hits, please consult Nurse Cregg if you have any questions about whether or not your child should be coming to school.

Please consider joining us for this Parent Book Discussion Group. We highly encourage parents of children in PreK-2 to participate and attend before children get to grades 3-5 when many get their first device at home. All are welcome! Many thanks to Norwell Education Foundation for purchasing six copies of the book for families to borrow. Please let me know if you are interested in borrowing a copy.

This week's Magnificent Meerkats nominations included themes of kindness, caring, respect, and perseverance in learning challenging things. There is so much excitement around the Meerkats announcement each week. The students look forward to hearing them and celebrating the week's Magnificent Meerkats! So fun!

This week, we did not have SEL time due to Indigenous Peoples Day. We will be reviewing and wrapping up our unit on Respect on Monday, and then 4th grade will host our Community Meeting! The main takeaway from this unit is that respect means treating people and our community the way we want to be treated. Next up, we will learn about caring.

Kindergarteners and 1st Graders continued to practice throwing underhand/overhand with a partner and at a target on the wall. They had fun playing a throwing game called Cone Hole. Grade 2 warmed up with a throwing tag game called Fire & Ice. They also worked in groups of 4/5 throwing lead passes while moving around the gym. Grades 3-5 started their fitness testing unit with a mile run. The objective of the mile run is to measure the endurance of a student's heart/lung/legs. We discussed the benefits of how rigorous exercise of thirty minutes a day can strengthen your heart and bones, reduce stress, fight off depression, improve learning and build self-esteem. Mr. Thornton also took on Ms. Barlow's 5th grade class's challenge of running the mile. We're happy to report that he completed it in 8 minutes 25 seconds!

October

October 20 - PTO Boo Dash 3-5pm at Clipper Community Complex at NHS

October 21 - Grade 2 Field Trip (Thank you, PTO!)

October 21 - Community Meeting 2:30pm - Grade 4 Hosting

October 24 - Early Release - Parent Conferences - 12:20 dismissal for all students

October 24 - Meteorologist Michael Page visits Grade 3 students (Thank you, PTO!)

October 25 - Norwell Spirit Day - Wear blue and gold to prepare for the Homecoming games

October 28 - Grade 4 Field Trip (Thank you, PTO!)

October 28 - Kindergarten Field Trip (Thank you, PTO!)

October 30 - Grade 4 Field Trip (Thank you, PTO!)

October 31 - Early Release - 12:20 dismissal for all students

October 31 - Wacky Day!

Looking Ahead

November 1 - Grade 5 Field Trip (Thank you, PTO!)

Week of November 4 - Student Government Speeches/Elections

November 12 - Picture Retake Day

Join the Cole PTO for our Annual BOO DASH!!

This is a FREE COLE SCHOOL COMMUNITY EVENT for all grades

Costumes are encouraged!!

• Field Games, Face Paint & Crafts




• Costume Stroll starts at 3:30pm with PRIZES for most creative, funniest and scariest costume!




• Boo Dash to follow with Grades K-2 races and Grades 3-5 races!




• Don't forget your candy bag for the NHS Honor Society TRUNK OR TREAT




• Concession available for small fee

We hope to see you there!

Please join the NHS Fourth Wall Players for their first show of the season! Guys and Dolls is musical comedy about big city gamblers and the women who love them. It intertwines the tales of high-roller Sky Masterson, who falls for mission worker Sarah Brown, and the charming Nathan Detroit, who has been engaged to Miss Adelaide, a headliner at the Hot Box Club, for 14 years. Nathan is known for running a famous floating crap game, and much of the plot revolves around his search for a safe location for the game while Adelaide persistently tries to convince him to marry her. Meanwhile, Sarah, mistakenly believing that Sky organized an illegal game at the mission, struggles with her growing affection for the charismatic gambler.

Praised by TIME Magazine as “the greatest of all American musicals!” and hailed by The New York Times as “the show that defines Broadway dazzle,” this musical fable of Broadway promises an unforgettable evening at the theatre. Guys and Dolls is rated PG for mild adult humor. Run time is approximately 2 hours 15 mins, which includes an intermission. This is an upbeat musical comedy that everyone can enjoy.