Pool Testing Monday, April 11th

Incoming Kindergarten Registration

Message from Mrs. Phelan

Class Placement Form

Wear Pink Wednesday

Boys and Girl Club Closed

Walk-A-Thon

Human Impact Panel- Hosmer

Arab American Month

Early Release Day

Summer Exploration

Library Newsletter

Lenny Visit Tresca/Mannix Classroom

Arab American Heritage Month- This Weeks Highlighted Individuals

Scenes from Lowell

What's Happening Around Town

Upcoming Events and Save the Dates

Online Kindergarten Registration is now open. Click on this link to register your child for Kindergarten for the 2022-23 school year.

Dear Families,

This week we have a lot happening around school. MCAS begins this week! Students in grades 3-5 will be taking ELA Session 1 on Tuesday, April 12th, and Session 2 on Thursday, April 14th.

Wednesday is Wear A Pink Shirt Day to unite against bullying of our friends in the LGBTQ community. Also, the fifth graders are going to Hosmer for a panel presentation. On Friday, students will walk during their specials block to raise money for enrichment and UNICEF.

As of Friday morning, the following classrooms had already hit their goal…

Team Brodeur

Team Burton/ Miller

Team Connors/Master

Team Talamas

Team Moriarty

And almost there...were teams.

Team MacLellan is 90% there

Team Walsh (1st) 88% there

Classrooms that meet their goal earn an Italian Ice Party.

Helpful Hints for MCAS

Students are given as much time as they need to complete the assessment. We do not want students to be overly anxious, but we hope they understand it is vital that they try their best. You can help at home by making sure your child:

• Arrives at school on time each MCAS day
• Gets plenty of sleep the night before the assessment
• Eats a nourishing breakfast
• Wears comfortable clothes
• Knows that you believe they will do their best on the assessment

Friday is an Early Release Day, No Boys & Girls Club and No LEDP

A reminder that school will be closed from April 18 - 22 for Spring vacation. We hope families will use this time to relax and rejuvenate. Stay healthy!

With a grateful heart,

Stacy

In a few short weeks, we will begin the complicated process of creating class placements for the coming year. This is done with a great deal of care to create the most balanced and diverse classrooms possible.

If you have information that the classroom teacher may not be aware of, you may share it via this form, no later than Friday, April 16th at 2:00 pm. Please do not feel compelled to submit a form unless there is something beyond our knowledge you think will directly impact our work in creating a placement for your child. These forms will be shared with the teaching team as part of the placement determination process.

Wear Pink Day!

"The Day of Pink, sometimes referred to as the International Day of Pink, is a Canadian anti-bullying awareness campaign held on the second Wednesday of April. On this day, people are encouraged to wear an item of pink clothing to raise awareness of bullying, discrimination, homophobia and transphobia."

Your child can wear pink next Wednesday- April 13, 2022, if they choose to! We stand up for KINDNESS FOR ALL!

Lowell Leopards Walk-A-Thon will take place on Friday, April 15th during our PE class. The school will be donating 50% of the proceeds to UNICEF to support those impacted by the war in Ukraine.

If you have not already done so, please consider registering your student and donating by using the links below. Note: all students who register by April 8th will receive a registration prize!

Click Here to Register!

DATE: This panel will be on Wednesday, April 13th at 12:30pm at the Hosmer School.

Watertown 5th graders are engaging in a literacy unit on Argument and Advocacy that integrates the following science standards:

• Students will obtain and combine information about ways communities reduce human impact on the Earth’s resources and environment by changing an agricultural, industrial, or community practice or process.
• Examples of changed practices or processes include treating sewage, reducing the amounts of materials used, capturing polluting emissions from factories or power plants, and preventing runoff from agricultural activities.

In addition to conducting text-based research, WPS is gathering a group of local community members to answer students questions about human impact on our local environment.

Online registration for Watertown Community Education's 2022 Summer Explorations Program, being held at the Cunniff Elementary School, opens at 7:00 PM on Thursday, April 14! Spaces are limited, please register early. Registrations will be accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis. Click the link to the 2022 Summer Explorations Program Smore Flyer for full details including cost, dates, and themes, and to access the online Google Form registration link https://www.smore.com/6xh2g.

Please reach out to Debi Cornelius at debora.cornelius@watertown.k12.ma.us and Jeff Bodner at jeffrey.bodner@watertown.k12.ma.us with any questions regarding the 2022 Summer Explorations Program.

Thank you,

Debi

Room 205 at the Phillips was so excited to receive a visit from the Lowell Leopard this week! Lenny enjoyed munching on first grade snacks, putting together an animal puzzle, and even listening to a read aloud from Ms. Kirby. Thanks for visiting Lenny!

School Committee Meeting

April 11th 7:00 PM

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION ALSO AVAILABLE VIA ZOOM:

https://watertown-k12-ma-us.zoom.us/j/83024684499

FTO Meeting

April 12th 6:30 PM

ELA MCAS Grades 3, 4, and 5

April 12th

Climate Panel Grade 5 Hosmer School

April 13th 12:30 PM

School Base PD 2:45-4:05

ELA MCAS Grades 3, 4, and 5

April 14th

School Site Council

Proposed SIP Goals for 2022/2023 SY

April 14th at 6:00 PM

Walk-A-Thon

During Grade Level Specials Block

April 15th

Early Release Day

April 15th Students Dismissed at 12:15

April Vacation

April 16th- April 24th

Parent Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Council

April 28th 7:00-8:00

Join Zoom Meeting https://watertown-k12-ma-us.zoom.us/j/86985632231 Meeting ID: 869 8563 2231

MCAS Dates for Spring 2022

ELA: April 12th & 14th Grades 3, 4, & 5

Math: May 16th & 17th Grades 3, 4, & 5

Science: May 24th & 25 Grade 5 Only

Mythical Creatures Scavenger Hunt Kick-Off

Friday, April 15, 2022, 11:00am to 4:00pm ET

Join us to hunt for mythical creatures across the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture. Can you find a genie, merfolk, or a centaur? What might have inspired a cyclops or a piranha plant? Travel through the galleries of four museums on your quest for these amazing creatures. Test your skills in the galleries of the Harvard Museum of Natural History, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, and the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments. The quest ends on May 30. Regular museum admission rates apply.

We hope you are all doing well and enjoying the longer days as we creep slowly but surely toward warmer months. We are thrilled to be holding our rescheduled January Watertown Race Reels event on April 27th. In honor of Armenian Genocide Remberance Day, Watertown Race Reels, in collaboration with the Watertown Free Public Library, will be screening, What Will Become of Us (see attached flyer for details).

This month one of our guest speakers will be Stephanie Ayanian, the producer and director of this month's featured documentary . Her documentary, What Will Become of Us, focuses on a small ethnic group grappling with how to maintain their cultural identities in the melting pot of America 100 years after genocide. She is currently in post production on her next film, No Difference Between Us, that shares the story of Father Armenag, an Armenian-Catholic priest in Los Angeles who works tirelessly to aid Christian and Muslim refugees escaping the atrocities in Syria to secure their lives in America. Ayanian co-owns storyshop, an independent production house for creative media. Before starting storyshop, Ayanian worked as a Senior Producer/Director for Penn State Public Broadcasting where she was the producer and co-director of Liquid Assets: The Story of Our Water Infrastructure, for which she received the American Association of Engineering Societies Award for Journalism. The feature documentary was shown on 717 public television stations with a total of 1800 broadcasts in a 12-month period. She also produced and co-directed the Geospatial Revolution Project, which was released episodically on the web and has screened worldwide. She holds an MFA in Film and Media Arts from Temple University and a BA in Film and Video from the Pennsylvania State University.

Stephanie is a third-generation Armenian American. Her grandparents survived the Armenian Genocide of 1915 as children, grew up in the Armenian ghettos of Marseille, France, and came to reestablish their community in Fresno, California. Her bedtime stories were often of her grandmother’s childhood—the Genocide, the kidnapping of her family members, the reuniting, and the refugee camps.

Joining Stephanie will be our own Watertown resident Stepan Piligian. Stepan is a NASSR (National Association for Armenian Studies & Research) board member who is also a columnist for the Armenian Weekly newspaper in Watertown. We are honored Stephanie and Stepan will be joining us to present and facilitate discussion.

We hope you can join us and will help us spread the word of the event/event details/flyer with your circles within Watertown and beyond.

In Solidarity,

Kara and Teo (Watertown Race Reels Co-collaborators)

A group of parents is trying to put together a recreational softball league for parents of kids in the Watertown schools. The idea is for it to be super relaxed and open to people of all skill levels. Teams would be school-based to give parents a fun opportunity to socialize and build community with other parents at their kid’s school.

If you might be interested in participating (or, even better, helping to organize!), please fill out the Google Doc below

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfqgG8g7GXfkQigYh0QYNdrlX4AlmjYW0GUViXjqQk1IXOfYw/viewform?usp=sf_link

Virtual Family Program

Wednesday, April 6, 4:00–4:45 pm ET

Free

Advance registration required

Afterschool Animal Encounters: Super Skeletons

How do animals change as they grow? What do skeletons have to do with how an animal moves? How do animals today compare with their ancient ancestors? Get the answers to these questions and more with human museum staffers Javier and Arielle. Each month we will discuss a different theme while sharing specimens from the museum collections and interacting with some of the museum’s incredible live animals!

Do snakes have bones? Can a turtle crawl out of its shell? How far could you jump if you were a frog? Looking at skeletons can help us answer these questions! Comparing the skeletons of different animals can help us learn more about how they live and move. Join human museum staffers Arielle and Javier as they lead you in a 45-minute program with live animals and specimens from the museum collections. This event will be fun for the whole family so bring your questions and sense of wonder.

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Upcoming Programs for Kids and Families
Now Register for Summer Science Weeks
5/4 Afterschool Animal Encounters: Ancient Ancestors
5/15 In-person Family Workshop: Colossal Heads of Mexico

Phillips Location

30 Common Street

Watertown, Ma 02742

Telephone: 617-926-7770

Lowell West Location

175 Main Street

Waltham, Ma 02451

Telephone: 781-899-3701

Email: stacy.phelan@watertown.k12.ma
Website: http://watertownjrlowell.ss19.sharpschool.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JRLowellElementary