Reminder...early release day on Thursday, 10/31!
Happy weekend, everyone! Just a reminder that we have an early release on Thursday, 10/31, in order to get everyone home efficiently and safely before streets start shutting down.
Early Release (Grades 1-5) at 11:15am
PK at 11am
Kindergarten at 11:10am
Thank you for your continued support, and we hope you have a wonderful weekend,
Ms. Smith, Mr. Mac, and Mr. Lister
Beacons of the Week!
Our Beacons of the Week were able to navigate social situations using their social awareness skills! Great work, Beacons!
Gabe Mallard
Sebastian Jaros
Nala Crayton
Jacob Custodio
Iris Teixeira-Sutherland
Logan Cudmore
Max Lurate
Juna Titus
Damian Patrick-Cintron
Clajuan Binns
Maya Gray
Brenna Stoler
Wisza Corriolan
Sage Hardin
Erblina Jakupi
Lidijon Smerqaku
Evangeline Stensrud
Amabile Kendrick
Erina Smerqaku
Join us for Spotlight Families!
Twice a month, two of our wonderful families will be featured on our morning announcements that are shared each day to build community in our school as well as in our family newsletter. Our hope is that this will create new friendships, bring us closer as a community, and help us celebrate the beautiful diversity that we have here at Bates. It ties in with our motto: "Believe, be you, belong, at Bates!".
Your family can record a Zoom with Ms. Roz, create a poster to share a little about your family, or come into school for a fun interview. Want to learn more? Contact Ms. Roz at rguevera@salemk12.org. Want to sign up? Fill out this form, and Ms. Roz will contact you.
Winter Coat Assistance Available
As temperatures drop, we want to ensure everyone stays warm this winter. If you or someone you know is in need of a winter coat, please reach out to our Family Engagement Facilitator, Rosalyn Guevara.
You can contact her at rguevara@salemk12.org or 781-771-8309. We want all our kids to stay warm!
Have any other clothing needs? Please reach out to Ms. Roz.
Election Day Bake Sale!
PTO runs an Election Day Bake Sale every year to raise funds for our school. Please show your support on Tuesday, November 5, from 7am-8pm in the Bates lobby. Come by and buy a snack or signup to volunteer. You can also donate a baked good. Sign up here to volunteer or donate a snack!
Social/Emotional Learning
Social Awareness, by Ms. Amanda, Student Adjustment Counselor
This week we focused on “social awareness”. Social awareness is a challenging concept for young people to grasp. One critical skill of understanding the emotions of others includes reading their facial expressions and body language to try to interpret someone else’s feelings or experience. Naturally, this foundational capacity took a hit with Covid as we had lengthened physical distance from one another combined with faces hidden by masks. This is very unfortunate for important child development and we see the impact in school every day.
We work to explicitly teach and grow these underdeveloped skills AND we appreciate all you do at home to work on these things as well!
Some fun ways to enhance your child’s social awareness:
Play “what emotion am I feeling?” while eating dinner or waiting in a line. Try to go beyond just “mad” or “sad”. Include feelings such as “jealous”, “embarrassed” or “proud” to enhance their feelings vocabulary and extend conversations about how to cope with these types of feelings.
Talk about being aware of their own bodies in space, and how space can impact others in different ways. Try this game:https://www.playworks.org/game-library/bubbles/ to deepen bodily awareness.
Pick a random person (someone in a restaurant, or on a tv commercial etc). Ask your child, “let’s pretend we know what that person is thinking about and what their life is like and what they will be doing later”. Take turns creating “stories” about the individual. THEN, talk about how we sometimes make up stories about people in our class that may not actually be fully true or helpful. Discuss the limitations of getting hooked on our “own narrative” and how we can work to increase our social awareness by not making assumptions about others!
Reunification Drill
On Wednesday, members of our school staff met after dismissal to practice what the adults would do in the event that students need to be reunified with their families off site. Special shout out to two of our Site Council parent members, Andrea Fragione and Kate Carmody, for walking through the drill with us. The goal of the drill was to practice how we'd get your students to you as efficiently and calmly as possible. All went well! We made some adjustments to our protocols during the drill, and we feel confident that we are ready in case a reunification is necessary.
If we do need to employ the reunification protocol, please remember:
1. District staff will communicate where your students will need to be picked up from via Parent Square.
2. When you arrive on site, you'll be asked to fill out some paperwork that will help us reunify families with their students.
3. Please bring an ID.
4. Patience is important. School staff will do their absolute best to quickly reunify students with families.
Upcoming events:
October
- October 31st - 1/2 Day - Happy Halloween! (Black and orange spirit day - no costumes, please)
November
- November 5th - No School (Election Day)
- November 11th - No School (Veteran's Day)
- November 12th - PTO Meeting, 6:30, Library
- November 13th - End of Trimester 1
- November 19th - School Site Council Meeting, 7:45am + School Picture Retakes
- November 20th - Polished Dental
- November 27th - Report Cards Published + Crazy Sock Spirit Day! + 1/2 Day!
- November 28th - No School, Happy Thanksgiving!
- November 29th - No School
Rent the Rock
Our Bates spirit rock is available for weekly rentals. Celebrate your student's birthday or other accomplishments by painting a message on our rock. Please click here to rent the rock!
School Mission
Bates Elementary School, in partnership with our families and community, will provide all students with a culturally responsive, student – centered, and equitable learning experience that celebrates our students’ diverse backgrounds, creative pursuits, and their academic, social, emotional success.
