Monday Memo 1/29/18

Good morning!

Homework

Click here for the February Homework Calendar.

Mystery Reader

Thank you to Kylie Williams, our Mystery Reader.  We'd love to have you come in.  Please click here to sign up.

Sharing

This week, we are sharing talents.  Students can demonstrate their talent for us, bring in a photo or a symbol of their talent, have their parent send me a video of them doing their talent...the possibilities are endless.  Thank you for your help.

Have a great week!

Miriam

Monday Memo 1/22/17

I hope you had a great weekend.  I can't believe the Patriots did it again!

Mystery Reader

We loved having Ms. Downes, the new elementary school METCO coordinator, read to us on Friday.  Haven't gotten a chance to come in yet?  Please click here to sign up.

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Thank you, Ms. Downes, Mystery Reader

WMS Community Service Day

We had a great time working cooperatively in teams to create public service announcements.  Our 8th grade helpers served as executive producers of our iMovie trailers.  We hope to share these engaging and informative videos with you soon!

Brainstorming ideas

Report Cards

You can view these on Thursday.  Be sure you have set up your Home Access Center in order to access the report card.  If you have any questions after viewing the report card about your child's progress, please contact me.  

Please see below for instructions for access: 

 

































Conferences

You can sign up for a March parent/teacher conference by clicking here.  I look forward to meeting with you.   

Buddies

It was great seeing some of you at the MLK dinner on Friday night.  I was so proud of Micah, who was part of a fabulous on stage performance.  With our 4th Grade Buddies, our class created posters to decorate the venue in honor of Martin Luther King.  The posters were lovely and many people commented on the great, cooperative work.  Fantastic!

Science

Our States of Matter unit is coming to an end.  Our class did an experiment with Ms. Knox on Wednesday during our science rotations.  Salt crystals look amazing after the water around them is evaporated!  Ask your child about it.  The culmination of this fascinating unit will be our (rescheduled) visit from the Acton Discover Museum next week.

Sharing

"Be yourself.  Everyone else is already taken."

"Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

These were only a couple of the inspirational quotes we heard today.  Students are doing a fabulous job sharing and explaining what these quotes mean to them.  We look forward to hearing everyone's quote by the end of the week.  Here is the Sharing Schedule:

Have a great week!

Miriam

Monday Memo 1/15/18

Local Environmentalist Visits 2nd Grade!

My father Pat Conaway came to speak to the second grade this week about taking care of the earth.  My dad is a retired Wayland Middle School teacher, and when he's not driving his grand

kids around, he is working as President and founder of Keep Natick Beautiful.  I am proud that my dad has helped lead the charge in the many local plastic bag bans around the Metrowest, and now he's onto his next challenge:  Just Say No to Styro!

The second grade team's message behind the special presentation was to empower our students to use their voices to make change in the world.   Specifically, we are focusing on our voices in writing, with the end result being a public service announcements that we hope to share with our school community.  This is a perfect marriage with the second grade writing standard on opinion writing.  We will use iMovie to create our public service announcements.  I welcome assistant producer!  Please contact me if you are an iMovie expert and would like to help.  Thank you so much. 

My dad, the Person I Admire

The Plastic Bag Monster.  Did you know that the average American shopper uses 500 bags per year???

Sharing

Example of quote sharing

Thank you so much for helping your child prepare for this week's sharing on a person we admire.  Next week, we will share inspirational quotes.  Click here for a helpful quote website for kids.  Your child should write the quote in big letters (or print the quote in a large font) on a piece of 8 1/2 x 11 paper, write who said the quote, and be able to explain to the class how the quote spoke to them. 

MLK Dinner Friday Night 
 

Hope to see you at the annual MLK Dinner at the Middle School on Friday at 6PM.  The second graders made posters with our buddies with our favorite MLK quotes, and these posters will  be displayed at the dinner.  The Happy Hollow chorus will perform as well.

Our Drew, her brother Luke, and friends present at assembly

 Drew's Service Learning Project

Drew help raise hundreds of dollars for breast cancer research.  Kudos also to many members of our class for their support in purchasing Drew's homemade bracelets.  Way to go, Drew! 

Thank you, Mystery Reader Nimmi Trapasso

Mystery Reader

Would you like to sign up?  Please click here for the link to see available slots, then email me, and tell me what you would like.  Thank you!

Library Book Sale

If you need some new books and would like to support public libraries, check out this sale next week at the Morse Institute Library in Natick.   Click here for the flyer.

Conferences

Here is the link to sign up for a parent/teacher conference in March.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

FROM WPS TECHNOLOGY OFFICE:

Please log in to your guardian HAC account and confirm that we have proper email addresses on file in our Student Information Database

Dear Wayland Elementary School Families,

We are pleased to announce the launch of our new Student Information System, eSchoolPLUS. After extensive research and assessment, eSchoolPLUS was selected as the best option for Wayland teachers, students and guardians because of its intuitive, scalable and secure solution to manage student data. There is also a mobile app called eSchoolPLUS Family that you can download from the app stores.

Home Access Center (HAC) replaces iParent and iStudent as a communication portal. It allows students and guardians to access a wide range of student data; including demographics, attendance, test scores, class work assignments, schedules and student fees. We will continue to update and add new features in HAC as needed by each grade level.

If you already have an account from an older child in the High School or Middle School, you can now see your Elementary student in Home Access Center. If not, we welcome you to view the HOME ACCESS CENTER INSTRUCTIONS to create your HAC account. Once logged in, please update your email address and phone number(s) by clicking on the Registration icon and then Contacts - (Edit).

Later this month, we will notify you when you will have access to your child's report card online through Home Access Center.

Kind regards,

Leisha Simon

Director of Technology

Monday Memo 1/8/17

Wow, what a storm!  I hope you stayed warm and your power stayed on.  Ours went off for about an hour, and I thought my kids might collapse from the stress of screen deprivation.

SNEAKERS for classroom, especially on WEDNESDAYS!

PLEASE make sure your child has sneakers to change into for the classroom.  It really helps keep our room a little less dirty when muddy, snowy boots are not trampling all over it all day.  Please remember we have Physical Education class on Wednesdays.  Students must have sneakers for PE.  Thank you.

Science

Can you filter gravel from water?  How about tissue?  We completed a fun science experiment on Wednesday as part of our States of Matter unit.  On Wednesday, our class will go to Ms. Niles' class for an experiment involving sugar! 

Our Acton Discovery Museum presentation will be rescheduled for February 2.

Have a great week!

Monday Memo (Tuesday Edition) 1/2/18

Happy New Year!  I hope you had a wonderful vacation.  We just returned from North Conway, where we had a great time skiing.  For the third year in a row, we stayed at this adorable bed and breakfast that DID NOT have television in the bedrooms.  The first year, my husband and I felt a fair amount of trepidation at the prospect of three days without TV, but it turned out great, our children actually interacted, and they begged to go back.  Now, of course, as I typed this on New Year's Day evening, all three of them were staring blankly at various screens, but I'm hanging on to that small victory up north. 

Homework

Please click here for the January Homework Calendar. 

Spelling

Our word work resumes next week.  I generally prefer not to do spelling on four day weeks, but spelling is back next week!  Please click here if you need another copy of the Spelling Practice Menu.

Sharing

In January, we begin assigned sharing on five day weeks.  Click here for the Sharing Schedule.  The first assignment is due next week on your child's sharing day.  It is "Someone you admire."  This could be someone from your child's life, a famous person, an athlete, anyone.  Your child should bring in a photo of that person or something else that symbolizes that person.

Thank you

Thanks again for your fabulous class gifts!  The magnet builders will really help entertain the troops during all these upcoming indoor recesses.  And I just spent my Amazon gift card! 

Have a great week! 

Miriam