Monday Morning Meeting on Thursday Afternoon

At the end of the first week of school, we held our first Monday Morning Meeting (M.M.M.).

Huh? A Monday Morning Meeting on a Thursday afternoon? Strange. Well, we didn't have a Monday that week due to the untimely arrival of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene. We decided to hold the first meeting just before the 4-day Labor Day weekend.

So, Thursday afternoon it was. I can deal with M.M.M. on a Thursday afternoon.

Using a seating plan drawn up by one of the teachers, the classes filed in. Now, Wolcott Elementary School is rather small - 119 students in grades K-6. We fit easily onto the floor of the gym entirely within the 3-point line.

I spoke about the exciting opening of school, my observation that the students had been so very polite so far, and a reminder of our PBIS Rs, Responsibility, Respect, Readiness.

At that point, I asked the entire staff to leave the room. While I spoke with the students, the staff snuck around into the storeroom behind where I was standing.

We had previously hung streamers over the doorway, and as I called the teacher's name each came running out into the gym. For each staff member, the students cheered and yelled. The smiles were enormous all around.

The students behaved perfectly during this excitement. They cheered and yelled and made tons of noise. When I raised my hand, they got quiet in less than five seconds.

The first M.M.M. was a resounding success.

We are off to a great start.




image from http://www.ashberrybaby.com/products/Basketball-Half-Court-%252d-Boy-Canvas-Art-by-The-Doodle-Store.html (I have no connection to this company)

Mariachi Band Makes the News

The Tri-Town Transcript has this nice article and audio slide show of our recent assembly.

Thanks to B.E.S.T. for funding the program.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/boxford/news/x1394804381/Mariachi-band-visits-Spofford-Pond-School

Mariachi Band Gets Us Moving!

Thanks to a B.E.S.T. Grant, Mrs. Galardi and the other specialists brought in a professional Mariachi Band to perform for the whole school. Of course, our students were eager to perform with the band. The assembly was filled with music, dancing, and fun.

A Spirit Assembly to End March Madness

We had a rousing spirit assembly to end March Madness. But, before the rousing started, I spoke with the students about working hard and taking MCAS seriously (as they usually do). I also explained some of the changes to the Positive Behavior parts of the Code of Conduct.


The Student Council did a fantastic job cheering on the whole school.

Spofford Pond Pink & Denim Fundraiser

Download now or preview on posterous

Pink & Denim Flyer.pdf (99 KB)

Dear Spofford Community,
UPDATE

There has been a few questions about pink shirts and boys. First I'd like to advocate for how wonderful a color pink is. I have two pink dress shirts. Second, the PTO will provide pink ribbon stickers that can take the place of pink shirts.

I also want to mention that this fund raiser and event is being presented in a way designed not to alarm the children. We are not teaching details or statistics about the disease. The event will include only general references to Breast Cancer as a disease that affects mostly women; including some in our extended community. I will mention the teacher currently on leave and that others in the community have faced this as well. Finally, I will mention that by engaging in this fund raiser, we are showing support to anyone in our community who is now, or has, any experience with Breast Cancer. 



Please see the attached the flyer about Spofford Pond's first Pink and Denim Fund Raiser to benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure®.
--
Larry Fliegelman

An Astronaut comes to Spofford Pond

We had a fantastic assembly with NASA Astronaut, Captain Steve Bowen. Capt Bowen gave a great presentation about his recent mission aboard the space shuttle. The students seemed to enjoy the sites and sounds, especially the realistic launch sound effects.

At the end of his presentation, Captain Bowen presented the school a fantastic photo collage along with a mission patch and small American flag that accompanied the Captain in space.




Special thanks to the PTO for sponsoring this great opportunity at both Spofford Pond and Harry Lee Cole Schools.

Fantastic Third Grade

This morning, the third grade had a blast (and learned something too). For the first forty-five minutes of the day, while the third grade teachers were at Harry Lee Cole School meeting with second grade teachers, I met with the entire third grade student body. After taking attendance and lunch counts with the help of Mrs. Lomanno, Mrs. Sennott, and Mrs. Hawkes, I showed the students a couple of video clips and a website.
First we saw a science-music video from Bill Nye the Science Guy about hand-washing. You can find that on YouTube (). The students loved the lips and the slow-motion sneeze the best. Hopefully, they got the message about washing their hands.
We also took a look at the website from a wonderful BBC kids program called One Minute Wonders (http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/oneminutewonders/#/videos). These short clips (about one minute long) explain one main idea in a way that the students seemed to enjoy very much. We watched a few of these and laughed a lot.
Finally, we also watched a really cool video that shows each of our 44 presidents. The neat part of this video is that while the patriotic music is playing, the faces morph from one president to another. I was fascinated to observe that the students cheered for Presidents like Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Regan, both George Bushes, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama. There was near silence for Chester Arthur and Rutherford Hayes. ()
Please ask your third-grader about this morning.
Thank you.
-Larry Fliegelman
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