Pleasant Street School News
building a community of learners that strive for excellence
November 1, 2015
MCAS Achievement!!
Tree Project in Mrs. Heuer's Third Grade
To see some additional projects please click on the link below.
Evaluating Literacy Retention Rates from May through September 2015
Research studies vary but all children on average stand to lose between 1 to 3 reading levels over the summer. Clearly with regular reading this does not have to be the case. Those who are most at-risk of losing ground include students with economic disadvantage and students who are already identified below benchmark reading, including students in title one intervention programs, and some students with disabilities. At Pleasant Street we specifically wanted to take a look at the performance of our at-risk readers from May to September 2015. All students identified as at-risk were invited to participate in summer tutoring sessions or for some students extended year services.
While there are multiple factors involved, we feel strongly that our intervention efforts, promotion of summer reading, engagement with families, and offering of summer tutoring considerably reduced summer slide for our at-risk readers at Pleasant Street. Of 52 children identified in May 2015, 26 of those children gained reading levels from May through September, with 11 of them reaching grade level benchmark by the end of September! Seventeen of our at-risk readers maintained their reading level rather than losing ground over the summer and only 9 children from our whole school declined one or more levels during this time period. As an educator and principal this is powerful and validating information as we continue to partner with families to prevent summer slide and help children become proficient readers.
Read, Lead, and Succeed
November is Family Literacy Month
This year marks the Commonwealth's 19th annual Family Literacy Month in recognition of the pivotal role that parents and family members play in the educational success of their children. In celebration of Family Literacy Month, communities across the state will host activities throughout November in support of literacy, lifelong learning, and family-well-being.
http://www.doe.mass.edu/familylit/parents/
At Pleasant Street we have been promoting literacy in the classroom and beyond through the following activities:
- Community Reads Day, Nov. 3rd- beginning at 9:00 am- Volunteers, Parents, and National Honor Society members will join us for a special reading and activity in all of our classes.
- The Big Read- Community Literacy Event- Saturday, Nov. 14th, 10 am to noon at the ELKs Lodge, 93 New Athol Rd, Orange with a free performance of the Nutcracker.
http://www.arrsd.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/the-big-read-2015.pdf
- Reading Challenges- Beyond regular reading expectations by classroom teachers our school promotes reading challenges at various points during the year beginning with our November Family Literacy Challenge. Please look for information to come home this week.
This year we are looking to participate in the Six Flags Read to Succeed Program. Read to Succeed is an exciting program that encourages students in grades K through 6 to read for fun. Each student who completes six hours of recreational reading can earn a free ticket to Six Flags! The program is available to teachers and schools at no cost to participate, and it's a great way to motivate kids to read. We are looking for a parent volunteer to serve as our Read to Succeed Program Coordinator. The role of the coordinator will be to assist teachers in registering students on-line and to aid in tracking hours of books read.
Everyday Hero Award
Definition of hero: a person of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his or her brave deeds and noble qualities.
At Pleasant Street we have created a new award entitled the "Everyday Hero Award." This has come from our interest as a school community in recognizing children who work hard each day and do the right thing. An everyday hero is not someone who necessarily looks to draw attention to him or herself for making good choices but simply goes through each day doing so. For our first award, Aiden Kirwan, was recognized at our all school meeting as an Everyday Hero for being a hard worker, earnest, and kind person who is a contributing member to our school community. Thank you Aiden for being who you are and for making our school a better place!
Hat Day = Big Success!
Thanks to everyone who participated in our Student Council sponsored hat day. With the day before Halloween in all this was a wonderful way for children to have a little extra fun at school. With the optional donation of $1.00 to wear a hat, our student council was happy to report they raised $75 from this event to go toward student council projects.
Pictured: Principal "Officer" Ellis with second grade friends, Hanisha, Lyla-Rae, Dillon, Mason, and Camdyn.
To see more pictures from hat day click on the link below.
https://animoto.com/play/TTFo5FkTHJmr0ejD7WyTqACatch of the Day!
Pictured to the right is our prize winning "Catch of the Day" Dakota.
Mad Science -Week #4
To see more pictures please click on the short video link.
Monday Science Program
More Science Fun with "Bodies in Space"
Now is the time to schedule your parent/teacher conference
Where in the World is Miss Maddie?
http://www.nationalservice.gov/programs/americorps
We thought it would be an awesome idea for Maddie to share her adventures with students back home at Pleasant Street. If you want to write letters back to Maddie, ask her questions, or send pictures/drawings please bring them to the office and we will be sure she gets them.
Letter #1- October 23, 2015
Dear Students,
I’ve been living in a place called McClellan, CA for the past week and I absolutely love it here. Although my first day was very tiring I’ve gotten used to the time difference. While back home you are starting school at 8:30 am, it’s 5:30 am where I am and I’m getting ready for physical training. What’s really cool about where I live is that it used to be an Air-force base so we have some of our training in the old hangar which is awesome because there are still some planes around. I’m having a lot of fun getting to know new people. I have friends that are from Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Virginia, New Hampshire, Colorado, Maryland, and Georgia. I hope everyone is having a great school year so far! I can’t wait to write to you all again! -- Maddie
Letter #2 -October 25, 2015
Dear Students,
My team has gotten our assignment for our first project which is very exciting! We will be going to a town called North Bend in Washington State! We will be planting trees and working on trails and helping with the community. I am wicked excited to go to Washington. On Saturday we did this thing called, A Day of Service, and that means that we go out into the community and we help whoever needs it. My team went to a community garden called, The Winding Way Farm. It was really cool to see someone's backyard being turned into a garden for everyone in the neighborhood to go in and grow their own food. It was really interesting to meet the different kinds of people that were there. We also did another project that included doing a lot of hard work, we had to clear out an area of land. So we had to rake and clean up all the dead grass and we had to dig up the roots of some of the trees that were there. We all got so dirty by the end of the day! I also did another project that night, a small group of us went to a local cemetery where they do lantern tours and they asked us to help with the tours and to help clean up when they were over. On Wednesdayand Thursday we will be going on whats called a “mini spike” and we will be camping out at a place called Camp Lodestar. While we are there we will be doing team building activities and we will prepare for our trip to Washington. Warm Wishes, Miss Maddie
Free Breakfast & Lunch
As part of the 2010 Healthy and Hunger-Free Kids Act, Athol-Royalston Regional School District, along with other districts, now offers free meals to all students this school year.
Menus
- Breakfast menu for November
- Lunch menu for November
The Salvation Army Is Accepting Registrations for Holiday Giving
Please click on the link provided for more information about holiday programs offered through the Salvation Army.
Community Events & Postings
Do you have news to share or want to inform members of our school community about family friendly events in our area? if so, please email or forward a flyer or link.
Thank you :)
Mother Goose on the Loose Playgroup-Thursdays 10am—11:30am Valuing Our Children 217 Walnut St. Athol. For more information contact: Jen: 978-249-8467 x 22
http://www.arrsd.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/PG-and-MGOL.pdf
Petersham Playgroup- Beginning on Thursday, Sept. 17th from 10-11:30 at the Petersham Center School. For more information please call Jennifer at Valuing Our Children 978-249-8467 x22
http://www.arrsd.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Petersham-playgroup.pdf
The Common Thread for October-newsletter of the North Quabbin Community Coalition.
http://www.nqcc.org/pdfs/2015_10_comm_thread.pdf
For other local events, happenings, and resources in this area... you can also check the North Quabbin Community Coalition website below:
These are not school sponsored events but are posted here as a public service for families in the greater North Quabbin community.
Upcoming Events...Mark your Calendars!
Upcoming Events and Dates!
- November 2, PTO meeting, 5:30-6:30 pm, note the earlier time
- November 3, Community Reading Day
- November 9, Parent /teacher conferences, 3:30-5:00 pm
- November 10, Parent/teacher conferences, 6:00-7:30 pm
- November 11, Veteran's day holiday-no school
- November 13, Family Movie Night, 6:00-8:00 pm, school cafe, sponsored by PTO
- November 14- Save the Date- 10:00-12:00- The Big Read
http://www.arrsd.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/CALENDARFOR2015-2016a.pdf
News from Principal Ellis
Email: dellis@arrsd.org
Website: arrsd.org
Location: 1060 Pleasant Street., Athol, MA 01331
Phone: (978) 249-2405