The start of the school year is now just a month away! While we all soak up the last of the summer sun and lazy mornings, we wanted to take a minute to share some updates for our September return. For our new families we want to welcome you to the Russell family and we look forward to getting to know you. Please anticipate a weekly email from the Russell school filled with updates, resources and lots of fun pictures of our students doing what they love. For our returning families please check out the summer reading list and how to access the texts for free on clever.

Aug. 31 - Kindergarten Teddy Bear Picnic @11:30am

Sept. 8 - First day of school grades 1-12

Sept. 12 - First day of K1 & K2

Sept. 15 - Back to school night and BBQ 5:00-8:00 pm

Sept. 23 - Welcome Back Pep Rally

Sept. 29 - School Site Council

Oct. 6 - Equity Round Table

Oct 7 - October Pep Rally

Oct. 10 - No school

Oct. 14 - Fall fundraiser

Oct. 19 - Picture Day

Oct. 20 - Parent Site Council

Oct. 26 - Coffee Hour

Oct. 27 - School Site Council

Oct 28 - Harvest Fest

Twenty minutes of reading can change your child's life!

What are the benefits of reading 20 minutes a day?

1. Improved vocabulary
2. Expanded word knowledge
3. Deepened empathy
4. Improved academic performance

Twenty minutes of reading a day is all it takes! Prevent what the education world refers to as the "summer slide." The summer slide is real and is attributed to a lack of reading over the summer.

When students return in the fall, they spend time making up for the loss from the summer. It becomes cumulative over time! Students who do not read over the summer in elementary school have a two-year reading loss by the time they are in middle school. It only gets worse as they progress through high school. Let's reverse this trend. Let's unleash the power of books to capture our scholars' imaginations. Let's help them find their story in the stories of others.

Summer Reading Together 2022 is sponsored by the Boston Public Library (BPL), Boston Public Schools, and WGBH

These booklists were compiled by librarians from BPL, the Departments of English Langage Arts and Library Services, and ELA teachers from BPS. Summer Reading Together engages students to share the experience of reading and talking about books they read over the summer when school begins.

1. To access books in an eBook format:
2. Go to your Clever access and login
3. Find the Sora App - It has a blue spaceship
4. When Sora opens, click the Summer Reading Together 2022 banner and find your book.

This initiative aims to prevent summer reading loss, encourage pleasure reading, and foster a culture of readers. Our focus is to motivate, engage, and cultivate a culture of readers.

• K0/K1 - I Promise by LeBron James
• K2 - Milo's Museum by Zetta Elliott
• 1st - Where are you From? by Yamile Saied Mendez and Jaime Kim
• 2nd - Meet Yasmin! by Saadia Faruqi
• 3rd - Battle of the Bad-Breath Bats by David Bowles and Shane Clester
• 4th - Planet Omar by Zanib Mian
• 5th - The First Rule of Punk by Celia Cruz

Mental Health Supports are available during the 2022 Summer months, through the efforts of the Office of Social Work and Behavioral Health Services.

• The summer Mental Health Flyers HERE (translations included) includes the BPS Family Hotline which can be used by anyone to request resources or support.

Please check out this guide in many languages about food resources in the city.

Food Resource Guide — Vital CxNs