Birch Meadow Newsflash
September 23, 2022
Notes From Dr. Burnham
Saturday, October 15th, is “Discover the Arts Day,” a free family friendly event designed to bring the community together to learn about local fine arts opportunities and enjoy activities for all ages; including face painting, balloon animals, live music, and Reading’s first ever Community Task Party hosted by some of our very own Reading Staff members.
The Task Party is designed to help participants remove prescribed social boundaries and interact in new and creative ways. Young and old, families and strangers, will be creating together and challenging themselves to think ‘outside-the-box’ to complete their tasks. Participants will have fun, stretch themselves creatively, and recognize our shared need to create and connect. To take a peek at a Task Party hosted in NYC, click HERE.
A special thank you to the Reading Cultural Council and the Reading Education Foundation for helping to fund this exciting event.
Discover the Arts will take place on the Town Common Saturday, October 15th from 10-2, with a rain date of Sunday the 16th from 1-5.
The Task Party coordinators are seeking donations from the community. If you have any of the items to spare, or are in a position to donate, a collection box will be provided outside of the Birch Meadow school office through Oct. 11th.
Items needed:
Tin Foil
Plastic Wrap
Old Sheets
Yarn
Masking Tape
Boxes
Duct Tape
Packing Tape
Construction Paper
Large Roll Paper
Poster Board
Colored Tissue Paper
Jumbo Markers or Paint Sticks
Do-a-Dot Markers
Streamers
Wrapping Paper
Cardboard Tubes
Plastic Table Cloths
Oil Pastels
Thin Cardboard
-Dr. B
A message from the Birch Meadow PTO:
Thank you to Dr. Burnham and to the many parents and caregivers who attended our first PTO general meeting on Tuesday night! If you missed the meeting, please check out the following Google Slides presentation to learn about our upcoming fall fun and fundraising events, volunteer opportunities, the METCO Found Family program, and more! Click HERE to view slides from the meeting.
Thank you for supporting the PTO!
Volunteer opportunities:
Room Parent Volunteer Opportunity: We still are in need of volunteers for several classrooms! Room parents help disseminate PTO communications in addition to helping teachers organize 2-3 of classroom-related activities. If you are interested, please sign up here:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0D4DA5AF23A4F94-20222023
Enrichment volunteers wanted!
Our enrichment coordinator is looking for volunteers at every grade level to help plan, facilitate, photograph and write-up our enrichment programs for this year. Our enrichment team brings educational programming to our classrooms throughout the year and also plans our field trips with the goal of making learning fun! The team works closely with classroom teachers to supplement grade-level curriculum by bringing programming from local museums, cultural representatives, scientists, performers and more. Volunteer opportunities include both in-school options during the school day and emailing/phone calling on your own schedule. In-school volunteers must complete a CORI form. If you are interested in helping, please email birchmeadowenrichment@gmail.com!
Room Parent Communication Waiver:
Your 2021/2022 Room Parents would like to send you occasional emails for important school updates. Every school year, we are required to request information from parents, separate from registration packets. Please take a moment to fill out this brief form to share/not share your email address:
Consider Joining Cub Scouts!
Kids of all genders K-5 are welcome to join - we are focused on fun, spending time outdoors, and being family friendly - siblings are almost always welcome. We host a variety of unique events throughout the school year and no one makes it to everything, as we know there are conflicting activities. Each grade (Den) gathers monthly to work on advancement activities. We have a lot of campfires (s'mores!), build and launch model rockets, fish, build and race pinewood derby cars, have nerf battles, and participate in community service projects. Please visit our website https://www.readingpack702.org/ or Facebook page @CubScoutPack702Reading for more information or to check out some photos of our adventures. You can contact sbgent@gmail.com for inquiries.
New Social Media Pages
The current PTO board experienced some trouble accessing the previous Facebook page and Instagram handle log-in information, so we have created a NEW PTO Facebook page and NEW PTO Instagram handle!
Please "like" our new "Birch Meadow Elementary PTO" Facebook page and follow our new Instagram: @birch_meadow_pto
We will no longer post to the previous pages - please follow these new ones for updates, Staff Spotlights, photos, and more!
Visit the Birch Meadow School Store
Birch Meadow PTO
Email: BirchMeadowPTO@gmail.com
Website: https://www.reading.k12.ma.us/birchmeadow/
Location: 27 Arthur B Lord Drive, Reading, MA, USA
Phone: 781-944-2335
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BirchMeadowElementarySchoolPTO/
Twitter: @birch_meadow