February 28, 2020
Dear P.A.W.S. Families,
As we get ready to turn the page of the calendar from February to March, there are a few updates to share with you!
Monday, March 2 is Read Across America Day! This is a day when we celebrate the joy of reading by inviting guest readers from the community to join us in the classrooms at P.A.W.S. and read to the children. March 2nd is the birthday of the famous children’s author Dr. Seuss, so you will likely see lots of red and white striped Cat In The Hat stovepipe hats decorating the school as well as Dr. Seuss books and characters posted on the front hall bulletin board. Children and staff are invited to wear red and white to school on Monday and throughout the week!
From the NEA Website: “Read Across America Day, also known as Dr Seuss Day, is a yearly observance in the USA inaugurated by the NEA (National Education Association). It is held on the school day that is nearest to 2 March, Dr. Seuss’ birthday. Theodor Seuss Geisel was an American artist, book publisher, animator, poet, a political cartoonist as well as an author. He is best known for authoring over 60 children’s books.”
During Read Across America Day Week, we encourage you to find some special time, find a comfortable place to be, and read with your preschooler!
(Image of The Cat In The Hat Reading a book to a little Cat In The Hat. The text says: “You’re never too old, too wack, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child.”)
As we focus on and celebrate the importance of reading, here are some links to resources you might find useful and might help you gain insight into supporting your child in becoming a reader:
Click on the following links:
Launching Young Readers – https://www.readingrockets.org/launching
Reading Tips for Parents of Preschoolers – https://www.readingrockets.org/article/reading-tips-parents-preschoolers
Early Literacy Development – https://www.readingrockets.org/reading-topics/early-literacy-development
Literacy In the Sciences -18 Tips – https://www.readingrockets.org/extras/stem_series
Growing Readers Monthly Newsletters (Sign-up if you’d like!) – https://www.readingrockets.org/newsletters/extras
Thank you!
Thank you to the Rana Family, for graciously storing 3,000 children’s books for us for the past 8 months! After collecting the books from the spring book drives across town, we needed a place to store the books until we could organize them for the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten Project. Thank you to Garima and Deep Rana, for helping us by keeping all of the books for us in your home, until we were ready to use them.
Thank You – 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten
I would like to offer a huge thank you to a wonderful group of people who came in to work on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of the February vacation week, to help with the tremendous work of sorting through the approximately 3,000 donated books that were collected for the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten Project at P.A.W.S.
Thank you to parents: Deena Bolen, Linda Lin and Beth Willett for volunteering your time.
Thank you to PAWS staff Isabel Cashman and Meghan McLaughlin for your help during vacation week!
Thank you to 35 high school students from the Key Club and from the National Honor Society who came in to volunteer during their vacation week!
The work included:
1. Sorting the books into groups by genre.
2. Evaluating the quality of the books by using the Seven Forms of Bias Checklist.
3. Determining if the books were appropriate for the preschool project.
4. Selecting 10 different types of books for each book bag, making a total of 175 bags with 10 books in each bag bag.
5. Working in the Google Drive to catalog the title and authors of every book, in every bag, into a database.
6. Double checking the contents of each bag and cross referencing each book to the database to be sure it was accurately recorded.
It was non-stop work for three straight, 12 hour days, with parent and student volunteers working between 2, 4 or 6 hours a day, 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM! Several students even came in and worked all three days!
All in all, over the three days, we logged a total of 234 hours of dedicated work time!
I am extremely grateful for the diligent, focused, tenacious spirit of each volunteer who came in to work with me during the vacation week. Each came to P.A.W.S. with a cheerful attitude, a willingness to pitch-in, collaborate, and to step-up to do whatever was needed at the time.
Thank you to all who helped with the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten project at P.A.W.S. We have funds from a grant from WEF and so our final steps of the project will be ordering some special STEAM books to enhance the reading selections, and ordering canvas bags, along with shelving and crates to keep all of the books organized. Then, the children at PAWS will be able to begin taking out book bags filled with books, to begin their journey of reading 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten with their families!
We will keep you all updated as to when we will begin this wonderful project and share the books with the P.A.W.S. children and families. More details to come! Stay tuned!
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Wellesley
It is exciting to share that Wellesley Public Schools has a new Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion website under the Equity tab on the district website. Please check it out at: https://wellesleyps.org/dei/
The Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is launching the 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge on March 30. The 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge (aka the Racial Equity Challenge) is simple: You (along with thousands of other people across the US) commit to deepening your understanding of and willingness to confront racism for 21 consecutive days. At the very least, the Challenge will raise your awareness. But for many participants it goes beyond that and changes the way they see and interact with the world. Commit to the challenge here, and return to the website on March 30 for Day 1!
If you would like to learn more about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and how you can be involved, please reach out to me and we can talk!
As always, thank you all for your continued support of the preschool. Your positive participation, partnership, and care helps to make P.A.W.S. a school of excellence!
Sincerely,
‘Becca Z.
Important Dates:
Monday, March 2 – Read Across America Day!
March 2-6 – Read Across America Week
Saturday, March 7 – Kindergarten Round Up at Sprague School
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Reminder: If you have not yet dropped off your paperwork for Kindergarten Registration, there is another Kindergarten Round-up offered: Saturday, March 7 – Kindergarten Round-up 2, at the Sprague School 9:00 AM – 12:00 noon. Check the district website for additional information: www.wellesleyps.org
Tuesday, March 31 – Early Release Day for Parent/Teacher Conferences
April 10 – No School – Good Friday
April 20-24 – No School – April Vacation