Dear Sprague Community,
It is a very busy month!
No Sew Blanket Update
Thanks to all who participated in this wonderful project. The office, closet and 1KL are FULL of blankets! Three classes will walk them over to the Newton-Wellesley Alzheimer’s Center across the parking lot on Thursday morning. I am sure the blankets will warm their HEARTS as well as their toes!
Sprague December Break Reading Challenge
Our school librarian, Mrs. Jauniskis, has proposed a challenge to our students. She knows how much they LOVE to read! The teachers and I join her in encouraging students to continue to read over the winter vacation. What counts as reading, you may ask? Listening to an audio book or being read aloud to count along with plain old curling up with a good book and reading. Reading logs will be coming home and are due back to the library by Thursday, January 5, 2017! Staff members are also invited to participate.
If Sprague students and staff (collectively) can read 80,000 minutes (or more) over this December break than the entire school will celebrate with a pajama day/comfy cozy day for all. We can totally do this… Read on!
Day of Play
We will have our second annual Day of Play on Wednesday, December 21st. This means we will be dedicating the entire morning (since it is a half day) to planning, building, creating, thinking, collaborating, and sharing student creations. We will be collecting any clean, appropriate recycled items you wish to send in. Students may bring bags of recycled materials to their classroom or leave overflow or large boxes in the seating area in the front lobby.
We will encourage students to be creative! Students will be encouraged to think about creating something that could fall into one of the following three categories:
- Something you can play with
- Something you can wear
- Something that has a function/job or solves a problem
We will be collecting the following items, but encourage families to think outside the box and send in other appropriate recycled items as well:
- Paper tubes
- Boxes
- Egg cartons
- String/Twine
- Cardboard
- Plastic recycled items
- Clean yogurt cups
- Clean plastic bottles
- Styrofoam packing
- Other packing materials
- Unused scrapbooking paper
- Wrapping paper tubes
We will supply masking tape, but feel free to send in fancy tape if you have it.
This event was inspired by the viral video, Caine’s Arcade. It shows a young boy who had to go to work with his dad all summer at his auto body shop and entertain himself. He built an arcade with all the cardboard boxes and wanted people to come play at his arcade. A customer used social media to make it happen and the video went viral. It reminded us that creativity is within all of us! Some students may work with a partner and decide together who will take the creation home. Thanks for your help in collecting items!
MCAS 2.0
Students in grades 3-5 are participate in annual state testing in Mathematics and English Language Arts. The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) made a decision to revise the MCAS tests rather than participate in PARCC testing. The revised MCAS tests will be used beginning in 2017. All 4th and 8th graders will be taking a computer based MCAS test this year. In 2018, 4th and 5th graders will take the MCAS online and by 2019, 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders will take MCAS online. You will see the testing schedule for Sprague below. If you are the parent of a 3rd, 4th, or 5th grader, please mark your calendar with these dates and make every effort for your child to be at school on time on those days. There will be make up dates for absent students.
2016 MCAS SCHEDULE:
Grade 3 ELA: May 1, 2, 4
Grade 4 ELA: April 24, 25, 28
Grade 5 ELA: April 10, 11, 13
Make up for Gr. 4CBT and Gr. 3, 5: April 29
Grade 3 Math: May 11, 12
Grade 4 Math: May 22, 23
Grade 5 Math: May 8, 9
Grade 5 Science: May 15, 16
Make ups for Math/Science: May 18, 19
After school Enrichment:
We will send notice of winter after school enrichment offerings in January. The classes will begin the week of January 23. Registration will take place in early January.
Dates to remember:
Dec. 19: School Council
Dec. 21: Day of Play
Dec. 21: Teacher Appreciation Luncheon
Dec. 23: full day of school
Dec. 26-Jan. 2: Winter Vacation
Jan. 3: Classes resume
Jan. 13: Concert featuring Grades 3 and 4 at 2:15—Parents invited
Jan. 16: Martin Luther King Day—no school
Jan. 20: Winter Concert featuring Grade 5, Band, and Orchestra at 2:15—Parents invited