Dear Sprague Community,
The Sprague Kindness Olympics were a big success. We had many full jars indicating about 1500 acts of kindness over the 10 school day time period. That means we noticed about 150 acts of kindness every day! 2BH and 1LB had the most gems in their kindness jars. Their prize is to have the privilege of choosing which charity will receive our school donation. Students have been asked to think about a charity they might like to contribute to and a reason for why it might be a good charity to choose. Each of the two winning classes will discuss and decide together. They will also suggest a schoolwide special day like Comfy Cozy Day or Crazy Hair Day. There was even an article about it in the Townsman thanks to Sprague parent, Robin Weschler.
I had the opportunity to visit the United Nations in New York City over the February vacation. As part of the tour, I was reminded of the original purpose of the organization. Thinking about its purpose is such an important reminder of why we work so hard to teach children to be kind, caring, good listeners, who can compromise when needed and who enjoy strong relationships with peers and family members. The UN Charter set four main purposes:
- Maintain worldwide peace and security
- Develop relationships among nations
- Foster cooperation between nations to solve economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian international problems
- Provide a forum for bringing countries together to meet the UN’s purposes and goals
Take these goals and translate them to children in schools and you have something very similar to the WPS core values of Cooperative and Caring Relationships and Respect for Human Differences. Take a step further and you have the ‘boots on the ground’ goals of helping students develop self awareness, self management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making. See the graphic from CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning) below. At Sprague, we try to incorporate social learning by promoting our school HEART (Helping, Effort for Excellence, Acceptance and Appreciation, Respect and Responsibility, and Teamwork), finding opportunities for discussion, and explicitly teaching social skills using our curriculum. We thank you for supporting this important work.
A-Catemy Awards
We will have our annual A-Catemy Awards ceremony on Friday morning (March 2) at 8:45. Students and teachers are invited to ‘glam it up’ with fancy clothes or sunglasses or anything ‘Oscar worthy.’ Students have voted (The Sprague Academy of Book Favorites) on favorite book titles within categories like, “Favorite Series” or “Favorite Picture Book.” The winners will be announced at the ceremony which takes place the week of both the “Oscars” and Dr. Seuss’ birthday, sometimes known as “Read Across America” Day. We welcome paparazzi and ‘mom’arazzi to take photos on our very own red carpet in the gym. Spectators are welcome but will need to sit in the bleachers for the ceremony.
School Lunches
Check out the new school lunch menu online. It now includes a weekly vegetarian option. In actuality, we always had vegetarian options like the bagel lunch or the Sunbutter and Jelly Sandwich lunch, but the options may expand. Remember to check your child’s balance on myschoolbucks.com and be sure to load funds when needed.
Deep Clean
Many thanks to our fabulous custodial staff for keeping our school nice and clean and giving everything a good scrub over the vacation to help us minimize the spread of germs.
Dates to remember:
March 2: A-Catemy Awards at 8:45 AM
March 3: Kindergarten Roundup #2 from 9 AM-12 PM in the Sprague library
March 6: Town Elections in Sprague Gym—PE classes held outdoors, weather permitting
March 7: Walk to School Day
March 8: PTO meeting at 9:00
March 15: Grade 5 vs. Faculty basketball game at 4 PM at Wellesley Middle School-all are welcome
March 19: School Council Meeting at 3;15 PM
March 23: Open House from 8:00-9:30 AM
March 30: No school—Good Friday
April 27: PTO Auction—see Pulse for more info