November 5, 2017 



Greetings Quashnet School Community, 

Have you changed your clocks and smoke alarm batteries yet? Fall back one hour! 

   
Not only do we have early sunsets, but the colder weather is coming too.  Are you missing any sweatshirts or jackets at your home?  Well, the lost and found is growing rapidly.  Having your child's name in their clothes really helps us locate the owner of items.  If you are coming to school, be sure to check out the lost and found in the cafe - just check in the office first, please! 


In case you missed this last week:  Parent/teacher conferences are scheduled for November 30th and December 4th .  Please use this link to sign-up for a conference with your child's teacher by choosing the date and time that works for you - https://goo.gl/KXcRBg.  Should you have any difficulties, call and we are happy to help. 


Last Friday night was a great night for Quashnet School.  Jocelyn Cohen, Maya Brainson, Gabby Santos, and Will Chapman, the four Student Council officers last year, represented Quashnet School students as they graciously accepted the Making a Difference Award at the Heroes in Transition Fall Gala. Heroes in Transition recognizes organizations and groups for work they do to support our troops.  This award is for ALL the students who generously donated their earned right choice tickets to the service dog initiative to pay them forward and for all the parents, teachers, MPS staff members, and community sponsors of those students.  The Making a Difference Award will be proudly displayed in one of the glass cases outside the front office.  Be sure to take a look.  

Quashnet School values and honors our veterans. The Veterans Day assembly is this Wednesday at 9:30 AM.  If you are a veteran, please come and let our students honor you.  We have an amazing team at Quashnet School that organizes this event every year and students have been preparing for you. Hope to see you on Wednesday.  Please RSVP to ewunder@mpspk12.org or epagano@mpspk12.org. Looking forward to seeing you on Wednesday! 

The family challenge is coming next week - Unplug to Talk and Play! We are so fortunate to be a 1:1 district where every student has a Chromebook in school. Students are learning how to be good digital citizens, how to vet quality research sites, create presentations with google slides, and write and edit papers on google docs, code, plus so much more.  The down side is, with increased quality screen time in school, after school screen time should be reduced.  Please consider these two links, one on research-  American Academy of Pediatrics   and a great resource-  Family Media Plan.   

Among the AAP recommendations:

• For children younger than 18 months, avoid use of screen media other than video-chatting. Parents of children 18 to 24 months of age who want to introduce digital media should choose high-quality programming, and watch it with their children to help them understand what they're seeing.
• For children ages 2 to 5 years, limit screen use to 1 hour per day of high-quality programs. Parents should co-view media with children to help them understand what they are seeing and apply it to the world around them.
• For children ages 6 and older, place consistent limits on the time spent using media, and the types of media, and make sure media does not take the place of adequate sleep, physical activity and other behaviors essential to health. 
• Designate media-free times together, such as dinner or driving, as well as media-free locations at home, such as bedrooms.
• Have ongoing communication about online citizenship and safety, including treating others with respect online and offline.

The Challenge is to replace screen-time with engagement time, to talk, play a game, or exercise.  Each night during the week of November 16-20 students will be asked to complete a slip on how they replaced screen time.  That slip will go into a drawing every day and some lucky families will win a game to bring home. Look for the flyer this week.  It is never too early to start making that media plan! 

Reminder that there is and EARLY RELEASE Day on Thursday and NO SCHOOL this Friday in observance of Veterans Day. Students will be dismissed Thursday at 11:30 AM.  If there is a change in dismissal plans, please send in a note. In order for a friend or relative to pick up a student, we MUST have a note from the child's parent/guardian. Any change in dismissal plans need to be made at least one hour before dismissal. Thank you for your cooperation.  

PTO Update:  
Thank you to all the families that were able to attend the Book Fair Breakfast.  It is always great to see so many of you!  Your support at the book fair was so appreciated.  The Scholastic dollars earned are put right back into the classrooms to benefit all students.  Great job Tracy Fischer, Cori Johnson, and all PTO volunteers.  We appreciate you! 

The Falcon Bucks Fundraiser is still going on. Your support makes a difference is supporting all students. :-) 

Falcon Bucks Fundraiser is due Tuesday, November 21st

^{There is still time to sell tickets!}

Top seller has a chance at winning a KINDLE FIRE plus other great prizes!!

Top Seller: Principal for the Day and special-order lunch (w/a friend) in the office
2nd Highest Ticket Sales: Asst. Principal for the Day with special-order lunch (w/a friend) in the office
Class avg. 4 tickets per student: Extra recess.  Class avg. 8 tickets per student: Extra Gym Class

Prizes for other top sellers just added this week include a $30.00 gift certificate to Ryan’s Family Amusement, 2 passes to Heritage Museum and Gardens in Sandwich valued at $36.00.

Additional Tickets can be picked up in the main office!! (more incentives coming)

Any questions please contact Tracy Fischer at QSPTOPresident@gmail.com

Wishing you all a wonderful and productive week ahead, 

Mrs. O'Brien 

PS - Halloween candy is still being collected outside the front office.  Send in any wrapped candy for our Candy for the Troops collection.