February 7, 2021
Dear Quashnet School Community,
Happy Super Bowl Sunday! Although it would be nice to see the Patriots play, at least we have TB12 and Gronk still in it. Although, I was surprised to see several #15 jerseys around the school on Friday. Enjoy the game and the snow!
Please keep sending in those Kindness Journals! We are working our way to 5,000 acts of kindness. Bingo cards count too! This is a ninja and K-Kids initiative. The thing about kindness...it is ALWAYS a good time to BE KIND and it's free! Our challenge goes through this Friday, 2/12. Let's go!
This coming week is a Mashpee Cohort week. All of our Falcons and remote students are expected to participate online. Having had numerous conversations with families over the last several weeks - here are a few reminders about online/remote learning strategies.
1. Maintain a good school week sleeping routine. Early to bed, early to rise.
2. Get up, have a well-balanced breakfast, get dressed for school even if you are at home.
3. All students should be signed in to class by 9:05 AM.
4. Teachers' landing pages and playlists have expectations, schedules, links, and information students need to be successful. These are accessible to parents are well - just use this link:
https://sites.google.com/mpspk12.org/mpsblendedlearning/home
5. Student work is planned to be completed during the school day. During remote weeks or for those 100% remote - all students should be engaged learners for the whole school day - it is school at home.
Communication is the key component of a productive partnership. If you are unsure of what your child needs to do or they are struggling, don't wait, send an email to the teacher, a counselor, Mr. Kapulka, or me. We are ALL here to help. All MPS staff can be reached by email using this format, FirstinitialLastname@mpspk12.org, for example, mobrien@mpspk12.org. Contact information can also be found on the link above or call 508-539-1550.
Never hesitate to reach out. If your child is going to miss class for an appointment, please send an email to qsattendance@mpspk12.org and to the teacher - home/school communication will help support your child(ren)'s success in school.
February Vacation is next week. The Mashpee Public Schools will be closed the week of February 15-19. Classes will resume on Monday, February 22, 2021. If you are traveling over the school break, please be to follow the state travel guidelines. The link is HERE.
If you are looking for some family activities, please be sure to always check out the resources at the Mashpee Public Library. https://mashpeepubliclibrary.org.
I am very proud of our Grade 6 Student Council. They are working hard to have a voice in our school and have a positive impact on others. One of their initiatives is the Falcon Flyer, a publication for students by students. The Falcon Flyer will include the daily weather, a poll question, lunch choices, birthday recognition, a riddle of the week, for example, and then topics from the world news that students have chosen to write about. This work is done outside of the school day. They have also included a section for featured articles where other students can submit their writing for possible publication. Thank you, Ms. Maggiacomo, Ms. Reardon, and Mr. O'Connor, for working with this group of young leaders.
Below are a few reminders from last week's Blog-
Valentine's Day is coming soon and like most events during COVID, it will need to look differently. Please follow these guidelines to keep everyone safe and healthy.
1. Paper valentines should be brought to school by February 9 and set aside for 48 -72 hours prior to distribution.
2. No food/ candy to be shared.
3. Hand hygiene with collection and distribution by following physical distancing and masking protocols already in place.
The Kindness Challenge is just one challenge Grade 4 students have right now. The Grade 4 team has started a reading challenge. Who can read more books, the Mashpee cohort or the Falcon cohort?? GET READING GRADE 4 - we will be monitoring the progress. Each book read = one link in a paper chain. It will be very easy to see who is in the lead. I will keep you posted - will it be Mashpee or the Falcons??? (PS - even remote students have been assigned a cohort, so you count too!!)
The family read-aloud link with Superintendent DeBoer is HERE.
Yes, we will be participating in MCAS this April and May! All students in Grades 3-6 will be assessed in English Language Arts and Mathematics. Grade 5 students will also be participating in a Science and Technology/ Engineering test session. This year, we have been told that the assessment will be shorter. We expect that there will be one session of ELA and Math versus two sessions of each in a typical year. We are awaiting guidance from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) as to how MCAS will be administered for hybrid and remote students. Once this information is received, I will share specific testing dates and protocols. What we do know at this point is the testing window - Quashnet students will be assessed at some point within these dates.
ELA: April 5 - May 7
Mathematics: April 26 - May 28
STE (Grade 5 only): April 27 - May 28
I hope you all have a wonderful week ahead. There will be NO QS Blog next Sunday, the next post will be Sunday, February 21, 2021.
Be safe, be well, be kind!
Respectfully,
Principal O'Brien
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