December 18, 2014

Hello Memorial Families,
Excitement is certainly in the air here at Memorial!  It's been a busy week and we're looking forward to lots of fun activities next week including the Holiday Sing, visiting carolers from the High School and our winter break parties.  Please keep in mind that school will be in session next Monday and Tuesday (both full days).  Winter break dates are December 24th - January 4th.

Thank you to the CSA and the many amazing volunteers who organized the Holiday Luncheon for the Memorial School staff.  We are so grateful for the amazing kindness and support and truly appreciate the fantastic lunch on Friday.  Thank you!!

At last week's professional development day, first grade teacher, Mrs. Pendergast learned about Plicker, an app that allows teachers to quickly collect student responses and immediately calculates the data.  She tried it out with her class this week having students generate multi-part questions and then collect, record and analyze the results.

"Plickers is a powerfully simple tool that lets teachers collect real-time formative assessment data"...(www.plickers.com)

Thank you to the Blake Middle School students who came to help our first grade students code using Scratch Jr.!


On behalf of the Memorial School staff, I would like to wish you and your family the happiest of holidays and a wonderful New Year!  See you on January 5th!

Have a great weekend!

Sincerely,
Missy Bilsborough

December 11, 2014

Hello Memorial Families,

What an exciting week at Memorial!  For the first time ever, students in grade one participated in the Hour of Code along with millions of other students around the world.  Led by Mrs. Groden, with assistance from Mrs. Redding, Mrs. Manuel and the classroom teachers, the kids used iPads to program their characters to walk, jump, and speak.  It was amazing to watch their perseverance and excitement.  Check out a few of the pictures from one of the classes.

Memorial School's Family Literacy night last spring accepted donations in lieu of an event fee for the Timothy's Toybox Program based out of Framingham. This program supplies toys and books to 60+ area children in need at the holidays. Last year's donations amounted to $158.00. First grade families in Mrs Paget's Class made additional, voluntary donations in lieu of teacher holiday gifts to the program or supported it via their Scholastic book orders. Bonus points earned from the class book orders were donated to the program in the form of free books.  The children in Mrs Paget's class made suggestions of good books to purchase for the children in the program.  Approximately 150 books were purchased with the funds which provided 1-3 new books for each child on the TTB list. Below are some pictures of the first graders in Mrs Paget's class assisting with the sorting and labeling of the books to prepare them for their December 3rd delivery to Sharon and Timothy Gilbert of Framingham, the mother-son team who run the program.

Pokemon Cards
Over the past several weeks, there have been a number of issues surrounding Pokemon cards. Instances of lost, misplaced and taken cards as well as trading are resulting in hurt feelings and classroom investigation time.  As a result, we are asking that Pokemon cards be left at home.  Thank you in advance for your understanding.

Have a wonderful weekend and as always, thank you for reading.

Sincerely,
Missy Bilsborough
Memorial School Principal

December 4, 2014

Greetings Memorial Families,

Welcome back.  I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving Break!  The days and weeks are flying by here at Memorial.  It's hard to believe that in just a few short weeks (yikes!) it will be time for winter break.   There will be many great things happening and I look forward to sharing them with you.

As a reminder, students will be dismissed at 11:40 a.m. on Wednesday, December 10th as the staff participates in professional development.   Please mark your calendars.

From the Medfield Music Association …

Spaghetti with Santa is celebrating its 41^st year as a beloved holiday tradition for Medfield families. This year’s event will be held on Wednesday, Dec. 10, and two seatings are available – one at 5:15, and another at 6:30 p.m.Tickets can be purchased at Park Street Books for $10 each or outside of Brothers Marketplace during the holiday parade on Saturday, Dec. 6. Tickets will also be sold just prior to the start of the 5^th grade band, chorus and strings concert on Thursday, Dec. 4 in the high school auditorium.

Spaghetti with Santa features a spaghetti and meatball dinner, a fun kid-friendly basket raffle, a bake sale, photos with Santa, and music by our Medfield High School students in band, concert choir and orchestra. Proceeds benefit the Medfield Music Program across all schools.

The flyer  is included in this week’s Thursday packet.

Informational letters for incoming Kindergarten students will be mailed out to families during the week of December 15th with pre-registration for the 2015-2016 school year opening on January 30th.  For your planning purposes, a parent informational night will be held on Wednesday, January 28th (snow date February 4th) at 6:30 p.m. I look forward to seeing you there.

Have a wonderful week and weekend and as always, thank you for reading.

Sincerely,

Missy Bilsborough

Memorial School Principal