Dear Parents,
I'm very proud to report that today's safety drill went extremely well. Everyone did a wonderful job following procedures and we were able to complete the drill in approximately 10 minutes. As Dr. Marsden stated in his letter, "
it is important that our students know that our schools are safe places, but we practice fire drills, bus evacuation drills, and safety drills so we will remain calm and stay safe if there is an emergency." Below is a draft of the language that many of our teachers used as a guideline when discussing the drill with their children. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Our school is a very safe place because of all the things that we do to keep it safe. We are going to add one more kind of practice to make sure that we stay safe in school. In a fire drill and a bus evacuation drill, we practice leaving the school or leaving the bus to be safe. During this drill, we are going to practice staying in our school, in our classroom, to be safe. There could be times when we would be safer in school than outside. This could be because of something like bad weather or something happening outside that would make it unsafe for us to leave the school. We call this practice a “Safety Drill.”
Recently, Dawn Lavallee, Food Service Director, donated a class pumpkin as well as individual student pumpkins to all of our Kindergarten students. The pumpkins are being decorated, examined for seeds and used in a variety of other ways. Thank you Mrs. Lavallee!!!
Angel Run
Representatives will be in the cafeteria this Friday to talk with our students about the upcoming Angel Run. Have you registered?
Online registration is now open for the 10th Annual MFi Angel Run on December 6, 2015. Visit http://medfieldfoundation.org/angel-run/.
Ocean World is Coming!
Thanks to the Memorial PTO, Kindergarten students will be enjoying the Ocean World presentation next week on Monday and Tuesday. We can't wait!
Mark Your Calendars:
On Wednesday, October 28th at 7:00 p.m. the Memorial PTO will be holding their second meeting of the school year. The meeting will be held in the Teachers' Room. We hope to see you there.
Music News!
Introducing the Memorial Music Web Page
Hello Parents,
I am your child’s music teacher at Memorial School. My name is Mr. Ruggiero, but everyone calls me Mr. ‘R’. I am writing to let you know that there is a music web page for Memorial School. It is entitled, “Memorial Music Happenings”.
The web page is divided into six sections. The first four sections are listed at the top and the last two are under the caption, “more . . .” The first segment is the general information section. In this section, you will find my biography, my teaching philosophy and a link to my teaching schedule.
The second section is a fun music quiz, introduced by Conductor Paul, that you can take with your child or children. Maybe your child can take the quiz with an older sibling. You decide. There is a question for each month in the school year, and as the conductor says, “See what you know. See what your child knows. Learn together. Have fun.”
The music news sections outline the music curriculum for the entire year for both Kindergarten and grade one. In these sections, the medium used to teach the lesson is coupled with the musical concept or skill your child or children will be learning. In most cases, the medium used is a song or a song with a musical arrangement; however, it can also be a chant, a nursery rhyme, or a poem.
In grade one I formally assess the students. When I assess, I focus on the process rather than the product. In the grade one section, you can also view the rubrics that I use to assess students progress.
The next area is “Curriculum Music”. In this section, you can view some of the actual music your child or children will be either singing, playing or both, and finally, the last segment is dedicated to our annual grade one “Salute to the American Symbols” Flag Day show. This section begins with an introduction given by our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln. It is updated every April, and it contains important information about the show. In addition, grade one parents can print out show documents, such as the program and flyer and view the songs the children may be singing.
As you can see, the music web page is jammed with fun and facts. I hope you will take the time to visit the web page with your child or children this year. In fact, since there is so much to see and do, feel free to visit more than once.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Music Teacher,
Mr. R
As always, thank you for reading.
Have a wonderful week.
Sincerely,
Missy Bilsborough
