Brown School Buzz

The increased sunlight and longer days are certainly something to celebrate! Indeed, spring has sprung and the chatter of summer plans has also begun. This time of year brings a noticeable difference in our school culture as well. In addition to the season of spring, the lacrosse, baseball, softball, soccer, swim, and so many more seasons and activities are also in full swing. This can make focusing on school a bit more difficult.

Finishing the school year strong can be a challenge, and certainly summer excitement, changes in school dismissal times, dinners on the run and later bedtimes can make the enthusiasm for school dwindle. We have 6 full weeks of school on LOTS on the docket. Academic feats include end of year assessments, Third Grade MCAS, as well as new Math, Reading, Science and Social Studies units. We also have MANY fun things in store! Events coming soon include our Annual Fun Run, Field Trips, Folk Dance, and Field Day, to name just a few! We will need to work hard at school to keep our kids focused, and we would be grateful to you for helping us meet that challenge. Thank you for doing all you can to maintain your child's regular routine whenever possible, arriving to school on time, and being sure we are aware of any changes in dismissal plans. These simple things can make your children's May-June school experience a bit easier to manage and their days more successful.

Read more about tips and reminders for ending the school year on a high note!

5 Ways to finish the school year strong

Helping your Kids Finish the School Year Strong

Good Reminders

Thanking those who have chosen a vocation that allows them to be part of the Brown School Team is a bit daunting. I am quite certain any words I choose will be inadequate, but here goes....

Every single day, without fail, I am impressed, amazed, and grateful for the efforts by our staff to meet the needs of our students, families, and one another. The varying roles and responsibilities our staff are charged with meeting, has grown exponentially over the past decade. Their efforts to plan, prepare, differentiate instruction, and continue to learn and grow is both admirable and impressive. Beyond teaching and learning, each day these kind, patient, highly skilled people are called to meet social-emotional and behavioral needs, dry tears, encourage, listen, reflect, lift up, model, empathize, problem solve, build relationships and help our children understand the power of resilience, accomplishment and achievement.

Indeed, we owe our teachers and staff members a debt of gratitude for their endless efforts to assure our children's experiences are engaging, accessible, personalized, and successful. Please join me in taking a moment to thank our Brown School staff for all they do each and every day for our children, families and one another.

Please join us for our biannual Walk Bike and Roll to school event this Wednesday. It's a great way to start the day off on a healthy note and spend some time together as a family.

Thus far, we have had good weather for our Walk, Bike, and Roll events. However, Wednesday's weather looks a little iffy...If it's a misty kind of day, we will still hold the event, in the case of rain or extreme weather, we will postpone until Wednesday May 15th.

The Brown School PTO's efforts to bring programs, enrichment, events, and garden programming our teachers, students and families support throughout the year takes planning, preparation, energy, and funding. The Annual Fun Run is the PTO's biggest Fund Raiser of the year and we wold be grateful for all students who are willing to register. We will celebrate fitness and school spirit during our 8th Annual Fun Run on May 23rd.

This is the time of year when families are more frequently invited to chaperone, volunteer or visit the classroom. We are so very fortunate to have numerous parents and family members step forward to help us with events, activities, or to support our students in the classroom. Sometimes the rules around what is required can be misunderstood, so here are a few reminders for participating in activities in the building:

Visiting the school or classroom: Visitors to our school are asked to produce a driver's license to run through our security system. When there is a classroom event, and several parents arrive a few minutes before the start of the event, the process can take some time. Please plan on arriving 10-15 minutes early to your scheduled event so we can get everyone to classrooms in a timely manner.

Chaperoning or Volunteering: Chaperoning and volunteering in the school requires a CORI and fingerprinting. CORI (Criminal Offender Record Information) must be completed every 3 years. Often parents will complete the CORI when child number 1 is in kindergarten and the CORI expires when child number 1 enters grade 3, preventing volunteering with child number 1, 2, 3.... This happens more frequently than we might think.

Case in point: Recently, we were very grateful to have 20 volunteers agree to help us out for our Teacher Appreciation Week. Many of these folks have volunteered in the past. When we checked to assure clearance, 12/20 of the volunteers were not eligible to help us out without updating their CORI and/or fingerprinting. Many had expired CORIs and at least 5 needed fingerprinting.

Getting a CORI and fingerprinting takes a little time. If you even think you might want to volunteer at anytime, please get your CORI and fingerprints.

Below is a link to our website to begin the process:

GET YOUR CORI AND FINGERPRINTING FORMS HERE

Thank you for your volunteerism and your cooperation to help keep our schools safe.

The MCAS Math assessments will be on Tuesday and Wednesday, May 14th and 15th. As you are likely aware, this is a state requirement, as are the conditions under which these assessments are administered. In order to meet accommodations for classrooms, as well as the appropriate settings, we use 11 different testing areas, and train 21 staff members to administer the assessment. It's only one data point, but it's an important one that helps us improve our professional growth and instruction.

There are always a small number of students who are ill or cannot be in school on one or both of the testing days, and a make up schedule is developed for those students. That said, if your child is healthy, we would ask you make every effort to have s/he attend school on these days, well rested, with a positive attitude. While we'll ask our students work hard, we'll never add unneeded pressure. We only ask them to do their best. We thank you for your support.

A reminder for incoming 2024-25 Kindergarteners:

-Screenings will be held on WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY, MAY 8th AND 9th FROM 8:30-12:00.

-If you have not yet scheduled a screening for your incoming kindergartener, please EMAIL ME and we will make sure you have all the information you need.

I am looking forward to meeting you and our new kindergarteners at the screenings.

Please reach out to our office if you have any questions (781)-639-3112.

**Current Brown School PK students do NOT need to attend Kindergarten screenings. This is only for kindergarten students who will be new to Brown School in the fall.

Our second and third graders are learning how to folk dance and they can't wait to teach you!

This year our PTO is once again partnering with Coffee Pond Photography to create student yearbooks. If you are interested in ordering one, please click here. You can also look for a paper form coming home in backpacks soon.

• Click on the Order Yearbooks button.
• Enter the password LJB2024 and select online order and continue.
• Enter the child’s name & grade and the book quantity.
• Enter your email under contact and select add to cart.

**The Deadline for ordering a yearbook is May 15th

If you and your child would like to learn more about the fourth grade opportunity, please consider attending the Instrument Passport night TONIGHT!

We have some wonderful writers out there and the Marblehead festival for the Arts would love to hear from you! The deadline is fast approaching for submissions to this year's festival. Read on for the details on how to enter or CLICK HERE for more information about the festival being held in July at the NEWLY RENOVATED Abbot Public Library!

May 6-10 Educator Appreciation Week

May 6- Grade 1 Field Trip (O'Flynn) to MA Audubon 8:45 -1:30

May 8-Ms. McGonagle's Classroom Celebration 8:15-8:45 am

May 8th and 9th- Kindergarten Screenings

May 14th and 15th- Grade 3 Math MCAS

May 20 -(Monday) Grade 1 Field Trip (Leavitt & McGuinnes) to Mass Audubon

May 20-(Monday) Grade 3 Field Trip- Goldthwait Salt Marsh

May 21-(Tuesday) Grade 3 Field Trip- Goldthwait Salt Marsh

May 23-(Thursday)-FUN RUN

May 27-No School Memorial Day

May 29-Folk Dance 5:30pm-7:00pm

May 30-Field Trip - Mrs. Hecht & Ms. LeBlanc 8:30am -10:00am

June 3- 2nd Grade Field trip -Wenham Museum 8:30am-1:30pm-(Jonock and Johnson)

June 4- 2nd Grade Field trip -Wenham Museum 8:30am-1:30pm-(Nardone and Blanchard)

June 5 -2nd Grade Field trip -Wenham Museum 8:30am-1:30pm-(Sheppard)

June 5-Author’s Picnic Mrs.Hecht’s class (outdoor space-playground 10:15-11:00 am)

June 7-“End of year celebration” Mrs. Herendeen’s class 8:45-9:30 am

June 11-Author Celebration Mrs.Zisson class (outdoor space by the garden 8:50am)

June 11-Field Trip Mrs. Duffy & Ms. LeBlanc- Fort Beach Tide Pooling 9-11am

June 12-Field Trip Mrs. Herendeen & Mrs. Zisson - Fort Beach Tide Pooling 9-11am

June 12-“End of the year share” Mrs. Duffy room 102B 1:45 pm-2:15 pm

June 13-Field Trip Mrs. Hecht - Fort Beach Tide Pooling 9-11am

June 13-Third Grade Move On Celebration

June 14- Field Day

June 17-Last Day of School-(Noon Dismissal)

Email: maxfield.mary@marbleheadschools.org
Website: https://www.marbleheadschools.org
Location: 40-42 Baldwin Road, Marblehead, MA, USA
Phone: 7816393112