This week included field trips for two classes of 4th grade to Holly Hill Farm and the kindergarten classes to the Norwell Public Library on Monday. All 4th grade took a field trip to Franklin Park Zoo on Wednesday and two 5th grade classes went to the JFK Museum on Friday. All of these field trips and enrichment opportunities happen thanks to the dues paid by families to the PTO. We truly appreciate being able to make learning come alive for our students thanks to this funding!

There is another busy day planned for Monday, November 4th. Grade 1 will have an Eyes on Owls presentation in the gym, two 4th grade classes will be headed to Holly Hill Farm, two 5th grade classes will be headed to the JFK Museum, and 3rd grade is off to Plimoth Patuxet! They will all be back to take part in the second Connections meeting of the year to learn more about the Habit of Mind - Managing Impulsivity and to hear the story Buckle Up by Stephanie Scott. Please check the important dates below to stay up to date on all the happenings at Cole School!

Picture Retake Day is coming up on Tuesday, November 12th. If you would like your child's picture to be retaken, send the original picture package back to school on November 12th.

As a point of information, I share very few pictures in the weekly newsletter as they are smaller and not as many can be posted. In addition, the newsletter is archived on the website and anyone can access it. Therefore, I post many pictures on the Cole PTO facebook page that members must join to access. It is an extra way to communicate, and it is not necessary to have a social media account to keep up with the school news. Important school news is shared in the newsletter or sent by email.

Thank you for the high interest in the Parent Book Discussion Group for the book The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt.

Please RSVP here if you plan to come.

These Magnificent Meerkats were nominated for a number of wonderful reasons including being a helpful friend, including others often, persisting with challenging concepts in school, and for smiling and being positive! Our own Mrs. S. was nominated this week as well! Way to go, Meerkats!

Next week we'll learn about a second Habit of Mind - Managing Impulsivity. This information for parents comes from the website habitsofmindinstitute.org.

Have you ever jumped right into working on a problem without reading all of the directions? Did you find that you missed something important and you have to start all over again? Do you ever blurt out ideas without thinking about how what you say might impact people you are interacting with? Have you ever found yourself interrupting someone else’s thinking without considering what the other person meant? These behaviors all point to the need to manage your impulsivity — slowing yourself down to think more about what you are about to do before you do it. The ability to wait, delay gratification, is an important aspect of success in life. How might we help our children to remain calm, thoughtful, and deliberate when working through a problem or developing an idea.

Here are some strategies for you or a family member to pay attention to managing impulsivity:

• Practice waiting (count to 10) before sharing your thoughts. The goal is not to interrupt the other person’s thinking. Wait time sets the stage to encourage thought and reflection before responding. Sometimes the family member can come up with an idea, strategy, or solution to their own problem when given an opportunity to think aloud.
• Look at the routines with your family members during the day to see where focusing on managing impulsivity may help to relieve the stress. For example, your morning routine may be frustrating for both you and your family members. Consider, for example, asking your family to share ideas about how to make the routine run more smoothly so that you are not making snap judgments or saying something out of anger.
• Remember that you are all working on this together. We are all plagued by the need for instant gratification. Talk about how you managed your impulsivity in a situation. Perhaps you opened the door to the oven too soon and your cake collapsed. It would be a good time to reflect and think about what you might have done instead.
• Use the language of managing impulsivity. For example, saying something like,” just wait and make sure you read the instructions first. Manage your impulsivity!”

Screenings

Hearing, vision, and BMI screenings have begun and will continue into November. Please notify me in writing if you would like to opt your student out or if you have updated information about their hearing and vision. If screening results indicate the need for follow-up care by a physician, parents/guardians will be notified via back back mail, email and or/phone call. Please ensure hearing and vision screenings are being done at EACH well visit as well. We appreciate your partnership in this.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health recommends that, in addition to the routine vision screening, a comprehensive eye exam by an eye doctor experienced in treating children should be sought in the following cases:

• Children unable to complete, or who refuse to complete a vision screening

• Children whose disability or behavior prevents them from performing a standard screening

• Parent or teacher concerns about the student meeting academic benchmarks

• Children who receive additional educational support such as an Individualized Education Plan (IEP)

• Parent/guardian, teacher, nurse, or screener concerns about the potential existence of a vision problem, even if the child has passed a recent vision screening

BEFORE AND AFTER AN EYE EXAM :

Keep the appointment. Ask for the medical report to be sent to your child’s pediatrician and get a copy for the school too. Follow all recommended vision treatments as instructed by your eye doctor. Ask your eye doctor about any additional help or tools the child might need for school and how to get them. Lastly, wear sunglasses that block 100% of UVA and UVB rays from the sun. Use the correct eye safety wear for sport activities.

K-2 started their Soccer Unit working on light taps, protecting the ball, hard kicks, punting and passing. Grades 3-5 continued their fitness testing with measuring their flexibility (lower back & hamstrings) with the sit and reach. Also played a spooky game of Zombie Tag.

November

Week of November 4 - Student Government Speeches/Elections

November 4 - Grade 4 (2 classes) Field Trip (Thank you, PTO!)

November 4 - Grade 1 Eyes on Owls presentation (Thank you, PTO!)

November 4 - Grade 3 Field Trip (Thank you, PTO!)

November 4 - Grade 5 (2 classes) Field Trip (Thank you, PTO!)

November 5 - NO SCHOOL - Election Day

November 6 - PTO Meeting in Cole School Library at 7pm

November 7 - The Anxious Generation Parent Book Discussion Group 7pm

November 8 - Energy Academy Presentation for grades 3-5

November 11 - NO SCHOOL - Veterans Day

November 12 - Picture Retake Day - send picture package back to school with child for retake

November 13 - School Council 3:30pm

November 18 - Community Meeting 2:30pm

November 25 - Puppet Show enrichment for kindergarten (Thank you, PTO!)

November 26 - Plimoth Patuxet Visitors to Grade 3 enrichment (Thank you, PTO!)

November 27 - Early Release 12:20pm

November 28 - NO SCHOOL - Thanksgiving Day

November 29 - NO SCHOOL

Please join the NHS Fourth Wall Players for their first show of the season! Guys and Dolls is musical comedy about big city gamblers and the women who love them. It intertwines the tales of high-roller Sky Masterson, who falls for mission worker Sarah Brown, and the charming Nathan Detroit, who has been engaged to Miss Adelaide, a headliner at the Hot Box Club, for 14 years. Nathan is known for running a famous floating crap game, and much of the plot revolves around his search for a safe location for the game while Adelaide persistently tries to convince him to marry her. Meanwhile, Sarah, mistakenly believing that Sky organized an illegal game at the mission, struggles with her growing affection for the charismatic gambler.

Praised by TIME Magazine as “the greatest of all American musicals!” and hailed by The New York Times as “the show that defines Broadway dazzle,” this musical fable of Broadway promises an unforgettable evening at the theatre. Guys and Dolls is rated PG for mild adult humor. Run time is approximately 2 hours 15 mins, which includes an intermission. This is an upbeat musical comedy that everyone can enjoy.