It was another wonderful week of learning at Cole School! The Student Government representatives hosted this month's Community Meeting focused on the Social/Emotional theme of integrity on Monday. The Norwell Middle School 6th grade band students came to play for the 5th grade students on Monday as well. Be sure to check out the classroom newsletters for curriculum updates.

Administration of the winter screeners and diagnostics have been administered over the last two weeks. After all make ups are completed and the data has been analyzed, teachers will reach out to families of students that will receive additional support from the reading, literacy, or math specialists. This will take place after February vacation week.

World Read Aloud Day is next Wednesday. Each class will have a special read aloud visit either in person or virtually to mark the day and celebrate children's literature and the joy that can be found in sharing a story together.

On Wednesday, January 29th, the Norwell High School World Language students hosted all kindergarteners from the Cole and Vinal schools for the annual World Language Fair! Songs, dancing, art and fun filled the gym while our youngest students were introduced to the world languages studied at the high school.

This small but mighty group of Magnificent Meerkats were recognized this week for their great work in dreaming big, daring greatly, and shining brightly! Congratulations to these students for showing expected behaviors and kindness throughout the day and week!

This week, we continued with lesson 2 in our Integrity Unit, and also learned what integrity looks like at Cole School at our Community Meeting. In my SEL lessons, we focused on honesty. Kids acted out examples, or talked through "What would you do?" scenarios to think about the impact of being honest or dishonest. We will continue with more Integrity lessons next week!

As a point of information, there is an uptick of Flu A cases at Cole School. Getting vaccinated is the best way to prevent severe influenza and the serious complications that can result from it. The flu season typically goes through March. It is not too late to get your child vaccinated. There are also 3 in 1 test kits that are available at some pharmacies now that test for Flu A, Flu B and Covid. If your child does test positive for the flu, please let the school know so we can look for patterns in the classroom.

Jumping, rolling, climbing and weight on hands actions continued in our Gymnastics Unit. Being safe, serious and quiet, kindergarteners,1st & 2nd graders worked on body control while traveling creatively (i.e. bear, crab, seal walk) on different body parts. Third graders focused on the stillness of balances (i.e. candlestick, warrior and bridge). Fourth graders, while working with a partner, were challenged to choose either a jump, roll or weight on hands action to mirror and match. Fifth graders had an additional level of complexity to include a partner balance.

February

February 3 - Baking for Good Presentation for Grade 4 Students

February 5 - World Read Aloud Day

February 7 - Tentative 100th Day of School (if no snow days)

February 10 - Connections Meeting, reading A Bad Seed by Jory John

February 10 - Grade 5 Field Trip (Thank you, PTO!)

February 12 - School Council Meeting 3:30pm

February 14 - Valentine's Day

February 17- February 21 - February Break

February 24 - Grade 4 Geography Show (Thank you, PTO!)

February 24 - Community Meeting 2:30pm

February 27 - Grade 5 Concert and Play

Looking Ahead

March 5 - Early Release 12:20pm Dismissal for all students

March 6 - Meteorologist visit to Grade 5 (Thank you, PTO!)

March 6 - STEAM Night 5:30pm

March 10 - Connections Meeting, reading Only the Best: The Exceptional Life and Fashion of Ann Lowe by Kate Messner

March 14 - Crazy Hair Day (selected by Charlotte Moore and her class, winner of PTO Raffle)

March 21 - Elementary Report Cards available in Aspen

March 24 - Community Meeting 2:30pm

March 26 - Elementary Early Release 12:20pm Dismissal for all students