Greetings, Hosmer Families,

School Re-Opening

As many of you are aware, the Commissioner of Education would like elementary schools to open full-time in April. We are very actively looking at systems and procedures currently in place and are working hard to further evaluate our physical space, staffing needs, daily schedule requirements, transportation, etc. in order to respond to mandates. As you can surely imagine, this is not as simple as "flipping a switch", particularly given that social distancing guidelines and other precautions must remain in effect. That said, we have developed a draft daily schedule and have begun making physical and procedural shifts to prepare for an eventual full-day return. More details and a survey will be forthcoming from the Superintendent's Office. As always, we will keep you informed as things develop.

Literacy Week!

We are so excited to celebrate Literacy Week, with the theme "Reading Takes Us Places"! Please see below for more information about the exciting activities planned.

I-Ready Diagnostic Assessment:

The i-Ready Diagnostic for students in grades 1-5 continues this week. In order to obtain the most accurate information about how our students are doing, these assessments will be delivered during synchronous learning time. This week students will take the MATH assessment. These assessments are an important part of our own progress monitoring as a school and district. They help us see where were are collectively doing well and where we may need to focus on strengthening our curriculum and programming. Additionally, these assessments provide us insight into individual students and how to best target interventions.

Materials Pick-Up

Tomorrow is a materials pick-up day for students and families enrolled in Watertown Virtual School. Remember to get your things between 7:30 and 8am or between 1:15 and 2:30 pm.

MCAS

As you may have seen in the news, the state has changed the MCAS window in anticipation of students returning to school. As such, we are in the process of rescheduling this assessment and will share dates with you again soon.

Finally, tomorrow is our 100th Day of School!

Thank you for your continued support of our wonderful school.

Erin Moulton

DISTRICTWIDE LITERACY WEEK: Reading Takes Us Places!

Monday, March 8th- March 12th

Monday, March 8th - Virtual School Student Materials Pick-Up

• 7:30 am - 8:00 am
• 1:15 pm - 2:30 pm

Thursday, March 18th - Parent Diversity Council Meeting - 6:30-7:30 pm

Thursday, March 25th - PTO Meeting - 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm

Monday, April 12th - Site Council - 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Parent-Teacher Conferences - Begining of April

Thursday, April 1st - Parent-Teacher Conference Sign-up available

Dates:

• Thursday, April 8th - 6:00pm - 8:00pm
• Monday, April 12th - 1:40pm - 2:30pm
• Tuesday, April 13th - 1:40 - 2:30 and 4:30pm - 6:30pm
• Thursday, April 15th - 1:40pm - 2:30pm

Our first meeting is scheduled for Thursday, March 18th at 6:30 pm via Zoom.

Many of you have expressed interest in being a part of this group. If you are interested, please fill in this form so that we can reach out to you further.

Click here to express your interest!

Save the date - The week of March 8th will be our Elementary Literacy Week! During this week we have two authors / illustrators that will be joining us for evening presentations as well as a school based literacy activity night on Wednesday. We will also have a ‘dress as your favorite book character day’ on Thursday or Friday. We hope that you are able to join us for one or more of these events to celebrate reading and the places it can take us.

Here is an overview of the week - more information about each event will be coming soon.

Monday, March 8th - Watertown Virtual School Book Pickup

Tuesday, March 9th - Author / Illustrator Debbie Ridpath Ohi will be joining our Watertown Elementary School community to share what it takes to write a book! She will talk about the process of writing her own books and then also show us some secrets of being an illustrator!

Her books are fun and you’ll love hearing about her work. Zoom link coming soon!

• 6:00 - 6:40 (Students in grades K-2)

• 6:45 - 7:30 (Students in grades 3 - 5)

Wednesday, March 10th - School based literacy activities

From 6:00 - 7:00 PM each elementary school will host an hour of virtual literacy activities, games. Stay tuned for more information next week about the event we will be holding at our school.

Thursday, March 11th - Author / Illustrator Jason Chin will come to share his closely researched non-fiction texts about science and nature. As he describes “I try to explain Science with imaginative storytelling.” Jason will discuss some of his recent books that have ‘taken him places around the world’ and will also provide a brief art demonstration as well. Zoom link coming soon!

• 6:00 - 6:40 (Students in grades K-2)

• 6:45 - 7:30 (Students in grades 3 - 5)

On Friday morning, Dr. Galdston, Mrs. Fitzpatrick, Ms. Feeney (Early Steps), and I were so excited to get a sneak peek of the Hosmer construction. This was our first time in the new building and IT IS GOING TO BE AMAZING! Suddenly, the plans on paper felt so much more real. Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of how things are prgressing.

Join us in making Family Book Talks to help Hosmer students read more! Check out the video below and click on the link for Book Talk Instructions!!

• Book Talk Instructions
• Click here to watch a review of Matilda that was done by Rhayane in grade four.

We are excited to begin a relationship with students at Tufts University. This semester we will pilot a Peace Games Program with interested students in grade two. Programming will begin on Thursday, March 18th, and will continue weekly at 3pm.

Peace Games is a student club at Tufts that teaches a peace-based curriculum through a set of games and small-group discussions. Peace Games centers on a different theme every week - from inner peace to identity - to promote valuable skills like self-management, self- and social awareness, in a fun and accessible way. They will be making sure kids get to move around a bit too with exciting exercises, too!

Please sign up here to participate.

We look forward to supporting you with your educational technology questions.

Here is a link to the Weekly 03/05 Family Ed-Tech for All Newsletter, LIVE Ed-Tech Support Sessions & WPS Family Ed-Tech Website with resources, just for you.

Do you need help with Ed-Tech? Please complete the WPS Ed-Tech Support Request Form. A member of the WPS Ed-Tech team will reach out to you within a school day.

Few additional resources: 1. Link to Common Sense Media Resources about Race and Racism

3. Link to Typing.com Video Tutorial and Handout

4. Link to EPIC Women's History Month Resources

4. Link to BrainPOP Black History Month Resources

Thank you and have a terrific day,

Rashmi Pimprikar (District Ed-Tech Coordinator), Digital Learning Team and IT Team

The window for taking MCAS has shifted to May 10th - June 11th. We will be posting new dates for the ELA, Math, and Science tests shortly.

Website: www.watertown.k12.ma.us/hosmer
Location: 1 Concord Road, Watertown, MA, USA
Phone: 617-926-7740
Facebook: www.facebook.com/HosmerElementarySchool/
Twitter: @HosmerSchool