News From The Nest: July 2024

Hello and Happy Summer Elm Street School Families and Friends!

I hope that you are all having a wonderful start to the summer break and are finding time to be outside, connect, and read during these summer months. I've been busy in and around the building reflecting on the past year and thinking deeply about our plan forward for the upcoming school year. It's been energizing to think about and work on some new and revitalized programs, events, and communication strategies that will hopefully keep our community growing stronger, more connected, and more informed.

This summer I will share three updates to help you stay connected and feel prepared for the upcoming school year- this one for July, one in early August, and one right before we get started with the new school year at the end of August.

In this summer update you will find information about:

• Elm staff updates
• supply ordering with PAC
• summer reading reminder
• summer math reminder

As always, if you have any questions or feedback that you would like to share please don't hesitate to reach out.

Enjoy the summer sunshine and warm days and I will reach back out again in early August!

Jen

We have been busy these few weeks following the close of the 2023-2024 school year filling some vacant positions at the Nest.

• Mrs. Morton will be moving to Grade 4 (from Grade 5) to open our new fourth section of 4th grade. I am thrilled to share that Amanda Pond, who worked as an ESP here at Elm, will be returning as a 5th grade teacher next year!
• Many of you know that due to staff consolidation at the middle school level, Mr Iadarola left Elm at the end of the school year. While we will miss him terribly we are excited to welcome Heather DeLude to our team here at Elm. Ms. DeLude joins us from Bird Middle School.
• This fall we will welcome Labebe Sarkis as our new educator for multilingual learners. Prior to joining the Nest, Ms. Sarkis worked in Brockton supporting multilingual learners.
• At the end of the year Ms. Lazzara moved to a position at the Walpole Public Schools central office. Mrs. Breen and I are working on finalizing the hiring for this position and hope to have information to share in our next update in early August.
• As some of you know, Ms. Iandoli left Elm to pursue a private practice. Mrs. Simpson, Mrs. Escobar and I have been working on interviewing for this position and anticipate being able to share more information in our next update.
• We anticipate hiring a handful of new ESPs (education support paraprofessionals) for the upcoming school year. Our postings will go live in early August. If you know of anyone that may be interested in these positions please have them email me with a copy of their resume (jbuller@walpole.k12.ma.us)

School Supply Kits are now available through the PAC website! A portion of the proceeds will go directly to the Elm Street PAC. This year's kits will be made directly by Elm parents and families. Buy now at https://www.elmstreetpac.org/school-supply-kits

Engaging in reading throughout the summer months helps students of all ages build their knowledge of the world, learn new vocabulary, and practice their word solving skills. This helps them feel prepared and confident when entering the next grade in the Fall.

Students in kindergarten through 5th grade are highly encouraged to read great books this summer. Looking for book recommendations and ways for your child to share the books they are reading? Check out the WPS Summer Literacy Google Site by clicking HERE.

Rising 6th graders have preselected a book that they are committing to reading this summer. Ask them what title they chose! When they enter WMS in September, they will be meeting with a teacher and other students who read the same book and having a book discussion. Students will receive a grade of pass or fail for reading the book and participating in the discussion. For more information, click HERE.

Is Summer Slide Real?

Unfortunately, yes; research has shown that students can lose up to 2 months of reading skills and 2 ½ months of math skills over one summer depending on their grade level. The good news is that there are easy and fun ways to prevent this loss of learning and maintain or even make gains over the summer.

The most important thing to do is keep your children active and thinking over the summer. Preventing summer slide does not equate with giving your children worksheets to do each week. Instead, encourage them to play outside, play board games, participate in imaginative play, and read for pleasure!

In order to keep those young mathematicians’ brains active, we have a whole section of our Family Math Site dedicated to activities and games your students can access to keep their minds engaged and math skills sharp. While we do not require students to complete any specific task, we do encourage them to engage their mathematical brain for 60-90 minutes a week on activities of their choice. If you scroll to the bottom of the web page, there are also printable packets for each grade level if that is what your child enjoys.

We want our Walpole students to have a wonderful summer, but we don’t want them to lose all the hard work they put in during the school year! We hope you all find time to relax and recharge over the summer while staying active and engaged in your choice of fun learning activities.

Email: jbuller@walpole.k12.ma.us
Website: https://www.walpole.k12.ma.us/o/ess
Location: 415 Elm Street, Walpole, MA, USA
Phone: 508.660.7374