Principal, Ryan McCluskey
Assistant Principal, Jill Lizier
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Please use this link to keep up to date on all that is happening at Memorial School. This calendar, along with other important information can also be found on the Memorial School website (link is above).
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IMPORTANT NOTICE FROM NURSE CINDY - PLEASE READ
This year we have seen a continuing issue with head lice impacting almost every classroom to some degree. I have reviewed the CDC and National Association of School Nurses guidelines and recommendations in an effort to assure that we are doing our part to limit their spread.
Unfortunately, lice are most commonly spread through direct head to head contact (think taking selfies or hugging) it can also be spread, but not as easily, by sharing objects such as hats, brushes, head bands, clothing or pillows. The least likely way to spread lice is from one object to another and then to a head (from a coat to a carpet to another coat to a host).
Keeping this in mind, I think we should discourage close head to head contact as much as possible, attempt to keep coats and hats within cubbies and limit garment to garment contact and avoid placing items of clothing or backpacks on carpets and limit students lying on carpets, especially lying beside each other having close head to head contact.
Head lice cannot live very long without a host and their eggs require a warm environment (body temp) to hatch therefore not surviving on carpets or soft surfaces for very long and CDC guidelines simply recommend vacuuming rugs.
I have been putting info regarding lice in our newsletter but research has shown that sending notices home "highlighting cases of head lice (e.g., head lice outbreak letters) has been shown to increase community anxiety, increase social stigma causing embarrassment of affected infested students, and puts students’ rights to confidentiality at risk (Gordon, 2007; Pontius, 2014)."
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Memorial School now uses PickUp Patrol as a way for parents to communicate absences, tardies, early dismissals, and transportation changes. It automates the dismissal process by allowing parents & guardians to submit plan changes through a convenient app on their smartphone or computer. Specific information about downloading and setting up the app has gone home. For those families who have not yet set up their accounts, please contact Mrs. Trinceri at
[email protected]
for a new "Welcome Email" that will contain login information.
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Lunch Account Balances
The goal of Memorial School’s breakfast and lunch program is to provide healthy meals to children during the school day. In order to serve healthy, high-quality meals to all children, we must make sure we are financially secure. You play a key role in this effort, and are responsible for purchases made by your child in our school cafeteria.
Parents of students who carry a balance over $5.00 will receive an email. These are sent home weekly. We suggest parents check their emails frequently, as It is extremely important that school lunch balances be paid in a timely manner.
Your continued support of our school lunch program is greatly apprecited.
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DIGITAL DIRECTORY/PARENT VOLUNTEER FORM
Every year the Memorial School PTO puts together a digital directory for families to use as a tool to communicate with each other, and to ask if any parents are interested in volunteering for any number of PTO sponsored events. This year the PTO has decided to use Google Forms to collect this information. This form will be sent out a couple of times a year, to allow for any new arrivals to our school to be added or for anyone who needs to update their information. Below you will find a link to the form, please take a few minutes to complete and submit it.
If you already completed this when it was emailed home in September, please do not fill it out again unless you need to update your information.
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Greetings Memorial School Community,
I hope everyone is dry and warm as we work our way through some messy weather this week.
Next Friday, February 14th, we will have two special events at Memorial School. The first will be a project that we hope will allow our students to make a deeper connection that Valentine's Day can be more than showing our appreciation and love for family and friends, but also to those in need. Memorial School has partnered with a non-profit organization, Blankets of Hope, to provide blankets to area shelters to those in need. Each of our students will take on the responsibility of writing a brief note (or picture) of inspiration or hope and attach a letter / picture to each blanket. School staff will review all letters and pictures to ensure no identifiable information is on any of our student work. Not only do we hope this activity helps our students to expand their understanding of Valentine's Day, but it also ties in with the C.A.R.E.S. attributes we promote throughout our building to help our students to develop the life-long skills that go beyond the academic curriculum.
In the afternoon of February 14th, we will once again host our Valentine's Day parties for students. Parties will begin at 2:10p.m. and guests should be sure to have their license in order to check into the building. Parents who intend to bring their child home at the end of the party will be dismissed a few minutes early to help ease the congestion prior to dismissal.
I also want to make parents aware of the second annual Memorial School Student Led Conference. This event, which was very well attended last year, (over 90% participation building wide) is scheduled for March 26th from 3:30p.m. to 7:00p.m. We will also be hosting our PTO Spaghetti Dinner and basket raffle at the same time and hope that families participate in both experiences. Please be on the lookout for Student Led Conference sign-ups the week of March 9th. While teachers will try to accommodate everyone's schedules, we are limited due to the time-frame. Additional information will be provided in the coming weeks, but if possible, please reserve some time on the afternoon of March 26th to participate in a truly meaningful experience.
Thank you,
Ryan McCluskey
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News from the Health Office
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LICE
Although the fall is the most common time for lice to be found in school age children, this year it has continued well into winter impacting all grades at our school. Every year there are 6-12 million cases of head lice infestation in the United States. They are an annoyance, causing itching and mild discomfort to the person but they do not spread disease. They are spread most commonly through head to head contact and less commonly through shared clothing, bedding or hair articles such as combs and barrettes or headbands. Pets do not spread lice; lice are adept to human hair only.
If your child has lice contact their pediatrician for advice on treatment options. Treatment for lice consists of using a pesticide (bug killing) or ovacide (egg killing) shampoo. Follow the instructions closely to avoid re-infestation.
After shampooing, do not use conditioner or wash hair again for two days, this lets the medication work. Washing or conditioning hair after treatment can make the medication ineffective. There are some repellent techniques and natural remedies as well but these have not been proven or researched as well as the shampoos currently on the market.
Keeping hair back and up as well as not sharing hats and hair accessories is the best way to prevent the spread of lice. Lice are very small, they are sometimes clear or tan colored. The nits are very tiny and cement themselves to the hair shaft about ¼ inches away from the scalp. The way to tell if it is a nit and not dandruff is that dandruff is easily moved or flaked off where the nits are very difficult to remove from the hair.
If you have concerns that your child may have head lice contact the nurse's office and I will be happy to check your student’s head. If you find that your child has lice please contact their primary care provider for the best treatment and follow up guidelines. The Centers for Disease Control also has recommendations for treatment and prevention.
If you have and questions or concerns or need assistance in obtaining head lice treatment please contact the school nurse.
Cindy Cole, RN
Memorial School Nurse
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The End 68 Hours of Hunger program is a local private program whose mission is to help families feed their children over the weekend so that they arrive to school well-nourished and ready to learn. The participating children receive a reusable bag on Friday afternoons with non-perishable and easy to prepare meals ready to take home. This program is completely confidential and the names of participating students are not shared with anyone. No financial disclosures are required to participate in this program.
If you are interested in having your child participate or have any questions about this program please contact nurse Cindy at
[email protected]
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"In the Spotlight" - 4th Grade
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Fourth grade just finished a unit on plant life. We learned about various types of plants and how they adapt to their environment for survival. Students read about the plants and took notes, as well as drew and labeled the parts of the plants that help them to adapt. Each classroom has samples of different plants for the students to observe. The culminating activity was to create a super plant and defend how it would do against an enemy plant,to show their knowledge of plant adaptations. We will now be building on this knowledge as we begin to investigate animal adaptations. We are working hard to understand the difference between structural and behavioral adaptations. Students will eventually be choosing from a list of New Hampshire animals to research the adaptations it has for survival.
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Kindergarten Registration for 2020 - 2021
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For those of you who might not be aware, there is a reconfiguration that will take place next school year (2020-2021). D.J. Bakie School in Kingston will be home to students in Pre-K through grade 3 and Memorial School will be home to students in grades 4 through 6.
If you have a child that will be 5 years old before September 30, 2020, and are interested in signing them up for kindergarten, please click this link
https://www.sau17.org/3/home
for pre-registration information.
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The Memorial School Student Council is sponsoring "Spirit Week"
February 17 - 22. Below is a list of themes for the week.
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We will soon be deciding on a charity/foundation to be the recipient of our annual Penny Drive fundraiser. The Penny Drive will run from March 2 through April 23. Popcorn dates and nutrition committee surveys are posted on our new bulletin board outside the nurse’s office. As always, thanks for all of your support!
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Happy February from the Memorial PTO! The first event of the year; the Memorial/Bakie Community building “make your own mascot” was a resounding success! We had about 170 students and their parents and guardians come out last Friday evening to mingle and create their own Memorial Eagle and Bakie Dragon. Thank you to all the parents who donated their time, treats and water. The event seemed to be enjoyed by all!
Now we are setting our sights on the class raffle baskets. The raffle baskets are due on Friday, February 21st. Please send in your contribution to your class’s room parent prior to then, please contact them with any questions. As a reminder the class basket topics are as follows:
Pre-K - Playdough Play
KC - Faithful Friend (Pet Care)
KM - Creative Kids
KR - Family Game Night
1C - Take Me Out To the Ball Game
1K - Just Relax
1M - Honey Do
2B - Legos
2D - Nerf
2S - Coffee, Chocolate, Tea Party
3D - Grill Master
3M - Camping/Fire Pit Fun
3B - Life’s A Beach
4th Grade - Cash
5th Grade - Lotto/Scratchers
The baskets will be raffled off at the Spaghetti Supper on March 26th. There will be an album with each basket and a list of their contents available for viewing at town voting on Tuesday, March 10th.
The PTO has a number of other exciting events lined up for the months to come in the hope to continue building relationships with our soon to be fellow students from Bakie and to raise money for fun and educational programs for all of our students.
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Box Tops for Education News
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Did you get your DOWNLOAD THE APP contest entry? Check out your child’s communication folder. From now thru Feb 3 you will earn 1 point for downloading the app. (even if you already have the app) every adult in the family can do it and get a point. If you scan a receipt you get 1 point. You get 1 point for each time you scan a receipt. You get an extra point if you “GIVE CREDIT” to a class or classes. To enter all you need to do is fill out the tear off at the bottom of the contest flyer with your totals and return it to school. The winning class will have free popcorn on Popcorn Day. I want to thank Mrs. McNamara for coming up with the idea and Mr. McKenny for popping the corn.
Well, we are four months into the new digital BoxTop program. I realized in December how much money we were losing because, so few had downloaded the app or scanned any receipts. I talked to as many parents as I could on Parent Teacher Conference night and found out firsthand just how many parents did NOT have the BoxTops app. After speaking to these parents, I think that a few them did get the app because we have done a little better since then. So far, we have $171.20 in scanned Box Tops. I wish there was a way to talk to each of you but that isn’t feasible. If you have questions or problems, please email me at
[email protected]
.
Keep saving those Box Tops that are still out there. Send them to school. I just picked up a bunch to count and will run the Quarterly Contest and the Year End Ice Cream Party for the overall winning class. Both paper BoxTops and scanned Box Tops will count towards contest totals.
Please remember a receipt is only good for scanning for 2 weeks after the date on the receipt. Last year we collected about $1000 worth in Box Tops. Now we just have to learn to use the new system so we can do it again.
Happy Scanning, Joanne Lawler.
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Summer Enrichment at Sanborn
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Click the flyer above to register for the Summer Enrichment Programs
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Valentines and Vacation Time @ the Gale Library
On Saturday, Feb 8, 9-11 AM make an easy
Drop-in Valentine craft
.
Let’s Build!
Join us on Monday, Feb. 10 from 6 PM for our next evening of building with any and all of our building kits like Legos (take on a challenge or build on your own), Snap Circuits, Gears, Gears, Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys, K’Nex. Bring a friend or work alone. See what you can build.
Celebrate Valentines at
Story Hour
this Tuesday, Feb. 11 at 10 AM with stories, songs, games, and
Valentine Party
. On Tues. Feb. 18 we will be reading and making yummy Stone Soup.
Soup From a Stone
, oh yes!!
Drop in for the next
Baby Play Date
on Friday, Feb. 14 at 10 AM. Little ones will make their own special Valentines. This is for children up to 2 years old but older siblings are welcome. Play with Books, Balls, Blocks, Parachute, Music and Toys, while you meet other playmates and caregivers.
Braidtastic with Cait
on Monday, Feb. 12 at 6 PM. Learn some amazing new hairstyles and braids to try on you or your child.
Please bring your hair twisties, combs, brushes and bobby pins.
Keep that hair neat and tidy!
Register for the
Winter Reading Program
. Win prizes for reading or being read to. Children color in their reading log for each 20 minutes they read. When they reach their goal, they choose prizes and new books from the treasure box. All completed logs are entered into the programs for Grand Prizes.
We will celebrate the finale with a
Bingo for Books Party
on Mon. March 2, 6:30 PM during Read Across America Week.
Teens/ Tweens
also have their own Winter Read Programs! Just register on the Teen Bulletin Board, read, and chance in our
Grand Prize Drawing
of 2 tickets to O’Neil Cinema in Epping.
A very special
"Frozen" Theme Party
will be held on Wednesday, February 26th at 6:00 p.m. for children of all ages. Come join us for a night of fun with games, a sparkly Craft, Pin the Carrot on Olaf, and Frozen themed refreshments. Come dressed in your Frozen costume if you wish.
Watch for a
fun time with
Cub Scouts Pack 91
on Monday, March 9 at 6 PM. They will share their expertise in building and lead you in engineering challenges with Legos, k’nex, Cool Flakes, and Snap Circuits. Snacks and drinks are provided.
The Library will be closed for President’s Day on Monday, February 17.
Check out our Facebook page at The Gale Library, Newton, NH for pictures and more info. or call 382-4691.
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Click the flyer above to sign up for the Valentine's Day babysitting.
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