MassPass, its Cold, Extended Learning Block and other odds and ends

We have another week behind us and what a great week it was.  We were treated to a week with Bill Harley and what a treat it was!  Our students participated in some assemblies and had the chance to hear Bill perform, our teachers had the opportunity to meet with him during lunches and after school,  and families had the chance to hear him perform at his concert Thursday night. 

I want to especially thank our PTA, once again, for organizing this exciting and enriching event.  If you are interested in learning more about Bill Harley you can visit his web site by clicking the following link.

http://www.billharley.com/

Holiday Gift Card Drive

The staff here at HBB are all pitching in to donate gift cards to the Middleborough Christmas Wishes Program.  Christmas Wishes is a program which helps needy families during what can be a very tough time of year.  If you are interested in joining us Gift Cards should be turned into the main office here at HBB or to Christmas Wishes directly.  If you are interested in learning more about Christmas Wishes here is a link to an article with additional information.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/lakeville/topstories/x684376423/Making-Christmas-Wishes-come-true-in-Lakeville-Middleboro#axzz2DigBxYc5

MassPass

As you may know the PTA is selling Mass Pass booklets which are loaded with great savings for you and your family.  Booklets are $25 per book.  The booklets were sent home with students a few days ago and if you are interested in purchasing one just send in the money.  If you are not interested please send back the booklet.  We are hosting a contest for the classes that have all their books either returned or sold.  The class with 100% of their booklets either returned or sold will be entered into a drawing to win a kickball game with Mr. Gobeil and myself.  So please get those books in! 

Its COLD!

I want to remind everyone that students should be dressed appropriately for the weather.  Students are generally outside at least twice and sometime three times if they have PE so if students are not dressed appropriately for the weather they may be asked to stay inside.  Thank you for your assistance with this.

Attendance

Good school attendance is directly connected to student performance and as the year progresses I will periodically remind you to keep this in mind.  It can be tough for students to catch up when they miss work and it is imperative that students get to school.  With that being said I know sometimes things come up and kids get sick.  That's to be expected but the only excused absences are those which are accompanied by a Doctor's note.  So if you have a note, please remember to send it in.

Extended Learning Block

Things are cruising along with our new extended learning block.  Students have begun participating in a variety of activities, one time per week, designed to extend the learning in a variety of subjects.

At this point we are still developing and working on our offerings.  Students are currently participating in extensions of Art PE, Music, Computers and Library.  In some of these classes they are doing things that they would not otherwise get the chance to do, like in Art for example.  In other classes they are participating in extensions of their classroom experience.  Like building their research skills or typing skills on the computer.

This block is a work in progress and we have plans to increase the number of offerings as we move forward.  Our goal with this time is to have a host of offerings all designed to give each child the opportunity to truly enhance and build upon each student's classroom experience.  This block is also giving us time to have classroom teachers begin some of the difficult curriculum work needed to make sure that HBB is a school that prepares all students for success in the 21st century.  The work being done by teachers is having a positive and direct impact on instruction now and you will be hearing much more about this in the future.

As always, if you have any questions, comments or concerns please let us know and have a great weekend!

TICKETS STILL AVAILABLE

We want everyone to know that there are still tickets available to see Bill Harley in concert tonight!  Tickets are $4 per person and $10 per family.  Tickets are available at the door and the concert starts at 6.  This is a great way to get out as a family so please join us! 

Bill has been here all week this week and he is amazing.  If you have time tonight I know you won't be disappointed! 

Have a great break

Before we all leave for the break I want to say thank you to the entire HBB community for everything you do!  Here are a few pictures from the last couple of days capturing just a few of the many things going on here.

Mrs. Burke's Class
Today Mrs. Burke's class performed their play about how the Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth and the purpose of Thanksgiving.

Pilgrim Games
On Tuesday students had the opportunity to go to the outdoor classroom and participate in some of the same games Pilgrims enjoyed years ago.....

Character word of the week
Lastly, and most importantly, the Character Word of the Week Winners (Gratitude) for this week are.....

See you all next week!

Thankful

As you know this is a short week due to the Thanksgiving Break, which makes the theme of this post fitting.  I would like to stop and thank everyone in the HBB community for making my first few months here memorable.  I feel privileged to be a part of such an incredible community.  I have been continually impressed by the dedication of our PTA and parents and the commitment and hard work of our staff.  Lastly, thank you to all the students, who make coming here everyday something I look forward to!  I hope you enjoy your break and take pause to reflect on everything you are thankful for as well.

Here are just a few of the things I have been thankful for recently.......

Thank you for helping us join forces with Nichols Middle School in collecting 500 pounds of Candy to donate to children at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

Thank you for donating so many items to the Children of Union Beach New Jersey that we had to stop taking donations early!!!!

And thank you to all the High School Athletes who came down on Friday to help promote Healthy Eating.

Please enjoy break and remember, Bill Harley will be here the week we get back.  For those who don't know Bill Harley he is a two-time Grammy award-winning artist, recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the RI Council for the Humanities and an NPR commentator.  Bill’s songs and stories paint a vibrant and hilarious picture of growing up, schooling and family life.....just another thing I am looking forward to and thankful for!  (see our calendar below for specifics on dates of his visit)

Thank you for the donations and P. Plantation

I just want to take a moment and thank the entire HBB for your generosity in supporting the children of Union Beach New Jersey.  We have had an incredible outpouring of support and have collected so many donations that we will be ending our collections on Friday because we have received so much.

Thank you all for your support, it is amazing what can be accomplished when the community rallies together! 
 

Mrs. Santos and her Mother-in-law taking
a truckload of donations to NJ

Below are a couple of pictures from a trip some of our 3rd grade students took to Plymouth Plantation.  Have a great day!

Character Word of the Week Winners

The character word of the week for last week was Honor which is a sense of what's just, right and true.  Congratulations to our winners!!!!  This week's word is Gratitude!

Stormy week didn't slow us down

It was good to see the sun on Friday!  Even though the weather was not so great we still had a great week.  Things were relatively quiet for us in terms of events but we did start our schedule change this week and the changes were seamless.  All students seem to be enjoying the new enrichment block and our teachers have jumped right into doing the difficult curriculum work needed to move our school forward and to ensure our curriculum aligns with the new Common Core State Standards.

I assume there may be questions in regards to our schedule change, the reasons behind it and our plan to move HBB forward.  For that reason I would like to invite anyone who may be interested to come by HBB this Tuesday night at 5:30 pm.  I will be there to field any questions you might have and to give anyone who might be interested an overview of where we are and where we are going.

Hurricane Sandy
We will continue collecting donations for the Children of Union Beach New Jersey right up until the Thanksgiving break.  Please help us help others.  Union Beach was particularly hard hit by the storm and we are collecting any school supplies, hats, gloves, backpacks etc.  We have already had a large number of donations so thank you to all who have already donated.  It has been really great to see the outpouring of support!

Borough Talk
Tune in to your local access television channel to see some of the most riveting television of the year!  I was asked by Dr. Weiss to join Mr. Geoghegan and Mr. Branagan on the first episode of her new television show Borough Talk.  Her show will be a regular program on Local Access TV as this will become another method of keeping the community informed about all the great things going on in our schools!

Kickball
This Friday afternoon Mr. Gobeil and I took Mrs. Darcy's 3rd grade class outside for a hotly contested kickball battle.  Mrs. Darcy's class won the opportunity to play because they collected the most BOX TOPS in our school!  For the record, the game ended in a tie on a last minute home run by Skylar!   Great job guys!  (see pics below)

Earthview
As many of you know we have had the Earth View Program from Bridgewater State College here over the past few weeks.  This is an exceptional program which you can read more about if you click on the Enrichment Programs link on the left side of this screen.  Some of our High School Television Students were here to do a story on the program and you can view their story by clicking on this link.
https://vimeo.com/53085329

That's it for now.  Have a great weekend and enjoy these pics, courtesy of Mrs. DeStefano.

Hurricane Sandy and the Character Word of the Week

WE NEED YOUR HELP!!
In the wake of Hurricane Sandy there are many families who have lost everything.  In fact, one of our teachers has family members in the town of Union Beach New Jersey where many people have lost everything.  Union Beach dealt with some major devastation to the point where they do not have a building right now for school.

In response to this tragedy we would like to mobilize the HBB community and try to do something for the children of Union Beach.  From now up to Thanksgiving break we will be accepting donations of school supplies including,  but certainly not limited to, books, paper, pencils, crayons, backpacks, lunchboxes, new or clean gloves, hats, blankets etc.  Anything would help and would certainly be appreciated.  We will have donation boxes outside the main office.  Thank you for helping us help others in need!  

Character Word of the Week
The word for last week was Cheerfulness.  And the winners are.......

Read to Succeed

November is Literacy month and in celebration we are kicking off the Read to Succeed program.  Students who complete 6 hours of reading at home will be eligible to receive a free ticket to Six Flags New England.  All they have to do is return their reading log and have it signed by their parent.  You will be receiving a letter this week in the Tuesday Folder explaining the program in more depth.

It is our hope that this will help encourage parents to encourage their children to read more at home.  There is nothing more powerful a parent can do than to create an environment at home where reading is encouraged so please help us out and get your kids reading more!

BOX TOPS

Thank you to everyone who sent in those BOX TOPS.  In total we raised $1594.10!  Please keep saving.  We will be collecting them again in a few months!

Plantings

This week we had two different events here at HBB which helped make the school look better.  Thank you to Ann Peddie who arranged for our 3rd grade student council members to plant mums along the front of the school.  They look great!

Also thank you to Jennie Teceno and Michelle Reynolds who arranged for all our 5th grade students to plant bulbs along the front of the school.  This will not only make the school look nicer, it gave the 5th graders the opportunity to leave something behind which will make the school a better place!

Schedule Change

Aside from Election Tuesday we have a relatively quiet week coming up in terms of events.  We do, however,  have one big change starting on Wednesday.  I hope everyone had the chance to read the letter  sent  home regarding the changes to our schedule.  Those changes take effect on Wednesday.  Students at each grade level will be participating in enrichment activities for the last hour of the day, one day per week.  This change will give not only give students the opportunity to participate in exciting enriching activities but will also give us the chance to do some of the essential curriculum work needed to ensure that HBB is a high achieving school.   The days each grade will have enrichment are as follows.

Monday  Grade 1

Tuesday  Grade 5

Wednesday  Grade 2

Thursday  Grade 3

Friday  Grade 4

As always, if you have any questions regarding this or any other matter, do not hesitate to contact us.