It has been a very busy month here at the Cleveland. Our students have been busy sending letters to our Veterans and those currently serving overseas. Our own Mrs. Haffey has a son stationed in Africa. He sent word that all the soldiers read the letters and enjoyed the candy! Here at the Cleveland, November was designated as healthy snack month and students complied by bring in a variety of fruits, vegeta-bles and healthy foods for snack. Many donated their Halloween candy to the troops! If you’d like to keep up on what’s going on here at school, please visit our website. Here you can find videos on all the recent assemblies, as well as a virtual backpack that contains school notices. We would like to encourage the use of the virtual backpack so that we are not sending home so many weekly notices. This month for health and fitness, we are challenging the students to walk five merry miles during the month of December. Ms. Worcester has marked off a 1/4 route around the playground for students to walk. Teachers are using this opportunity to work with students on fractions and measurement. As the cold weather ap-proaches, please be sure your children are dressed appropriately for recess. We will be going outside on the sunny days! If possible, it would be helpful if you could put your child’s name on their clothing. We have a large number of items in the lost and found. The new school improvement plan has also been approved and has been added to the district website. We are hoping to increase our academic supports, as well as our facility. Thanks to the PTA for all their hard work for the Monster Mash and Game Night. Students had a wonderful time ! We appreciate all the time and effort that the PTA puts into our school for the benefit of the children. I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy, healthy and safe Thanksgiving. Take the time to enjoy your family and friends. Mrs. Coppola

Principal’s Corner

Important Dates

December 4—Picture Re-takes December 5 - Grades close

December 11—12:30 Dismissal Professional Development

December 12– Report cards December 16– PTA Mtg. 7:00PM

December 19 - Nutcracker Show December 23– Early release 12:00 January 5– School re-opens

Cleveland Connection November 24, 2014

Pat on the Back ... This month’s “pat on the back” goes to : Tony Giampa for going above and beyond to keep our school clean Wel-come to Cleveland! Also to Ms. Norton for her flexibility and willingness to do what's ever needed for our stu-dents! Thanks so much!

David Coffin re-galed students with the history of wind instruments at a recent assembly.

Eleni Parasirakis and Reese Kil-lion are ready to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday!

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Part of our Social Studies curriculum is learning about the culture of our neighbor to the South, Mexico. On November 3, 2014, we celebrated “Day of the Dead”, a Mexican holiday of remembrance. This is not a scary holiday even though skele-tons are often used as decorations. The holiday is meant to celebrate the lives of those we loved. The students made color-ful flowers, pictures and cards for loved ones who have passed on. We made colorful masks and made a display of pictures and artifacts for our loved ones. We enjoyed listening to favorite memories and listened to Mexican music. It was a very re-spectful day that we all enjoyed.

In Math we are working on multiplication, comparing and writing decimals to the hundredths and measurements in the U.S. customary system.

In writing the children were introduced to persuasive writing. The end product was to imagine that they were a turkey and persuade their Master Chef’s, in writing and with pictures, not to cook them for Thanksgiving dinner. We are happy to report that all turkeys were pardoned!

We wish the entire Cleveland Family a happy and safe Thanksgiving!

Mrs. Barry, Miss Kilduff and Mrs. Wesley

Volume 1, Issue 1

FOURTH GRADE HAPPENINGS…

Cleveland Connection Page 3

Grade 3 Rotates & Revolves! Third graders are out of this world as they have begun the Earth and Solar System unit in sci-ence. So far, the students have done experiments with Mr. Haffey about rotation and revolution. Each class has also started their moon calendars, and has learned that there is one moon that goes through different phases during each month of the year. To help your third grader better understand the moon phases, encourage him/her to look at the night sky before going to bed at night. In addition, your third grade scientist can check online to get the official name of the current moon phase at: http://www.calculatorcat.com/moon_phases/phasenow.php . The third graders are gearing up for Decem-ber’s visit to Mr. Haffey’s planetarium in the Cleveland School gym. In math, third graders will soon be culminating unit 1. Even though addition and subtraction strategies, as well as basic facts should be practiced throughout the school year, third graders are very excited about starting to learn multiplication facts in December. As you know, third graders are always writing across the curriculum. Recently, as part of Cleve-land School’s participation in Operation Gratitude, the third graders wrote letters to soldiers. The let-ters written by the third graders were sent to soldiers currently deployed, which included the son of Mrs. Haffey, who is currently stationed in the Central Republic of Africa with 20 Marines. In addition, third graders have also been working on writing Thanksgiving letters for the visitors of the upcoming Cleveland School Dessert Spectacular.

In reading, third graders have started the nonfiction reading unit. Focus lessons have included locating & identifying nonfiction features, (conventions), as well as interactive read alouds such as Har-riet Quimby. In third grade, students are always encouraged to read both fiction and nonfiction texts. In this reading unit, third graders are becoming more comfortable with using some of the features of a nonfiction text such as captions, indexes, glossaries, bolded words, etc., and are starting to develop a better understanding that nonfiction text comes in many forms, other than books. (i.e. articles, text-books, newspapers, recipes, etc.)

At this time, the third grade teachers would like to give a round of applause for the wonderful tradi-tional literature dioramas. We would like to thank Mrs. Higgins, our school librarian, for sharing the book nook area so that some of the dioramas may be displayed for everyone at our school to enjoy. The grade three students have been very excited to work with their grade 4 tech buddies to learn more about using the Chromebooks. The fourth graders have been extremely helpful and have been excel-lent role models to the third grade students as they learn how to use this wonderful technology.

Finally, as the days grow colder, the third grade teachers would like to remind students that third graders should be coming to school dressed warmly so that they may go outside for recess.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mrs. Catalano, Ms. Howell and Mrs. Palladino

Nevan Sujit won first place in the Barnes and Noble Youth Writing Contest! Michaela Reen also participated and she came in third place. Congratulations to both stu-dents!

News Congratulations to this year’s student council members! Cameron Badger, Meredith Graham, An-nie Burgess, Ben McDougall, Hannah Abrahams and Niko Faller are our representatives from Grade 4. Samyuktha Karthikeyan, Mark Parise, Olivia Connor, Mya Santos, Patrick Kelly and Kylie McDonagh are our fifth grade representatives. We have had our first meeting and have discussed many upcoming activi-ties including hosting a school store! Look for our store after Thanksgiving. Student council members have been working on projects to help the community. Council members and their parents volunteered to help pack candy for Operation Gratitude, a project to send surplus Hal-loween candy to our deployed service men and women. We packed about 300 lbs. of donated candy! Thank you to Mrs. Abley for arranging the project and shipping the candy. Grades 4 and 5 also wrote beautiful cards and letters to the veterans at the VA Hospital in West Roxbury. Upcoming Events: The council will be collecting mittens for those in need and Toys for Tots starting in December. Watch for the notice in your mail! Mrs. Barry

Mrs. Georgoulopoulos’ Class getting ready for a Number Talk

It was great seeing everyone at conferences to discuss your child’s progress. Since, conferences, we have been hard at work! We have started to use IPADS in the classroom for phonics and reading. They really enjoy Starfall and Rocket Speller. We are using our reading strategies and hope that they are using them at home as well. We are asking students to retell what they have read as well. Ask questions about characters, setting and ending. In Science, we have been learning animals. The students observed live fish and earthworms to understand their characteristics. We also discussed the difference between a vertebrate and inverte-brate. They love the real life experiences with these activities. In Social Studies, we have enjoyed learning about the 1st Thanksgiving, Pilgrims, and Native Ameri-cans. They learned about how Squanto helped the Pilgrims in the New World. We discussed the May-flower’s journey in search of a better life.

In math, we are continuing work on basic facts, word problems, and coin identification and count-ing money. We are also working on mental math and computation strategies using “Number Talks”. Stu-dents are learning how to verbalize how they solve math problems. In writer’s workshop, we are beginning persuasive writing. We used Mo WIllems’ The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog as a springboard for discussion. We then wrote why the turkey thinks hot dogs would make a better choice for Thanksgiving dinner! The art project to accompany this writing is adorable! Please continue to make sure your child is appropriately dressed for the cold weather ahead. Thank you,

The First Grade Teachers

Grade 5 On November 10th, the fifth grade students were visited by WCVB StormTeam 5 meteorologist Danielle Voll-mar. Danielle spoke and shared a PowerPoint presentation about the dangerous types of weather. At the end of her presentation, Danielle answered all of the students’ questions and took pictures with the whole fifth grade class. The picture was shown on the morning news 2 weeks ago along with a shout out! She even recorded an Eye Opener for channel 5 with the fifth graders. We’ll keep you posted as to when that will air. Sumdog! What a great resource! Students were introduced in class to this interactive webpage. The site motivates students to practice math - while having fun. Be sure to ask your child to show you their avatar character practicing math skills. This will be an ongoing activity completed at home and at school. Check out the picture of the students using it. In October, the fifth graders sent pen pal letters to soldiers stationed overseas in Afghanistan. They were very excited to hear back from their specific pen pal. Each student received a personalized letter. We will continue to be in communication with this Troop and hope to schedule a visit with a local hero. We just found out that they have all safely landed on U.S. soil and hope to be back at their homes for the holidays.

November has been a fun month in Second Grade! In reading we have been learning about character traits. We have been learning about how a character can change, how we make connections with characters and what strong characters are like. In math we are working on place-value. We have been using manipulatives, math games and Smartboard lessons to explore place-value. This is an important skill that will help Second Graders later when learn-ing more about money and larger numbers. In writer’s workshop we have been working on small moment personal narrative writing. We have been adding details into our writing, creating strong leads and solid endings that leave the reader wanting to read more. The students have enjoyed writing about their own lives and the teachers have been enjoying reading them. In Social Studies we have been learning about the Pilgrims and the First Thanksgiving. We hope you all enjoy the extra time you have with your families this holiday season!

Dessert

Spectacular 11-24-14

Nurse’s November News………... Operation Gratitude was an even greater success this year! Our students graciously donated 275 lbs of candy to our active duty troops and wounded worriers! They also wrote wonderful letters of thanks for the bravery, hard work and sacrifice of our service members. Not only does this act of kindness enable our student’s to make a difference, it supports our community goals of a healthy lifestyle! Everything in moderation! This month in the Nurse’s Office, vision and hearing screenings continue. You will receive a notice in the mail ONLY if your child did NOT pass the screening at school. It will recommend follow up with the pediatrician or specialist as well as updating the nurse. There is a vision clinic available to utilize also any questions call the school nurse. One of the roles of the school nurse is to track outbreaks of illness in our school community. We are a global community, which brings such wonderful enrichment and diversity to our school. We are also possibly ex-posed to more illness, outbreaks of infection during our vacations and travels. Please update Mrs. Abely if you plan to travel outside of the country. This will help with monitoring of potential infection or illness. This communication also assists in following protocols when there is extended stays in areas with high TB (tuberculosis) rates. Thank you in advance for your assistance. If you have any questions or concerns feel free to call Mrs. Abely 781-440-5953. We continue to have several students’ participate in the dental clinic program implemented by the Nor-wood Public Health Department. This is a wonderful service for cleanings and sealants at a marked discount, which is so helpful for families. If you have chosen to have your child participate, the nurse will call prior to appoint-ments so you can tell your child about it the night before. Then a notice will be sent home with any charges. You may call Mrs. Abely if your child is experiencing a flare up of symptoms, especially if they have an asthma diagnosis or other chronic health issue. Working together we may be able to minimize symptoms and im-prove the amount of time they can attend school. A child needs to learn to be healthy, and needs to be healthy to learn! A Happy Healthy and Safe Thanksgiving Holiday to all! Mrs. Abely