What an AMAZING start to the year! We are so grateful for all the great energy~ from parents, teachers, kids and community. Here are a few highlights from this month!
Kindness All Around Us!
Our Kindness Craze fundraiser brought heartwarming Acts of Kindness to our schools, homes and community, as well as almost $13,000 to put toward this year’s Curriculum Enrichment and Teacher Wishes in the schools. Many thanks to everyone who participated!
We were so proud of the kids and families doing many different Acts of Kindness. We heard about kind notes to friends and family, meals for neighbors, cards & boxes for sick children, lemonade stands for causes, cleaning up neighborhoods, reading to younger children, friendship bracelets & pins, helping coaches, thank-you cards, household chores, new friends on the playground, extra compliments, passing kindness cards, food donations, hat donations, animal shelter donations, happy welcome greetings …. and the list goes on!
We talked with many kids about the chain reaction of kindness, how it feels to receive kindness, and how that motivates us to “pay it forward” to others. At Spofford Pond, we created a literal “kindness chain” where the kids each wrote a kindness they received, and an Act of Kindness they did. It got very long!
And speaking of receiving kindness, Masconomet students did Acts of Kindness for both our Cole School and Spofford Pond students by greeting them with high-fives, fist-bumps and happy wishes as they arrived at school. They even joined the Cole School Morning Meeting to read and talk about kindness with the kids. Everybody was beaming, and the fun, kind energy was definitely contagious.
Many, many thanks to Masconomet for sending us some of your kind, spirited students. They are great role models for our young ones! Many thanks also to our school principals, teachers and staff for all the encouragement and support. The friendly grade competition and playful traveling trophy added a fun element to the cause!
Finally, our sincere thanks to the parents who helped their kids participate. Our goal was to involve the students in being active participants in the system that works to enrich their learning ~ and to have their role be meaningful, authentic and positive for the whole community. We couldn’t have done this without you!
Gettin’ Down with Fall Fun at the Fall FunDown
Friday, Sept 27 was a gorgeous Fall day filled with delicious, festive energy at Spofford Pond playground. We had grilled meats from Texas Roadhouse, who happily handled all the added walk-in attendees. Thank you! We also had lots of veggies, some candy for sale, and scrumptious fresh apples donated from our local Ingaldsby Farm. Everybody loved them!!!
On the fields, kids played flag football and soccer, as well as several lawn games. The playground thrived, the music energized, and on the blacktop kids played basketball, hula-hooped, jumped skip-balls, chased bubbles and posed as the “I” in KIND.
Several tables were also set up for Acts of Kindness. Sixth-Graders hosted a table for friendship bracelets and pins, and this is where the “kindness chain” began. People made cheer-up cards for sick children, made thank-you cards for local fire and police, and also made their own cards for mom, dad or a friend. The “kindness card” was passed around, and everyone seemed happy enjoying the time together.
Many thanks to all the volunteers who helped make this event happen, and all the families who showed up to be part of the fun. We were all delighted to see the principals and so many teachers there, too! Thank you for extending your week to be there with us. We appreciate it, and all you do!
Final thanks to the mosquitos for waiting till sundown before invading the FunDown. The timing was perfect, as we had all skedaddled by then.
Teacher Wishes Support Collaboration, Exploration, Playful Learning and Empathy
Each year, the teachers of Cole School and Spofford Pond submit requests to the PTO for classroom learning tools beyond what is provided by the school budget. These range from magazine subscriptions and educational games, to technology and experiential tools, to creative project kits and programs, to furniture for sitting, working, and storage ~ and much more. Featured in our photos below are flip tables, virtual reality goggles, a Q-ball game, picture books, writing sand, and Dot seating for a floor table.
From fourth-grade teacher, Laura Valzania: “The kids absolutely love using the whiteboard tables for math collaboration, in particular. The tables are great because they flip from table position to stand-up whiteboard position, making thinking clearly visible for group work. The dots are so much more comfortable for our floor table and provide opportunities for much-needed movement (they rock and swivel)… The kids are most grateful for your support.”
From Cole School education support specialist, Amy Vera: “Thank you so much for all the supplies and books from PTO Wishes for our learning center! We greatly appreciate all of them, especially the new multi-sensory sand for our reading program, and books about kindness and empathy.”
Warm Welcome and Cool Sweets at the Ice Cream Social
Many thanks to all who came out for our first event of the year! This free social gathering at Cole School on Sept 6 was topped with sweet smiles, playful energy and a fantastic obstacle course by KidSHINE!!
Thank-you to all the volunteers who scooped, squirted, sold and cleaned up the happy sticky mess! Many thanks also to those who joined our membership by donating to Support the PTO on our website. Congratulations to Julianne Diamond, our membership raffle winner!
Joining Us is OPTIMAL!
To be included in the PTO Directory App and receive our emails, simply log in to our website at http://www.boxfordpto.org and update your account with your child’s teacher for this year. To create a new account, you will need the security code to ensure you are part of our community. It was sent home in our welcome packet at the start of the year, or you can send us an email to request it.
FYI- In the past, families were automatically included in the directory if they did not “opt out” by a certain date. This has changed to a more protective practice across the Tri-Town. It is called “OPT IN” ~ meaning you must actively go to our website in order to be included.
However, once you log in, you can also customize which information you would like to have listed in the Directory App. You can even opt out of being listed in the directory. But if that is your choice, (as absurd as this may sound, get ready…) you should still Opt In (log in to our website) to Opt Out (customize what is listed in the directory). That way you can still use our website to buy tickets to our events and donate to Support the PTO!
Below is a screen capture of the Directory App Class Directory. You will receive the App with a website donation of any amount to Support the PTO.
Thank you so much for thoughtfully opting.
Boxford PTO 