Holiday Donations

Memorial School Holiday Donations

This holiday season, Memorial School partnered with the Burlington Food Pantry to help support Burlington residents in need. We organized charity events to help raise money and collect donations.

The Memorial School Student Council collected a number of items over the last month donated by Memorial School families to help support Burlington residents during this holiday season. We donated unexpired, non-perishable food and other items towards the Christmas/Holiday bonus.

Memorial School 4th and 5th graders organized a bake sale to help raise money to donate to the Food Pantry. The bake sale was held the night of the Memorial School Winter Concert. The girls collected $365.00 and proceeds were donated to the Burlington Food Pantry. 

Memorial School wishes you a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year!

December Lesson: Bullying

What is Bullying?

This month we will be teaching students about bullying. They will be learning the state definition and the criteria that outlines bullying. We will be discussing the difference between bullying and teasing. The students will be reading stories and watching a video. Please ask your child what they learned about bullying and continue these conversations at home to help prevent bullying.  

State Definition:

Bullying is the repeated use by one or more students [aggressor(s)] of a written, verbal or electronic expression or a physical act or gesture or any combination thereof, directed at a target that: (i) causes physical or emotional harm to the target or damage to the target's property; (ii) places the target in reasonable fear of harm to him/herself or of damage to his/her property; (iii) creates a hostile environment at school for the target; (iv) infringes on the rights of the target at school; or (v) materially and substantially disrupts the education process or the orderly operation of a school. For the purposes of requirements related to this law, bullying shall include cyber-bullying.

Bullying Criteria (RIP):

• Repeated

• Intentional (i.e. harming someone else on purpose)

• Imbalance of Power (2 against 1, difference in age, size, ability)

Howard B. Wigglebottom

Learns About Bullies

The Bully Blockers Club

When the Going Gets Scruff 
Video about Bullying

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aqf9ekNbYAU 

Help Make a Difference and Donate to the Food Pantry

Help Make a Difference and Donate to the Food Pantry

Memorial School is partnering with the Burlington Food Pantry this year to help support Burlington residents in need during the holiday season. We are looking for people to donate unexpired, non-perishable food. The Food Pantry is also looking for the following items for the Christmas/holiday bonus:

Frosting

cake mix

cookie mix

sprinkles

holiday cookies

holiday candies

and…

toothpaste

shampoo

bars of soap

dish soap

Memorial 5th Grade Student Council will be collecting the items to donate to the Food Pantry. You can send items to school with your child to be put in a donation box in their classroom. Items will be collected through the month of December and brought to the Food Pantry on Monday December 21st.

Memorial School Giving Tree

Memorial School Giving Tree

Dear Staff and Families,

Memorial is participating in a charity program known as the “Giving Tree” this year.  This program will help support students and families in need during the holiday season.

For the Giving Tree, we will start gathering a list of students who may benefit from this charity. If you have a student(s) or family in mind please contact us. Once we collect the names, we will get in touch with families to see if they want to participate and ask for a few gift ideas for their children.  After the names and gift ideas are collected, we will write one gift item on a tag and hang it on a tree in the staff room.  Faculty can then take a tag and buy the gift if they would like to take part. All tags are anonymous.  Gifts are collected before the break and parents come pick them up.  This is a charity program, so please feel free to participate only if you would like to.  

Wishing you and your family a happy and healthy holiday season!

~The Guidance Team

Danielle Flaccavento flaccavento@bpsk12.org

Jamie Martin jmartin@bpsk12.org

Please email the following information to one of the Memorial School Guidance Counselors:

Name of family in need: _______________________

Contact information for family in need:

Email and/or phone__________________________________

Name of person referring (optional)

_______________________________________

November Social Skills Lesson: Friendship

November Social Skills Lesson

Friendship

Our focus this month was on the importance of being a good friend. We taught each classroom "How to be a good friend" and "How to lose a friend". We talked mostly about the characteristics and qualities of a good friend. 

Making Friends is an Art 

by: Julia Cook

This is a story about a brown pencil who has a tough time making friends. He doesn't like himself because he thinks he isn't exactly a favorite color. He gets really jealous of the other colors because they are all responsible for something and they get used way more than he does. Brown is especially jealous of red because she gets used so much that she is stubby from being sharpened so much. 

Brown learns that he needs to be a good friend to have good friends. He also learns the importance of being your own best friend. 

The Key to Being a Good Friend

We created a set of keys to represent each student and their ideas of the important qualities of a good friend. Each student designed their own key to be put on their classroom key ring. The set of keys will be available to students for the year so that they can revisit them any time they choose or in case they need reminders.

Recipe for a Good Friend

October Lesson: Zones of Regulation

October Social Skills Lesson

Zones of Self Regulation

Knowing yourself and others

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsISd1AMNYU

   

     

People Helping People- Burlington Food Pantry

People Helping People in Burlington



Memorial School is partnering with the Burlington Family and Life Center to help out and donate to the Burlington Food Pantry this holiday season. We will be working closely with this organization to help support families in need this year. Please contact the guidance team for any further information regarding this organization. 

Memorial School Guidance Counselors:
Danielle Flaccavento- flaccavento@bpsk12.org 
Jamie Martin- jmartin@bpsk12.org

More about People Helping People

Our purpose is to establish a town-wide effort to provide assistance to residents of Burlington who have an emergency need for food, medicine, heat or utilities and to provide for holiday food baskets and gifts for children.

People Helping People operates solely on donations. 86% of donations collected goes directly to support Burlington residents in urgent financial situations.

History

People Helping People began in the late 70’s when a volunteer from a local
church in Burlington saw the need for basic assistance within his community.
His outreach began by handing out Thanksgiving baskets of food from the 
American Legion Hall in town. He also gave gifts to needy children at Christmas
as the Burlington Santa. As word of his efforts grew so did the need. Another 
volunteer was recruited to take over as the Burlington Santa, and in 1980, a third 
volunteer began the Community Pantry. The pantry, operating out of the 
Congregational Church basement, supplied donated food to Burlington residents 
who were in need of food all year long, not just around the holidays. The
activities of People Helping People were funded largely by the Congregational Church’s Deacon’s Fund. 
The Congregational Church continues to be one of our largest contributors. In 1981, a Burlington Policeman 
found a mother and two children living out of a car. The Burlington Clergy Association was told about the
situation and made an immediate decision to help, not only this family, but others like them. They established
the Burlington Covenant for Basic Needs and turned to the Burlington Community Life Center to centralize the 
screening and funding process. In the early days, funds were provided mainly by houses of worship in town 
represented by the Burlington Clergy Association. As the need for emergency help grew in town, so did the 
organization. In 1988, these few volunteers incorporated People Helping People as an umbrella organization 
combining the Burlington Community Pantry, the Covenant for Basic Needs and the Burlington Santa, or 
Holiday Program as it is known today.

Board of Directors

Rev. Angela Wells, President, Email
Tom Killilea, Vice-President, Email
Gail Wolfe, Secretary, Email
Shelley Joyce, Treasurer, Email

Christine Shruhan, Covenant for Basic Needs, Email
Rev. Angela Wells, Burlington Clergy Representative,  EmailJo-Ann Gorassi, St. Malachy’s Representative,
EmailLinda Roscoe – Burlington Presbyterian Church Representative, Email
Judy Walsh, St Mark’s Representative, Holiday Program Coordinator Email
Janet Fitzgerald, St. Margaret’s Representative, Email
Tom Killilea, United Church of Christ Congregational Representative, Email
Gail Wolfe, Temple Shalom Emeth Representative, Email

Burlington Community Food Pantry
Jane McIninch
Christie Ventura781-270-6625
burlingtonpantry@gmail.com

Covenant for Basic Needs
Christine Shruhan781-270-1961
cshruhan@peoplehelpingpeople,inc.org

Holiday Program
Judy Walsh617-797-6786
jwalsh@peoplehelpingpeopleinc.org

Fundraising Coordinator
Janet Fitzgeraldjfitzgerald@peoplehelpingpeopleinc.org

Mission statement:

People Helping People is a non-profit, predominantly volunteer support program.
Our mission is to establish and sustain a community-wide effort to provide assistance to residents
of the town of Burlington, Massachusetts who have a need for food, medicine, heat or utilities and to provide for
holiday food baskets and gifts for children.

PHP is the umbrella organization overseeing the Burlington Community Food Pantry,
The Burlington Covenant for Basic Needs and the Holiday Program.

As a community, we strive to address the needs of those who find themselves in difficult financial
circumstances by providing them with basic needs and more importantly compassion,
understanding and support.

Please consider volunteering your time to help make our programs a success.

PBIS Whole School Dance Party

This post was originally published on Mrs. Dressler's blog on October 21, 2015. 

Whole School Dance Party

WE DID IT!

A whole school dance party!

Ask your child, 

"How do you do the Whip and Nae Nae Dance"

Buddy Bench

This post was originally published on Mrs. Dressler's blog on September 23, 2015. 

FRIENDSHIP BENCH at MEMORIAL SCHOOL

Thank you to the BEF (Burlington Education Foundation) 

for funding our FRIENDSHIP BENCH.

The friendship bench came from the 

Tiny Girl Big Dream Foundation

Acacia’s dream is to place friendship kits into every school across the United States and spread friendship around the country and around the world. She believes that if we can begin to put the spotlight on all of the goodness, random acts of kindness, and yes, friendship, then we will begin to see a brighter more vibrant world. A world where kindness, compassion, and humanity are recognized, appreciated and rewarded. A world where acts of violence are replaced by acts of kindness.

Our talented guidance counselors, Danielle Flaccavento and Jamie Martin

created a lesson for the entire school to learn more about the purpose of the friendship bench

Why do we need a Buddy Bench?

• If you are new to school
• If you want to make new friends
• If your friends aren’t here today
• If you want to play something different than what your friends are playing
• If you’re having a problem with your friends and you just can’t solve it right now

All students received an "I am Amazing" band after they learned how the friendship bench can help all students at Memorial School have a better time out at recess.

Mrs. Ioakimidis and Mrs. Canty's kindergarten class 

got to be the first students to gather at the bench!

Thank you again to the BEF for funding this important PBIS 

(positive behavior intervention supports) work.

Welcome

This is our first blog post. Welcome to the Memorial School Guidance Blog. Please stay tuned to our future posts. Please add your email address to subscribe to this blog on the right hand side.