Monday, December 21, 2015

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!

Monday, December 7, 2015

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

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.

Thursday, December 3, 2015

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.