Dear Franklin Families,
I hope that all of you had a restful vacation week. We were visiting colleges in the Washington, D.C. area with my son, who is a Junior at Newton South. That was far enough away to avoid the snow, but there was plenty of it waiting for us upon our return! The calendar for tomorrow says “March,” and many of us are ready for a change of seasons. I am thankful that milder temperatures are ahead with all of the joys of spring.
On Wednesday, March 16th, we will launch our first March Madness reading tournament at the All School Meeting. During the four weeks of our March Madness tournament (March 18th-April 14th), students will earn points for their class teams as they read outside of school, and points are awarded for time spent reading rather than the number of pages read. (For Kindergarten and First Grade, 15 minutes= ten points. For all other grades, 30 minutes=ten points). In an effort to make the competition fair for classes of varied size, we will use the average number of minutes read per student for each class rather than the total minutes per class. The winning class will be announced at our All School Meeting on April 27th and will get an extra PE class with Mr. Wong! Please see more information below.
With Best Wishes,
Mark Chitty
Resources for talking with your children about the Ukraine Invasion:
How to Talk with Kids about Ukraine (New York Times)
How to Talk with Students about the Russia Ukraine War: 5 Teaching Tips (Education Week)
Teaching the News: The Ukraine Crisis (Brown University’s choices.edu - Note this resource provides contextual information about the Ukraine crisis as well as information/activities that are more appropriate for older students.)
School Report Card: Please see this letter with information about our 2021 School Report Card.
Information about Authorfest: 2022 Authorfest.pdf
Important Information for Fifth Grade Families: Please see this letter from Day Middle School Principal Jackie Mann about next week’s Parent Information Night.
Weekly COVID Case Numbers: During the week of 2/14, Franklin School recorded 0 COVID cases. Information on districtwide COVID cases and vaccination rates can be found on the Newton Health and Human Services website here: NPS COVID Case Count and Vaccination Rates.
Parent Coffee/PTO Evening Meeting Dates: This year, we have a mixture of morning Parent Coffees and evening PTO Meetings through which we hope to engage all of you in conversation about life and learning in our school community. Please join us on the following dates.
March 24th 7:00 p.m.
April 29th 8:30 a.m.
June 2nd 7:30 p.m.
Absences: If your child will be absent from school for any reason, please call the Student Absence Line at 617-559-9509 before 7:50. Also, please be sure that teachers have accurate information about dismissal routines for your child.
Early Release Dates: We will have dismissal at 12:10 p.m. on the following dates: March 24th and May 12th.
MCAS Dates: Please note the following dates as you are planning family vacations and appointments:
ELA:
Grade 3: 3/28 and 3/29
Grade 4: 3/31 and 4/1
Grade 5: 4/4 and 4/5
Math:
Grade 3: 4/25 and 4/26
Grade 4: 4/28 and 4/29
Grade 5: 5/2 and 5/3
Science:
Grade 5: 5/5 and 5/6
MARCH MADNESS 2022
FRANKLIN SCHOOL READING CELEBRATION
The 2022 Franklin School March Madness Reading Celebration will begin on Friday, March 18th and run through Thursday, April 14th.The kickoff will take place at our All School Meeting on March 16th, where each classroom will be randomly assigned the name of an actual NCAA basketball team. Students will earn points for their team based on the number of minutes read daily at home during March Madness.
To participate:
Read a book (or have it read to you) and record your daily minutes onto the March Madness reading log.
Once a week on Thursday evening at home, students will enter their TOTAL WEEKLY MINUTES read into a Google Form.
To access the Google Form, go to https://www.newton.k12.ma.us/franklin and look under the “Franklin Pride, News and Special Events” section for March Madness.
We will accept a maximum of 1,260 minutes per week/per child, which is an average of 3 hours per day.
Students will hand in the paper copy of their reading log to their classroom teacher every Friday morning.
Students should begin to log their minutes into the Google Form on Thursday, March 24th. This should be done every Thursday evening through April 14th.
Point System
Books read in school are not eligible for points. Books read as part of nightly reading can be counted. A weekly reading log will be sent home every Friday. To make it fair for classes that have fewer students, we will base points on the class average for the week. For example, if Ms. Terk’s 5th grade class reads 6270 minutes in one week, and there are 19 students in her class, we will divide 6270 by 19 to get an average of 330 minutes. Ms. Terk’s class would earn 110 points for that week. Team points earned will be tallied and recorded every week by Student Council members on a graph in the front hallway.
There will be a separate point system for grades K-1 and for grades 2-5.
Grades K-1 - Every 15 minutes = 10 points
Grades 2-5 - Every 30 minutes = 10 points
Team Bonus Points
90% class participation = 20 points each week
Complete the Team Research form (1 per class) = 10 points
Decorate your bulletin board = 10 points
If NCAA team makes it to Sweet 16 = 10 points
If NCAA team makes it to Elite 8 = 20 points
If NCAA teams makes it to Final 4 = 30 points
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