Behind the Scenes: Target Practice

Targets

Franklin physical education teacher, Sharon Foster, invited me to join the fifth graders for some target practice.  When I arrived the setup in the gym was awesome!  Targets of different heights, distances and complexity were spread throughout half of the gym.

Sharon went through the steps with the students for throwing with correct form.  The fifth graders responded to her questions, clearly having mastered the concept.  Then they stood and mimicked the movements several times as she praised and gave students pointers.

Plenty for everyone

Finally, several students were chosen to upend the ball containers and everyone was given the go ahead to start throwing at the targets.  The students fired at will with great enthusiasm and good form!  Sharon shared her philosophy of creating activities for the students where there are opportunities for everyone to participate.  "When I was in school, I hated PE.  There was a single ball for the entire class and it was monopolized by the athletic students", she said.  "One of my PE teachers used to divide us by boys and girls telling us that the girls were not as good at sports as the boys."

Practicing throwing

As if on cue, I overheard a young girl say to another "you throw like a girl."  Sharon spoke with students and asked what they thought that meant stating that "there are only two kinds of throwing: throwing with correct form and learning to throw with correct form."  Many hands went up and the discussion was incredibly sophisticated for ten year olds!  A girl raised her hand and said, "I am the one that said that and I meant it is as a compliment.  You throw like Mo'ne Davis."  

Times certainly have changed,  We should all be so lucky as to throw a 70 MPH fastball "like a girl"!

Fire away!

Determination

Possibly the next Mo'ne?

Focused fun

The aftermath

Journey into Jazz

As part of a Newton-wide Concert Series, Franklin students and staff enjoyed a highly entertaining performance by Semenya McCord and her 3 piece band for a "Journey into Jazz”.

Semenya was an excellent story teller and successfully kept over 200 students engaged for nearly an hour as she took the audience on a musical journey through American history, highlighting various types of music that have evolved from the day-to-day experiences of African slaves and their descendants in the United States of America. 

She introduced work songs, spirituals, an original blues song about what frustrates students at the Franklin, swing and jazz.  She talked about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and everyone sang a beautiful version of This Little Light of Mine together. Semenya also enlisted an octet of our own Franklin scat singers.  She led the students in one final song and they left humming Day-O, remembering they still had to get back to work in the classroom!

Semenya engaging with students

She asked lots of questions and moved throughout the room

Students were engrossed in her storytelling

Semenya McCord and her 3 piece band

Lots of enthusiastic participation

Students singing scat lyrics

The Franklin octet scat troupe!

No one could resist snapping...

swaying....

and clapping along with the rhythm!

Bugworks!

Wondering why your first grader is suddenly an expert on praying mantises from Asia, beetles from Brazil, and cockroaches from Madagascar? Chances are the information came out of the Bugworks program! During the hour-long classroom workshop, students met bugs from around the world. They learned how bugs grow, where they live, what they do in nature, and, most importantly, new ways to observe and appreciate the world of arthropods.

So . . . find out what your kids thought of the program! And please feel free to email their (and your) comments or questions to the PTO’s Creative Arts and Sciences Committee at gjpinto@verizon.net.

School Appreciation Day

by Bob Zuckernik, School Appreciation Chair

On Saturday, October 18th, more than 25 parents spent a portion of the day at Franklin to complete projects at the school in appreciation of the Franklin teachers and staff.  As the Franklin School Appreciation Committee chair, I would like to sincerely thank all the parents who so kindly offered their time (and considerable skill) to help with more than 40 projects throughout the school. We had architects, HVAC professionals, attorneys, software developers and an MIT professor to spotlight just a few of the talented professionals who took the time to volunteer.  With their effort, we:

• painted the stairs near the kindergarten wing
• painted the new teachers' room and adjoining room
• installed doors on cabinets
• repaired screens
• installed bulletin boards
• painted bookcases, a filing cabinet, doors and more
• leveled books, made copies and hung posters
• and much more!

The teachers say it best…

“… And the school looks great overall! Painted stairs, doors, my room has such a nice blue filing cabinet, other rooms are painted. You all did an amazing job!!!”

“Thank you so much for the white board doors! They look great!!”

“Thank you so very much! I do appreciate all that you do! Many Thanks!”

"YOU and all the other volunteers (especially the ones that volunteer year after year) deserve all the credit. Everything that was done looks great! I'm sure the faculty appreciates it.  I know I do." 

"...I wanted to send along a quick thank you for all of the work you and the volunteers put into School Appreciation Day.  It was so great to see the teachers' excitement on Monday.  Everything looks AMAZING!"

“Thank you for your time and efforts on Saturday.  I really appreciate all of the help.  I am always amazed at the generosity of the Franklin parents and community.  Thank you!”

I would especially like to thank Moe Zuniga who has, for the second year in a row, generously donated painters from his S&C Painting Company who did a wonderful job painting the new teachers' room. I would also like to thank Newton Athletes Serving the Community (high school volunteers) for spending the morning with us and doing a great job with projects all around the school. Swartz Ace Hardware in Nonantum offered us a 10% discount on the many supplies and paint we purchased there. Johnson Paint Company in Waltham generously donated paint to our cause. I would also like to thank Dan Kaplan, Erik Boyer and Holly Caldwell for their herculean efforts this year. Also, Rick Dinjian for his incredible dedication to the school grounds and kindergarten courtyard as well as expertise on painting stair treads. I would like to bestow “rookie of the year” to several especially enthusiastic parents: David Campbell, Devin Evangelines, Darren Franco, Dimiter Kostov, Josh Roy and Devon Welles. The rookies carried an unusually heavy load this year and contributed substantially to completing much of the work. I will look forward to seeing them again next year. Lastly, a hearty thank you to those of you who supported the effort with food for the hungry volunteers.

And the Franklin Community would like to thank Bob Zuckernik for his considerable efforts to ensure the success of School Appreciation Day.  This is the fourth year that Bob has coordinated requests from the teachers, procured supplies, managed volunteers and worked with Bill Pepicelli to ensure that the work being done is of great benefit to the Franklin School.

Our First PTO Meeting - Understanding the Math Curriculum

The first PTO meeting of the 2014-15 school year kicked off with a fun ice breaker led by Principal Kelly!  Parents broke into groups of two, three and four and shared a memory from elementary school, a great recent parenting tip and their favorite thing about Franklin.

Communication – communication at the Franklin is achieved through multiple channels:

• Franklin website (http://franklin.newton.k12.ma.us/) and PTO website (http://www.franklinpto.com/)
• Two listserves – discussion and PTO announcements.  If you are not on one or both of these, you can request to be added by emailing kace.dreitlein@gmail.com
• PTO Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/FranklinPTO)
• Franklin school blog -> link is on the Franklin school website homepage or go directly to: http://franklin-school.blogspot.com/

Committees

• Great Job filling committee chairs this year
• Need someone to work on our newspaper, “Frankly speaking” with 4th and 5th graders

Fundraising – Shop for Franklin!

• Next time you shop on Amazon, go to the PTO website “Shop for Franklin” page (http://www.franklinpto.org/shop_for_franklin/) and click on the link on the left hand side “Support Franklin through Amazon”.  Franklin PTO will receive a small portion of your purchase!
• Box Tops – Find Box Tops on hundreds of products, clip Box Tops from each package, and send Box Tops to your school.  Box Tops are worth $0.10 / each.
• Stop and Shop Rewards - Register your existing Stop & Shop card at http://www.stopandshop.com/aplus . Every time you shop, a certain percentage will come back to Franklin in points. These points earned us hundreds last year!
• Target Credit or Debit Cards can link to the school – Register your card at https://www-secure.target.com/redcard/tcoe/home and Target will donate 1% of your purchase to the Franklin.  As of August 2014, $2463.61 had been donated to the Franklin PTO!

PTO Budget – Michelle Marini

• A draft for this year’s budget was shared with those in attendance
• Goal is to spend everything we raise, your money is being contributed to support your school
• Biggest sources of money are the auction, garden city soccer (K and pre-K),  and PTO Dues
• Biggest expenses
• Creative arts and sciences
• The PTO provides funding for 5 or 6 programs for each grade!
• Technology – $15k

School Appreciation Day - Bob Zuckernick

• October 18th
• Painting
• Photo Copying
• Swing a Hammer, do guy stuff
• Grounds work
• No childcare, no kids invited

Halloween Bash – Linda and Sari

• The bash requires 90-100 volunteers
• Especially need help with setup, Friday after school ends
• Event is October 25, set up is Oct 24
• To volunteer, click on Volunteer Spot link in Halloween Bash emails: http://www.volunteerspot.com/login/entry/1089121598069

Special Presentation - Math at Franklin

• Special guest presenters:
• Mike Smalley, K-5 Mathematics Coach, Newton Public Schools
• Jennifer Shore, K-8 Mathematics Coordinator, Newton Public Schools
• What is the Common Core?  
• National Academic Standards
• 45 states and DC and 4 territories have adopted the standards
• 2015 testing will all be based on common core
• MA needs little changes, our education reform was in 1993 and was very similar to common core
• Two types of learning standards:
• Content Standards
• What students learn - Ex: addition and subtraction
• Practice Standards
• How students learn - Habits of mind, this is the way we want you to think about math
• What is our current math curriculum?
• Every day math / daily curriculum
• Contexts for learning mathematics (2x/year)
• Scenarios that are fairly involved - 10 sessions, 2-3 weeks
• Ex. Carlos and his family, subtraction on the open number line
• 

  Example – asked those present how to solve a subtraction problem to help illustrate how children are currently being taught.
• There is no existing curriculum that adequately teaches math the way that the Newton Public School believes that it is best taught.  Staff in the math department research the best methodology around the globe (!) and pull together best practices for our students.
• One example is Kathy Richardson
• Understanding number concepts (k-2)
• Developing number concepts (3-5)
• Example – presenters went into depth on the Grade 3 content standards
• Measurement Data
• High cognitive demand tasks
• Fandango – presented students with the list of all of the movies playing in a particular theater on a particular day and asked “How many movies can I see in one day?”
• Kids discussion to come up with solutions
• Problem solve
• Argue it
• Students are incredibly engaged
• Different methods are used to come up with the solution(s)
• How can we help our children at home?
• Tips for families – National Council of Teachers of Mathematics http://www.nctm.org/resources/families.aspx
• “ We all use math everyday”
• How long is the drive going to take?
• How much carpeting do we need?
• Creating a culture where it’s safe to take a risk
• Please avoid saying things like “I’m not good at math” as children model their own parents behavior.  Rather say “math can be challenging but we can figure this out if we keep trying.”

Audrey and Uche on Fox 25 News!

Three fifth graders, including Audrey and Uche from the Franklin, held a bake sale and yard sale with the proceeds supporting Reece's Rainbow, an organization that helps find families for children with Down syndrome.  Two of the girls were motivated to support Reece's Rainbow for personal reasons - they each have a cousin with Down syndrome.  The third girl has volunteered to help support classmates with Down Syndrome for the past two years.

At the time of the story, the girls had raised $140 to be donated directly to the Christmas drive at Reece's Rainbow.  Great job Audrey and Uche!  We are so proud to have you in our Franklin community!

To view the story, check out: http://www.myfoxboston.com/clip/10688105/fifth-grade-students-raise-money-for-downs-syndrome-programs.

Science Comes Alive at Drumlin Farm

By Molly Ristuccia and Jana DaSilva

On a spectacular fall day, the fifth graders from Franklin visited Drumlin Farm in Lincoln, MA to participate in the Pond Communities program.

Students observed several ponds on the premises - including Ice Pond, which sits at the bottom of Drumlin Hill.  One pond was completely covered in duckweed (vegetation) so much so that the pond looked like a field of grass.  In fact, we were told students had accidentally stepped on this pond in the past! 

Students saw many creatures including frogs and turtles, as well as aquatic insects (backswimmers, dragonfly nymphs, water striders, etc.) through observing ponds as well as "pond dipping" with nets and using magnifiers to see the creatures up close and personal.  This trip was the culmination of our pond life unit in science in which students studied pond habitats and properties of water, and researched specific aquatic insects.