January 9, 2015 - Week 18

Hello Roderick School Families and Happy New Year!

At the end of our first full week of 2015, we're back into the swing of things!  It was a very chilly week with many days of inside recess. 

As a reminder, we use 20 degrees as our cut off mark for outside recess.  We look at the actual temperature as well as the "feels like" temperature with the wind chill.  As long as the temperature is above 20 degrees with the windchill, the kids will have outside recess barring any icy conditions that would make the playgrounds unsafe.  Please keep this in mind when sending your child to school and be sure to send the proper clothing.  Thank you in advance!

This week Ms. O'Connell's class worked on seeing changes from Potential to Kinetic energy and back again. The students built "roller coasters" to help visualize.  Great job!

This week, we began our school-wide bullying and diversity awareness lessons, which were developed following the implementation of the 2010 Massachusetts Bullying Law. Ms. D. Paparo (school adjustment counselor) and Ms. Kost (school psychologist) addressed many of our  classrooms.  In the upcoming weeks these two individuals will visit all classrooms grades 4 - 6.  Please be on the look out for a letter that specifies the topics discussed in the lessons. 

We had our Final Competition for the 2014-2015 Geo Bee this afternoon.  All ten contestants did a remarkable job!  Congratulations to all of you for making the final round.

Congratulations to Harry from Mrs. Fownes' class for winning this year's Geo Bee.

Before the holiday break, Mrs. Haughey's class donated a lot of supplies to the Medfield Animal Shelter.  What a great real-world connection! 

Come join us on Wednesday, January 14th at 5:30 p.m. for our school's Fine Arts Night.  Following our Fine Arts Night, our Advanced Band will showcase their talents beginning at 7:00 p.m.  Both of these wonderful events will take place in the Gibbons Gym.  

Miss Maloney's science class spent time this week being engineers and architects.  Students were charged with the using specific materials to create a model that could best stand an "earthquake".  Well done!

  
Students looked great as they celebrated Patriots Spirit Day today.

From the PTO......

• RAW is postponed until we get volunteers to chair this event.  

• Yearbook -  6th grade parents should consider ordering the yearbook online.  You may order online by going to Schoolannual.com and click "Buy My students yearbook".  If you do not wish to order online, you may send in your payment for $25.  Please purchase the yearbook by January 15th.  

Wednesday, January 14th - Night of the Arts - Roderick School 5:30 PM - 6:45 PM

Wednesday, January 14th - Advanced Band Concert - Gibbons Gym 7:00 PM

Monday, January 19th - No School - Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Tuesday, January 20th - No School - Professional Development Day

Friday, January 30th - Principals' Coffee - Vogel Auditorium 8:30 AM

Thank you for reading!

Have a great weekend and Go Pats!

Sincerely,

Stephen S. Grenham