Dear Franklin Families,
It was wonderful to see many of you at Trivia Night on Saturday! Thanks to everyone for your support of our PTO, and special appreciation to Jessica Allen, Emilie Chang, Amy Horsman, Mike Maida, and Nancy Maida for their leadership and planning in this enjoyable event. As we head into April vacation, I wish all of you much happiness, laughter, and rest whether you will be close to home or far away.
During the month of May, we will begin working on class lists for the 2022-23 school year. We ask that all families please let us know as soon as possible if your children will not be returning to Franklin next year so that we can plan with accuracy. If you have any additional information regarding your child’s placement that you would like to share with the team, please do so in writing. Your letter should be marked to my attention and delivered to the school office no later than Friday, April 29th. I will review these letters and share them with the grade-level teams. Your letter can include information about your child's friends, learning style, strengths, special interests, or any information you feel is important to share with the team that we don't already know. Please do not request specific teachers as we are unable to honor these requests. Also, please do not feel that you must write a letter to ensure that your child's placement will receive careful consideration. All teacher assignments will be available in Aspen in late August.
Warm Holiday Wishes to all of our families who are celebrating Passover or Easter this weekend.
With Best Vacation Wishes,
Mark Chitty
Newton Neighbors Diaper Drive: Please sign up to help with our next Social Action Project at this link. Franklin is running this collection as part of Newton Neighbors’ city-wide diaper drive. We will collect diapers at the school’s front entrance on the morning of Friday, April 29th (right before the Parent Coffee), and we need volunteers to help with delivery to Newton Family Access in the afternoon.
CAS AUTHORFEST 2022 : CAS AuthorFest is happening this week! Authors and illustrators will be visiting classrooms to promote literacy and share their experience as an artist, a writer, and a reader. Check with our PTO for more information about scheduled visits to our school. Make plans to attend the after school meet and greet, book sale and signing at Cabot Elementary on Tuesday, April 12 - 3:15 to 5:30 pm. Twenty-one authors and illustrators, who visited K-8 students around the district, will be on-hand to greet students and their families. This event is open to the public. Newtonville Books will have a selection of books for sale. 20% of proceeds will pay for future CAS/PTO sponsored events.
CAS AuthorFest 2022 is made possible by the hard work of the Creative Arts & Sciences committee, contributions to the PTO, a generous grant from the Newton Schools Foundation, and additional funding from The Village Bank, and Harmony Foundation.
Weekly COVID Case Numbers: During the week of 4/4 , Franklin School recorded 4 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.
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 Date: We will have dismissal at 12:10 p.m. on May 12th.
MCAS Dates: Please note the following dates as you are planning family vacations and appointments:
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: 5/6 and 5/9* (Note Change of Date)
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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