From the Principal: 10/1/2023

Dear Greenwood Families,

Happy Monday! And suddenly, it’s October! I know I’m not the only one that feels like September just zipped by - it just goes to show how much is going on around Greenwood these days. We love keeping busy!

School Lunches - October We have a lot of happy children choosing to participate in the school lunch program here at Greenwood! While we did a September survey to gauge numbers, now that we have a good sense of how much food we need each day you do *not* need to sign your child up for specific lunch days during the month of October. Here is a link to the month’s menu so you can plan ahead!

Walk (International Walk, Bike, & Roll to School Day) Safe Routes to School Massachusetts is once again encouraging schools to participate in this event on Wednesday, October 4th. Students and families across Massachusetts will walk, bike, and roll to school to enjoy a safe, healthy, and active lifestyle. Luckily, here at Greenwood almost every day is walk, bike, and roll to school day! We will have a table outside at arrival with stickers and bookmarks to distribute. It will be festive!

School Photo Day O’Connor Studios will be at Greenwood this Thursday, October 5th to take individual student photos, class photos, and the 4th grade group photo. You should have received an email from O’Connor about photo ordering options, as well as a paper ordering form that was sent home with your child. If you didn’t get either of these, we do have extra copies of the form in the office - just ask Ms. Paiva!

Please note: The 4th grade photo will start being organized around 8:45 a.m., so please make extra sure your child is on time.

Greenwood School Council The Greenwood School Council held its first meeting of the year on Thursday, September 28th. The School Council consists of parent and staff representatives and provides input/feedback for our school improvement plan, school budget, and educational needs/goals for Greenwood.

2023-2024 Members

Tiffany Back, Greenwood Principal Jeanine Campbell, Greenwood Grade 4 Teacher Samantha Giangregorio, Greenwood Parent (Kindergarten) Sarah Volkenant, Greenwood Parent (1st Grade)

Our first meeting consisted of reviewing the Greenwood School Improvement Plan, which will be shared at the Wakefield School Committee meeting on Tuesday, October 10th. Greenwood School Council meetings will be held approximately every six weeks. Please feel free to reach out to any School Council member for more information or with topics of interest.

No School - Monday, October 9th Just a reminder that all WPS schools and offices will be closed on Monday, October 9th in observance of Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples Day. Enjoy the three-day weekend!

Lunchroom Volunteers Do you have any free time between 12:00-1:10 pm on school days? Or 10:30-11:50 am on early release days? Looking for a way to help out at Greenwood? Then join us for our lunchroom volunteer opportunities! If you’d like to come in and help support students while they’re eating lunch, please see the linked Sign-Up Genius to select time slots through the beginning of November. Single days, multiple days, one-time slot, the whole lunch block…we welcome any and all helpers!

Lunchroom volunteers will help students with those tricky thermoses, hand out napkins and utensils, support students while they sort items into composting/food rescue/trash, and help clean tables at the end of each lunch. Oh, and the most important thing - bring smiles and laughter!

NOTE: You will need to have a CORI form completed before coming in for any lunch shifts - please contact Ms. Paiva about the process or to check if you have a current one on file.

Updates from Wakefield Academy The following information was sent out to all WPS families by Estelle Burdick, Director of Wakefield Academy, last Thursday. Don’t miss out!

Before School Program/After School Program Schedules: ● Please do not create an additional contract for your child(ren) or use the drop-in day feature. You will use the change schedule option to add your future days. If you have a set schedule, you may add your needed days for October and any month beyond that. Please note: You will only be invoiced for one month at a time. *Online: Click here to view the steps to update your schedule. *Smartphone: Click here to view the steps to update your schedule. ● Be prompt with your payments or contact us for payment arrangements. Payment is due upon receipt of your monthly invoice. If payment is not received within 5 days, a $50 late fee will be applied to your account. Some families find it easier to add an automatic form of payment so they can make payment deadlines. ● Once the monthly invoice has been issued, you can no longer add or delete days for that month. You may request up to 3 monthly drop-in days, excluding early release days. You may also switch days as long as they are within the same month. ● Credits and refunds are only given if a child is absent for a long-term illness of 5 days or more.

Enrichment programs: ● Your child does not need to be part of our before/after school program to participate. Additionally, the time between the end of the school day and the start of the enrichment is covered in your registration. You must only sign up for ASP if your child stays with us after the enrichment program ends. ● New clubs! We added our well-known Art Club and Magic The Gathering to our Galvin Enrichment clubs. Use the link here to learn more. There are many programs with openings available, so join now! Enrollment closes October 2nd. ● Elementary and Pre-K enrichment programs are filling up fast! There are still many to choose from, such as Buildwave, Kidstock, Chess, Trivia at Dolbeare, KidzGroove, and lots more! Use the link here to check out all we have to offer. Hurry, enrollment ends October 2nd!

Wakefield Educational Foundation (WEF) Volunteers Needed WEF is looking for new volunteers!!! WEF (Wakefield Educational Foundation) is hosting an informational session for community members interested in becoming volunteers on Wed, Oct 11 from 6:30-7 p.m. The meeting is being held at the High School, conference rooms A and B located in the main office suite. Enter the building at the Savings Bank Theater entrance. We hope to see you there! Please email carymazzone@gmail.com or melissa.holmes@rcn.com with any questions.

Call for Artists - 12th Annual CoolScience Artwork Competition Cool Science is a free and public art competition held each fall for all K-12 artists. Cool Science is a collaboration between UMass Lowell, UMass Boston, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, University of Kansas, and Kansas City Art Institute. In 2019, Cool Science received a National Science Foundation grant that helped it expand the project beyond Massachusetts to Kansas, Missouri, and Southern New Hampshire. However, students from any location around the world are welcome to participate.

Challenge Questions This year, we are asking young artists to answer one of the following challenge questions with a visual work of art: 1) Sunlight is the largest source of energy on the surface of the Earth. How does sunlight fuel extreme weather (e.g., extreme storms)? 2) Increases in carbon dioxide in the air lead to more extreme weather. Animal homes do not make carbon dioxide on average (they are Net Zero). What can we learn from animals to help us get our homes closer to Net Zero?\ 3) What simple thing could you do now to better prepare for extreme weather in the future?

Competition Winners During this winter, we will select the best entries for display on public buses in Massachusetts and Kansas in 2024. The honorees will be recognized at our art exhibit celebrations next year.

To Learn More For further information about the contest, please visit: https://www.coolscience.net/artwork-guidelines-rules You can also join our community on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube. You can also visit our website for further information about the program (www.coolscience.net).

Greenwood School Social Media We are on Facebook and Instagram, and one of my personal goals this year is to show off the fun we’re having throughout Greenwood! Check us out - @wpsgreenwood on both Instagram and Facebook!

As always, please do not hesitate to reach out with questions.

Thank you for everything you do to support your children and their learning! Let’s have a great week!

Tiffany Back

From the Principal: 9/25/2023

Dear Greenwood Families,

Happy Monday! It was so wonderful to see the turnout at Back to School Night last Thursday! I hope that those of you who were able to attend learned a lot about your child’s classroom and day-to-day life here at Greenwood School. Communication between school and home is extremely important to us, so please do not ever hesitate to reach out if you have questions about anything!

Early Release - Wednesday, September 27th Our first early release day for students is on Wednesday, September 7th. All students will be dismissed at 11:55 a.m. in order for WPS staff to have professional development sessions in the afternoon. Please note: there will be a scheduled lunch block for students prior to dismissal.

District Assessments If your child happens to come home and say, “I did a reading activity with a different teacher today!” or “I logged into iReady to do math today,” that’s just a sign that we have entered the beginning of the year elementary assessment window. You may have heard about some of this from your child’s classroom teacher on Back to School Night - there are three times over the course of the school year where we benchmark information about students in reading and math to better refine our general classroom instructional needs, identify and form intervention/enrichment groups, and monitor overall student growth. We will be sharing this assessment information out with families as well - more to come about that soon!

Smartwatches/Cell Phones in School Technology is amazing and wonderful! However, it can also be a huge distraction in our learning spaces during the school day. At the elementary level, personal tech devices (cell phones, smartwatches, etc.) are not allowed to be in use during the school day. We understand that students may need access to these devices for family communication either before the school day begins or once school is out for the day, so we ask that all cell phones and smartwatches remain off and in backpacks during the school day. We appreciate your support in this!

Science Letter Regarding Allergies In order to keep families informed about organic materials being used in science classes, the linked letter was sent out via School Messenger on Friday morning. Any questions can be directed to me or your child’s science teacher.

Updating Parent/Guardian Contacts in PowerSchool The following message was sent out to WPS families by WPS Technology last Tuesday. It’s really important that we have updated contact information for your family in our PowerSchool system, as that is how we reach you with important information!

Attached are instructions on reviewing and updating the parent/guardian contacts for your student in the PowerSchool Parent Portal.

If you don’t have a logon to the Parent Portal please contact the school that your student is in. A list of who to contact at each building is on the last page of the attached document. If you can’t remember your username or password, click on the Forgot Username or Password link on the main login screen.

The URL to connect to the portal is: Wakefield.PowerSchool.com

If you have a Parent Portal Logon, you can add, delete and update contacts. You will need to email the school in order to change the order of the contacts if needed.

The technology department can not give you access codes of any students. You must go through the school that your child is attending.

Updating Parent/Guardian Contact information

Note: It may take several days before your updates/additions are approved and uploaded into Power School. Each change must be reviewed by a staff member before being approved.

Lunchroom Volunteers It’s a new year, and we are once again looking for adults to support students during lunchtime!

Do you have any free time between 12:00-1:10pm on school days? Or 10:30-11:50am on early release days? Looking for a way to help out at Greenwood? Then join us for our lunchroom volunteer opportunities! If you’d like to come in and help support students while they’re eating lunch, please see the linked Sign-Up Genius to select time slots through the end of September. Single days, multiple days, one time slot, the whole lunch block…we welcome any and all helpers!

Lunchroom volunteers will help students with those tricky thermoses, hand out napkins and utensils, support students while they sort items into composting/food rescue/trash, and help clean tables at the end of each lunch. Oh, and the most important thing - bring smiles and laughter!

NOTE: You will need to have a CORI form completed before coming in for any lunch shifts - please contact Ms. Paiva about the process or to check if you have a current one on file.

Greenwood School Social Media We are on Facebook and Instagram, and one of my personal goals this year is to show off the fun we’re having throughout Greenwood! Check us out - @wpsgreenwood on both Instagram and Facebook!

As always, please do not hesitate to reach out with questions.

Thank you for everything you do to support your children and their learning! Let’s have a great week!

Tiffany Back

Greenwood School Calendar 2023-24

Now you can subscribe to the Greenwood School PTO calendar and have all of the important dates go right to your phone calendar.

For Android Phones: click here.

For Apple Phones: click here.

Need help? Click below.

Android Instructions

Apple Instructions

Sign Up to Be A Class Parent!

Greenwood School Class Parents help to streamline communication--questions and information--to and from teachers, serve as resources for other parents, and help teachers with crafts, projects and volunteer recruitment. As volunteers are allowed back in the school buildings this year, the role of the class parent will continue to evolve and we will be flexible according to the current needs of our teachers and kids. Read on for more details about what the Class Parent role will look like this year.

Email PTOBoard@greenwoodpto.org with questions or fill out the form at the bottom of this page to volunteer. If multiple parents from a class are interested, the role can be shared.