Week of February 12th, 2024
Important Dates:
February 19th - 23rd - No School - February Vacation
February 27th - Dunstable Town Budget Meeting 7 pm
March 1st - Half-Day 12:15 pm Dismissal - Teacher Led
March 6th - Groton Town Budget Meeting 7 pm
March 7th - Kindergarten Information Night 6:30-7:30 pm
March 8th - Half-Day 12:15 pm Dismissal - Data to Inform WIN
March 10th - Daylight Savings Time Begins (Spring Forward!)
March 15th - Trimester II Ends
March 22nd - Half-Day 12:15 pm - Parent Conferences
Highlights
Pencil Grams
Our Student Council held the 2nd Annual Pencil Grams fundraiser to support the 4th grade's graduating class gift fund. They assisted in collecting these friendly notes and putting them on a pencil ready to be delivered on Valentine's Day. Thank you to our families and student council teacher representatives for ensuring this was a success for our students!
Bookmark Contest
Mrs. Kelley, SU's Library/Tech Innovation Teacher, is hosting a bookmark creation contest for all interested SU students! The Kindergarten and 1st-grade theme is The Adventure of Reading to show ways reading is fun! The theme for our 2nd 3rd and 4th graders is aligned with the Massachusetts School Library Association’s theme of “Every Story Matters.”
Here are the links for the entry forms:
Memorial Day Celebration ~ May 24, 2024
Swallow Union will be holding a Memorial Day assembly in honor of our veterans who have served our country. This celebration will include having local veterans in our community attend a light breakfast before the whole school assembly, which will then be led in song by Mrs. Mohan.
We wish to connect our community service members with our students to thank them for their service in keeping us safe and to honor and celebrate our amazing country with pride and patriotism.
If you are a parent, caregiver, grandparent, aunt, uncle, or extended family member of a student at Swallow Union please reach out to Jill Jarvis, jjarvis@gdrsd.org, so we can be sure to formally invite you to attend. We are also seeking veterans within the community who would also be willing to attend so please reach out with their names or ways in which we can reach out to them.
Ti-GRRR Awards
G ~ We believe that one can develop a GROWTH mindset and learn new things.
R ~ A RESPECTFUL school community member is considerate of others.
R ~ A RESPONSIBLE school community member takes care of themselves, others and their environment.
R ~ A RESILIENT school community member takes on challenges, learns from mistakes and experiences growth through this process.
Anna Mulvany (4O) has shown Responsibility for her learning in ELA by working very hard with her book club partner. Great job, Anna!
Graham Edgar (4O) is Responsible for his learning each and every day. He is always focused and always on task. Thank you for being such a great example to your peers, Graham!
Olivia Schreiber (4O) has shown Responsibility for her learning in ELA by working very hard with her book club partners. Great job, Olivia!
Elijah Wenrich (3D) jumped right in to help our new student navigate the cafeteria. Elijah is always being helpful, kind, and Responsible. Keep up the fabulous work, Elijah!
Jamie Smith (1A) consistently works hard to challenge himself in school and recently chose a voluntary extension math puzzle to challenge his math skills and showed outstanding Resilience!
Sam Moses (1A) had missed a few days of school for some family time and when he returned he showed so much Responsibility when he asked for his missed assignments.
Three students in Mrs. Lattini's class earned a Ti-GRRR card for showing Responsibility when they cleaned the art table following an art lesson. The art materials were left out and these students showed care in keeping the classroom clean. Good Job to Avinsha K, Isla Vitolo, and MacKenzie Ravagno.
DIBELS Announcement
We administer the DIBELS 8th Edition (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) assessment to all of our K-4 students. This Tier I assessment is administered 3 times a year for all students in grades K-4 (beginning, middle, and end of year). A series of subtests at each grade level generates a composite score. We use the performance and progress data from DIBELS assessments to support instructional planning and to track student literacy growth over time.
Your student’s DIBELS composite score is now being shared through your parent/guardian portal in Schoolbrains. The information will be available to view via SchoolBrains on February 16, 2024.
Here is a Family Tip Sheet that will provide you with an overview of DIBELS and help you understand your student’s composite score. If you have questions or would like to review your child’s DIBELS score in more detail, please do not hesitate to contact the educators working with your child.
PTO NEWS
PTO Updates
March 7 - PTO General Meeting, 7pm. Find out what we've got planned this spring! School Committee members will also be there to answer questions on the override.
March 8 - Trivia Night! Grab a sitter and join us for a great adult night out! Register here by 3/1:Trivia Night 2024 Registration - Google Forms. Check out the online Silent Auction, going live on 3/1: http://www.32auctions.com/SUPTOTRIVIA
March 15 - Author Day. Ralph Masiello will be joining us for the day! Students enjoy reading the author's books ahead of time and getting them signed, you can check out some of Ralph's work here: Amazon.com: Ralph Masiello
SEPAC Events
G-D Special Education Parent Advisory Council
Message from GDEF ~ Please consider a donation.
The Groton Dunstable Education Foundation (GDEF) is a local nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting innovative and inspiring grants to enhance the quality of our students’ education. In the last academic year, GDEF awarded 12 grants across district schools totaling over $16,000 (information about all funded projects can be found here). If you or any loved ones are looking to make a year-end donation that will have an impact on your children's education, please consider donating to GDEF here. Your donations are directly returned to the hands and minds of students in the form of science, arts, technology, math, literacy, social-emotional learning, and civics programming.
Thank you for your support, The GDEF Board of Directors
The GDEF recently and graciously granted us funding to buy 16 wordless picture books for each of our Kindergarten classrooms. These books are an example of all the ways GDEF supports our students! Thank you for enriching our learning community!
School Start Time
The school day begins right at 8:55 am and both bus and parent drop off areas are completed at this time as well. If you bring your child to school after this time, please park in the parking lot and walk your child into the office to be signed in. Please do not drop your child off at the front door alone and please refrain from parking in the fire lane for safety reasons.
Absences
If your child(ren) will be absent for any reason, parents/guardians are responsible for notifying the school by calling in the absence. All student absences must be reported by 8:55 am by calling (978) 649-7281, choose option #1 and provide your child(rens) name, teacher, and reason for absence. Anyone who calls after this timeframe may receive an automated call regarding your child’s absence from school without notification. This is in place to ensure all students are accounted for either at home or in school.
Wellness Policy
Below please find the District’s Wellness Policy that we follow in order to ensure we are reinforcing healthy habits as well as student allergies. Teachers will be working with their Room Parents, School Administration, School Nurses and our PTO to ensure food that comes into school for school sponsored events (not including PTO sponsored events) such as special classroom events and school-wide gatherings, adhere to this policy. Thank you in advance for helping us with this throughout the school year.
