1998-Annual Town Report - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

The school-wide spelling bee winner was Halani bought and signed paper teddy bears which were dis- Moore and one of the fifth grade classes was success- played throughout the school. All of the monies col- fully involved in the Boston Globe Stock Market lected by this effort went to buy toy teddy bears for Game. The pre-algebra math curriculum Hands-On youngsters living in shelters across the area. Equations was implemented in the majority of the classrooms in grades 3-6. Some of the cultural pro- The students and their parents again showed their grams brought to the Coombs School were the Cabildo giving nature during the Christmas Holiday season. Caribbean program; sketch artist mark Mark Mitchell, Many, many boxes of food were donated by our stu- I the Bayside Skippers. The fourth graders, once again, dents to local food pantries. attended the Nutcracker at the Boston Ballet. Thanks go to the Mashpee Cultural Council for helping to The P.T.O. and parents are also to be thanked for attend the ballet. "Jump Rope for Heart" and "Aces their continued support. The proceeds from the very Day", along with the Fall Fitness Walk, were some of popular spaghetti supper annually go towards scholar- the activities conducted by the physical education ships for deserving Mashpee residents. Thanks also to department. the parents for supporting the collection of Campbell Soup Labels and Box Tops for Education. The profit As our school system continues to grow, space from these two programs provided many extras not becomes more of a problem. The Quashnet School usually found in a school budget. building will soon be at maximum capacity. A new fourth grade class was added to our roster. This will in The First Victory March to Mashpee High School `{ turn necessitate adding one additional class for two took place in November of 1997. The entire elemen- more years. In the fall of 1999, the Quashnet Valley tary school population paraded to Mashpee High School will be comprised of three classes in each School and participated in the Thanksgiving Day Pep grade. Rally. We were also fortunate enough to welcome the stu- The Quashnet Valley School is also very apprecia- dents to a new computer lab, housing 28 stations and tive of the several grants our school was awarded. } five printers. The old computers from the former lab The Willowbend fund was very generous in assisting were distributed to the classrooms. our reading program. Grants were also received from Computers for Kids, the Cape Cod Arts Council, and Along with our strong academic program, several the Mashpee Cultural Council to complete the mural additional programs were incorporated into our daily program. Drawings of famous scenes in children's lit- routine. Among them were: Drop Everything and erature are displayed throughout the school. Read, Fire Safety presented by the Mashpee Fire Department, D.A.R.E., and several classes participat- During the 1997-1998 school year, the Quashnet ed in our "reading buddies" program. The second River School maintained a 344+ enrollment. Three grade pen pals from Walpole visited with us and were kindergartens and two classes of grades 1 through 6 treated to an authentic Wampanoag dance. constituted the make up of the school. The fourth grade participated in the new MCAS Major concentration was placed on the School testing program. Council's and the teachers effort to develop the School Improvement Plan focusing particularly on the litera- The Quashnet Valley School had several guests cy effort. Some teachers in grades K-3 participated in visit including B. J. Hickman and his reading/writing courses of instruction, classroom monitoring and in music. Mr. Hickman was stimulating and entertain- implementation of the Bradley Won-Way Reading ing. Wingfield and Cabildo, an Afro-Caribbean musi- Program. It is the hope of the Quashnet River School cal dance ensemble also performed for us. Several staff that a stronger phonemic base coupled with gen- faculty members and students participated in this per- eral reading skills and whole language instruction that formance. Also the Cape Cod Jazz Ensemble delight- students will develop more proficient reading skills. It ed the students with a jazz concert. Career Day was a was soon found that the comprehensive phonemic, great success. The Mashpee businesses and citizens reading, listening and writing components of the pro- responded in large numbers to talk with the students gram allowed students using the program to develop about career opportunities. those literacy skills more quickly and systematically j than by using the basal reading program solely. All In keeping with our philosophy of giving back to teachers made efforts of daily supplemental reading the community, the Quashnet Valley School took part with students and parents. B.E.A.R. (Be Excited in the Cape Cod-wide "Random Acts of Kindness About Reading), D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything and Week." During this week of sharing the students Read),Book Buddies,School Book Swaps,Book Fair, 133