PawPrints October 27th 2008

PTO

PAW PRINTS

October 27, 2008 www.northandoverpublicschools.com/thomson CLICK HERE FOR PDF VERSION

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Nov. 3rd – 5th Grade Bully Busters – Be a good Citizen
Nov. 4th – No School–Full day professional development
Nov. 6th – Open Mike Event
Nov. 11th – No School – Veterans Day
Nov. 12th – Salute to our Veterans
Nov. 12th – PTO Meeting @7:00pm
Nov. 24th - 25th – EARLY RELEASE DAYS – Teacher/Parent Conferences
Nov. 27th & 28th – No School - Thanksgiving

FROM MRS. SHARKEY… Thank You Parents! I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for the help and support you have given me over the years. I have enjoyed and benefited from our work together. Knowing you and having your constant support has been one of the many joys of teaching at Thomson. It has been a privilege to teach your children and I greatly appreciate all the help you’ve given me over the years. Many thanks! Mrs. Sharkey

FROM MR. GILLIGAN…
Thank you Joe Smith. Thomson School graduate and children's author Joe Smith visited from Houston, TX and read excerpts from his book "The Substitute Kid" to our kids this past Friday. Ms. Crosby did a great job organizing this event and our students had an enjoyable experience.

*IMPORTANT INFORMATIONAL MEETING* REDISTRICTING ADVISORY COMMITTEE PUBLIC HEARING TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28TH AT 7PM NORTH ANDOVER MIDDLE SCHOOL AUDITORIUM. Get involved, voice your opinions, and get your questions answered. The Redistricting Advisory Committee, a representative committee from all schools, will be hosting a public hearing to seek input on the proposed redistricting plan for our elementary schools. The Committee is in its initial stages of reviewing proposals for possible redistricting to provide equitable and appropriate placement for students in the elementary schools.
The Committee has generated the following criteria/factors for consideration to guide redistricting decisions:
•   Neighborhood schools - Transportation costs/length of time on bus
•   K-5 at every school
•   Class sizes
•   Equitable space in schools (music, art, library, etc.)
•   Location of district programs (sped, ELL)
•   Continuity of incoming 5th grade
•   Thomson School choice
•   Least disruptive to school system
•   Title I not a driver
•   Utilization of space at new preschool
•   Equity of programs at each school
•   Impact from previous moves
•   3-5 year solution
•   Projected population growth
•   Trends in enrollment
•   NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) criteria
•   Diversity

Conferences: Parent/Teacher conferences are scheduled for November 24th and 25th. Teachers will be sending a letter home with information on sign-up times.

Important Dates: November 4th – No School –Full day professional development
November 24th and 25th – early release days – teacher/parent conferences

5th Grade presentation “ Be Kind, Be a Friend- Prevent Bullying Before it Starts” will be presented by Mr. Gilligan-Principal, and Officer Sean Daley of the NAPD. This will be an in school presentation to our 5th graders during community time the week of November 3. Other grades will be scheduled to see this presentation as well.

FYI: MCAS: Save the Dates: The dates below are just the window for testing? Exact testing days will be sent home after the tests have been scheduled. March 30-April 14: ELA MCAS for grades 3,4, and 5; March 31: Long Composition Writing Prompt: Grade 4 May 11-28: Math MCAS Grades 3,4,5; May 12-28: Science/Technology MCAS and History/Social Science MCAS: Grade 5

School Committee member Stan Limpert is Chairing the superintendent search committee and would like to get information out to parents regarding an "Open Mike Event" & "Electronic Focus Group". Both are being set up so the search committee can hear input from parents on the qualities they are looking for in a superintendent. The open mike event is scheduled for Thursday, November 6th from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the Town Hall Conference Room on the 2nd floor. Parents unable to attend can submit information via email to suptsearch@northandover.k12.ma.us.

CORI FORMS: Recently, the STATE revised the procedures for processing CORIs. Effective immediately, a photocopy of a valid photo id must be included with each CORI form. Valid identification would include a drivers license, state issued identification card or passport. Staff and volunteers who have a current CORI on file with the district will not be impacted by this regulation change until their current CORI expires.

Student Council Elections. Thomson School Student Council will be holding school wide elections on November 3, 2008. Students in grades 3 to 5 received information and permission slips last week, copies will be available on the Thomson website. Good luck to candidates!
Inviting Submissions for the Winter Apple Seed Magazine. Students in grades 3-5 can submit writing, music, and artwork to be considered for publication in the upcoming issue of

AppleSeed Magazine. AppleSeed showcases outstanding work by 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students in Andover, Lawrence, Methuen, and North Andover public schools. Each school can submit up to 15 works from which AppleSeed will select items to publish. Teachers will be sharing detailed guidelines with students this week. Students much submit their work through their teachers by November.
What Can We Submit?
Students in grades 3-5 may submit original works of the following types: Poems, short stories, letters, journal entries, essays, reviews, and any other works of writing. AppleSeed won't publish works, which exceed 250 words and prefers shorter works. Drawings, illustrations, sculptures or any other original artworks of any type. AppleSeed publishes only in black and white on 5½” x 8½” pages and may choose to reduce images from their original size or to use only a portion of the picture. Musical compositions in almost any format and notation.
How Does AppleSeed Define "Original Works"?
Students may only submit work that has not been previously published in any format or media.
AppleSeed advisors will screen student work accordingly. Visit http://www.glec.org/enrichment/appleseed.php to see a sampling of pieces published in recent issues and http://www.glec.org/enrichment/appleseedoverview.php to see a link to the latest guidelines.

PTO UPDATES:
The Genevieve fundraiser has closed and was a great success!! Thank you to everyone who supported the Genevieve fundraiser! Parent's will be able to pickup their orders the week of November 17th. Stay tuned for more details.

HOLIDAY FAIR VOLUNTEERS STILL NEEDED! The Holiday Fair is a fun filled day for families that includes arts and crafts, games, food, raffles and shopping. The fair will be on November 22nd from 10-3. Several volunteers are needed to work at various stations at the fair.   You can volunteer as little as an hour so please consider signing up. If you would like to volunteer to work the day of the fair, please contact Sherrie Cashman @ sherriecash@verizon.net or 978-688-9101.

The Annual Thomson School Holiday Fair will take place this year on Saturday, November 22nd. Once again, we will be raffling off theme baskets filled with items donated by the Thomson students. Items can be dropped off in the marked boxes set up outside the classrooms. All donations must be received by Friday November 7th. Please make sure items are new and unopened. The following are the themes for each grade level: Kindergarten-Be a Princess, Boy Action Figures; First Grade - Playful pets, Arts and Crafts for ages 4-7; Second Grade - Family Game Night Ages 5-7, DisneyMania; Third Grade - Movie Night, Cooking with Kids; Fourth Grade - Sports, Family Game Night (ages 8 and up); Fifth Grade Sleepover, Everything North Andover. If you have any questions please contact Holly Breen at HKBreen@comcast.net or (978) 258-8538.

Calling all artists! The PTO is looking for a Thomson student to design the cover of this year’s holiday fair thank you cards. The cards are sent to each business that donates to the fair. If you would like to submit a drawing for consideration, please forward to the PTO no later than November 10th.   The drawing must be on letter size paper and have a winter and/or holiday theme. At our meeting on November 12th, the PTO will pick the drawing to be used for the card. If you have any questions, please contact Laurie Buzlaff at laurie.burzlaff@verizon.net or 978-852-2829.

North Andover CAM is looking for volunteers to run the camera for town meetings/events. Volunteers will be trained on how to use the equipment and cameras. If interested, please contact Brian Fraser at bfraser@northandovercam.org or 978-687-6570.

Redistricting Advisory Committee Public Hearing: The Redistricting Advisory Committee has scheduled a public hearing for October 28th at 7:00 p.m. in the North Andover Middle School Auditorium. The purpose of the public hearing is to allow community members an opportunity to provide input on the proposed redistricting. In addition, community members can submit questions/suggestions to the Advisory Committee via email at redistricting@northandover.k12.ma.us.
Community Programs will be providing a babysitting service for all families attending the October 28th redistricting meeting at the middle school. The service is available for students grades K through 5. Please remember that this is not a drop in program, you must pre register for a slot in order for us to properly staff the program. Please contact Community Programs at 978-794-3080 for further information.

Do you have a question about the PTO agenda or what was covered at the last meeting? Do you have a topic you would like to discuss at our next meeting? If so, please email Laurie Burzlaff @ laurie.burzlaff@verizon.net or Sherrie Cashman @ sherriecash@verizon.net.   We value your input and strongly encourage all parents to contact any PTO board member with questions or concerns.

Did you know you can help raise money for Thomson School every time you shop at Target? Go to www.target.com/tcoe and enroll Thomson as your school of choice.

Attention High School Musical Lovers!! The school that purchases the most tickets to NSMT's presentation of High School Musical 2: The Stage Show will receive a visit from the professional actors from the HSM 2: The Stage Show cast along with the NSMT Performance Troupe. The performance troupe and cast will come to the winning school for a Question & Answer session about their acting careers and teach the students the "What Time Is It?" dance from Disney's High School Musical 2...so don't delay, purchase your tickets today! Remember.... We can do this...Because we're all in this together!! Tickets for High School Musical 2: The Stage Show make a great holiday gift, especially with proceeds ($10 for every ticket sold) coming back to the Thomson School.... mention it to your friends and family.... don’t forget to use our special code when ordering tickets. That code again is FTES1. Please contact Sherrie Cashman at sherriecash@verizon.net with any questions.

Salute to our Veterans Celebration: Plans are underway to salute our Veterans! On Wednesday, November 12th, the Thomson School will welcome all branches of the Armed Forces as well as distinguished guests to help honor all that have made this country a great place to live! We would like to invite you to send in pictures of family members that have served in the Armed Forces previously or are currently active today so that we can put together a slide show that will play continuously while the event is going on. Pictures should be emailed to Kathy O’Neill at ONeillk@northandover.k12.ma.us or sent in via backpack to Mrs. O’Neill’s attention. If you choose to send an actual picture, please make sure that it is a duplicate copy…we cannot guarantee that pictures will get back to you, so please send in a scanned or duplicate copy. Please include any information (name/date of service/branch of service) that you would like. The deadline to submit a picture is Thursday, October 30th.   We are also inviting any servicemen/servicewomen to this event. If you know of anyone that would like to attend, please let us know! Light refreshments will be served following the salute! If you would like to volunteer, please contact Sherrie Cashman at sherriecash@verizon.net. Please watch the Paw Prints for more information on this special event.

THOMSON ALUMNI: CALLING ALL ALUMNI!!! If you’d like to get involved at with the Thomson School please get in touch with us! You can email Kate Rozzi at thomsonalum@yahoo.com. We are in the process of creating a list of alumni who want to get involved and will be planning an open house hopefully around Thanksgiving and are looking to create opportunities for alumni to donate their time or money to the Thomson.

ACADEMIC OPPORTUNITIES: Building Structures and Chess Club have started up and the kids are having a great time! Just a reminder - Building Structures will go until 10/24 for the first group (last names beginning with A-L) and the second group (last names beginning with M-Z) will start 10/31. Sunshine Math will be starting up in November! We have over 100 students signed up for this program! Any questions contact Doreen Albrecht at (978) 689-0931 or doreenla@comcast.net.

RECYCLING MADE EASY. America recycles day November 15 - WHAT CAN WE RECYCLE: Booklets, books, boxes, brochures, calendars, cardboard, catalogs, all types of envelopes, all types of paper, file folders, letters, magazines, reg. mail and junk mail, newspapers, packing paper, pamphlets, phone books, writing tablets, aluminum and metal cans, glass jars and bottles, rigid plastics #1-7. You don’t need to remove staples, paper clips, tape, spirals or windows from your paper prior to recycling. Labels on cans, bottles, ok. Teacher's, parents, kids check out and register at WWW.greenteam.org. This is valuable website providing pre-determined activities relating to recycling. Registering get school notarized, more people who participate the more rewards you may be eligible for.
RECYCLING TIP: Keep Them Hydrated & Recycling! With the chill in the air, the heat is on. Ward off that first round of colds by keeping your kids hydrated and please remind them to recycle those disposable water bottles! With single-stream recycling, emptied bottles can now be put in the red recycle bins right in the classrooms along with the paper! Did you know 100 million bottles end up in landfills every day? Only 23% of disposable bottles are recycled.

AROUND TOWN:
LIGHT ONE LITTLE CANDLE BROOK DRIVE – Extended until 10/31. Help the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute by donating books for families affected by cancer. Books must be new. There is a wish list on Amazon.com. Books do not need to be bought on the website. For more information, please visit: www.dana-farber.org/pat/support/resource-rooms/donate-books.html

NAPAC NEWS: Please join the North Andover Parent Advisory Council for Children with Special Needs on Thursday, November 20th at 7:00pm in the lecture hall of the High School. The NAPAC will be hosting Bernard Kavanagh, a Certified Special Needs Advisor with Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management and Tim Sindelar, a partner with the firm of Ames, Hilton and Sindelar.    Mr. Kavanagh will be addressing issues regarding long-term care and the use of trusts for a child with special needs. Mr. Sindelar's practice, located in Cambridge MA, focuses on special education and health care. The meeting is open to the public and is free of charge.

The North Andover Figure Skating Club is now accepting applications for the new season beginning November 1, 2008. Please visit: www.nafigureskating.org for more details.

The North Andover Booster Club has on-line registrations open for the following sports. For more information and to register please visit www.eteamz.com/nabc.   Basketball, Grades 5-8, 8/1 – 10/31; Basketball, Grades 2-4, 8/1 – 11/15; Wrestling, Grades 4-8, 9/1 – 10/31; Volleyball, Grades 5-8, 10/1 – 1/15

Spring 2009 REGISTRATION: Registration for the North Andover Soccer Association (NASA) 2009-spring season has initiated as of October 15th 2008 using our popular on-line registration system found on our web site at www.nasoccer.com. Returning or new members may register for the spring 2009 season using this link. Walk-in Registration; due to the extremely low number of walk in registrations for this past spring season, NASA will only be accepting On Line registration for the spring season, and future seasons. If you have any questions or issues please contact the registrar, Peter Karalis, at registrar@nasoccer.com. After December 1st 2008, NASA will only be accepting late registrations (with late fee) for U12 and U14 travel, and after February 1st 2009 (with late fee) for U6, U8 and U10, via the on-line registration system until team rosters are filled.

GOT BASKETBALL?? The North Andover Crusaders Special Olympic Basketball Team will begin its third season on Tuesday, November 11th! This Special Olympics Unified Sports Basketball Team includes players (ages 8-18) with intellectual disabilities playing along side similarly aged non-disabled teammates. Special Olympics Unified Sports brings together Special Olympic Athletes and Team Partners building friendship, character, and leadership and inspiring greatness in ALL who participate. Come join the fun! The team will practice Tuesday nights (excluding holiday weeks) starting November 11th through February 24th. Practices are held at the Joseph N. Hermann Youth Center. The Elementary School teams will practice from 5:30 to 6:30pm and the Middle and High School teams will practice from 6:45 to 7:45pm.     WE ARE ALSO LOOKING FOR ASSISTANT COACHES!!! Volunteering for the Special Olympics is rewarding experience, provides a meaningful contribution to our community, and is a lot of fun!! Please contact Kathleen Keith at northandovercrusaders@hughes.net for more information.