Hillside Advanced Band visits Senior Center

         Our Hillside Advanced Band had a wonderful experience playing for our Senior Citizens at the Senior Center this afternoon.  The audience enjoyed the music and were quite impressed by the students' musical skill.   The students were so excited and played with great energy.  I am so very proud of how well they performed and how eager they were to share their music with our oldest citizens. 

We owe a great big thank you to the parents who helped transport our musical gear to the Center and who assisted me in escorting the students there.  They also helped set up and break down our stage!  Thank you so very much to Mary Buffinger,  Hsiao Hui Chang, Noreen Finnegan, Mary Beth Mittaz,  and Anne Weinstein.  We of course could not have done this without your help.  

Best regards,

Lynne Doran

Hillside Band, Chorus, General Music Grades 1-5

Broadmeadow Grade 1 General Music

Broadmeadow comes alive with Service Learning!

Students at the Broadmeadow School are immersing themselves in acts of service!  

First and Fourth grade buddy classes learned about a company called TerraCycle. They learned that TerraCycle works with "families, schools, communities, and even corporations to find tips, stats, facts, tactics, and news to help them live a greener, cleaner lifestyle."  Students in these two classes found ways to eliminate the idea of waste in our school and worked on spreading the word of "zero waste" throughout the Broadmeadow community by increasing environmental awareness and action.  Here is an excerpt of a letter written to our principal:

Dear Ms. Gaberman, Let us tell you about our recycling project. Our project is about recycling and how we can make the world a better place through recycling. We were wondering if we could speak about our project in classrooms and maybe speak in an all school meeting or over the loud speaker. We've made posters in our classrooms and wondering if we could hang them up. We've also made boxes in our classrooms for people to recycle Elmer's Glue containers and Scotch Tape containers in. We hope you like our ideas, bye!From,Mrs. Schenker and Ms. Ohly's classrooms 1/10/14

Members of the afterschool Service Learning group, made up of students in 3rd through 5th grade, worked closely with the Needham Community Council to stock the shelves of the food pantry full of essential items.  The kids decided to focus on the issue of hunger and organized a food drive for the Needham Community Council Food Pantry.  In addition, the kids read books about hunger, listened to a representative and former "guest" of the Food Pantry talk about the great service the Food Pantry offers Needham families, and students even incorporated a "Free Rice Challenge" to encourage the Broadmeadow community to play games on freerice.com and earn rice donations for the World Hunger Programme.  On their final day, students went to the NCC Food Pantry and literally stocked the shelves full with the donated items! 

The Broadmeadow Third Grade Team decided as their Caring Community Service Learning Project to also partner with the Needham Food Bank.  Their theme was centered around "Caring Begins Close To Us ". Third Grade parents and children were given opportunities to volunteer at the Food Pantry.  Students used math and literacy tie ins with the food and materials being donated to understand more about local and global hunger needs.

Another round of the afterschool Service Learning group found their members working closely with the organization, A Room to Grow.  Through research, guest speakers, and videos, students learned about poverty and the mission of this organization: "to enrich the lives of babies born into poverty throughout their critical first three years of development." Through their good work, and the generosity of the Broadmeadow community, the Service Learning group raised $218.00 and collected 310 books for A Room to Grow.

In conjunction with the 100th day of school, Kindergartners worked hard to collect 100 pairs of socks.  The donations were sorted, counted and used for a variety of Kindergarten math activities. They were then donated to the Circle of Hope charitable organization. Kindergartners learned that Circle of Hope is a Needham-based organization that serves individuals and families in Boston who are living in homeless shelters, as well as those in transition and struggling for independent lives. 

Hillside's Water Project in 6th year!

Hillside Buddies:  Mr. Goneconto's Grade 2 Class teams up with Mrs. Katz's Grade 4 class for the Water Project


Amy Cicala’s 4th grade and George Goneconto’s 2nd grade classes had been buddy classes for the last eight years.  Six years ago, they were interested in introducing a central theme to unify their buddy class program.  Water awareness and conservation is their theme. The Buddy Water project is in its 6th year and we are very happy to welcome Mrs. Katz’s fourth grade class this year (as you may already know Mrs. Cicala retired last year).

A water curriculum was specifically designed as a series of lessons to introduce students to personal, community and global water usage, and water conservation.  Character enhancing traits of empathy and social responsibility are infused in the lessons.  The school year culminates in a service learning project, to support the UNICEF Tap Project and Typhoon Yolanda Relief Effort, Philippines.

Our intent is to raise the students' awareness of where water comes from, how it gets to them and, also the value of conservation.  We end the year with a service learning project wherein the students' will introduce the UNICEF Water Tap Project to the Needham community and another Charity group with a focus on Water.   The last five buddy classes raised over $6000.

Earth Day Water Project Presentation

Mr. G and Mrs. Katz's buddy classes

Water Chant

Learning about water

Visitng the water plant

Pvt Gerard Bannon Comes to Eliot for a Visit

Pvt. Gerard Bannon with Mrs. Claus

Throughout the course of this school year, the students at the Eliot School have been corresponding with an Eliot alum who is in the Marines. Pvt. Gerard Bannon has received Halloween candy, many letters, and many pounds worth of toiletry items to share with his fellow soldiers. Last month, Pvt. Bannon came to the Eliot to visit the staff and students. It was wonderful to see him looking so well. He spent time in several of the classrooms of his former teachers, answering numerous questions from many students. We all loved seeing him and look forward to seeing him again in June when he returns to attend his sister Elaine’s high school graduation.  

The Eliot Green Kids

2013 -2014 John Eliot Green Kids

For the past eight years, Eliot has been very fortunate to have parent Lisa Gordon head up a group of fifth graders called The Green Kids. She founded this program with the intent of teaching the kids about environmental changes that they can make and bring home ideas that will bring about changes. Their motto has been "Small changes make a big difference." This year's theme was Green Eating.

Some of the programs that the Green Kids have done are the Nike Reuse-a-Shoe used sneaker collection.  In each of the past six years of collecting old sneakers they have donated more than 1200 pairs that will have new life as play surfaces around the globe. They have also made numerous "No Idling, Please" signs that have been hung up by the car line, learned about wind power through matchbox car races using their own wind power by blowing through straws, and the value of healthy snacks by making recipes using several kinds of fruits and other healthy ingredients.

Earth Week in April is the highlight of the year for the Green Kids. A pet from the World Wildlife Fund that somehow relates to this year's theme is symbolically adopted and at the Earth Day Assembly, the school learns of the name that has been chosen for the animal.  Teachers are given an informational sheet with facts about the animal to share with their students. Through a naming contest, our pet is named and the classroom with the winning name gets to keep a stuffed representation of the animal in their classroom. There is a recycled art show that all the students are invited to create and display a project made solely out of recycled materials that relates to the theme of the year. Typically 35-40 works of recycled art are displayed. Classroom teachers are invited to save energy by working in a lights off classroom for at least 30 minutes for one day.  Sudbury Farms donates apples so every kid celebrates Eliot’s Earth Day with a healthy snack. Earth Day is always a walk to school day.  Walkers sign a recognition board which is displayed in the lobby. The students learn a song or two which is performed at the Earth Day assembly.  In addition, all of the 5^th grade Green Kids perform a presentation based on the theme of the year at the Earth Day assembly.

Over the years, Green Kids has sponsored programs at the library and has brought in speakers for town-wide parent educational programs.  Green Kids Eliot has been recognized by the state for its work at the school.

Our sincere gratitude goes out to Mrs. Lisa Gordon for all that she has done in educating Eliot fifth graders about the benefits of being "Green". 

At Eliot - Ms. Kay's Grade 3 Ethiopian Pen Pals

On Monday, March 10, students in 218 received responses to the letters sent to our Ethiopian pen pals! Students got to learn about our overseas friends' favorite colors, ages, and much more. We were thrilled to even get some fun drawings back! Our response letters are being sent back at the end of the week, and we hope to hear one more time from them before the end of our 2013-2014 school year.

"Teaching Tech Tips": A Community Service Learning After School Project

About a dozen Needham High School students have volunteered many of their Tuesday and Thursday afternoons during the months of February and March to help explain iPads, apps, E-readers and office tools to Needham residents.  This program, run in the town library's conference room, was a huge success.  Needham staff member Christopher Koch provided the training and support for the Needham students.  Not only did this allow "student experts" to practice their teaching skills with a novice audience, but it also allowed community members to see what types of supports our students and today's technologies are capable of providing.