Monday, March 25, 2013

Monday Message

Many updates this week!

Early Release
Friday, March 29th is an early release day for all students. Dismissal is at 12:15 pm and lunch will be served. There are no after school activities.

Grade One Parent Coffee
There will be a principal coffee for grade one parents this Thursday, March 28th at 8:30 am in the Lowell lounge. Topics covered include: curriculum, assessment, and instruction.

Spirit Day
There will be a NEON spirit day this Friday, March 29th. Wear your brightest colors to celebrate spring!

Get Wrapped Up in Reading
Our monthly reading challenge is in the third week! We are getting closer to our goal. I will post a picture of our reading "snake" later!

Thursday, March 21, 2013

IMPORTANT: SCHOOL NEXT FRIDAY

In order to make up missed school due to snow days, we will have school on Friday, March 29th. It will be a half day. Dismissal will be at 12:15 pm and lunch will be served.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Updated MCAS Schedule

Due to snow, we have had to readjust our MCAS testing schedule. The updated schedule is below.


This week:
Tuesday, March 19 - No MCAS
Wednesday, March 20 - Grade 3 ELA Session 1
Thursday, March 21 - Grade 3 ELA Session 2
Friday, March 22 - Grade 3 ELA Make up

Next week:
Monday, March 25 - Grade 4 ELA Long Composition and Grade 5 Field Trip
Tuesday, March 26th - No MCAS
Wednesday, March 27th - No MCAS
Thursday, March 28th - Grade 4 ELA Long Composition Make Up
Friday, March 29th - No School

The week after:
Monday, April 1st - No MCAS
Tuesday, April 2nd - Grades 4 & 5 ELA Session 1
Wednesday, April 3rd - Grades 4 & 5 ELA Session 2
Thursday, April 4th - Grades 4 & 5 ELA make up

Monday, March 18, 2013

Monday Message

This Week
PTO will meet on Tuesday at 7pm in the Lowell lounge. School Site Council will not be held this week due to the Comprehensive Town Planning Meeting. We are working with members to reschedule this month's meeting.

MCAS Testing
Third and fourth graders will be in MCAS testing this week. The schedule is in the Monday Message from last week. It is important that students get a good nights sleep and have breakfast the day of testing.

Tardiness
We are experiencing an increase in the amount of students that are tardy every day. Students must be in the building by 8:20 am every day. If students are tardy, they miss instruction. It is important that your student is on time.

Notices
A reminder that paper notices go home every Thursday. Please check your student's backpack on these days.



Friday, March 15, 2013

Get Wrapped Up in Reading

Our snake is growing, which means we are making a lot of progress towards our reading goal! Our preK students made this snake head and the "body" is made up of reading slips from the entire school!

All the tallying is done for week two and we read 878 hours giving us a total of 1,560 hours!
Ms. Dalton's class read the most hours for PreK-2nd grade with 87.5 hours

Ms. Sudbay's class read the most hours for Grades 3-5 with 108.5 hours!

The following classes DOUBLED their hours in one week!
Mrs. Peterson-Eacott
Mrs. Buonomo
Mrs. Moriarty
Ms. Levine

Monday, March 11, 2013

Monday Message

The busiest month of the school year is underway. MCAS testing, conferences, and our reading challenge!

7 Wishes for $7,000
The live event at Donahue's Friday night was a great success. We are still awaiting final totals. Thank you to all that contributed and help plan. The funds raised go right back to our school!

Early Release
There will be half days on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week for conferences. Dismissal is at 12:15 on each of these days and lunch will be served.

Lowell Lowdown
The Lowdown will be up on our website today or tomorrow. It is a new version of the Lowdown and there is a lot of useful and interesting information included in it. Please check it out!

MCAS
Last week's blog post about MCAS testing did not include the dates for grade 5 testing. The corrected dates are below
Lowell Testing Schedule:
Grade 3:
March 20th - ELA Session 1 - Reading 
March 21st - ELA Session 2 - Reading 
March 22nd - ELA Make up - Reading
Grade 4:
March 19th - ELA Long Composition - Writing 
Grade 4 and 5:
March 26th - ELA Session 1 - Reading 
March 27th - ELA Session 2 - Reading 
March 28th - ELA Make up - Reading & Writing

More information can be found on the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education: http://www.doe.mass.edu/mcas/overview.html

Monday, March 4, 2013

Monday Message

Hello! I hope you had a wonderful weekend.  Today Lidia DiIeso, a Cunniff teacher, began a five week principal internship at the Lowell. We are happy to have Lidia with us as she studies school leadership. You may see her with me directing traffic, or she may reach out to our parent community as she takes on some projects here.

Important PTO update!

We encourage ALL our Lowell families to participate in our 7 Wishes campaign both online and at our live event on March 8.

Join the auction fun at www.32auctions.com/lowell-7-wishes and support our school and together we can break all fundraising records for the Lowell.   Many items are well under $50.00 and with close to 150 items you are sure to find something that suits both your family budget and taste.  

*Over $13,000 value in auction items  
*Over the $7,000 has already been raised 
*Lots of incredible deals still
*Online bidding will end Wednesday 3/6 at 5:00 PM 
*Some of the items will have Final Bidding at the live event on March 8th at Donohue’s, 7 PM.
*Ms. Kaplan will MC our Live Event at Donohue’s on Friday March 8th for a fun evening filled with raffles, wheel of chance, and more. No admission and free appetizers.

100% of the money raised goes directly back into our school for our children. Help us fill these wishes and more!

MCAS Testing
MCAS is fast approaching. The Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System is a state-wide mandated test that 

  • test all public school students in Massachusetts, including students with disabilities and English Language Learner students;
  • measure performance based on the Massachusetts Curriculum Framework learning standards;
  • report on the performance of individual students, schools, and districts.
Lowell Testing Schedule:
Grade 3
March 20th - ELA Session 1 - Reading 
March 21st - ELA Session 2 - Reading 
March 22nd - ELA Make up - Reading
Grade 4
March 19th - ELA Long Composition - Writing 
March 26th - ELA Session 1 - Reading 
March 27th - ELA Session 2 - Reading 
March 28th - ELA Make up - Reading & Writing

More information can be found on the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education: http://www.doe.mass.edu/mcas/overview.html


Early Release Days
Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (13th, 14th, and 15th) of next week will be half days for conferences. Dismissal will be at 12:15  pm and lunch will be served. 



Conferences
Conference appointment slips will be coming home this week. Conferences are occurring throughout next week.