2017-2018 Kindergarten News

We would like to invite you to a Kindergarten Information Evening on Tuesday, June 6^th at 6:30 PM at the Swampscott Middle School in the Little Theater. The evening will be an opportunity to hear about a typical day in your child’s kindergarten day including information regarding the curriculum and schedule. In addition, there will be a panel of specialists from the district in the areas of health, social emotional development, student services and kindergarten readiness to answer any questions.

The following are some updates to the registration process this year:

·     Kindergarten school assignment letters will be mailed on or before August 15^th to allow for balanced class sizes in the district. Please note that siblings are placed at the same school unless there is an individual need for specialized district programming. 

·     Kindergarten screening will occur during the first three days of school, Tuesday, August 29^th through August 31^st with the first FULL day of school Tuesday, September 5^th.  Special Education laws require that all children be screened upon entrance into kindergarten.  The screening is a non-intensive scan of your child's learning skills and abilities and lasts approximately 30 minutes.  The purpose of the screening is to identify any learning issues that may exist which may require further evaluation and/or special education services.

The screening addresses the following developmental areas:  social interaction, visual-motor/adaptive skills, language and cognition, and gross motor/body awareness.  The screening measures how your child learns, not how much he/she has learned.  Vision and Hearing screenings will occur during the first month of school.

Kindergarten teachers feel the screening is a critical opportunity for the teachers to get to know each child and to make balanced classes for the school year in areas of learning and social emotional development.  A balanced class will allow for a successful transition into kindergarten and an optimal learning environment for each child as they embark on their educational journey in the Swampscott Public Schools.

We look forward to meeting each and every one of Swampscott’s entering kindergarten class in the fall. We look forward to meeting parents at the Kindergarten Information Night June 6^th at 6:30PM in the Little Teacher at the Swampscott Middle School.

In the meantime, if you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to call Martha Raymond, Director of Student Services.

STEM FAMILY NIGHT

From Mrs. Wilbur (adapted): 

A HUGE thank you to our staff, students and community members that put on a fantastic STEM Family Night.  We had wonderful attendance and received so many compliments on our program offerings and the creative and engaging activities for the community to try.  Our students were well prepared and they did a fantastic job showcasing the fabulous STEM activities we are doing district wide.  We also hosted our annual Science and Engineering Fair - so there was lots to see.

Winning projects this year were:

1st Place:  

Cam Lau and Joe Varghese with "Candy Chromatography"

2nd Place tie:

Kyle Lenihan and Harry Katz with "Microbacterial Effectiveness in Consuming Oil"

Mia Guthrie with "Determining Which Over-the-Counter Painkiller Dissolves the Quickest"

3rd Place:

Sam Agresti  and Grace DiGrande with "Determination of water hardness from Calcium Chloride and Magnesium Chloride solutions using the addition of soap"

These students have the opportunity to polish up their projects to enter in the MA Science and Engineering Fair next year.  

STEM Family Night once again was a true community evening that celebrates the great work our teachers and students are doing.  Thank you for giving your extra time for this wonderful event.  

From Mr. Franklin: 

And while STEM was stemming, just down the road, the Swampscott Public Library held it's 13th  Lee Golomb Cadiff Teen Poetry Contest awards ceremony. These amazing SHS poets received awards ($$, fame, adoring accolades!):

Honorable Mention:

Olivia Kiely ("Tyler")

Cenna Khatib ("Dear Sasha")

Lori Kholomyansky ("Homebound")

Third Place:

Megan Mentuck ("The World")

Second Place:

Olivia Reiser ("A Beautiful Mess")

First Place:

Olivia Barton ("A Portrait of the Coffee Drinkers")

Rising Star Award:

Jewel Soares ("To Spark A Flame")

Congrats to all.  I have copies of their poems if you'd like to read them.  "A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language." (W.H. Auden)