In Ms. Beinart's Art class with Pre-K students, they were making collages with all kinds of triangles learning what was the same and what was different...(sizes and colors)

First Grade Art Projects

The Woodville School first grade students made crayon rubbing prints with birds as the subject in Ms. Beinart's class.

This Week's Principal's Award Winner

This week’s Principal’s Award Winner is Destiny in Mrs. Ferguson’s fourth grade class. Destiny is a wonderful fourth grade role model. She is always ready to learn and puts forth effort into every assignment. More importantly, she follows all of the Woodville School's Core Values daily. Destiny is always respectful, caring, cooperative, honest, and responsible. She loves volunteering to read to the kindergarten in her free time.

This Week's Staff Spotlight

Emily Bedrick, Grade 2 Teacher
Ms. Bedrick has been a second grade teacher at Woodville for three years. She received her Bachelors of Science degree in Elementary Education from Boston University and she is currently pursuing her Master's Degree at Salem State. Ms. Bedrick is originally from Philadelphia, but has lived in the Boston/Cambridge area for eight years. She enjoys traveling, reading, and watching movies.

Rotary Club Donates Dictionaries to Woodville 3rd Graders

Eric Sidmore and Dick Reidy from the Wakefield Rotary Club presented dictionaries to our 77 third grade students. The dictionaries are used for schoolwork, homework and are theirs to keep. Principal Brian Middleton-Cox wishes to thank the Rotary for the gererostiy on behalf of the Woodville Students.

Honoring Our Veterans

The fourth grade students at the Woodville School performed poems and songs to honor our United States Vetrans. They did a wonderful job. Below, there is a slide show of photos and then two video clips.

Veteran's Day

The Woodville School will be CLOSED on Thursday November 11th in honor of Veteran's Day.

Celebrating Diwali

Students in our PreSchool program were treated to many activities to teach them about Diwali, a festival of lights. It is wonderful for our children to learn so much about other cultures. Pina Masciarelli guest and provided the students with a great learning experience.

Diwali Meaning & Significance

Deepavali is a festival where people from all age groups participate. They give expression to their happiness by lighting earthen 'diyas' (lamps), decorating the houses, bursting firecrackers and inviting near and dear ones to their households for partaking in a sumptuous feast. The lighting of lamps is a way of paying obeisance to god for attainment of health, wealth, knowledge, peace, valor and fame.

It is one time in the whole year that children volunteer to leave their beds long before the day begins. In fact, the traditional oil bath at 3 a.m, is the only chore that stands between them and the pre-dawn adventures. They emerge, scrubbed clean to get into their festive attire, and light up little oil lamps, candles and scented sticks(agarbathis), the wherewithal for setting alight crackers and sparklers.

On Diwali night, little clay lamps are lit in Hindus homes, but now a days colored electric lamps are also used. What is the significance of lighting a lamp? There is a logical answer to this question. It is through the light that the beauty of this world is revealed or experienced. Most civilizations of the world recognize the importance of light as a gift of God. It has always been a symbol of whatever is positive in our world of experience.

To Hindus, darkness represents ignorance, and light is a metaphor for knowledge. Therefore, lighting a lamp symbolizes the destruction, through knowledge, of all negative forces- wickedness, violence, lust, anger, envy, greed, bigotry, fear, injustice, oppression and suffering, etc. Competition is stiff, and even the little girl in silk frocks and their finery are watching out for the best sparklers and flowerpots, the rockets and Vishnuchakras, which light-up the night sky like a thousand stars. Grown-ups are the soul of generosity. Festive bonhomie abounds.

Cause and Effect

Mrs. Siafakas taught a lesson on Cause and Effect today. Students were able to see that the CAUSE of a stick pushing into a balloon creates the EFFECT that the balloon pops. In addition, another demonstration was that an egg cracks when dropped into a glass bowl. Students were then given a sentence and they had to finding their cause and effect matching partner.

Number Scroll

A student in Ms. Bedrick's class is very proud of himself of for getting up to 300 on his number scroll.

Acting out Literature

Students in Mrs. Foley's 4th grade class have been acting out the Roald Dahl books they have been reading.

This Week's Principal's Award

This week’s Principal’s Award Winner is Noah in Mr. Verge’s third grade class. He is always willing and ready to tackle any assignment that his teacher sets forth for him. He comes to school each day with a smile on his face and he is eager to learn. He always looks out for others, as he is a big brother and likes taking care of his little brother. Whenever his teacher needs something done in our out of the classroom, Noah is always willing to volunteer. His teacher relies on him in class and loves having his bright shining face and positive attitude in class each day.

Russell's Readers

Today, in Mrs. Russell's first grade class, the students were working on word study with works that end in -ap, -an, and -at. Students were sorting their words in small groups.

Kindergarten Word Study

Students in Mrs. Greatorex's PM Kindergarten class were learning about one, two, and three syllable words in their word study lesson this week.

Campbell's "Can Do" Kids

Students in Mrs. Campbell's Kindergarten class were learning to identify words in a phonics lesson. Students were called up to the big book to highlight the vocabulary words they were working on.

Woodville's Poetry Book

Picking up on the theme of Poetry from our school visitor, Jeff Nathan, all of our Woodville School students in grades K-4 will be published authors!!! We are writing a Poetry Book! This week an order form went home. Please fill it out and send it back to school as soon as possible so that we can ensure that we’ll have enough books ordered to run the printing. The due date is November 9, 2010.

No School Announcements

No School Announcements will be on the Wakefield Public Schools website (www.wakefield.k12.ma.us) as soon as the decision is made.

Announcements will be made as early as 6:00am through radio stations WBZ (1030/am) and WRKO (680/am) and TV Channels WBZ (Ch. 4), WCVB (Ch. 5), WHDH (Ch.7), and Fox 25.

No calls should be made to the School Department Offices, Police or Fire Departments for “No School” Information. These telephone lines must be kept free for emergency purposes.

In the case of a 2 hour delayed opening, the Woodville School arrival time will begin at 10:20am and school will officially begin at 10:40am. When there is a 2 hour delay, there will be no AM Kindergarten or AM Pre-School. For those students enrolled the Wakefield Academy Before School Program, the program will open at 9:00am.

This Week's Staff Spotlight

Jan Barry, Music Teacher
This is Mrs. Barry's 29th year teaching in Wakefield and she has always loved her job. Wakefield students and teachers are the best. Her other loves her husband Steve and two sons. Chris is working on his master's degree in international business and Ryan is an electrician and works with her husband. Mrs. Barry has a Bachelor's Degree from Lowell State College music education and a Master's Degree from Cambridge College. She loves going to the beach, playing piano, walking around the lake, and taking trips.

Poetry in Action

Author and Poet Jeff Nathan came to the Woodville School this week to teach our students in grades K through 4 about writing and poetry. The kids had a great time in his sessions. We'll be writing a school book of poetry that will be available to all families that wish to have one. Stay tuned....