Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Pucino Family Visit with the 8th Grade Thursday June 13th - Help needed!

Hello everyone,

   As many of you know from DC Night and from previous posts the family of fallen Plymouth soldier Matthew Pucino will be coming to Wayland Middle School on Thursday June 13th. The 8th grade class is both extremely excited and grateful that the Pucino family will be coming to spend the day here in Wayland. Over the course of the year we have learned a great deal about who Matthew was as a person, family member, and also as a soldier. We have also had the opportunity to pay our respect to Matthew at his gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery. As a culmination of this journey we are fortunate enough to be able to honor Matthew one final time this year together with his parents, sisters, and other family members. We hope this day will be one that our 8th graders will remember as they move on from middle school.
 
  We will be holding a special ceremony in the theater for the Pucino family beginning at 11:00 AM on Thursday June 13th. As parents of our 8th grade class you are all welcome to attend as well. Our 8th graders will be honoring Matthew with his family through poetry, a slideshow, presentations, music and some speeches. The Pucino family will also be speaking with the kids as well during this time. We will also be presenting the Pucino family with a special plaque and quilt along with a check for the Matthew Pucino Memorial Foundation from the funds we raised together at our DC Night Bake Sale Fundraiser.

  We would like to also show our appreciation to the Pucino family for taking the time to travel to the school just to meet with our 8th grade group of teachers, students and family. Matthew's parents have altered their plans so that they could be up here from Florida to meet with the kids and they do have a longer drive from Sagamore Beach all the way up to Wayland to get here and get home.

  We're looking for help one more time from our 8th grade community to provide the Pucino's with lunch before they leave the middle school and a dinner they could take home to eat together that evening. This will be quite an emotional day for them as we reflect together on the loss of Matthew and we would like to send them off on their way from Wayland Middle School well fed and with dinner when they get home.

  We're asking for help and volunteers one last time this year for food items for the Pucino family for their lunch and dinner. We've set up a link using volunteerspot.com, the same site the PTO uses, that can be used to sign up for items to bring in. All items can be dropped off the morning of June 13th in the main office. Anybody willing to volunteer to help set up for their lunch and also attend the ceremony can also sign up for this role on the sign up website.

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE SIGN UP (DIRECTIONS ARE ALSO BELOW IN PURPLE)

  If there is another item or way you wish to help that is not on the site we are welcome to all ideas! 8th grade parent Maureen Tillett will be coordinating this portion of the day with Mr. Battaglia. You can email them with any questions or other ideas! If all the spots get taken and you would still like to contribute something just send us an email.

Below are directions on accessing the link to sign up to volunteer, many thanks!


We're using VolunteerSpot (the leading online signup and reminder tool) to organize our upcoming activity.
Please sign up for Pucino Family visit to WMS - here's how it works in 3 easy steps:


   1. Click this link to go to our invitation page on VolunteerSpot: http://vols.pt/DfLL3w
   2. Enter your email address: (You will NOT need to register an account on VolunteerSpot) 
   3. Sign up! Choose your spots - VolunteerSpot will send you an automated confirmation and reminders. Easy!



Note: VolunteerSpot does not share your email address with anyone. If you prefer not to use your email address, please contact us and we can sign you up manually.


Thanks

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Q4 Progress reports

Hello everyone,

  Here is a quick update regarding 4th quarter progress reports for 8th graders only:

Progress reports for 4th quarter will be given out by individual subject teachers in their respective classes on Friday (some students may receive them Thursday if they drop class on Friday). Only students who have received a C+ or below on an individual progress report must have them signed by a parent or guardian. These will be due back to that subject teacher on Monday. Due to the DC trip there are fewer grades in many of the subjects which is why we do not do a formal progress report package as in previous quarters.

Please note that you will also be able to log in to Iparent to view your child's grades in each class. This system is in place at both the elementary and high school and will be in place for the 4th quarter grades as well:

CLICK HERE TO OPEN UP THE DIRECTIONS FOR ACCESSING AND SETTING UP YOUR IPARENT ACCOUNT

Thanks

Friday, May 10, 2013

DC Night Thank you

Hello everyone,


  On behalf of all the cluster teachers we would like to give out a big THANK YOU for taking the time to come to the middle school for D.C. Night. It is a chance for all of us to celebrate, reflect, and look back on the culminating experience for our 8th graders in their middle school career. We hope that the slideshow brought back fond memories for the students and gave you as parents a glimpse of their time in D.C. From their poems and portfolios we hope you also got a glimpse of the power of your child's ability to reflect and think deeply about the monuments, memorials, and social moments of the trip. Again thank you for your support for the trip and also for coming to enjoy D.C. night with all of us!

  We also want to thank everybody for their generosity with our bake sale fundraiser for the Matthew Pucino Memorial Foundation.We were floored by the excitement, bustling and generosity in the main lobby at D.C. night. We are in awe of the generosity of the community for such a meaningful cause. We were able to raise over $1600 with our bake sale fundraiser for the foundation. This will be presented to Matthew's family and in particular his mother, when they visit with the 8th graders in June as a donation on behalf of the entire 8th grade house (parents, teachers and the students). We will have more details about their visit in a few weeks as we put that day together.  Parents will also be invited to attend the special ceremony with the Pucino's if they wish.

Thanks again for a special evening!

Monday, May 6, 2013

DC Night Thursday May 9th 7:00PM

Hello everyone,

  Here are some updates and info for this week's DC Night. We look forward to seeing everybody that evening as we reflect on our experience in DC through pictures, projects, poetry and stories!

Schedule of events:

-DC Night begins at 7:00PM

-First Proceed to cafeteria and view our projects and listen to some poetry reflections from students at 7:00PM.

-After the cafeteria we will go to the theater for the DC Slideshow (~7:30 until 8:00PM)

-Memorial Projects and World Language Postcards on display in hallways

-DC Night Bake Sale Fundraiser in the Main Lobby

Thank you to those who have volunteered to bring in baked items for our DC Night Fundraiser for the Matthew Pucino Memorial Foundation (Please see the previous post from last week on this blog)! We have many students who have volunteered to assist with the bake sale that evening.

The bake sale will be "Donate What you Can, Take what you would like". There will be no price tags on any items. We will have ziploc bags of various sizes for you to pick and choose from our bake sale tables. We will also be selling some of the t-shirts for $10.00 made by Matthew's sisters for the memorial foundation in his name shown in the picture below as modeled by myself and my son Sam.

If you are able to provide a baked item for the fundraiser please fill out the google form below:

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Volunteer Bakers needed for 8th Grade Washington D.C. Night Fundraiser

Hello everyone,

  We will have a more detailed reminder to send out for our DC Night which we will send out to you early next week. We did want to let you know about the DC Night Bake Sale Fundraiser that will be held on DC Night Thursday May 9th.

CLICK HERE TO OPEN THE BAKE SALE SIGNUP FORM

  Over the past 3 years we have held a bake sale fundraiser for the Matthew Pucino Memorial Foundation. As many of you may know from your child's DC Trip and a previous blog post, Matthew was a solider from Plymouth, MA who was killed in Afghanistan in 2009. The 8th grade house has formed a close bond with the Pucino family since his death and we pay our respects to Matthew at Arlington National Cemetery while on the trip.



  This year is particularly special in that the Pucino family will be coming to the middle school to visit with the 8th graders in June. We are working on a special event for that day between the family, the students and the teachers and any parents who may wish to attend as well.


   The bake sale fundraiser we hold at DC Night is the last service piece that the 8th grade class will be doing here at the middle school. All of the proceeds we raise fron the fundraiser at DC Night will got to Matthew's foundation and be presented to the family when they come to visit in June.


   The Matthew Pucino Memorial Foundation was created by Matthew's two sisters. The purpose of the foundation is to raise money to provide for the needs of soldiers and their families, veterans and their families, wounded soldiers and their families, wounded veterans and their families, and families of the fallen. Over the past three years the 8th grade house has been able to raise through our fundraiser nearly  $3000.00 and we hope to continue this support this year as well. More information about the Foundation can be found by clicking on the picture below.


We are looking for parents and kids to volunteer to bake items to contribute to our bake sale fundraiser. If you are able to contribute a baked good for the bake sale it is greatly appreciated by the 8th grade house and also Matthew's family. Baked items can be brought to school to me the day of DC Night or be brought that night to the bake sale tables which will be set up in the main lobby.

You can volunteer to prepare a baked good one of two ways:

1. You can email kevin_farley@wayland.k12.ma.us to let us know

2. Or fill out the form below to sign up to bake (trying something new with this!)

3. If you are able to help provide assistance supervising the bake sale please also let us know!

CLICK HERE TO OPEN THE BAKE SALE SIGNUP FORM

Many thanks in advance for your time and generosity!