February 2017
Our annual W.L.C. Spring Breakfast will be held on March 11, 2017 at Burrillville High School. Please come out to support our school! You will see many teachers there throughout the morning, and some may even serve you breakfast! In addition there are many wonderful raffle baskets. Mrs. Wilson's class is donating the "It's a Wrap" basket to raffle, & Mrs. Costa's class is donating the "Movie Night" basket to raffle. If you are able to purchase something new to donate to either of these baskets we would greatly appreciate it. All proceeds go back to special activities for the students at school.
William L. Callahan School
Friday, February 10, 2017
February 2017
Do you have a Facebook account? Visit, like, and share the WL Callahan Elementary PTF page for frequent updates about activities in our school! There is a new account and at the top it says.... 
Please send in any BOX TOPS you have! Mrs. Lebrun will be collecting them next week! All Box Tops must be cut on the edges. We will bag them in sets of 50 and hand them in next week! Thank you!!
Saturday, October 15, 2016
Grading
As we reach the middle of first trimester, you may have noticed graded papers coming home. You will see that your child earns a 1, 2, 3, or 4 on those papers. On the report card you will see these numerical grades as well. Those numbers show where your child is performing when measured against the standard. They do not match up to A, B, C, D grades. The target or benchmark is a 3, this means that your child has met the standard in that area at this point in time. A 2 means that your child is progressing toward the standard, but has not met it yet. He/she may have done well in some areas but not in all needed for the standard being measured. It is not unusual, to see some 2's on a report card because many of the standards measure what a child should be able to do at the end of the grade level and of course we don't expect them to be able to do end of grade level work in the beginning of the year. If you see 2's on the report card it is a standard we will continue to work on either in our whole class lessons or in small guided groups so that next trimester you will hopefully see that grade improve to a 3. A 1 means that your child is working well below the standard in that area and is not making the expected progress. A 4 means that your child has exceeded the standard. We have been and will continue to be sending home papers in the next few weeks that have been graded for you to review. Just please keep in mind that a 2 is not necessarily cause for alarm, because we grade based on what is expected at the end of the year. If you have any questions as you view work or when the time comes report cards please don't hesitate to ask.
Thursday, September 1, 2016
October 12, 2016
- Feinstein Keepsake Journals are coming home this week. (They are blue.) Inside this journal you will find your child's Feinstein Junior Scholar Card. Mr. Feinstein provides these journals and cards to the students each year. His message ties in nicely with being respectful and responsible which are two of our three R's!
- This is also Fire Prevention Week! Last Friday the firefighters came and taught the students about fire safety and they got to learn about the different trucks and equipment. Students will be coming home with some school supplies the fire department gave them throughout the week!
October 3, 2016
Do you have a Facebook account? Visit, like, and share the WL Callahan Elementary PTF page for frequent updates about activities in our school! There is a new account and at the top it says....
Please send in any BOX TOPS you have! Mrs. Lebrun will be collecting them next week! All Box Tops must be cut on the edges. We will bag them in sets of 50 and hand them in next week! Thank you!!
September 7, 2017
FOLLOWING THE 3 R's at W.L.C.
We would like to share with you our classroom behavior system. As you know all schools in Burrillville use PBIS and teachers regularly give positive reinforcement for children following the 3 R's; Respectful, Responsible, & Ready to Learn. In our classes we will also learn about the Constitution and we’ll write a classroom constitution of a few "rules" we can follow that help us to demonstrate the 3 R's in school.
Unfortunately, there are times when children struggle to follow these, and to keep track of this we use a green, yellow, orange, red card system. All students will be reminded a couple of times before being asked to flip their card. If reminders do not work, they’ll flip their card as follows.
Green = Everything is going great!
Yellow = Visual reminder to work to follow the 3 R’s a little harder.
Orange = We will talk to the student at recess about why they had to flip their card, and how they can make better choices.
Red = We will spend 5 - 10 minutes of recess talking through the situation, and if this is a regular occurrence students will be asked to fill in a reflection sheet. We may also reach out to you by email or phone.
Many times students end up flipping their cards for interrupting to ask a questions, getting out of their seat during a lesson, talking to friends, and talking out. While these may seem like minor issues, a few kids start, and it is not long before 5 - 10 students feel this is okay to do. This can easily distract the learning for everyone. We will continue to discuss the expectations often and we will continue to hold them accountable. You can help by reinforcing the 3 R’s at home. Using kind words and manners with family, picking up after themselves, and following directions from mom and dad are some examples of ways to get the kids on board at home.
You will notice that there is a color code at the bottom of the homework agenda, that will let you know what color your child was on at the end of the day. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact either of us!
Thank you so much for your support!Welcome to the Classroom Blog for Rooms 101 & 208!
Mrs. Costa started using a Blog to communicate to families two years ago, and felt it was successful so together we plan to continue this year. We will post important information about dates, our teaching, student learning, assignments, expectations, etc here so it's helpful if you check back often. We will also post pictures from some of our lessons which the kids really enjoy looking at! We will let the students know if there is something so they can remind you, but you can also sign up to receive an email message when we create a post. If you have any questions please email us directly at costab@bsd-ri.net or wilsonj@bsd-ri.net
What a great three days we have had in ! We have been getting to know each other as well as getting to know more about our classrooms and our routines. We have also been working with students to learn what our expectations are for the 3 R's in class and school. We have had a practice fire drill and by the end of the week we will have a practice lock-down drill. Students have been busy filling their Reader's Workshop book bags with just right books from our classroom libraries too!
This year we will be asking for your help and cooperation in teaching students to become more responsible. In class we will begin with learning to be responsible for materials and keeping things organized. We will also expect them to be respectful in all situations. Talking out, interrupting, and not following directions even after reminders have been given is something the students have to learn is not acceptable. At the beginning of the year we completely understand that we will all be getting to know each other. However we will begin teaching them what is expected in that very first week, and will hold them accountable to doing their very best. Mistakes happen, reminders are needed, but effort is so important, and we want students to understand that their effort is a big part to their success. All students need to be respectful at all times, and responsible for their own learning which will help them all be ready to learn, so that each child can do their very best!
Here are just a few things to remember as we finish out our first week. If you didn't send in the paper work in the white envelope from the office, please return it as soon as possible. If everyone returns everything by Friday we will have an extra recess! We have peanut free, tree-nut free classrooms this year. Please read the labels on your child's snack carefully. Fruits and vegetables are always safe options for a classroom snack, and we will be sending home a list with other options too.
Finally we are still looking for a few students to bring in string bags to carry their homework folders, head phones, and pencil boxes back and forth between classes. If you are able to send your child in with one that would be fantastic.
We look forward to working with each of you to help the children have a fabulous year in second grade!!!
Here are a few links to things you may be looking for electronically.
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