Childhood Memories

The fall was always a special time for me as a child.  My birthday is in the fall. I played my favorite sport (soccer) in the fall.  I LOVED watching football with my father in the fall.  Spending this fall on the North Shore has been very special for me and my family as we have enjoyed many wonderful fall activities.  These activities have brought such an amazing feeling of nostalgia to me that was capped off by the remarkable actions of two of our students.

When I was in 6th grade, a friend of mine and I started a "neighborhood landscape company."  This was my first opportunity to learn about business, budgeting, saving, and true hard work.  When I opened my email on Tuesday morning, I was greeted by this picture:

Two of our students, Nathan and Connor Duda told me a few weeks ago that they were starting a "neighborhood landscape company" of their own and wanted to volunteer to spruce up the school grounds.  On their own time, they came to MMES and took care of some of our undesirable vegetation ("weeds").  I was so impressed by the efforts of these boys that I felt compelled to recognize them in the blog.  Their act of community service should be commended!

This story reminded me of the great times that I had when I was a child growing up in Norfolk, Massachusetts.  Thank you to the North Shore and the Duda Boys for bringing back fond childhood memories.

Thank you to all of you who are planning to come out this Sunday to help spruce up the grounds even more!  Unfortunately, I have a commitment on Sunday, but I do appreciate your efforts and support of MMES!

PS...The first Funnel Ball was installed this week...check it out if you have a chance this weekend!

  

Coming Soon!

Just a quick post today to highlight some coming attractions at MMES:

-FISH were added to the aquarium this weekend!  When children arrived to school today, there were a few fish swimming around in our lobby...very exciting!  The fish even had their "blue shirts" on for "Stomp out Bullying" day.  We have also added a computer monitor in the lobby that displays pictures, information, and graphs about what is happening in the aquarium.  Currently, a slide show is playing with graphs showing the change in different levels over time (pH, Ammonia, Nitrite).  It has been great to see individual students and some classes accessing the aquarium as a learning tool (see pic below)!

August 2011:

September 2011:

-PLAYGROUND - Thanks to the generosity of our PTO (and your donations), we have put an order in for two new basketball backboard systems and two "funnel ball" games.  The basketball nets will be installed on the grades 3-5 blacktop and the funnel balls will be installed on the K-2 play area.  As an added activity, we experimented with painting a miniature football field on the grade 3-5 grass.  It turned out to be a bit too small, but the kids are enjoying it just the same (Thanks to Joe Lucido).

Funnel Ball:

New Outdoor Basketball System: