Welcome Back!


                                                                                                                                                                                                  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Rosanna Paribello, Director

Main Office, 167 Holland St.  Rm 132- Somerville, MA                                                                                                       Adriana Guereque, Assistant Director 

Phone: 617 625-6600 x 6970    Fax 617 629-5512                                                                                                        Gina Miranda, Student Services Coordinator

                                                                                        Dana Gordon, Clinical Coordinator 



        

February Vacation Week for Register Students

Parent Resources

In our commitment to making our program as available as possible, we continue providing financial assistance for families. If you need information, please contact 

Adriana Guereque at aguereque@k12.somerville.ma.us   You can also contact the  Site Director in your student school. Thank you for all your support to Community Schools – being with your children makes us all happy!

Counselor’s Corner

Dana Gordon

A warm welcome back to all our families! We hope you had a peaceful and rejuvenating winter break and a happy New Year.  In Community Schools, we are off to an exciting and fresh start where we are reminded of and recommit to all our routines, expectations, and healthy friendships. This month, we are enjoying our updated agreements on how to respect ourselves, our space, our peers, and our teachers. Developing community agreements can be a fun, collaborative process that encourages a sense of ownership and collective responsibility. When we give students a chance to provide their input, it increases their sense of agency, belonging, and investment in their community and leads to a culture of mutual respect, success, and happiness. We hope your kiddos are adjusting well to the start of this term and, as always, please reach out if you have any questions. Thanks and happy January!





Albert F. Argenziano 


Site Director; Elizabeth Bell

Assistant Site Director; Brianna Arevalo

Sresha Pradhan, Anabella Pena, Makaila Witham, Yasmin Almeida, Ileana Perlera , Etta Resnick, Ana Cortez, Keala Arciero, Sana Kazemi, Gianna Bottiglio, Bryan Rodriguez, Lauren Quinn

Happy January Argenziano families!! Happy New Year! We started Session 2 and are looking forward to a variety of fun activities & crafts in new clubs or enjoying some popular clubs again. Some examples of new clubs are: Astronaut Adventures, Knots & Beads, Junk Art, and Zen Zone. We also had fun playing in the snow outside recently that we got from our first snowstorm this winter. Let’s check out what each grade level is up to..


*Parents/Guardians: With the chilly temperatures, please ensure your children have warm jackets, gloves, hats, etc. Also some of our clubs this session are still in need of toilet paper/paper towel rolls, packing peanuts/foam, and small cardboard boxes. Thanks so much for your donations and support!! 

Pre-K (Ms. Keala)

Group 1 welcomed our new friend, Signe, to Afterschool and enjoyed activities with Ms. Lia. Our Pre-K learners enjoyed several winter-themed activities and practiced expressing their feelings through social-emotional learning games. Our Kindergarten friends performed a dance learned from the Jae-Dance club. The Kindergarten students are excited to attend their new clubs, and pre-K students are curious to learn through daily activities. Take care and stay warm.

Best Regards,

Ms. Keala

   K-2nd grade (Ms. Sana, Mx. Ileana, Ms. Ana, & Ms. Lauren):

Ms. Sana- In How to Draw Animals Club, we begin our club by reading stories about various animals from story books. After reading the story, students can draw these animals. Students follow step-by-step instructions to sketch animals using a pencil as their starting point. After completing the initial sketch, students have the opportunity to add colors and fine details to their work, as well as demonstrate their creativity. 

3rd-5th (Ms. Etta):


Group 4 enjoyed their winter break and came back ready for the new year.  We have been out in the ever-changing weather as much as possible and diving into some engaging new clubs.   


Second-session clubs are starting well. In the first week and a half, we have already done a lot of things. In Knots and Beads and Strings, Oh My!, we are making seed bead geckos which are an exciting challenge and look awesome. Our first week’s theme in Lego Building was “stadiums” and the students built some fantastic stadiums such as a colosseum, a movie theater, and a soccer stadium. In Fancy Folds we have made different types of cards, including window cards and pop-up cards, and have done some paper weaving.  We finish off the week with Reading Corner and have a relaxing time reading up in the library.  We are looking forward to all the exciting new projects in the weeks to come!

Arthur D. Healey School

Site Director: Amanda Oppman

Assistant Site Director: Alexander Walters


Nicholas Triant, Suri Gonzalez, Christopher Thompson,

 Aidsa Rivera, Ishaya Williams, Jaqueline Medrano, Johana Maldonado, Ludwing Perez

Hello families and a happy new year to you all! January has shown just how resilient our staff and students are as we adapted to challenges at the start of this month. Students returned from break ready to start our new clubs. This round of outside providers includes favorites like Parkour, Art in Spanish, and Danger Wizards as well as new additions like Jean Appolon Expressions, a Haitian Dance club. Staff are back with their curriculum-led clubs like aqua beads, basketball, master of games, and more as we listened to the interests of students and incorporated what they wanted to learn into this session of club topics. Read below for some updates on what students can expect this first month of clubs!

Ms. Suri:

Our PreK friends have plenty of crafts and engineering activities planned for this month. From working with the letters V and W to using various materials to build houses and structures together. We are continuing to work on being kind friends to one another and to our classroom belongings. Stay tuned to see more of the fun crafts we will be working on this winter.

Mr.T:

Throughout Session Two in Aquabeads Club, students will put their designer skills to the test and create their own new designs each week. With the help of a template, students will use special beads and then add water to make their own creation to take home! Thus far in Basketball Club, students have learned the difference between a chest pass and a bounce pass. Additionally, students have learned the importance of working as a team and the basics of shooting a basketball. Lastly, in Master of Games Club, all kids have been exposed to different types of strategy games. So far, we have been playing Uno, Guess Who, Connect Four, chess, etc. I look forward to another amazing session with my students! 



Mr.Walters:

In the first week of GameShow club, the students had fun playing Candy Jeopardy. They teamed up and went head to head answering questions about popular candies, and their slogans and ingredients. “Team Winner” overcame “Team Candyland/Marvel Superheroes” by just a bit, but everyone had a blast!

 

In the first week of Gym Class Heroes club for K-2, students played Castle Attack. Students built a large fortress in the middle of the gym floor using the blue foam blocks and gym mats, and took cover and worked to rebuild their castle as teachers pelted it with siege dodgeballs! Alas, the gates were eventually breached and the students were overcome! Long live the teachers!

 

In the first week of Gym Class Heroes club for 3-6 grade, we played Scrabble. No, not the word game - this was a free-for-all version of dodgeball where the entire gym floor was used as a playfield, and students are allowed to take 3 steps after picking up a ball and try to hit their friends with foam dodgeballs to get them out! The students loved this game so much that we played it into the beginning of dismissal time!


Miss Annie:

This session I’m teaching Yoga club, book club, and crafts club! The yoga club focuses on mindfulness and moving the body. Breathing exercises and simple yoga flows will be practiced throughout the session so that kids can eventually work on them on their own. In book club, students will spend time reading for pleasure, discussing books with classmates, and doing various activities related to the stories. Finally, in the crafts club we will do a variety of creative projects. This week, students made their own miniature monster figurines that were fashioned from their imaginations!

Benjamin G. Brown School

Site Director: Kelsey Kent 

Assistant Site Director:  Tamica Connor


Ashley Marks, Marie Cheney, Katherina Dinka, Grace Barton, 

Kasey Hoebermann, Stephanie Idelfonso, Kelliann Marks, Karen Oppman

Happy New Year, After-School Families! Brown School hopes everyone has had a plentiful winter break with their loved ones. Winter thus far has brought snow, new clubs, and “see ya real soon” for one of our beloved teachers at Brown After-School, Mr. Will. Mr. Will brought students new opportunities to learn, grow, and enjoy through the passion seen through his lesson plans and everyday relationships with our students. We are so excited to see Mr. Will again at our farewell party. We will miss you, Mr. Will!


Nothing like ringing in the new year with new clubs! Brown School after-school teachers have created new clubs for their students as well as outside providers! Some of the clubs our students are looking forward to are Metro Rock, Jedi Masters, Wintivities, Chess Wizards, Video Game Crafts, Yoga, Kids in Nuition, Artist Collaboration, Story Games, Love Ya Ma, and Anime Club!! — So many new clubs! Let’s highlight some of our new clubs! 


Metro Rock: In this climbing program, kids will learn self-confidence, work to solve common goals, build a foundation for a physical lifestyle, and have fun!


Wintivities: This club is for students who are ready to brave the cold!!! Together we will play in the snow, go sledding, and compete in ice games outside! No snow? We'll still be doing fun games and challenges indoors! 


Before Winter break, we celebrated the holidays by inviting our families to Gingerbread House Making!! Students and families collaborated to build a winter wonderland! It was so neat seeing everyone collaborate, and share in the joy of getting their icing and building materials “just right!” We would like to thank our Brown School families for donating materials and making it happen! 

East Somerville Community School

Site Director: Yolanda Andrade

Assistant Site Director: Diana Posada 

Raymond Corsini, Janice Pousland, Joanne Simon, Sonia Barahona, Mario Quiroz, Sarah McClelland. Estefani Medrano, Tashmeer Michel, Daniel Louis, Deni Matias Martin,  Ashley Castro, Olivia Oliveira, Destiny Andrade, Sharon CAstellon

We started January off with some snow and then welcomed some rain to some sunshine. Here in the East, we might not really know what to expect making it even more fun for all! As we came back from winter break, we all were able to check in with each other and discuss what we were up to during our week off, it was exciting to hear of all the trips, activities, and family time everyone got to have. New clubs have commenced for all and the energy with it. We spent the first weeks conducting icebreakers, establishing rules, and refreshing ourselves with expectations and responsibilities in our clubs.  

In this new session, we have all of our PreK and Kindergarten students in clubs together learning how to play beginner board games, making crafts with puppets, and getting our healthy bodies moving in the gym. Our little friends are all getting to know their Kindergarten peers that they might not see on a daily basis during school, expanding their interpersonal connections with others. When not in clubs, PreK and Kindergarten participate in different circle games, social-emotional conversations, and fun stations after going outside to get some fresh air. Their afternoon is fun and filled with enrichment learning.

1st and 2nd-grade students are also doing an amazing job in their clubs with Mr. Mario and Ms. Joanne, some are learning about the five senses that we use every day and exploring them on a daily basis. Some of us are familiarizing ourselves with the process of making and cooking tortillas in Celebrating Our Culture while others are given the opportunity to be with our wonderful outside providers. In Buildwave, students are challenged with different levels of Lego building and after completing each level, they are awarded a prize as we always encourage effort here in the Afterschool program!

3rd-7th graders are also doing an amazing job in the afterschool program, we started session 2 off strong with our older students, jumping right into clubs. Ping Pong with Mr. Ray has been a big hit, students get the chance to take over and lead games themselves while keeping score in their own way. On Fridays, the Board Games club with Mr. Daniel has some time to play with their friends while listening to some nice music. It’s a perfect way to end our week after reading, completing homework, and doing activities during the week. Those who are in Spanish is Fun this session are spending Friday afternoons dancing and learning about the Spanish culture in Spanish!

All students are also taking the time to recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day and taking the time to revisit the impact and importance of his actions on society. Our younger students are reading about the history that comes with Martin Luther King Jr. and our older students are taking a deeper dive into history, analyzing how his actions impacted society.  

We are doing amazing work at the East and are happy to be back in full swing with students and brand-new clubs. Cheers to an exciting start to 2024

              REMINDERS

Please ensure to join our ESCS Afterschool class on the REMIND.COM APP, if you haven’t. It is the fastest way to get updates on sudden weather changes and news. 

 

With the change of weather, we would like to stress the importance of students wearing the appropriate outerwear. Our goal is to have students go outside everyday if weather permits. Students must wear a winter jacket, gloves, scarves, hat, snow boots etc. 

Michael E. Capuano Early Childhood Center

Site Director: Micheal Horowitz

Assistant Site Director: Sarthak Khamal

Bryan Convey, Ana Treska, Neelam Sehil, Mei Idris, Jaqueline Gaffney,  Alaa Bautkhourst, Joao Detoledo, Ana Taveira, MamataChalise

Capuano January 2024 Newsletter

Entering the month of January, the weather is getting colder and more wintery. We also just passed the celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. At the Capuano, classes have been doing activities centered around winter weather, snowflakes, snow men, winter clothing, winter activities like sledding and skating, wintery animals like penguins, polar bears, owls, and also the footprints that you might see in the snow.

Classes have read books like Young Martin Luther King Jr., Katy and the Big Snow, Snow Friends, Tacky the Penguin, Owl Moon, Footprints in the Snow, Snow Is Falling, and Sledding. Projects related to the reading have included decorating paper hats, making paper bag owl puppets, making do-a-dot snowflakes, making other kinds of snowflakes, making lots of different kinds of snow people, making multi-colored mittens with tissue paper, and making mittens with glitter watercolor paint and crayon resist. Some classes chose to focus on Martin Luther King Jr. and made MLK bells and “I have a dream” clouds.

January is passing by in a snowy blur. Before we blink, it will be February.


John F. Kennedy Elementary School

Site Director: Allison Gills

Assistant Site Director: Emmaline Lipka

Kelly Lopez, Nicole Tolbert, Ethan Hallet, Savannah Paul, Maureen Nichols, 

Emma Oppman, Mary Lou Hodgdon

Hi Everyone, Happy 2024! We are off and running with session 2; enjoying a bunch of new clubs and experiences as well as some favorites that have returned for another session. Before we get into all the fun things happening, I just want to send along two reminders! 

Ms. Kelly’s Clubs

The inaugural week of our clubs has been nothing short of a triumph! Let's dive into the marvelous accomplishments of each group:

In the Origami Club, members delved into the enchanting world of paper folding and mastered the art of crafting delicate snowflakes. Each intricate fold and precise crease brought forth a snowflake masterpiece, adding a touch of winter magic to our club.

Meanwhile, the Harry Potter Book Club embarked on an enchanting journey by immersing themselves in the first chapter of the beloved series. As they listened intently to the captivating words, the world of Hogwarts came alive, igniting their imaginations and kindling a passion for the wizarding realm.

Over in the Art Expressions Club, creativity soared to new heights with the creation of winter slime and snowman sun catchers. Mixing and molding, students transformed ordinary ingredients into squishy, sparkling slime that captured the essence of the season. Additionally, their artistic talents shone bright as they crafted charming sun catchers adorned with cheerful snowmen, spreading winter cheer with every glimmer.

In the Comic Book Club, our aspiring storytellers and artists showcased their talents by creating a comic centered around the daring adventures of the Broccoli Empire. With colorful illustrations and imaginative narratives, they transported us to a world where broccoli ruled supreme, captivating our imaginations, and leaving us hungry for more comic book escapades.

Finally, the Master Builders Club showcased their architectural progress as they collaborated to construct magnificent snowflake buildings using marshmallows and tacky glue. With each sticky marshmallow carefully placed, they built structures that mirrored the delicate beauty of real snowflakes, fostering a sense of teamwork and innovation. 

Ms. Emmaline’s Clubs

The first two weeks of clubs in 2024 are off to a great start! Yoga club has been learning new moves and gaining flexibility, while also practicing mindfulness and having a lot of fun! The newspaper club is really excited to learn about what goes into making a newspaper and are eager to create one for after school! We have been interviewing fellow students, and creating our comic strips to add to the paper. I am looking forward to seeing what else these students can create!

Ms. Silvana’s Origami Club

In this club the first activities have been successful. Kids are demonstrating interest at folding origami paper and folding by following the directions. Working as a team, and offering help after they finished their work was impressiv

Mr. Ethan’s Clubs

We've had a great start to 2024 at After School! Students have been testing their knowledge and facing off in games in the trivia club. We'll be using our imaginations to travel to new places in World Travelers Club and have already made Greek-style clay sculptures. In Magic Club, a new group is building their first decks as we gear up for a tournament. In gym class heroes we are trying fun new games including variations of dodgeball and even football. We're all looking forward to what this new year has in store!

Ms. Laura’s Clubs

Laura’s clubs have started the year off with fun making coral reefs and exploring London‘s Natural History Museum. Kids have been making art inspired by Gio Swaby and Colette Miller. They are also surprising their teachers with positive affirmation posters for their classes. Some have been making glow in the dark paths!

Pre-K Friends with Ms. Savannah and Ms. Maureen

Newsletter blurb: We’d like to thank everyone who gifted us items from our wishlist. Pre-K is ecstatic about the new puzzles. They love doing floor puzzles together and especially love having ones with more challenging pieces. Activities like these encourage teamwork and problem-solving skills. Plus, it’s wonderful to watch them work together and support each other!

Ms. Emma’s Clubs

Winter Hill Community Innovation School

Site Director: Deijah Euvrard

Assistant Site Director: Daniela Garcia

Latifa Mortady, Nathalya Castillo, Rue Romero, Tanty Koita, Rosa Palma, Teddy O'Brien , Mariah Jones, Maria Henriquez, Ariana Melendez, Leonardo Fuentes, Seline Pierre,  Nehemie Simon

 Happy New Year Families!🎇

We hope you all enjoyed your holidays. Our kiddos had a wonderful time at our end-of-year holiday party, what a great way it was to kick off the new year! Students and staff have been sharing wonderful stories and resolutions for this new year amongst each other. This semester students are climbing out of their comfort zones with new clubs and making new friends. We are so excited to see the kiddo's growth and success that is to come this year.

Pre-K/Kindergarten

Ms. Latifa has been teaching our Pre-K bunch about snow and the winter this new session. Very relatable for the weather and clothing we wear during this time. At circle time before snack, the kiddos are reading stories about super fun winter activities, like The Brave Little Penguin by Andrea Flores and Frozen Noses by John Carry. They’ve also been learning catchy winter songs that’ll get you snapping your fingers. Ms.Latifa is always sure to run engaging interactive activities to make the day speed by!  Along with reading, they enjoy STEM activities like artificial snow dough and sparkly paintings.


Grades 1st-2nd

We’re starting the session off with a bang! Students are so excited to be learning about the world of comics and beginning to create their own comics books. They’ve been learning about the fantasy world along with its creatures and magic in Myths and Monsters and Magic Madness. They even got to make some unpoppable bubbles! The groups have been working hard at learning what it means to be a good friend, keeping calm and earning tickets for kindness.


Grades 3rd-6th

We’ve started new clubs already! We have a crowd favorite of Danger Wizards returning this semester. A new club with us is Metro Rock provides students the opportunity to try something new by going off-site and climbing rocks every Wednesday. In Super Smash Brothers, friends work together and independently to earn stars by doing mini games, and challenges and being good team members. Following along with our team-building activities, 


REMINDERS

-Cold Weather is here, please remember Jackets, Hats and Mittens!

-Please Label your student(s) water bottles and coats.

-Please let us know if your student(s) will be absent!

-Please make sure to join our WHCIS After School class on the REMIND APP.

West Somerville Neighborhood School

Site Director: Joshua Leibovitz

Assistant Site Director: Seana Read

 Jane Fabiano, Darly Pierre, Gianna Amari, Rodrigo Rodriguez, Joseph Amari, Katherine Yanes, Riley Williams, Henry Duarte, Teodor Todorov, Frank Leone

Hello Families!


Welcome to our January  Newsletter!

Welcome Back to an exciting new year, families and Friends! We have now entered the year 2024 and we are feeling better than ever. We hope everyone has enjoyed their break and is ready to rock this year with New Year's resolutions and excitement for school. With a little snow coming down on us that still hasn't stopped our excitement for school or even our fun time outside. Our students have been amazing and intrigued with what session 2 will bring to them.

Now entering the stage we have our youngest but strongest friends give a round of applause to our Pre-K friends! Our friends have been having an amazing experience with our teachers. Our students have been improving not only in their art skills but in their reading skills as well. Our students have been loving our circle time which is where we do popcorn reading. Sometimes the words can be a bit tricky but with a few guesses, our Pre-Kers have been able to sound the word out. I believe in a few months we will be able to play Scrabble. When we aren't practicing our vocabularies then Ms. Jane has us painting, practicing our multiplication tables, and even playing a lot of fun games in the gym. During Gym time we love to play Mr. Fox, Parachute, and even Snow Cone. Our kiddos have been having a blast in our program and are ready for any challenge. 

Give a warm welcome to our future famous celebrity, it's our K-2 friends. I know with break being done our students sure do love having fun, and we plan to keep the fun going. Our friends have been discovering the secret of a good movie, studying how to perform a play in front of a live audience, and even learning about space. During Veggie Circus our students have been discovering the importance of certain vegetables and fruits and how they can benefit us. We learned that with a lot of veggies we grow big , strong and also excellent performers. With only two weeks in we have mastered the key elements of performing and trying out some intense tricks to show everybody. We can not wait to host families again to watch our live performance. I even heard they will dive into the water from 100 ft from the air. When we aren't learning about our veggies then we are learning about what really is out there in space. During our Out of This World club, we learned about our solar system and studied how to build the best spaceship. Make sure to fill out the permission slip for our students because we will be landing on the moon in April 2024. 

 The 3rd through 6th-grade crew is back after a long and relaxing holiday break that gave us just enough time to recharge and gear up for some awesome new club offerings! We started the year off by introducing Disney Dreamers to our lineup as a place where we can test our trivia knowledge of all our favorite characters and dive deeper into the stories we know and love. Danger Wizard kicked off a new Dungeons and Dragons campaign, this time led by junior Dungeon Masters from last session’s club. They vanquished their enemies, found the lost treasure, and are ready to take on the ultimate feat of patience and skill: leading their peers through the next adventure! If magic and monsters are your thing, you should also stop by for Magic: The Gathering Club to start building your own deck and learning how to battle worthy opponents in a trading card game of strategy and spells. It’s not just our imaginations that are getting a workout, though–with our boundless energy, we’re making sure to stay active and take advantage of every sunny day by bundling up on the playground and zipping across the gymnasium on days when we can’t go outside.

REMINDERS

-Please make sure to join our WSNS Afterschool class on the REMIND APP. Please email me for the code! It is the fastest way to get updates on sudden weather changes and news.

-With the change of weather, make sure to pack warm apparel (Gloves, jackets, hats, etc.)!

-Packing extra clothes for our younger friends in case of an emergency 

 Thank you!