Embedded Files
Rosanna Paribello, Director
Main Office, 8 Bonair St. Room 308 - Somerville, MA Adriana Guereque, Assistant Director
Phone: 617 625-6600 x 6970 Fax 617 629-5512 Gina Miranda, Student Services Coordinator
Happy Holidays from us to you! Thank you all for your continued support to our program. Thanks to all of you, students, and staff we are able to strive and continue growing as a program. We always enjoy hearing great things from our site coordinators at each school about students. As always, we strive to provide all of the students enrolled in afterschool with quality enrichment ranging from activities that help enhance all types of knowledge to activities that allow them to explore their creativity and imagination. We at Community Schools hope you all have a wonderful and relaxing winter break with your families.
Sincerely,
Community Schools Afterschool Administration
Important Dates To Remember
2023 Registration Dates for February Vacation Week:
January 10-13
The portal would open at 9:30 AM
No Programming on the following dates:
December 22- Jan 3 (Winter Recess)
January 16 (Martin Luther King Day)
Parent Resources
Please remember to read the updated Parent Handbook 2022-2023 for new tuition policies and rates.
Use this link to access the Parent Information Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1A-8IXov-vrimaWSVQTOjLTcSQDGEoyRh?usp=sharing
You can pay your child’s afterschool tuition online at: https://www.ezchildtrack.com/parent2/ParentLogin.aspx?c=esp&FromTab=Y
You can also pay by check to the afterschool coordinator or through your personal online bank.
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 Coordinator in your student school. Thank you for all your support to Community Schools – being with your children makes us all happy!
Albert F. Argenziano
Albert F. Argenziano
Coordinator; Elizabeth Bell
Assistant Coordinator; Brianna Arevalo
Mandeep Kaur, Lia Sokol, Sresha Pradhan, Anabella Pena, Makaila Witham, Mark Gartsbeyn, Michael Chiaravalotti, Yasmin Almeida, Patricia Cruz, Mei Yuk Lui, Etta Resnick.
Happy December Argenziano families! We are now heading into the winter season, embracing the cold weather all bundled up. We are wrapping up Session 1 and excited for Session 2 clubs which start in the new year. We are also looking forward to spending time with family & friends over the upcoming winter break. Hope you all have a nice holiday break and look forward to seeing you back in the new year! Let’s check out what each grade level is up to...
Pre-K (Ms. Mandy)
For this month’s theme, the kids engaged in magical and whimsical projects! We created fantastical wizard hats and unique fairy wands and students got the opportunity to talk about the magical abilities they would like the possess. Students sparked their curiosity with mesmerizing science experiments such as creating fizzy fairy potions and beautiful lava lamps.
K-2nd grade (Ms. Lia, Ms. Cruz, Ms. Elizabeth & Ms. Brianna):
In Spy Club, we have been doing many fun activities! We started writing our own mystery stories and creating the setting, characters, and clues. We practiced writing sentences to go along with our pictures to narrate our mysteries. We also have been playing an animal detective game where we collaborate as a group to determine who is guilty! A definite highlight was our magnifying glass cookies made with jolly ranchers to create a stained glass look. They were delicious! As we wrap up this club session, we will reflect on all the activities we have done as our “Spy kids” will graduate from training.
3rd-5th (Mr. Mark):
Hey hey and happy holidays (soon) from Mark in group 5! As we wrap up the calendar year, I'm looking forward to some new clubs for next session. Board Game Bonanza will return along with Brain Olympics, a club about riddles, puzzles, brainteasers, and more. (We may do a mini-escape room in a box in that club next session!) Otherwise, I'm excited about Mathemagic, where we'll learn about the world of mathematics beyond plain ol' arithmetic — think Platonic solids, the Fibonacci sequence, and everyone's favorite irrational number, pi. Engineering:
Rescue Shuttles will be super interesting; in fact, we'll be testing a curriculum for YES Engineering at Penn State University, which is working on developing STEM curricula for out-of-school settings. And finally, we'll close out the week with some wacky Improv and Theater Games.
Arthur D. Healey School
Arthur D. Healey School
Coordinator: Amanda Oppman
Henry Duarte, Nicholas Triant, Suri Gonzalez, Christopher Thompson,
Alexander Walters, Rafael Santos,Aidsa Rivera, Michelle Ambia, Prya Plein
Hello Hawks!
It’s hard to believe 2022 is coming to a close. This year has been filled with so many memory making moments and we are so lucky to have shared many of them with your kiddos. The end of 2022 also brings us to the end of our first session of clubs. Students got to experience so many different topics and activities it’s hard to summarize it into a couple of sentences. Your children have provided us with endless laughs and joy to fill our hearts as we close out this session and reflect on all they accomplished.
We watched students learn to work together, strengthen their communication skills, explore through play and art, and expand their knowledge through plenty of questions. We thank you all for giving us the opportunity to learn and grow alongside your children every day, and we can’t wait for all the memories 2023 has in store for us!
Miss Suri:
Our PreK class has been hard at work exploring the world of numbers, letters and colors. Students have been working on their fine motor skills with practice tracing letters and numbers. They are beginning to recognize the letters in their own names and in the names of their friends. Students explored coloring through the art of collaging. They used a variety of materials to create color inspired designs and had so much fun being able to rip up paper. Miss Suri continues to create inventive ways for the students to explore movement with art. One such project were the beautiful butterflies students made that also allowed them to flap their wings and make their butterflies fly around their classroom. Stay tuned for more crafts and all the awesome SEL work students will begin in January!
Mr. T:
Art with Fruit : In addition to learning about different kinds of fruits and their benefits to the human body, students in this club have gotten to express themselves through art and create their own masterpieces. Throughout the course of this session, we have gotten the chance to follow guided activities where we all make the same finished product, but also the freedom to make our own designs. It has been a blast to see what the kids were able to come up with. Additionally, we even got into the World Cup Spirit and played “finger soccer” using grapes as soccer balls and creating our own goal posts with pretzel sticks.
The Joy of Painting: One of the comments that I heard most frequently from students at the outset of The Joy of Painting club was “There is no way I will be able to do that” or “This is too hard. I give up!” By the end of the session, however, most students were not focused on whether or not their artwork looked exactly like Bob Ross’. Instead, they understood that their paintings did not have to be perfect, and that is what made them awesome and unique!
Aquabeads: In Aquabeads, students learned the importance of patience! Many students would see a design that they wanted to use and expect to be done with it in 10 minutes. However, because we were dealing with small pieces, the work had to be precise and took time. It was amazing to see how dedicated students were in putting in the time and effort to make sure their designs came out exactly the way they wanted it.
Miss Michelle:
In Recycled Art Club. We have just finished making holiday ornaments out of recycled buttons and CD's. In Animal Appreciation Club we learned all about the polar bear and how they exist within their natural habitat. In Chemistry Club, we studied the consistency (or viscosity) of Liquids by doing an experiment to examine the difference between slime made with laundry detergent and slime made with glue
Mr. Henry:
This month in Lego world the students have been focusing on building winter themed Lego blocks. In health and nutrition the students have been focusing on how to make a healthy winter themed smoothie and snacks! In Spanish 101 the students have been working on learning how each country celebrates Christmas and other winter holidays. In master of games the students have been playing different kinds of board games and also playing different kinds of gym games. In perler beads the students have been making winter themed, Christmas themed and Hanukkah themed designs.
Mr. Alex:
The Art of Performing: Students are excited to show their parents their performance of "Pedro the Red-Nosed-Reindeer" this Wednesday night at the End of Session Party! Over the course of the session, students have enjoyed experimenting with acting, singing, dancing, circus arts/gymnastics and even stand-up comedy.
Soccer Club: Students have improved their soccer skills greatly over the past session. The timing of the world cup could not have been better, as students had a real life soccer event to tie their excitement to. Keep playing!
Olympic Games: We continue to play great classic gym games in Olympic Games. Capture the Flag, Doctor Dodgeball, and the jump rope run game have been our favorites.
Benjamin G. Brown School
Benjamin G. Brown School
Coordinator: Kelsey Kent
Ashley Marks, Will Whelan, Marie Cheney, Katherina Dinka, Grace Barton,
Kasey Hoebermann, Cole Martell, Stephanye Idelfonso, Kelliann Marks, Karen Oppman
It's the most wonderful time of the year! The weather is getting chilly and we’re off to a festive month. The kids have been doing amazing things at their clubs these past few weeks. As we are winding our first session down, let's highlight a few club favorites!
Metro Rock
Metro rock is one of our outside providers. The fun thing about being in 3rd grade is that you can go to metro rock. There is a game called pb and j, which consists of two mats and a rope dangling from a ceiling. There are two teams and the objective is to swing from one mat to the other using the rope. Each time a team completes a level the mats get further apart making it harder to swing. Kids suggest trying out auto belay if you ever decide to make your way to metro rock!
Stem and Dominos
Kids get the opportunity to put their creativity to work by designing architecture through science. They use dominos in a fun learning environment to build skills that include balance, counting, and designing. Sometimes the students are given challenges to build with different materials. This club gets them energized each time as they work in teams and/or individually.
One time they were tasked with creating a beautiful scene with the colorful dominos. They built structures, or pictures using the allotted pieces.
Outdoor Adventures
Despite the chilly weather our kiddos are unstoppable! Nothing beats a good old game of tag. Adventure is an understatement, these kids pick berries and have fairies, what a 2 in 1 combo. But it doesn’t stop there! To be extra toasty on the windy days our kids run around in the jungle gym climbing and skipping every chance they get.
We will start the next session, January 4th. You’ll see more movement classes and our famous Winteractive club! We love to take advantage of the winter scene at Powderhouse and venture off for sledding and snow fort making. So stay tuned for the first big snow fall!
Happy Holidays and we will
see you in the new year!
East Somerville Community School
East Somerville Community School
Coordinator: Yolanda Andrade
Assistant Coordinator: Diana Posada
Raymond Corsini, Janice Pousland, Joanne Simon, Sonia Barahona, Sara Ali, Mario Quiroz, Sarah McClelland. Estefani Medrano, Tashmeer Michel, Daniel Louis, Deni Matias Martin, Mia Rivera, Ashley Castro, Olivia Oliveira
Season’s greetings from the East Somerville Community School after-school program! ESCS is happily celebrating the end of a fantastic first session! Both the students and afterschool teachers can mutually agree that the clubs were tons of fun!
In this month’s edition, our students have continued to build and strengthen their communication and teamwork skills in their different clubs ranging from fun fitness, community helpers, math magicians and so much more. They have been exploring a variety of different topics like the change of the season and the very different and diverse holidays that are rearing us later on this month. Our older students have also had lots of fun with learning math concepts and making their own creative puppets.
Building Paper is just one of the many popular clubs amongst our PreK-2nd grade students.
Each week, students are able to explore different things they can build with paper. A paper airplane is just a start, there are so many possibilities!
In Karaoke club, students created their own microphone and were able to design it with their own colors and personal creativity.
Our outside providers have also been doing a great job with our students in providing them with the enrichment and skills needed everyday.
Science Club for Girls- although coming to an end on our last day of the session on December 16, has been a huge success among our little kiddos. They all are always ready to learn and explore science on a different level each week. This session they were all able to make slime, grow crystals and do many different science activities and experiments while also having fun with different objects like candy! Unfortunately, they will not be back for Session 2 but we expect to see all of the wonderful mentors and tiny scientists back in Session 3.
Our older grade students have been enjoying their homework time together as they are able to have that time to pick and read an interesting book while also asking for any help from our wonderful high school helpers on homework that they have.
We have all also been enjoying watching the FIFA World Cup together after homework time even if it’s just for 20 minutes! We are so excited to see which team will be the World’s Champion of Soccer this time. We hope you are all enjoying it as much as we are.
Aside from the World Cup, Mr. Ray’s club; Puppets has been working on their artistic and creativity side by creating their own puppets using inspiration from books and things they see every day around them. Fashion Recycling has been able to gather recyclable materials such as cardboard and used paper to create extraordinary art work.
Math Magicians with Mr. Daniel has been exploring different math concepts and making everyone’s brain work hard! He has also been having lots of fun during his Basics in Life club where students get to sit down and discuss different terms with Mr. Daniel such as What is Kindness? It is always a pleasure to see all of our students grow and be able to respectfully talk to each other and build off of each other’s ideas.
We hope you all have a wonderful Winter Break. Please take this time to relax and rewind and take on the New Year with enthusiasm and positivity! We will welcome students and Session 2 on January 4th, 2023.
Michael E. Capuano Early Childhood Center
Michael E. Capuano Early Childhood Center
Coordinator: Micheal Horowitz
Assistant Cordinator: Alex Mendoza,
Bryan Convey, Ana Treska, Neelam Sehil, Mei Idris, Jaqueline Gaffney, Silvana Dinka, Alaa Bautkhourst, Siarrah Murray, Joao Detoledo
Since Thanksgiving, we have been learning about many different things in each of the rooms here at the Capuano after-school.
Room 108 is learning about animals that hibernate in the winter and made paper plate bear faces.
Room 133 has lots of books about snow and made various puppets including penguin puppets, bunny puppets and also made winter collages
Room 202 is learning about the Weather and Under the Sea. They made paper plate suns and seahorses.
Room 218 is learning about Snow and used shaving cream as a tactile play replacement for snow. Room 218 also did various projects about animals including Farm Animals, Ocean Animals, and Forest Animals.
Children and adults are having lots of fun learning and playing here at the Capuano! Room 108 even made it out into the snow. Thanks to room 108 parents for sending clothing that is appropriate for the weather.
All the Capuano after-school staff would like to wish our families a wonderful, joyous winter season.
John F. Kennedy Elementary School
John F. Kennedy Elementary School
Coordinator: Allison Gills
Assistant Coordinator: Emmaline Lipka
Kelly Lopez, Nicole Tolbert, Ethan Hallet, Savannah Paul, Maureen Nichols,
Emma Oppman, Mary Lou Hodgdon, Julissa Cardoza, Nicolas Pedro, Anders Haugesag
Hi Everyone!
It is so hard to believe that we are rounding out 2022, we are thick into the Holiday Season and have so much to be thankful for. Before we get into the fun stuff, here are just a few reminders of some things happening in the next couple of weeks!
This Wednesday December 14th we will be having our End of Session Party from 4:45-5:30 pm in the Kennedy School Cafeteria!
See the attached flier for more information
If you'd like to donate any snacks/water/juice boxes please let me or Ms. Emmaline know
We greatly appreciate it!
We will have some art projects and pictures of the year so far for you all to look at, it will be a fun time for all!
**REMINDER- Wednesday December 21st- Last Day of After School Before Winter Break*
We DO NOT have After School on Thursday December 22nd
All students will be dismissed at 12:00 NOON (Kindergarten and up), Pre-K students will be dismissed at 11:30
Please make the necessary arrangements to make sure your child is picked up on time on this day
Cancellation/Change of Days Form-
If you are planning to change your child's daily schedule please fill out the attached cancellation/change of days form and send it back to me by the end of the week (12/16). I will send them to our main office staff and your schedule will be new for January
January 4th- First day back to school and After School in 2023
Students who will be participating in Rock Climbing- we will be doing a lottery to pick students due to high interest and Ms. Alison will email parents over winter break to fill out the online waiver.
Here one of our Pre-K friends is showing us his awesome Batman book. One of the fun things our Pre-k friends do when they get to after school is that after they eat snack, they all read books. We like them to get in the habit of reading/looking at books now so that it is an easier routine for them in the older grades!
Three of our 2nd grade friends are showing off their print they created in Ms. Emmaline’s Mixed Media Art club. The three of them worked together to create one large print. It looks great!!
To the right some of our fourth graders enjoy a half day Wednesday by creating some awesome melty beads creations. This activity takes a lot of focus looking for the colors we need and placing them in the small spokes on the trays. It is a fun and tedious activity!
One of our Kindergarten friends is showing off her lego creation. We definitely use legos a lot at after school but it is so cool to see each time the different things they create. Our little minds are such a wonder!
To the right, one of Pre-K friends enjoys the quiet corner, reading a book and relaxing!
Here, two of our first grade friends are using the linking manipulatives to create a patterned train. These manipulatives are so great for all ages! It is pretty neat to see our youngest students use them as well as our oldest students!
Lastly, take a look at a few more fun pictures of fun things we have done this month/session! Half Day Wednesday fun, building with manipulatives, dress up and bristle blocks! We have so much fun in After School!
If you have any questions please let Ms. Alison know! I hope you all have a fantastic holiday season!
Winter Hill Community Innovation School
Winter Hill Community Innovation School
Coordinator: Deijah Euvrard
Assistant Coordinator: Daniela Garcia
Latifa Mortady, Veronica Garza, Tanty Koita,Rosa Palma, Mohammed Miahjee, Rue Ferrufino, Cheli Mandelker, Mariah Jones, Ariana Melendez, Nehemie Simon
Hello Families!
Students have been working playfully in all of their clubs. Everyone is excited, they’ve gotten the chance to look over their new clubs for the next session. We are looking forward to the new year and the fun changes it may bring!
As we’ve recently had our first snowfall this is a perfect time to let families know about snow clothes! While the weather gets colder and the snow comes, students will still be able to enjoy some outside time. If you would like your child to be able to frolic throughout the snow, they must have snow pants, snow boots, a coat, a hat, and mittens.
Remind App- If you have not, please be sure to join our remind app for any updates and the best form of communication during program hours. Link: https://www.remind.com/join/hfg87kh
Amazon Wishlist- we still have a few items on our updated Amazon wishlist, if anyone would like to purchase one to donate to our program, we appreciate it! - please see the link here: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/2ZN0NIHTB7ZZ6?ref_=wl_share
Pre-K
Pre-k’s introduction to the winter months has been full of life, respect, kindness, celebration and self esteem. Ms.Latifa and her class have been learning about different holidays and cultures celebrated during the cold weather. It is a great way for the children to recognize and appreciate differences in various forms. To tie in appreciation and celebration pre-k has also been celebrating and sharing about their background and identity with “All about me” crafts, books, and projects.It is important to celebrate ourselves, others and kindness to build up self esteem and gratitude. Along with new topics and projects kids have still been in the routine of yoga and circle time.
Kindergarten
Our Kinder friends have been earning their stickers and building their self esteem this month by using good communication skills and expressing emotions through language. It is important for our friends to learn how to express themselves and how they feel! One way we express emotions and personality is through our new show and tell circle on thursdays. Kids are welcome and encouraged to ask questions and get to know each other through toys and trinkets they want to share. Club time continues to be popular amongst the little ones and they continue to set new goals and challenges for themselves interacting with 1st- 2nd during this time and pre-k during dismissal. Interacting with different groups allows the students to develop independence, confidence and good communication skills with other friends.
Grades 1st-2nd
These friends have been learning all about kindness and simple ways they can show they care. The group has been working very hard earning their stickers and tickets, and doing a great job being positive/supportive of those who didn’t quite make it. The ones that participate in Free Spirits have worked on their calming breaths with a fun breathing dragon. As always a favorite club continues to be Farrington Nature, the students love learning about the earth and making so many cool crafts with Mr. B. Ms. Daniela’s Cranium Crusherz has also been crushing it with the science activities! Pokemon club got to put their skills to the ultimate test with a series of Pokemon training exercises, where students got to earn Poke badges by winning.
Grades 3rd-6th
Our older kiddos have been falling easily into their daily jobs. A crowd favorite is 1st-2nd grade helper, where two students get to join the younger group and run freeze dance! They’ve been taking the time to learn about friendship and ways to be a good friend to not only students but to their teachers as well. Ms.Veronica’s Origami and Holiday’s Club has been packed with fun and brain stimulating crafts (some are even tasty). The group has also been thoroughly enjoying some free time with board games on our half days.
OTHER REMINDERS
-Cold Weather is approaching, 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
West Somerville Neighborhood School
Coordinator: Joshua Leibovitz
Assistant Coordinator: Seana Read
Jane Fabiano, Vanessa Nason, Darly Pierre, Gianna Amari, Rodrigo Rodriguez, Joseph Amari, Katherine Yanes, Riley Williams
Hello Families and Friends!!
The end of the year is fast approaching!
We hope everyone has been having an amazing time as we begin to close this year. As we finish this year I just want to thank everyone for their support with Afterschool, and making this year an amazing year. As you know We are about to head into our new session for clubs and it will be a breathtaking session. Introducing Parkour to our new session , we might just have our everyone Spiderman at West Somerville, Bringing our very own World cup to the school, and even going to space in our new Space Cadet Club. We are all looking forward to next year and the start of our new session.
Now to get to the best part of the newsletter, welcoming our strongest in the building Pre-K! Improving our reading skills we have been having a reading program where our older friends would do popcorn reading with our younger friends. It has been an amazing experience to the point where some of our Pre-K friends have been reading to our older friends. If we aren't reading then I promise you Ms.Jane has us dancing until we can't any more. Ms. Jane has made sure we have been getting our daily exercise by either doing yoga or even Zumba. Since the world cup has been on it was only fair we honor Shakira with the Waka Waka dance.
Now for part 2 of the pay per view, I think we have found our next “Steven Spielburg” if not better.
As we are all aware we have finished producing our movie and now we can begin to broadcast our movie in theaters. Just so we are all on the same page, tickets have been sold out for centuries. Even Jack Black rated the movie 10 out 5. Superstar, and that he will even make the soundtrack for next year. Stay Tuned.
If we aren’t producing our own movies, we are making our own ostrich as you can see. We had the chance to go to the zoo virtually and were able to experience many different animals at the zoo. We went from seeing lions, monkeys, Ostrich, and even my favorite, Penguins.
After experiencing the zoo our friends decided to bring that visualization to Kidstock and create their own story using many animals. It was as if Zootopia was made into a real life movie.
Time to wrap up this newsletter before the year ends! Let's welcome our finalist to the show, our Older friends! Coming all the way from the afterschool Room, We have been doing a tremendous job with our clubs as they come to a finish. During CinemaKidz we wrapped up our movie and began to film 90’s tv shows from “All That, Family Matter, Saved by the bell, etc”. Having that 90’s style of recording has brought laughter to everyone's face. Just for everyone's information, our friends do not know what a Box Tv is and they do not know what a beeper was. I shed a tear or two and began to think how old we are. If we aren't filming then we are debating, (In a respectful manner). We have been learning a lot about closing arguments, opening statements and just understanding everyone's opinions are correct. If we have caused children to argue constantly and win we apologize in advance. We would like to say that the teachers have been losing in our debate club. Who knew that we cannot put pineapple on our pizza, or even have fruit in our salsa.
Reminders
As winter approaches make sure we are packing jackets, gloves, boots, scarves
Our Lost & Found is filling up quickly with the change of season. Consider labeling your child’s coats/sweatshirts to ensure they make it home if left behind!
Pack extra clothes for our younger students in case of an emergency
Thank you
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