Community Schools
Afterschool Program Newsletter
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
Dana Gordon, Clinical Consultant
Parent Information
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.
Nov 2nd PD programing for register families day hours will be 8am-4pm. Check with your coordinator for details.
Please remember to read the updated Parent Handbook 2021-2022 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
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
Coordinator; Keiry Nunez
Assistant Coordinator; Brianna Arevalo
Rachel Udabe, Seema Sood, Noelle DeCroteau, Harvinder Kaur, Patricia Cruz,
Rui Ribeiro, Lia Sokol, Haydee Delgado
Hello Families!
We have been enjoying the warm weather and going outside to enjoy the sun for as long as we can before the cold comes in! All of our students have enjoyed being able to still play outside and have their clubs happen outdoors as well! Our PreK and Kindergarten students in Group 1 were able to say goodbye to their teacher, Mr. Kenner, and wish him well in his new job in the city! They prepared some goodbye cards for him and enjoyed presenting them to him! Our K-5th grade students have gotten settled into their clubs and are looking forward to club time every day!
Our 6th Grade Mentors have also settled into their roles with each of their assigned age groups. Our first Graders love being read to by one of our mentors and pay attention as he tells the story! Each of our Lead Teachers are so grateful for having a Mentor and being able to have an extra pair of hands in helping students with clubs and homework. In our clubs, such as, Drawing Club, our K-2nd graders are enjoying building their drawing skills and learning how to draw their favorite characters! In the Passport to Food club, our students have been able to travel the world and try the different cuisines that each country has to offer from the comfort of our cafeteria!
This month, we were also excited to introduce a new club for our students, DEILab, that is a STEAM club and it has been a BIG HIT with our K-5th graders! We are so happy that DEILab was able to join our team this session and look forward to working with them in the future! Our Kindergarteners were able to create awesome fall wreaths to celebrate autumn coming in full effect this month! They were able to use the many changing leaves in the playground as inspiration for their wreaths.
REMINDERS
Please make sure to join our AFAS After School 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.
Please remember to pack a water bottle and sunscreen!
Thank you!
Our 3rd-5th graders have enjoyed playing soccer and going to MetroRock this session during club time. They have been working on their projects in WorldWide club and are always producing the most beautiful art pieces in their Art in Time club! We have also had students really enjoying learning about the environment and how we can make a difference in clubs like Farrington Nature and Earth Love. We look forward to more projects that are fun and activities as the session continues!
Arthur d. healey school
Coordinator: Amanda Oppman
Henry Duarte, Nicholas Triant, Suri Gonzalez, Christopher Thompson,
Shekina Beaucicaut
Hello everyone! We are thoroughly enjoying fall here at the Healey. We’re doing our best to get as much time outdoors as we can before the cold weather starts to approach. The kids really enjoy getting to see their friends in other after-school classes on the playground and we have great mentors among our older friends that our youngest friends adore.
In 107 our PeeK and Kindergarten friends have been learning more about their letters with Miss Suri. We’ve explored F, D and now P this month. We’ve founded fish and made patterns with ducks. We made a dog and decorated pumpkins. We’ve been learning about big feelings with Miss O and how to use our words to ask for help. We’ve also learned helpful rhymes to use when we want to help ourselves.
In 208 Mr. T has kept us engaged and excited in each of our clubs. Newspaper club wrapped up their articles on student thoughts on the new playground. We gathered a lot of data from our after-school friends on what they like and would do differently if they had gotten to design the new playground. Last week we began gathering data on our newest article topic: school lunches! In Around the World we’ve primarily been learning about South America thus far. This week we learned about Dia de los Muertos, “Day of the Dead” in Mexico. In Creative Writing we’ve been working hard on our rough drafts, sharing them with our classmates for constructive criticism and ways to improve our writing.
In 207 our 3rd through 5th graders are loving their clubs. Mr. Henry challenged us this week to make fall/Halloween, for those that celebrate, themed decorations for our house. Soccer club has been enjoying playing outside versus in the gym so we’re able to take our masks off. we also learned how to properly dribble this month as well as passing the ball while running to try and score a goal. Master of Games enjoyed a new game brought in by one of our friends this week as well as plenty of games of Uno. Creative Writing club has decided on their topic of choice for their book that’s going to be published and are prepared to begin their rough drafts this week.
MetroRock has been the talk of the class this month with kids super excited for all the learning opportunities they’ve had. Our other friends are greatly looking forward to trying it out in our next session hopefully. We were lucky enough to have a new club join us this year after the session had started that teaches students about Haitian culture and dance. Our students are really enjoying learning new dance techniques. Chef Michael has been teaching us so much about food and culture. He always has the hallways smelling delicious. Farrington Nature has been continuing to utilize the park space at Assembly and students were thrilled they got to get dirty and bring some nature into the classroom last week. Veggie circus has been utilizing our outdoor space and the students continue to enjoy getting to meet a real life clown and learn all his tricks. We’ve been so lucky to have a new member of KidStock join us and the kids were super involved in our story this week. From what Miss O was able to observe there was laughter echoing throughout the cafeteria.
We’ve heard from many of our providers and Admin that we have a great group of kids and we truly enjoy spending our afternoons with them each week.
As a reminder please continue to check your balances on EZChildtrack. Thank you for making this an amazing year so far, we’re looking forward to all of our future adventures and memories with our groups!
benjamin g. brown school
Coordinator: Kelsey Kent
Ashley Marks, Will Whelan, Marie Cheney, Katerina Dinka, Grace Barton,
Kelliann Marks, Karen Oppman, Cole Martell
We’ve had a pretty start to fall this October. The students are busy with after school activities and enjoying the lovely weather. This October we welcomed two new staff members to our team. Ms. Karen Oppman and Cole Martell. Both wonderful people with energy to spare at the end of the day! Ms. Karen works with Group 4 second graders. They’re so happy to have her and we can’t wait to see what clubs she’ll teach next session! Cole Martell was brought on as our door monitor. He has helped us with early pick ups and even has come into some classrooms to read as a guest reader! We thank our lucky stars to have these two new folks. The program is looking for more friendly faces who want to dive into the world of afterschool, so dear reader, consider a part time or volunteer position with our program!
Our group one kindergartners are learning about fire safety! Every month we practice fire drills and learn about how to be safe. This October Group one has is practicing how to be safe and quickly line up to leave the building. They have lots of good questions about fire safety and we are so fortunate to spend some time talking about it with them.
Group two has fully decorated their classroom with lovely drawings and posters. The space is turning into a beautiful inviting space. Did you know it use to be a kindergarten classroom? Now it is our afterschool room and music room. It’s wild how quickly we can change a space. I wish we could invite everyone to see it, but for now pictures will have to do.
Group three is getting into the routine of reading and choice time! Every day our kiddos are allotted time to read. Now more than ever, is it time to re-invest into our kiddos education. We are encouraging this routine so that the kiddos can thrive in school and find the joy in a book. We are keeping the tradition of inviting guest readers (usually our LITs) to help keep stories alive and fun during reading time.
Group four, has a new teacher! Ms. Karen started in October and is so thrilled to be with the group. The kids have established some fun routines and even earned a park day! They are champions of reading time and always come back from clubs with high praise for their participation.
Group five has really taken the LIT to the next level. They started Strong Women Strong Girls in the beginning of October and it is a great addition to their leaders in training program. The last half day our Leaders helped our group 1 kindergarten group. What they found especially challenging was their non stop energy! The picture explains it all. They said, “the kindergarteners are a lot!”
Our clubs are memorable and lovely. Some of the moments that are most precious are when the older students and younger students come together during Dance it Out. Dance it out is held outside and when the older kids come out to play they’ll join in to do a group dance. The younger kids are so happy and always eager for the older kids to join. Here is a picture of them doing the cotton eye joe dance!
A new club provider started in October. DEILAB! A steam based program that all the kids raving are raving about. We hope to bring them back next session for more of our kiddos to join!
Michael e. CApuano Early childhood center
Coordinator: Shirlyne Pierre-Rene
Alex Mendoza, Bryan Convey, Ana Treska, Michael Horowitz, Silvana Dinka,
Christian De Leon, Neelam Sehil, Mei Idris, Jaqueline Gaffney, Dianna Mendoza-Bernal
Room 108
At the beginning of the school year in Capuano room 108, we have lots to learn. We needed to learn how to line up, and how to wash our hands. We learned how to share verbally at circle time, how to share toys, how to clean up, and we learned lots of new games, songs, and routines.
We are learning a bit about fall. We read about seasonal changes in the book Autumn by Gail Saunders-Smith. We learned about why leaves change color. We learned that some animals hibernate and some migrate. We will read some seasonally relevant imaginative stories such as Dick Gackenbach’s “Harry and the Terrible Whatzit.,” and will explore children’s fears as well as coping strategies.
The weather has been awesome, and we have been enjoying lots of outdoor play, but it will be getting colder. We will almost always go outside except in extreme cold, rain, or during a snowstorm. Please make sure your children are dressed appropriately for the weather including hats, gloves, and boots if necessary. We look forward to having lots of fun during the rest of the fall and during this upcoming winter
Room 137
Hello families,
In room 137, we have been keeping busy learning from each other and from our environment! I have been doing a lot of activities with nature and leaves. The friends in our class have participated in many nature walks where we collect leaves and sticks as well as explore the nature around us.
With our findings, we have done art activities, did some observations with magnifying glasses, and kept some in our classroom as decorations!
Other activities we’ve done this month include our school scavenger hunt, where we went as a group around the school looking for shapes and different colors, Apple Taste Test, where the friends had the opportunity to test 3 different kinds of apples (Gala, Granny Smith, and Golden Delicious) and voted on which one the liked the best, and a lot of movement with yoga, dancing, and playing on the playground.
Room 202
Hello Room 202 families,
As the fall weather picks up and we continue to explore fall themes. This month we have been learning about Fall, fire safety, trees and leaves changing colors, pumpkins, and a little bit of other things in between!. Every day we have choice time where the children practice sharing with their friends, cleaning up, and being kind. Some of the highlights of the month have been coloring and cutting leaves for our fall wreaths and learning fun songs such as 5 Little Pumpkins. The children have begun to build relationships with their teachers and friends in afterschool and are quickly settling into our daily routine! We look forward to what the upcoming months have in store for us and can’t wait for your children to share it all with you!
Room 218
In room 218, we have been keeping busy exploring our fall themes. The children have been engaging in fall coloring pages and number activities. They have been able to get great practice through tracing and writing letters and numbers.
Some of the children have also shown great interest in building using small wooden blocks. They have built amazing structures including “school” buildings and “homes.” In addition, the children have been working well with their peers and have been all about teamwork!
As we continue to support our friends and build on these skills, we can’t wait to see how much they will grow in the next couple of months!
east somerville community school
Coordinator: Yolanda Andrade
Raymond Corsini, Janice Pousland, Sonia Barahona, Sarah Ali, Mario Quiroz,
Diana Posada, Nathalya Castillo, Sarah McClelland, Joanne Simon
Hello families!
First, we want to welcome Joanne Simon to our East Somerville team! Joanne will be taking the position of a Lead Teacher in our afterschool program. We are excited for Joanne to work with all grade groups as a Lead for K-2nd and 3-5th homeroom. Don't hesitate to say hello!
East Somerville Community School students have ‘FALEN’ nicely into our Session One clubs! It is exciting to see the students learn through various lenses such as, what to make for a healthy snack in cooking club, how to do the Cha-Cha slide, creating art portfolios, building structures for their Nature Club and so on! East Somerville staff works incredibly hard to have all the students feel included and supported in their own clubs. Clubs have been rewarded with non-food items to eliminate using food as an incentive.
Students in Metro Rock are becoming experts in climbing walls and working together to combat their fear of heights!
For instance, in Reading Time the students got to take their shoes off during reading time, with their stomachs down on the floor or simple sitting relaxing with their favorite books! Other rewards that are great for students are Show-And-Tell, Free Choice Time, Choose You Place in Line, Slipper Day etc… these are absolutely free and students will love that they are rewarded for meeting expectations. When we find ourselves having a free block, East Somerville afterschool has been participating in healthy play such as four corners, red light-green light, and scramble. This gets all of our students involved equally with healthy competition to promote focus, coordination, auditory skills and sportsmanship. We are very proud of our 3-5th students who naturally created soccer games outside that include everyone in their grade group. It is great to see student led structured games!
HAPPY NATIONAL LIGHTS ON AFTERSCHOOL DAY!
To celebrate alongside the Afterschool Alliance, Community Schools Afterschool Program commemorates by supporting students and offering opportunities to explore different fields such as STEM by offering a variety of different activities and to learn new things, such as, appreciation for their community. Additionally, it inspires learning and provides opportunities to help young students develop into successful adults. We are very proud of our teachers and staff for all their hard work, support and their important role in the lives of the students, families and communities. We also thank all of our families for their support to the Community Schools Afterschool Program
Please note, if you signed up for November 2nd program day at East Somerville, arrive no later than 9am. Pick up is between 3:00-4:00 PM. If your student is going to be picked up earlier within the program day, please notify Yolanda so she can make accommodations. Thank you.
john f. kennedy elementary school
Coordinator: Allison Gills
Nicole Estey, Kelly Lopez, Nicole Tolbert, Annahita Forghan, Ethan Hallet
Emma Oppman, Mary Lou Hodgdon, Philip Murray, Donju Felix
Hi Everyone!
We have had a great start to the 2021-2022 school year! October has come and gone in a hurry. It has been great to be back to a somewhat normal after school program. Our students are having a great time learning and experiencing a variety of activities taught both by our after school teachers and our outside providers.
We have two 6th grade students who have been a huge help to our program as they are peer mentors. One student helps our pre-k group out a lot and they love her! Another student has been helping out in clubs and in general. Here he is working with our younger students, giving them ideas on what to build out of their legos.
We also have a new LEGO outside provider called DEILAB. This club will work on design, engineering, and innovation while having students engage in a variety of fun activities. The first two weeks have been all about building lego beyblades and challenging each other to see who’s will stay up the longest while spinning. They are having a great time.
In one of our outside provider clubs called “Impact” students are learning all about different sciences and experiments. They made clouds after learning about evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. They made invisible ink, and 7 different types of airplanes. They also worked together in teams on protecting an egg in order to do the egg drop challenge from 10 ft above. They are having such a fun time in this club.
This month is also a fun month for After School in a National setting. The After School Alliance has a nationwide event that captures the importance of After School for young students all over the country. To show our support for this initiative, we created a banner to show our own appreciation for After School. The art club created this banner by coloring light bulbs and then gluing them to the banner. Then they added their own creative touch. We plan to hang this banner outside the after school room!
1st graders smiled bright for the camera as they were proud of the pumpkins they painted from the school day and they wanted to show them off!
We had fun using dry erase boards and markers to create some fun drawings. Here is a kindergarten student showing off her work!
As always, please ask Ms. Alison any questions you may have. Thank you for your constant support of our After School Program!
winter hill community innovation school
Coordinator: Danielle Gentile
Latifa Mortady, Yolking Goin, Alaa Bautkhourst, Arianna V. Melendez
Hello Winter Hill Families!
I cannot believe that October is almost over! We are extra happy that we got to spend most of our days outside using the playground and soccer field. We also got two new highschool helpers that join the Winter HiIl team, their names are Alaa Boutkhourst and Arianna Vaquerano. We are so happy to have them!
One whole group activity that the children did was apple pie in a cup, the children were able to spread out safely in the cafeteria and make a sweet treat! It was a great welcoming activity!
Pre K and K
Ms. Latifa and Ariana
Our kiddos are getting to know their school routine.Routines help to create smoother transition between activities and also help support in regulating their behavior.
This month we are learning about all about me and my family.Students get the opportunity to talk about themselves and their families,this theme is filled with Preschool and kindergarten activities and ideas of all areas of our classroom.
Students get to learn about each other and others' families.The theme helps children to realize that every person is unique and special.
First Grade Group
Kaisy and Ms. Alla
During the month of October during Science Club we did tons of fun experiments. Some of the experiments that we did were sink or float, cloud in a jar and SLIME. In Art club, we did Blow Paint and origami. Some origami projects we made were flowers and cats for all the cat lovers in the club!
In Just Do it! One of the fun activities that the children enjoyed was making an obstacle course. During the course the students pushed students in a fun way to complete the course. Some of the activities that they did was they had to hopscotch through some hula-hoops, front flip/roll on a mat and jump over some objects. They felt super accomplished after finishing the course.
In Mindfulness Club, we practiced our breathing and built houses with straws quietly in order to see how strong we can make them. During our fun Friday activities we did some cooking and spent some time outside.
During homework time the children are working hard to complete their packets. After the children are done with homework they make a choice. Some choices are reading, coloring, math or Legos.We have also been working on some social emotional learning and my goal is to help students use their words to communicate how they feel so they feel heard by everyone!
west somerville neighborhood school
Coordinator: Joshua Leibovitz
Christine Wang, Jane Fabiano, Vanessa Nason, Dan Kazenel,
Lindsay Davis-Braun, Tajae Smith
Hello Families!
Welcome to the 2021-2022 School Year!
Well hello there families, and friends! Welcome back to our Monthly Newsletter, and how I am excited to give you an update on how we are doing. We are in our second month of afterschool, and let me tell you how excited we are. Students have been able to experience different activities and clubs throughout the week. Ranging from different varieties. Understanding the fundamentals of soccer, what we grow from our local garden, cooking with only the freshest produce, and even having a new teacher join our team. Let me introduce everyone to Ms. Lindsay. She has joined our Afterschool team and has been with us for almost a month now. She has been working with our younger kids all the way up to our older friends. Do not hesitate to drop by and say Hello!
Our Pre-K friends have been loving their time in Afterschool! Ms. Jane has been planning activities for our tiniest friends. Our Pre-K friends have been having a blast with Afterschool, especially having Ms. Jane as their teacher. Doing activities such as making your own slime, playdough, even going to the park.
Our K-2nd grade friends have been in clubs now and let me tell you, it has been a blast. Now that clubs have been taking place our friends have not stop talking about. Describe the new activities they have done during clubs, explaining the new skill they have learned and even talking about something they have learned in clubs and describe how it is beneficial for our world. Coming from Smart cookies, our young chefs have started their own recipe book, and by the end of our first session, they will have their own recipe book like Martha Stewart. As I mention before our friends have started to understand the different variety of produce and how each one is beneficial to our health, skin, and to our world that we live in. I will like to introduce some new clubs that have started in the past week. Our new clubs are DeiLab, Harry Potter, Dinosaur, Olympics. Dei Lab is a club that focuses on science, and have students engage in science, with technology engineering and math in multiple ways. This week, they learned how to make their own Beyblades using a Lego Tire, and a battery operative engine. Ms. Lindsay gathering our Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin all in one room, to compete against each other to earn points for their houses, and claim their trophy by the end of session one.
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 a sweater/jacket/long sleeve
Packing extra clothes for our younger students in case of an emergency
Dismissal is from 5:00pm- 5:30pm everyday (if you believe you will arrive late please call or sent a remind text)
Thank you!
Our 3rd-5th students have been enjoying their time in Afterschool. Not only they have their favorite clubs, including Cooking, Comics, Soccer, they have also received new clubs as well. Introducing our Science club, DeiLab. Just as I mention before, DeiLab is a club that focuses on science, and have students engage by using technology engineering, and using their math skills. Our next club is a chemistry club called Biobus, which students work with scientists to investigate the world through a different lends, make observations, develop hypotheses, and experience the joy of scientific discovery first hand! Going deep in Marine Biology, our friends have really become the next top scientist! Our friends have been excited about clubs this year and cannot wait to finish their homework and reading, knowing that they can go to their favorite club for the day. Our friends are not only excited about clubs, but are excited about their very own kickball challenge they do at the end of the day.
