Winchendon Weekly News school newsletter - Wednesday, February 9

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Memorial School Pre-K joins in on Global School Play Day!

by Keith Kent: Special to the Courier
Town of Winchendon Memorial School Pre-K students finished off an exciting week celebrating their own version of Global School Play Day on Friday, February 3, as some of Toy Town's youngest learners enjoyed moving from class to class and work station to work station, challenging themselves with both creativity, problem solving, and new ideas, in the true spirit and mission of the world wide education goal of GSPD.

In what was an engaging week for Pre-K students and beginning just a day prior on Thursday, February 2, these youngest Memorial School learners were treated to their very own "Live Reptile Show" by Reptile Shows of New England sponsored by the Memorial School PTO. Both Pre-K Teachers and Paraprofessionals all agreed the students where happy and engaged by the shows offerings made available by the charitable effort, and the students overall showed great interest in the exhibits.

On Friday, February 3, these young students entered Memorial School very well bundled up with the morning already very cold and windy, as Toy Town like so many others was entering an incredibly harsh cold snap, with the upcoming nights wind chill values to reach as much as -35 degrees F. However knowing what they had in store for the days festivities, the warm smiles on some of Toy Town's youngest students entering the building wouldn't have ever let you known it was already very cold outside!

After settling in and faculty explaining what was going on and students were able to do, the children were given the option at their own discretion to either "Stay in their own classroom if more comfortable or venture off in to the other classrooms and explore". This process allows such young students on Global School Play Day which is designed to "Promote cognitive thought and development" to advance and explore at their own comfort pace which by design in their age group, encourages not only learning, but the ability to challenge one self by feeling welcome and not forced thus a desire to be challenged by feeling being involved in an acceptable atmosphere or surrounding. Again, all GSPD and faculty design. Options such as building, drawing, coloring, applying stickers, fixing things such as plastic toys with plastic tools, laying out and designing train tracks for toy trains, painting, sculpting, you name it and more. If it was an option these Memorial School Pre-K Teachers and Para's tried to make it available! Also in true GSPD design and fashion, the building of interpersonal relationships, communication skills among young students, sharing skills of same items for working on same projects for "common goals" and more were all on display in their own "Age appropriate forms" as was with their older siblings and students in the other wings of the building witnessed just days prior.

Speaking with various members of the Memorial School Pre-K faculty, feedback was both positive and interesting for various reasons. At Memorial School, both the young students of Pre-K and the SPED program (Special Education) are joined together. In an example of what may not seem like much to an adult but can be huge to a developing and impressionable young child, Paraprofessional Sally Huff was pleased to say, "For our SPED kids playing in a different classroom gives them different opportunities to explore other toys we would not be able to use in our classroom for safety reasons".

Even approaching for comment in the office when looking for perspective, Pre-K Secretary, Kathy Brooks was happy to add, "This is the 2nd year that Pre-K has celebrated Global School Play Day. The unstructured play is great for students imagination and expanding their social skills and things such as that. Students get to be more creative within themselves because by design their day is not as structured, so they can become more creative and use their imagination". When asked if feedback has been positive from all of the faculty Brooks replied, "Absolutely, yes".

Pre-K Teacher Andrea Skawinski like others could be seen closely monitoring students to not only watch and see if they needed assistance, but be there if a child showed signs of stress or duress during the learning curve which included learning how to interact with others while developing both social and cognitive skills. Skawinski when asked how she felt the GSPD Pre-K event was going simply summed it up in closing as, "Honestly it gives our students the opportunity to interact with not only other classrooms but to be imaginative and come with new games that they can play and develop skills that perhaps they don't always have the opportunity to do with smaller classes".

If you are interesting in learning more about Global School Play Day you can visit its website at www.globalschoolplayday.com or GSPD can also be followed on Facebook at www.facebook.com/globalschoolplayday. To view Global School Play Day on Twitter go to https://twitter.com/GSPlayDay

Winchendon's Domenic Iannacone Named to UT Dean's List

TAMPA, FL (02/06/2023)-- Domenic Iannacone, of Winchendon, earned dean's list honors at The University of Tampa for the Fall 2022 semester. Iannacone is majoring in Film and Media Arts BFA. Students must maintain a GPA of 3.75 or higher to be eligible for the dean's list.

The University of Tampa is a private, comprehensive university located on 110 acres on the riverfront in downtown Tampa. Known for academic excellence, personal attention and real-world experience in its undergraduate and graduate programs, the University has about 200 programs of study and serves about 11,000 students from 50 states and most of the world's countries.

Endicott College Announces Local Dean's List Students

BEVERLY, Mass. (February 6, 2023) - Endicott College, the first college in the U.S. to require internships of its students, is pleased to announce its Fall 2022 Dean's List students. In order to qualify for the Dean's List, a student must obtain a minimum grade point average of 3.5, receive no letter grade below "C," have no withdrawal grades, and be enrolled in a minimum of 12 credits for the semester.

The following Winchendon students have met these requirements:

Olivia Beauvais, Psychology, daughter of Kelly Beauvais
Erica Lashua, Mrktng Comm/Advertising, daughter of Julie Lashua and Micheal Lashua
Cassandra Wightman, Bioengineering, daughter of Laura Wightman and Jason Wightman

About Endicott College
Endicott College offers doctorate, master's, bachelor's, and associate degree programs at its campus on the scenic coast of Beverly, Mass., with additional sites online and at U.S. and international locations. Endicott remains true to its founding principle of integrating professional and liberal arts education with internship opportunities across disciplines. For more, visit endicott.edu.