The Conant Crier

The newsletter of Luther B. Conant School, Acton, Massachusetts
http://conant.ab.mec.edu/
.
The Conant Crier
October 2012
Volume 1, Issue 2
See inside for….

PTO News

Destination
Book Fair

Halloween
Parade

Summer
Reading
Program

Annual Craft
Fair

Notes from the
Nurse
October
Calendar
10/8
Columbus
Day– No
School
10/18 PTO Meeting
Cafeteria 7
p.m.
10/28 Craft Fair
10 a.m.—
4p.m
10/30
Early
Dismissal
10/31
Halloween
Parade
2.00 p.m
The View from Here: Notes from the
Principal’s Desk
This first month of school has been a wonderful whirlwind of activity. We were all thrilled
at the great turn out for our Open Houses, Muffin/Donuts morning and our first PTO meeting. The students are working very hard with their dedicated teachers and are already in a
great learning groove. Finally the humidity of summer is behind us and the crisp cool morning air gets us all ready to learn early in the day.
The beautiful fall weather always reminds me that winter is soon to come. Knowing this, I
encourage you to get your children out to play as often as possible. Play is important childhood work, as important as academic work. Through play, children develop strong problem
solving and social skills as well as healthy bodies. So please…educate the whole child and
get our friends out and moving with their buddies before winter rears her icy head.
We all know Conant is a wonderful place but we also realize that through the year, issues
may arise that require further attention. If you ever have a question or concern about your
child’s educational experiences here at Conant, please contact your child’s teacher first as
she/he sees your child daily and has the best understanding of what has transpired in class. If
issues require further attention, don’t hesitate to contact Dr. Kotyk or myself to assist in resolving the situation.
Thank you all for sharing your children with us. As always, we look forward to continuing
to work with all of you to become the best school we can be.
Damian J. Sugrue
Principal
Don't forget to save your receipts when you shop at Donelan's in Acton
and Littleton and then drop them into the collection box in the Conant
lobby outside of the office. In the spring, Mr. Sugrue will have the opportunity to purchase school supplies and equipment from a wide range
of offerings through the Register Tapes for Education Program. Thanks to Donelan's and the participation of Conant's parents,
teachers and staff, last spring ,Mr. Sugrue selected a great playground
equipment package which provided our children with a colorful collection of basketballs,
footballs, soccer balls and playground balls. In addition, there is a drawing for an iPod Shuffle® and a $500 shopping spree at Donelan’s – please see the September Crier for an entry
form. Contact Laura Robb via email at robb.laura.a@gmail.com for additional information.
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PTO HIGHLIGHTS
October is off to a swinging start and we hope that you are getting into the groove of the school year. I hope all of you have settled into the new school year. We here at the PTO have certainly got into the thick of things with our first meeting of the year
completed on September 28th. We also had our first “Muffins with Mom and Donuts with Dad” event on the same day and we
were very happy to see all the families who came out to enjoy breakfast with their children.
Please mark your calendar for the 31st Annual Craft Fair on Sunday, October 28th. The Craft Fair is one of the PTO’s most
important fundraisers. It is a wonderful event that showcases arts and crafts of a very high quality for sale. Beth Ali and Rebecca
Bregman will be co-chairing the event again this year; thank you ladies! They are looking for volunteers to help out with all aspects of the event. Please get in touch with them for more information or to help.
October is also the month for pumpkins, falling leaves, and yes the very popular Conant Halloween Day Parade! The children
and teachers will be in costume and will parade around the parking lot before heading back into school. Parents and younger siblings are welcome to join us.
On Thursday, October 18th we will have the 2nd PTO meeting at 7pm. We hope those of you who cannot make it for the meetings held during the day will be able to attend and participate. The end of the month will also bring the much loved Scholastic
book fair to school. Keep on the lookout for more information!
You can always check out these and other current happenings on the PTO website. Marybeth Quaadgras, our webmaster, works
very hard to keep the page updated. I also urge all of you to sign up for our weekly e-newsletter. It comes out every Sunday
morning and will keep you in the know of what is happening at school the following week. You can sign up for these newsflash
emails also on the website.
Our goals this year at the PTO are community building and fundraising. We can’t achieve either of these goals without your help.
Please consider devoting a small amount of your time to helping with these and other PTO events. We will gladly take any
amount of time that you can provide. Even an hour would be great!
If you have any suggestions or comments I would love to hear from you.
Have a happy fall season!
Ranjini Reddy
President, Conant PTO
(president@conantpto.org)
PTO Open Positions
Notes from the Nurse
Do you love to garden? Then the PTO needs YOU! We
are still on the lookout for parents who can chair the
Gardening committee. In the past the gardening committee has made the areas around the school sign and
front of the school look nice.
Strep throat is most commonly diagnosed after a child
has a severe sore throat and possibly a fever. Some
children never get it. For families whose children do
get strep, keep in mind that a strep infection may present without a sore throat. The child may have a bad
stomachache with or without vomiting and fever, or a
bad headache. Strep is an infectious disease that you
are required to report to school so that classmate’s parents can be notified. Please leave a message on the
school safe arrival line: (978)266-2555.
We also need parent volunteers for the Vice President
role. The role can be shared by two people and we hope
you will consider stepping up to fill this position.
Thanks!
Ranjini Reddy
President, Conant PTO
(president@conantpto.org)
Heather Makris, R.N.,BSN, NCSN.
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All Star Book Fair. Every Reader is a Star!
The Scholastic Book Fair will be at the Conant School Friday, November 2nd through Friday, November
9th, 2012 (there will be no book fair on Tuesday, September 6th). The fair will be open for you to browse and make
purchases from 10:00 am to 2:30 pm (M and W), from 10:00 am to noon on Thursday, and from 10:00 am to 1:30 pm
on Friday. We will have evening hours from 5:30 pm to 7:00pm on Monday, November 5TH and 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm
on Wednesday, November 7th. At the Book Fair you will find the latest and finest titles for kids, as well as books of
interest for parents.
Our teachers will be selecting times for their classroom visits. Once the schedule is finalized, it will be sent
home with a volunteer sign-up sheet. We hope you will be able to visit the book fair with your child’s class. Our students love having their parents with them while they look through the books. Teacher/staff wish lists will be available
to parents during the book fair. The book fair is also a great place to stock up for holiday gifts!
Speaking of volunteers, without them the book fair will not be possible. We need help with guiding students
to age appropriate material, finding books in the cases, helping parents with the staff wish lists and at the cash registers. If you can participate, we would love to have you join us and you will be sure to have a wonderful time. The
students love the book fair and it is with joy and pride that we recognize the commitment the Conant community places on literacy. If you can volunteer for a morning, afternoon or an evening hour, please contact Ranjini Reddy at ranjinireddy@gmail.com or Sophia Park at kipuda@yahoo.com. It is great fun and especially satisfying to see the excitement on the children’s faces for books!
Once again, proceeds from the fair will go towards Conant's leveled reading library. A leveled library helps
teachers match their students with the right book at the right time. Teachers want to match students with books that
are not too easy or too difficult. Finding the right book for their students will help in decoding as well as comprehension as the student moves seamlessly along in the reading process. Students at all grade levels are impacted immediately from your generous donations.
We hope to see you at the book fair! Please come and be a part of this week long celebration of books!
Sophia Park
Ranjini Reddy
The Target Credit Card Fundraiser
Do you have a Target credit or debit card? Then you can help the Conant PTO fundraise by using your Target credit or debit card when you shop at the store. Target will donate 1% of all the
purchases to a school of your choice every September. If you already have one of these cards
please go to www.target.com/tcoe and designate Conant as your school.
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Conant School 31st Annual Craft Fair
Mark your calendars! On Sunday, October 28th from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., the Conant PTO will host the 31st
Annual Arts and Craft Fair. Our fair is one of the most popular in the area and showcases talented artists and craftspeople from all over New England. We hope to make this fair even more successful than last year and we can with
your help! Come and do some early holiday shopping or shop for that special anniversary, birthday or baby shower
gift. Some of the popular vendors will be returning this year, joined by many talented new ones, selling their handcrafted work including jewelry, pottery, sewn goods, candles, soaps, holiday decor, and so much more. We also plan
to have a fully stocked baked sale table again this year. Bake sale proceeds are 100% profit so the more goodies and
treats that are donated, the more profit we earn. Baked goods donated may be store bought or made at home.
Please check on our PTO Website for a $1.00 off coupon for the entrance fee that you may print out and use at the fair;
please feel free to distribute them to friends and family as well. The more people attending our fair the more income it
will produce.
The craft fair is one of the largest fundraiser for our school and there are many volunteer opportunities available. This year we are fortunate to have several big volunteer positions filled. Martin Pettrachi is returning as the Parking Coordinator and Seema Shenoy is the Volunteers Coordinator. We also have many positions for the weekend of
the fair including set up, bake sale table, parking assistant, clean up, and much more. Please keep your eye out for the
volunteer sheet which will be coming home in your child’s backpack or sign up at the PTO website. We have jobs and
times to meet everyone’s schedule. Do not miss helping out with this weekend full of fun! The fair is one of the best
times to meet and get to know the teachers and other parents from our school!
Rebecca Bregman
Beth Ali
Halloween Parade
Our annual Halloween Parade is fast approaching. I am
very much looking forward to taking part in my first
one. The parade will take place on October 31st at approximately 2:00 (please check the website to confirm
the time as we get closer to the event). All students in
grades K – 6 are invited to participate. As has been the
tradition, classes will process out the front door and parade around the front of the school in costume. Parents
are welcome to join us outside and watch the festivities!
(If it rains, however, the parade will be cancelled.)
As in the past I’d like to send along some important reminders about the event.
Costumes need to be brought to school in a bag, and
should be able to be put on over school clothes in the
classrooms. Please take a moment to be sure your child
can manage this on his or her own, as there is not
enough room for the bathrooms to be used as changing
areas or enough teachers to help each child dress.
* Any make up must be put on just before the parade;
please don’t wear it to school. A reminder that aerosol
sprays, such as hairspray, are not allowed in school as
they can trigger respiratory problems such as asthma.
* Creativity is encouraged! Children might consider
dressing up as their favorite character from a book, or
maybe as an important historical figure from their Social
Studies work.
* Costume choices need to be appropriate and respectful. Violent themes or characters are not allowed nor are
weapons of any kind. Parents and children should avoid
negative or stereotypical characterizations that can be
hurtful toward specific cultural, racial, socio economic
or ethnic groups.
Thank you in advance for your attention to these details!
Damian J. Sugrue
Principal.
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Summer Reading Program
266 students participated in the 2012 Conant School Summer Reading Program! The students read more
than 4,118 books over the summer. Congratulations to all of our great readers at Conant!! The students who
participated in the 2012 Summer Reading Program are:
Kindergarten
Anushri Pal
Jonathan Nguyen
First Grade
Sarang Bajwa
Marcus Huang
Sanjana Kadiyala
Jerry Li
Maria Medvedeva
Mikhail Medvedev
Olivia Pignato
Ronit Prasad
Rohan Radhakeesoon
Barathi Ramadurai
Benjamin Ranalli
Arjun Samudrala
Saanya Shah
Sachin Srinivasan
Brian Tsang
Joseph Won
Julia Xiao
Sarah Fernandes
Emma Forrest
Xinghua Fu
Camila Joseph
Shriya Kannan
Patrick Li
Aishani Mahadevia
Rylan McGee
Sarah McOsker
John Pignato
Rheann Ponniah
Gayatri Ramadurai
Prakul Saxena
Toshiya Shiraiwa
Noah Stegmeier
Atul Vasan
Vivian Wang
Eric Cai
Hayden Cody
Samuel Du
Krish Gupta
Caitlyn Keenan
Melanya Khaykina
Adriana Korbly
Dennis Liu
Logan Lyons
Maya Palchuk
Olivia Sater
Rohil Saxena
Gabe Simone
Kaitlyn Vittum
Michael Zhang
Chloe Zhong
Second Grade
Alvan Cao
Stephanie Campbell
Abby Dennison
Kameran Holleran
Aisha Karim
Sidarth Krishna
Ben Molaskey
Lydia Morris-Kliment
Justin Nguyen
CJ O'Brien
McKenzie Page
Soham Pradhan
Priyanka Chidambaram
Keshav Warrier
Sonia Wong
Tristan Wu
Emily Xu
Ryan Brady
Taylor Dennison
Sarah Keefe
Tanvi Khot
Anna Kounalakis
Stephanie Lin
Sean Nelson
Paige Pittorino
Jack Reynolds
Meghna Sundaram
Jeffrey Wei
Averi Zhong
Isha Agarwal
Saiesha Bollapragada
Logan Friedman
Alicia Gu
Varun Iyer
Shrinithi Kumar
Jonathan Lei
Mihir Nagarkatti
Sahana Prabhu
Molly Reynolds
Portia Thompson
Erin Tobin
Derek Uhrich
Joy Wang
Aidan Whitley
Ryan Zhang
Third Grade
Maxim Badaev
Anna Bondar
James Cui
Claudia Castro
Alexander Golovchenko
Joyce Gong
Sophie Hua
Aarti Jeslani
Jeffrey Li
Vinita Mahanti
Kabir Moghe
Carter Pharo
Tyler Robb
Supria Shroff
Nikila Surapaneni
Rachel Tsang
Will Zawada
Rebecca Zhang
Kevin Zhao
Koharu Aoki
Anya Ganss
Glenn Guenard
Claire Kearney
Tommy Keefe
Song Leav
Iffah Liyakath
Aditya Nambiar
Britta Peterson
Jordyn Richie
Alexa Slupski
Jasmine Wu
Frank Xiao
Claire Zhu
Neha Aryasomayajula
Emily Cai
Kelsey Chen
Jonathan Ding
Aparna Kamath
Claire Lucyk
Ameesha Pani
Anuj Sakarda
Evie Simone
Connie Yang
Alex Yu
Alexander Zhang
Sophie Zhang
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Fourth Grade
Nikolas Anestis
Ashay Jain
Brian Gallinger
Nisha Iyer
Anthony Kim
Divyasri Krishnan
Akash Kumar
Jolie Liu
Alexis McCauley
Leeban Mohamed
Jackie Sater
Ashwin Srinivasan
Kelsey D'Esopo
Lyndon Hu
Pride Jia
Renee Jiang
Isabella Korbly
Erin Little
Daniel Lobo
Christian MacNeill
Jake McKelvie
Jack Molaskey
Michelle Pathrose
Abby Price
Aniketh Sharma
Amanda Sullivan
Siddharth Warrier
Amanda Wu
Vivek Aysola
Abhay Bharadwaj
Graham Brady
Maksim Emelyanov
Rebecca Ford
Ryan Forrest
Nithya Jonnavithula
Jillian Loebs
Ashleigh Vittum
Nicole Wei
Chris Xu
Crystal Zhang
Ethan Zhong
Fifth Grade
Ben Alcaide
Nitya Aryasomayajula
Nicholas Carmosino
Michele de Rege
Nicole Kinzlmaier
Sanjana Krishna
Alicia Mao
Niranjan Narasimhan
Annie O'Brien
Antara Pal
Anthony Pittorino
Natalie Shin
Rahul Ulman
Carlson Wu
Elise Wu
Jonathan Yin
Anne Fu
Varun Harish
Bonita Huang
David Liu
Isabel Maas
Susannah Malloy
Victor Margarint
Ben Matson
Elsa Peterson
Niraagi Shah
Kunal Sharda
T HE C O NA NT C R I E R
Ashwin Srinivasan
Ira Testarmata
Aadhiti Vallatharasu
Brooke Venkitachalam
Colin Yu
Pratik Bharadwaj
Saskia Campbell
Annabella Chen
Riya Gupta
Nikita Iyer
Peter Jussaume
Nithin Kavi
Olivia Maas
Erin McOsker
Rohan Singh
Winston Thompson
Maxwell Wang
Dora Xiao
Olivia Yang
Sixth Grade
Amogh Bharadwaj
Sebastien Christensen
Hadley D'Esopo
Andy Gu
Emma Kassam
Tommy Kearney
Nikhil Khot
Viraz Mahanti
Joey Pittorino
Andrew Shen
Lucy Stevenson
Carrie Yu
Iris Zhao
Ben Bugalter
Elizabeth Hardy
Laura Hunt
Alexandra Kvitman
Andy Liu
Parth Mathur
Ananya Pani
Chris Potter
Cassie Slupski
Chad Sullivan
Austin Zhou
Lisa Zhou
Igor Barinov
Kaitlyn Chen
Morgan Dennison
Infant Derrick Gnana Susairaj
Varsha Jawahar
Keerthi Kamath
Austin Kittredge
Mark Potter
Stefan Quaadgras
Justin Santoro
Emily Szelest
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Nature Walks: The Naturalist Program
Do you know that Conant School has a program that supplements classroom science activities? It's called the
Naturalist Program and it is run by volunteers who lead small groups of children on wellplanned walks around the Conant schoolyard or to the Acton Arboretum. It starts in Kindergarten and continues through sixth grade. The program is funded by the PTO and was developed specifically for the Conant schoolyard and its varied ecosystems (stream, woods,
meadow, and wetlands).
Here's an overview of the Naturalist Program:
 Kindergarten: Guided observation of seasonal change using sight, touch, sound. Fall,
winter, and spring walks.
 First Grade: Understanding non-living and living things and seasonal survival. Fall,
winter, and spring walks.
 Second Grade: Appreciating plants: similarities, differences, and needs. Fall, winter,
and spring walks.
 Third Grade: Honing classification and observation skills by watching birds on the Conant grounds. Study of
bird habitats and their nests, with student nest-building activity. Two spring walks.
 Fourth Grade: Honing observation and classification skills using trees. Indoor winter session, winter walk, early
spring walk, late spring walk.
 Fifth Grade: Understanding a bog as unique habitat and observing forest layers. Fall and spring walks at the Acton Arboretum.
Sixth Grade: Careful observation and documentation of a small ecosystem; small groups of students monitor a
square meter of the Conant schoolyard throughout the year. Monthly from October through May.
For detailed information on the individual walks, visit the Naturalist Program page of the Conant web site at http://
conant.ab.mec.edu/school/curriculum/naturalist.html
Please consider volunteering for this program, and discovering nature along with your children and their classmates.
You can volunteer for just one walk, or follow the program throughout the year. You are also welcome to volunteer
for a class or a grade other than your child’s. For example, if you are a bird watcher, please consider joining the thirdgraders on their walks. Aunts, uncles, babysitters, grandparents, and other important adults in your child’s life are
welcome as well.
We offer training and volunteer guides for each walk. Your willingness to share with the children is the most important criteria. You don’t need to be a nature expert to lead a walk!
If you missed the sign-up sheets at Parent Information Night, please send your name to Deborah Malloy at deborah_malloy@comcast.net and we’ll be sure to add you to our volunteer list. Please note that all volunteers must have
completed a CORI form prior to participating.
Health Screening for Elementary School
The State of Massachusetts mandates that we do health screenings for students annually. They include Hearing, Vision, Height
Weight/BMI, and postural screening. I have included a list of the grades and which screenings are done. The purpose of doing
screening is not to diagnose a problem but to screen for children that should be further assessed using diagnostic procedures by
a physician or nurse practitioner. The goal is to intervene and correct an issue as early as possible. This may mean just seeing
the pediatrician a bit more often to follow up or it may mean a change. If you do want to decline screening, you must have documentation from the doctor that they are doing the screening AND a note from you. Please do not hesitate to contact me with
questions.
K-5 : Vision
K-3 : Hearing
1st and 4th Grade: Height & Weight with BMI calculation
5-6th Grade: Postural screening
Heather Makris, RN, BSN ,NCSN
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Please Read the
Conant Crier!
The Conant Crier is the newsletter
of the Conant School and is published every month during the academic year. Many notices concerning school events will be published
in it — there may not be separate
fliers sent home regarding these
events, so please read the Crier
carefully!
The best way to submit an item for
the Crier is to send it via email
either as an attachment, or as part of
the email message text to the editor
in charge of the next publication.
We will be happy to confirm
receipt of the
item. Submissions are always
welcome from
anyone in the
Conant community. The Crier staff
also has a mailbox in the main office. Please feel free to leave articles/information that may be of
interest to the school community
and we will consider it for publication.
In order to publish the Crier on
time, please follow these guidelines
for submitting articles:
Issue: November Date: Nov 5th.
Article Deadline: Wed, Oct 31st.
Editor: Poornima Chakravarthy
Courier: Rohan Chakravarthy
Conant Crier Staff
Editor-in-chief:
Damian J Sugrue, Principal
Co-Editors:
Shobana Sampath, 978-266-0086
Poornima Chakravarthy
978 266 1428
Didn’t see it in the Crier? Log on
to ab.mec.edu for additional
information on Acton schools..
Couriers:
Sanjana Krishna, Grade 5
Rohan Chakravarthy, Grade 5