Category Archives: CAS

Lincoln-Eliot January PTO Highlights

January Highlights – Thank You Teachers!

In the past two months, your contributions to the PTO and our community events have provided much needed support to our teachers in several ways:

Nov 25th – Distributed $4,180 in cash stipends to all teachers to spend on their rooms.
Dec 13th – Parents purchased & donated $1,700 in books to teachers from the Book Fair!
Jan 5th – Distributed items from the first annual LE Teacher Grant Program. Working together with Room Connectors, delivered $2700 in flexible seating and supplies to support our classrooms. Please see the nice cards from our 1st graders as thanks for the Book on a Shelf Grant that provided a new book each day in December.

The Creative Arts and Sciences program continues to bring amazing content to our children:

Dec 6th – Bubbles from the Discovery Museum, Kindergarten
Dec 6th – Potato Hill Poetry, Grades 2, 4, 5
Dec 19th – World of Owls, Grade 5
Jan 17th – Women in World Jazz, Grades K-5
Feb 6th – Potato Hill Poetry, Grades 2, 4, 5

Halfway Through the Year! Halfway to Our Fundraising Goal!

The LE PTO spends $36,000 per year for our 364 children, about $100 per child.
We’ve raised nearly $20,000 to date and are halfway to our goal!
Please donate via PayPal at our website LEPTO.ORG/DONATE or email treasurer@lepto.org. THANK YOU!

CAS Program: Poet Andy Green

This Tuesday, February 4th, and Thursday, February 6th, Andy Green, founder of Potato Hill Poetry, will be making his final visit to our school this year to work with our second, fourth, and fifth grade classes. The students have been working hard on their poems and learning a lot from his writing workshop — ask them about some of the poems they’ve studied! His visits are made possible by your PTO donations and a generous grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council; thank you for your support for CAS programs like this all year long.

All-School CAS Program: Women in World Jazz

This past Friday, January 17th, Lincoln-Eliot welcomed the group Women in World Jazz to perform for the entire school (grades K-2 at 9am, grades 3-5 at 10am).

Women in World Jazz presents an educational performance featuring an international ensemble of all-female performers showcasing music from around the world. The concert features musical styles from Cuba’s cha cha to Cape Verde’s Coladeira as well as songs from Israel, Brazil and Japan, mixed in with jazz favorites. The ensemble’s goal is to give the audience a taste of different cultures from around the globe through the expression of music and dance. They will be visiting all the schools in Newton this spring, starting with Lincoln-Eliot.

Ask your children which countries they heard music from, whether they got to play instruments or clap along, what they learned about the blues, and which instruments they saw being played!

This performance was brought to Lincoln-Eliot by the PTO’s Creative Arts and Sciences team and paid for by our fundraising all year long — thank you for supporting the PTO so we can keep bringing in programs like these!

CAS Programs: Bubbles and Poet Andy Green

We had a busy Creative Arts and Sciences week at Lincoln-Eliot, with programs running for multiple classes. On Friday, Dec. 6th, the Discovery Museum came to present their Bubbles program to the kindergarten classes:

How long does a bubble really last? What color is a bubble? Can you predict when a bubble will pop? Students challenge what they think they know about bubbles as they make new observations, pose questions, investigate, and discuss their findings.

And our 2nd, 4th, and 5th graders were visited by poet Andy Green of Potato Hill Poetry, for an ongoing writing workshop program. Ask your kids about the poems they’re writing and what they’ve learned so far!

These are some of the many Creative Arts & Sciences programs made possible by your donations to the PTO — thank you for your support!

November PTO Highlights

November was another great, busy month at Lincoln-Eliot, with lots of PTO projects going on, as you can see from the updates below. Please reach out to president@lepto.org or secretary@lepto.org anytime with any questions or to get involved!

Supporting Our Children Through Creative Arts and Sciences

November 8 – Author Marika McCoola; Grades 4 & 5
Nov 14 – Rocks and Minerals from the Discovery Museum; Grade 4
Nov 19 – Author Jef Czekaj; Grades K-3
Nov 26 – The Wonderful World of Bugs from Bugworks; Grade 1
Received scholarship to provide 110 books to LE students in need
Awarded a $2,900 grant to bring poetry into our classrooms; Grades 2, 4, 5

Supporting Our Teachers Through Stipends and Grants

Nov 25 – Distributed $4180 in stipends to all teachers
Nov 11 – Launched the first LE Teacher Grant Program to fund larger classroom projects with a budget of $3000. Click here to see the kinds of items teachers are requesting to make classrooms a more comfortable and engaging learning space

Supporting Our School Through Improvements

Nov 11 – City of Newton installed two new bike racks
Nov 26 – Purchased 6 document cameras for teachers to replace decade-old machines

***The Lincoln-Eliot PTO Depend on Your Annual Contribution***

The LE PTO spends $36,000 per year for our 364 children, or about $100 per child
Please consider donating $100/student to the Lincoln-Eliot Annual Fund, or what you can, to continue bringing events to our children, support our teachers and school
Please donate at LEPTO.ORG/DONATE or email treasurer@lepto.org. THANK YOU!

1st Grade CAS Program: BugWorks

This coming Tuesday, November 26th, our first graders will be visited by a terrific science enrichment program featuring live insects. Bugworks introduces kids to “the wonderful world of bugs” with interactive observation and complements the science work the students are doing in their classrooms with terrariums. On Tuesday, ask your first graders which bugs they got to see!

Thank you for your continued support of the PTO’s Creative Arts & Sciences Committee, which brings in programs like these all year long!

CAS Program for K-3: Author Jef Czekaj

This Tuesday, November 19th, author/illustrator Jef Czekaj will be visiting Lincoln-Eliot to present to our students in kindergarten through 3rd grade, as part of Newton AuthorFest.

Jef’s most recent book, Hip & Hop in the House!, is available at Newtonville Books and in our school library. We are very excited to welcome him to our school!

4th Grade CAS Program: Rocks and Minerals from the Discovery Museum

This past Thursday, November 14th, the Creative Arts and Sciences Committee brought the Discovery Museum to Lincoln-Eliot’s 4th graders for an Earth Science presentation on Rocks and Minerals.

What is the difference between a rock and a mineral? How do rocks and minerals form? This hands-on program taught our students about the three basic rock types, plus how to grow your own crystals and make a sedimentation chamber. The kids were sent home with recipes for “Igneous Fudge” and “Sedimentary Sandwiches” plus other resources to explore. Ask your 4th grader what they learned!

This is one of several curriculum-based enrichment programs that our PTO funds. Thank you all for your support of the Creative Arts & Sciences Committee!

CAS Author Visit: Marika McCoola

On Friday, Nov. 8th, our 4th and 5th graders were visited by author Marika McCoola as part of the Newton-wide CAS AuthorFest. She talked to the students about the process of writing, how graphic novels are made, story arcs, page turns, and retelling folk tales — ask your 4th or 5th grader about what they learned!

Marika’s book, Baba Yaga’s Assistant, is available at Newtonville Books; you can order them by calling 617-244-6619, and part of the proceeds will go towards supporting CAS programs in Newton.

Thank you to Natalie Hereford and the rest of our Creative Arts and Sciences team for bringing us great programs like this, and thank you all for supporting our school to make it possible!