April 2022

Hello Little School Families,

Welcome to Spring, and all the accompanying busyness of the season!  We are so excited to convene in person this week, for the first time in almost 800 days! Hope you can join us for this special April PTO meeting, Thursday 4/14 at the Little School cafeteria. Here’s the Google Meet link for those that would rather join us virtually; we can’t promise a perfect experience, but we’ll try our best! 

Our in-school enrichment is back and running! We have some great updates on the website, the kids have all been so excited to have these learning experiences back in the classroom. Big thank you to Lena Giordano, Erin Mendall, and the enrichment committee for all their hard work!

The Little School Flock is back in action, and almost ready to fly back after a long winter! Flocking will start right after vacation, on April 26th. Send a flock to a friend, or purchase flock insurance to keep them away! Keep an eye out for a volunteer sign up sheet to help safely transport the flock from one Little School Family to another! 

We’re also partnering with Boston Flower Market again this year for our Mother’s Day flower sale! Buy a potted or hanging plant, and a small portion benefits the Little School. These plants looked beautiful and lasted a long-time last year, so we’re happy to support this local business again for 2022. 

We’re in the planning stages of some fun activities to take us through the end of the year, so stay tuned to email updates, flyers home and Little School PTO social media (Instagram/Facebook/Twitter). Field day (June 7th) this year is going to be extra special, and we’re so excited for the students to have a back-to-normal and then some, experience!

Wishing you all a relaxing April vacation; we’re almost to the home stretch of this school year! Thanks for all your support, the PTO doesn’t run without its amazing families, and the Little School has those in abundance! 

Katie Gabriello & Katie Roy

March 2022

Hello Little School Families,

We hope you are all well and enjoyed a relaxing February vacation. March is here and spring is right around the corner! We’re excited for the return of warm weather and the newness that spring will surely bring. 

After the holidays we returned to school and were back in action with our grade level breakfasts hosted by the 1st 3rd and 4th grade families. Teachers were showered with notes of love composed by the students about what makes the Little School so special. Thank you to Jenny Sawyer and Stephanie Norwood for organizing!

Bingo/Zingo was the place to be on Friday February 4th! Little school families enjoyed pizza kits from Anthony’s in Reading and a few rounds of Bingo hosted by Phil Carbone. Our events committee provided prizes for our lucky bingo winners. Thank you to Sabrina Coviello and Kim Begley for a great event. 

March will be whipping up a flurry of enrichment activities for our students. Techsploration will return to our 4th and 5th grade, helping them to plan, build, and problem solve like engineers.  Our third grade will get a visit from the Whalemobile to learn the role whales play in the ocean ecosystem and their importance to our planet. Second grade will have a visit from the Discovery Museum, to explore changes in matter. Last, but certainly not least, our K classes will be visited by a miniature therapy horse from Lifting Spirits for a unique bullying prevention program.

As we look to spring, keep an eye out for some great PTO events. Our Mothers Day Flower Sale will run again in April/May. We will see 5th grade activities ramping up as we get ready to say goodbye to our oldest Little Labs. And our wildly popular Little Flock will return to grace our lawns with pink flair!

Thank you for your support of our student’s, staff and the PTO.  We rely on our Little School Community support to help us bring our enrichment programs and fun events to life!

Katie Gabriello & Katie Roy

December 2021

Greetings Little School families,

Hope this finds you and your families well, and feeling the cheer and joy of the holiday season! With conferences and December half days behind us, we're almost on to 2022 and all the potential of a new year!

Sweet treats are still top of mind, with our 2nd cookie decorating fundraiser currently happening. Order your decoration kits and paint your own cookies for something fun to do over winter break, all options here! We also wrapped up our Thanksgiving pies and cookie dough sale, bringing in $3,860 total for the Little School! Not only that, but we easily met our goal of 60 fresh pies for the North Reading Food Pantry! The season of giving continues with the current drives for Toys for Tots and The Foster Box, and the baskets being assembled by the school for clients of the food pantry. Any and everything donated helps to make this season brighter for so many, and your help is much appreciated.

Our wonderful teachers, staff and administrators were so appreciative of the homemade letters, pictures and notes of thanks sent from home around Thanksgiving. Big thanks to Jenny Sawyer and Stephanie Norwood and of course, Mrs. Tavoletti, for organizing this!

This month, we have our first enrichment event for grade 2, The Same Only Different, Culture through Lowell National Historic Park (12/15), with lots more enrichment opportunities for all grade levels coming in 2022! Our enrichment committee is working hard to provide fun educational experiences, both virtual and in-person, across the school.

Please join us for our final PTO meeting of the year on Wednesday December 15. We'll be meeting at this Google Link: meet.google.com/feg-tqan-irr. If you haven't been to a meeting recently, please consider dialing in to this one! We're all part of the PTO at the Little School in various ways, and hopping on for this one hour update is a great look into how this group functions to support our students!

Warmest wishes.
Katie Gabriello & Katie Roy
Little School PTO Co-Presidents
e.ethel.little.pto@gmail.com

November 2021

Happy November Little School families!

Hard to believe we're already nearly two months into the school year already! Hopefully everyone had a wonderful (warm!) Halloween and much candy to share this week.

The PTO has been busy so far this school year! It was wonderful to see so many Little School families attend our first Fall Fest on September 15th. We had almost 100 families attend, and were entertained by DJ Phil, pre-ordered pizzas from Anthony's in Reading and many crafts, snacks and games for all. Big thank you to Kim Begley, Sabrina Coviello and the events team for putting this event together, and to all who attended!

Now that we're closing in on Thanksgiving, it's all about the desserts! On Tuesday, 11/23, we'll have cookie dough from Rebecca's Nut-Free and Thanksgiving pies from Kathryn's confections ready to be picked up! (Cookie dough orders are closed, and pie orders run through 11/12). This has been a great fundraiser and community service opportunity for the Little School; we are the sole provider of fresh fruit pies for the North Reading Food Pantry again this year, and hope to send more than 50 pies home this year!

Keep an eye out for upcoming enrichment opportunities this year; we're able to have smaller groups of students gather in appropriate spaces (no all school assemblies yet!), which will surely be welcome for all our students.

We hope to see you at our next virtual meeting on Wednesday November 17th at 7pm. Keep an eye out for the Google Meet link!

Warmest wishes.
Katie Roy & Katie Gabriello
Little School PTO Co-Presidents
e.ethel.little.pto@gmail.com

September 2021

Hello Little School Families!

To our new families, welcome to your first year at the Little School! To our returning families, welcome to another year at the Little School! Whether you are brand new or returning, you’ll see that this community is a special place for all its students!

For introductions, we are PTO co-presidents Katie Gabriello and Katie Roy! Katie G has Johnny, Grade 2, Betsy, K and Teddy, pre-k at the Hood this year, and Katie R has Layla, Grade 2 and Norah, K. This is our second year leading the PTO, and we’re thrilled to return for the 21-22 school year.

The PTO is an inclusive place; by virtue of having a child at the Little School, each and every family is part of the Little School PTO. Whether you donate funds or supplies, attend an event, purchase apparel or support a restaurant night, you are an integral part of our PTO and make our school community such a wonderful, supportive place!

The main mission of the PTO is to work within our school to implement enrichment programs that all of the students enjoy such as author visits, science programs and dramatic historical presentations to name just a few. Our enrichment committee does a fabulous job working with each grade level team to find appropriate curriculum-based programs to bring into the classroom. We would not be able to host these programs and events without the generous support of people like you! With the help of many, we can do great things! We need your ideas and energy to make this another successful year.

We’ll be meeting virtually on Wednesday September 22nd at 7pm via Google Meet. The PTO website is a great resource to bookmark, and you can also follow the PTO on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

We hope everyone had some fun and sun this summer, and that we’re all ready to get back into the swing of school!

Warm wishes for a happy start of school,

Katie Gabriello & Katie Roy
Little School PTO Co-Presidents
e.ethel.little.pto@gmail.com

May/June 2021

Hello Little School Families,

Spring is here and although our school year may be winding down, PTO has been ramping up, celebrating our teachers and preparing to say goodbye to our 5th grade class!

The first week of May was all about the stars of the Little School,our Teachers and Staff!  They were celebrated for all they do for our kids, with a breakfast, fan mail, boxed lunch, swag bags, and a video featuring their adoring fans, the Little School Students.  Thank you to Jenny Sawyer, Stephanie Norwood, Lena Giordano, Jennifer Callahan, Alison Rosabianca, Amy Darling and many others for their amazing work!  A BIG Little School thank you to REV Kitchen in Beverly and the Harron family for generously donating lunch for the entire Little School teachers and staff.   

Have you seen the flock?  Our events committee came up with a fun, warm weather themed fundraiser. Maybe you sent a flock to a friend, or came home to some Pink Flamingos on your lawn? Though the flock is sold out for this year, they will be back! Thank you to Sabrina Coviello and Kim Begley for running these events.  

The 5th grade committee, led by Elena DeAngelis, has been working hard to show our 5th grade class out in style.  Thank you to China Cuisine, Papa Ginos, Dunkin Donuts, and Hopocathary Ales, for hosting fundraisers to benefit our 5th grade class.  Lots of events in May and June but the 5th grade will still be celebrating their last field day as Little School Labs before we wish them well as middle schoolers.

Our final meeting will be held on June 9th, please join us to wrap up a great year and get a jump start on September 2021!

Very Best,

Katie Gabriello and Katie Roy
e.ethel.little.pto@gmail.com
PTO Co-Presidents

March/April 2021

Hi Little School Families!

Big week here at the Little School: full in-person learning is here! Thank you to all the teachers, staff and administrators for all the work to get us to this point, and to you, our tenacious families.

Back before February break, we had a great turn out at virtual bingo with more than 50 families logging in for bingo and dancing! The make-your-own pizza kits were also a lot of fun and a yummy hands-on dinner! We recently wrapped up the Online Auction, with $3800 gross raised, including more than $700 for teacher appreciation week in May alone! Big thank you to Sabrina Coviello, Kim Begley, Stacey DiCarlo, Amy Darling and Jillian Cerqueria for all the work on these two events! And of course, our generous local sponsors made this all happen, thank you to Core4 Fitness, D.R. Lessard Plumbing & Heating, East Coast Comfort HVAC & Refrigeration, Farrelly Realty Group, and Kevin Norwood CFP of New England Schooner, and Red Heat Tavern!

Keep an eye out for the annual Mother’s Day plant sale going live soon; we’re partnering with Boston Flower Market this year with some beautiful offerings for all! Important dates: April 1st is the 5th Grade fundraiser at China Cuisine and April 28th will be our next PTO meeting. Please consider joining us; it’s a great opportunity to see what the PTO is all about as we finish this year on a high note!

Very best,

Katie Gabriello & Katie Roy
e.ethel.little.pto@gmail.com
PTO Co-Presidents

January/February 2021

Happy New Year Little School Families!

Welcome to the first newsletter of the new year! Hard to believe it’s already February, 2021 is flying already. We’re super excited about our first event of the year, coming up on Friday February 12th: virtual family bingo! This free event will kick off February break with some fun, dancing and prizes, plus there’s the option to purchase a make-your-own pizza kit from Anthony’s Fire-Grilled Pizza in Reading! See more details here, and we hope to see you there!

After a successful fall 2020 in terms of fundraising, enrichment and morale boosting, all eyes are ahead to this spring. We’ll have more opportunities for fun and ways to support the Little School! To that end, we’d love to have you join us for our next meeting after the break on Wednesday February 24th at 7pm! 

Any ideas, comments or questions? We’d love to hear from you at the general PTO email!

Warm Wishes,

Katie Gabriello & Katie Roy

e.ethel.little.pto@gmail.com

PTO Co-Presidents

December 2020

Hi Little School Families,

We hope you're having a good short remote week! It's been a busy time at the Little School; our first remote snow day, teacher conferences, two very successful donation drives for Toys for Tots and The North Reading Food Pantry, our first fundraiser with Dascolis, and some wonderful cookie decoration all have added joy to the season for others and hopefully your families also.

We won't recap the whole newsletter here =), but as we head into a deserved break for all, we want to thank you for your support of the PTO these past few months, and always. As you know, the PTO can't function without involved families, and that's something the Little School community has in abundance! Your help, ideas, and enthusiasm are noticed and so appreciated.

Enjoy your winter break and happy New Year! Hope to see you for our first meeting of 2021 on Wednesday, January 20th.

Warmly,

Katie R and Katie G

November 2020

Hi Little School Families,

This November, it’s all about pies and enrichment here at the Little School! As you may have seen, we are well into the 9th Annual Little School Pie Fundraiser. As in past years, we’re thrilled to be supporting the North Reading Food Pantry with fresh fruit pie donations; last year our community donated more than 50 pies! Can you help us beat that goal this year? You have until Wednesday 11/18 to place your order! 

In this atypical year, the PTO is thinking outside the box for our enrichment activities. Orders have been placed for indoor recess kits for every student (remote families, stay tuned for more info!) As the weather gets colder and less friendly, these individual grade-appropriate kits will help the teachers keep the kids occupied and having fun on those inclement days! Big thanks to our enrichment committee for all their work here!

Finally, you’ll see in the newsletter that the PTO recently made a large donation to the school to help fund new technology (new smartboard and media carts!) This wouldn’t have been possible without your generosity during the annual fund drive, in particular the very generous family that made a large anonymous donation. We appreciate all of the families that made this happen!

We hope to see you at our next (virtual!) meeting on Wednesday November18th; email e.ethel.little.pto@gmail.com to be added to the meeting invite.

Warm Wishes,

Katie Gabriello & Katie Roy

e.ethel.little.pto@gmail.com

PTO Co-Presidents