What is a big monster doing in our children’s schools, you ask? Students in all grades were busy practicing acting the last two weeks of March with the Arts Literacy program, and after school one day at Central Falls High School, seven small groups of students performed scenes on what it would be like to go to the moon. When the last group got off the spaceship and began looking around, a strange creature from Big Nazo, a Providence performing troupe, entered the classroom! What a fun surprise! The students were excited to see such a strange creature, and invited him back to help perform along with artist Raymond Cunningham in their debut at Brown University.

The program, called Transitions through Arts Literacy Learning (TALL) and funded by the federal government, is headed in Central Falls by artists Steve Kidd and Elizabeth Keiser. The program’s funding ends after this year, and may not be in Central Falls next year, but as for now, the encouragement from Keiser and Kidd will not secede. “The enthusiasm and confidence we see from the kids who are involved is amazing to me,” said Kidd. “These truly are a special group of children.”

TALL is looking for sources of funding for next year. For more information, contact Steve or Elizabeth at the Registration and Outreach Center at (401) 727-6177.

Above: A Big Nazo frigthens teacher Mr. Bobby Marchand as students hide under their desks in the background.

CALCUTT, ROBERTSON CHESS CLUBS WIN STATE TOURNAMENTS

Congratulations to our Rhode Island Scholastic Elementary State Chess Tournament Champions! After earning second place in the 2004-2005 Elementary Schools State Tournament at Rhode Island College and first place in 2003-2004 in the under-11 category, The Robertson Chess Club has done it again! The Club, funded through SCOPE, consists of teams of four children. Ms. Gina Dufresne, Robertson School Psychologist and Chess Club advisor, said that the club has between 14-18 regular participants who come every Monday after school, which is quite a few for a small school like Robertson.

Robertson student Cristian Estrada won the individual trophy for his age group! Not only were the Robertson students great competitors, but they showed excellent sportsmanship!

Congratulations to the SCOPE-funded Calcutt Middle School Chess Team who took first place this past weekend at the 2006 Rhode Island Scholastic State Chess Championship Tournament held at Rhode Island College. Players from throughout New England played in this open invitational tournament.

Special congratulations to Amado Soria who beat (according to coach Frank DelBonis) the most difficult group of opponents Central Falls has seen at the tournament in years and was awarded first place in the Grade 7-9 section with an undefeated perfect score.

Central Falls High School student Antonio Martinez (former Calcutt student) also took first place in the Grade 9-12 division, was named Rhode Island High School chess champion, and will fly to Chicago this summer to compete in the Denker National High School Chess Tournament, where the top played from all 50 states will compete for a $100,000 college scholarship.

In addition to his thanks to SCOPE, Coach Mr. Frank DelBonis would like to thank all the players who worked very hard and dedicated their time to the chess team this year:
Josh Antaya, Justin Centeno, Heriberto Colon, Edward Dourant, Charles Humphries, Dylan Humphries, Dipen Shah, Amado Soria, Eeron Spencer, Juan Valdez, and Gary Viera.

Above (L to R): Robertson Chess Players Jordan Palardy,
Zachary Beauchamp, and Natasha Moreno engage in a meeting of minds during an after school game of chess.

SATURDAYS @ YOUR LIBRARY UNDERWAY

Did you know that Veterans, Ella Risk, Captain Hunt, and Central Falls High School libraries are all open on Saturdays from 8:00 AM-12:15 PM? The libraries will also be open four hours a week in the summer months.

SMILE, CENTRAL FALLS!

The first Family Oral Health Education night was held at Veterans Elementary School on April 6th. Kids First/Team Nutrition, Delta Dental, the URI dental hygienist program and the CCRI dental hygienist program informed the audience of many topics related to oral health to parents and their kids. The program was organized by school nurse-teachers, Lawton Dental Clinic, COZ, and Manuela Raposo, Coordinator of Family and Community Partnerships in conjunction with a grant given by Neighborhood Health insurance supports this effort. 

ESL STUDENTS TAKE NEW TEST

Students in the English as a Second Language program took the new ESL statewide test during March.  The new “ACCESS for ELLs” test is a state mandated test given to English Language Learners and recently monitored students for language proficiency.  Teachers underwent online training and were required to pass quizzes to be certified in administering the test.  “ACCESS for ELLs” stands for Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State-to-State for English students Language Learners. The ACCESS for ELLs test assesses students’ English language proficiency in five areas:  Social and Instructional Language (SI), which incorporates proficiencies needed to deal with the general language of the classroom and the school; English Language Arts (LA), Mathematics (MA), Science (SC), and Social Studies(SS).  It is a secure assessment given annually during a specific testing window determined by each state.  As such, ACCESS for ELLs is used to satisfy state and federal requirement for the annual assessment of the English language proficiency of English language learners.

The results of the test will arrive in late May or early June and we will send home a report on the student’s results when we receive them.

CALCUTT STUDENTS SERVE CENTRAL FALLS COMMUNITY

A group of Calcutt Middle School 8th graders have started a Community Service Class for third and fourth quarter. They have been busy assisting the school office secretaries with clerical duties, the nurse by locating students and passing out notices, the maintenance personnel by cleaning up the court yard and around the building, the librarian by re-shelving books, and also by assisting the PTO in distributing notices for fundraisers. One student will be working with the Central Falls Fire Department.  She will be assisting the Fire Chief and his secretary on a weekly basis by performing various office duties.

The Community Service students went to Veterans Memorial Elementary School on March 21st and worked with Mrs. Cathy Fox's 1st grade students in Math.  The 8th grade Community Service students each partnered with a 1st grader to play the math games. 
The students also ran a food drive for the entire month of March to help the Blackstone Valley Food Closet raise money for the Feinstein Challenge, a program through which Alan Shawn Feinstein divides $1 million among hunger fighting agencies nationwide).  The students delivered all the food they collected on March 31.

If any teachers, businesses, or anyone is looking for 8th grade students to assist them, please call Linda Bovis at (401) 727-7726 to schedule days and times. 

Above: (left to right, front to back) Calcutt Community Service classmates Victor Victoria, Jordan Isom,
Timothy Silva-Couture, Principal Ms. Liz Legault, Gilmarie Colon, Jonathan Torres,
Catherine Pineda, Jairo Gutierrez, Teacher Ms. Linda Bovis, and Assistants Jose Garcia and Linda Church.

UPDATED MAY 1, 2006 info