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News
Free Book
Summer Reading Give-Away!
by Ann Hampson, Title 1 Coordinator
On Thursday June
10th Paul Cuffee Lower School hosted a free book give-away and
summer assignment distribution event in the cafeteria. It was a busy
night! 167 Lower School students and their families came to choose
their one new book from five tables piled high with wonderful
titles, and also to select 5 gently used books to add to their home
libraries. Every new book was book plated with the name of its proud
young owner.
The First Book Organization defines its mission as: giving children
from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first
new books. Thanks to First Book’s generous grant of $626 the Paul
Cuffee School was able to purchase highly discounted books through
the First Book Marketplace and do just that.
The local First Book Advisory Board, based at the University of
Rhode Island organized book collections all year. Their student
leadership, energy and commitment provided us with over 800 gently
used books to give away!
Our students also received summer assignments intended to keep their
brains active over the summer. Studies show that low-income students
typically lose academic skills over the summer while their more
affluent peers generally do not. One contributing factor may be the
lack of summer reading opportunities for urban students. Our book
give-away and summer assignment distribution is one way we at Paul
Cuffee School are addressing this issue. Students who were unable to
attend were given their assignments and a new book for their home
library the next day. We are very proud that our book distribution
placed great summer reads into the eager hands of our youngest
students!
 Meet our New Head of School,
Michael Obel-Omia
If
you see this smiling man in our hallways in the coming weeks,
please introduce yourself to our Head of School, Michael Obel-Omia! The Paul Cuffee School Board unanimously approved
Michael’s appointment at its spring meeting. He will assume his duties at Paul Cuffee in July, following the retirement of Founding Head of
School David Bourns.
We are grateful for the inspirational and
sustaining leadership David has provided to Paul Cuffee School
for the past 10 years, and look forward to our students’
continued success under Michael’s direction. We are confident of
his embrace of, and support for, Paul Cuffee’s community,
mission and culture.
We look forward to introducing you to Michael after he has a chance
to settle in. In the meantime, please join us in giving a warm
welcome and sending best wishes to Michael and his family!
Learn more about
Michael Obel-Omia
 Welcome our New High School Principal,
Becky Coustan
Becky Coustan, former RIDE District Visit Fellow and an
award-winning high school educator, has been hired to lead Paul
Cuffee School’s new high school program.
The secondary division of the school’s K-12 charter is scheduled to
open in the fall with 60 ninth grade Providence students, most of
whom will be continuing from Cuffee’s K-8 program.
Welcome Becky to the Paul Cuffee team!
Learn more about
Becky Coustan
Mr.
Chen, Tosin, Diego, and Sabina with
John Lewis, leader of SNCC and keynote speaker at
the March
on Washington (1963)
8th Graders Meet Civil
Rights leader John Lewis
8th
grade Humanities is learning about the Civil Rights Movement. They
are learning about important figures, including John Lewis, leader
of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the last
surviving speaker at the March on Washington in 1963. Mr. Lewis
spoke at Brown University on Monday, May 10th and Mr. Chen and a few
of his students were able to meet him!
Smooth sailing at our 5th Grade Boat Design Event
Since
January, our 5th grade students have been studying the geometry and
physics of sail boats and boat design. On April 1, they
concluded their unit by testing each fifth grade design team's
sailboat models in water tanks with fans providing the wind power.
To demonstrate the success of their design solutions and assess each
group's knowledge of marine-related concepts like buoyancy, drag,
stability, volume and mass, eighteen groups of students presented
their team's projects and discussed their design process with judges
who came specifically for this occasion.
Cuffee fifth graders
presenting their project to our judges
This year's judges included America's Cup racers, collegiate
sailing coaches, naval architects, boat builders and riggers,
community boating directors, maritime museum directors and
historians, educators, marine biologists, armchair sailors,
recreational boaters, and sailmakers. Bringing community members
into the school for this annual culmination event gives our students
the opportunity to see that their learning applies
to multiple careers and recreational opportunities in the world
beyond their classrooms!
Click here to view
pictures of this year's boat design unit.
Paul
Cuffee students give back to Haiti!
Initiated and coordinated by Ms. Guzmán-Polanco's fifth grade class,
our school raised over $1,400 for the American Red Cross Haiti
Relief Fund!
Paul
Cuffee students Jump Rope for Hearts!
Our elementary students participated in Jump Rope for Hearts (JRFH),
an annual event sponsored by the American Heart Association to
help raise funds for children who have hearts that don't work
exactly right. This year, our students raised over $3,000 for this
special cause!
JRFH is
a valuable program that promotes physical activity, heart healthy
living, and community service to children.
Archives
Paul Cuffee lower school students participate in the Guinness World
Records Day for Most People Sport Stacking at Multiple Locations
in One Day
Our
K-5 students joined many other school all over the nation for a day
of Sports Stacking! Sport-Stacking, implemented by Coach Mussington,
helps train the brain for sports and other activities where the use
of the left and right of the brain and body is important.
Sport-Stacking has unbelievable benefits - it promotes athleticism,
polishes fine motor skills, improves hand-eye coordination/accuracy,
trains concentration and sharpness of the brain, promotes team
building, and much more!
Ms.
Berrios' 5th Grade Class Wins the Shape Up
RI Challenge!
"After
a 6-week competition as a part of a pilot program for Shape Up RI
Kids...our class won! We competed against a 5th grade class from
Veterans Memorial Public School (Central Falls) and combined classes
at St. Andrews (Barrington). The students wore a pedometer for
6-weeks and logged their steps nightly. It was a lot of fun. They
encouraged each other and even some family members to walk with
them. Thanks to all of those who kept encouraging the students to
keep moving!" Ms. Berrios
Total average Steps = 446,995!
Read more
Captain Paul Cuffee is Honored in
Westport, Mass
On June 20th, several of our students and staff
members attended and participated in the 250th Anniversary
Celebration in honor of Captain Paul Cuffee, our namesake.
Click here to read more.
Library Media Center
Our new
online Library Media Center is up and running.
Click Here
to view
available resources.
Hooked on Books
To put
current books and media resources into the hands of our
students, we have launched Hooked on Books, an
ambitious library campaign for Paul Cuffee School. Help us
support a librarian position, pay for new books, circulation software to track collections, official library cards for
all students and more! Call 401-453-2626 x118 for more
information.
PCS Emergency Fund
The PCS
Emergency Fund was created to be able to respond to our
families in crisis situations. We will continue to grow this
Emergency Fund to ensure an adequate base of support. Please
feel free to make donations at
any time.
Congratulations Class of 2009!
Click here to view
graduation pictures online
Cuffee Students Appear on WBUR
Alexandra Davila and Henry Arnaut, both seventh grade
students, and Nell Sears, our middle school Academic Head, were
featured on an episode of WBUR's "Here and Now" with Robin Young.
They discussed presidential politics and young people. Their
interview follows an interview with a teacher and 12th grade student
from Memphis, TN.
Click here to listen to the broadcast.
Paul Cuffee was
selected as one of the top 53 charter schools in America from among
3,940 nationwide! Click the above image for more details.
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