• New and Noteworthy

  • Multicultural Night - 5/16

  • Comella's + Winn Brook fundraiser - 5/8

• Third Grade Corner

  • Yearbook

  • Yardsigns

  • CUE Coffee with the Principal - 6/13

• Calendar of Events

• Celebrating What We Do Best

  • Community Meeting

  • District Bowling Night

  • 1st Grade Enrichment - Professor Bugman (in school)

  • 2nd Grade Enrichment - Field trip to Harvard Peabody Museum

  • Staff Treats

• Thank You, FBE!

  • Congratulations Ms. Ackerman!

  • Opening Doors Project

  • Library and Bookroom Revitalization

• Around Belmont

  • FBE Outstanding Teachers Award Ceremony - 5/1

  • AAPI Run - 5/4

  • Belmont PMC Kids Ride - 5/4

  • Belmont Wellness Coalition Parenting Group - 4/30

  • Rummage Sale at Plymouth Church- 5/2 + 5/3

  • Belmont Clothing Swap - 5/10

• Volunteer Links and Reminders

On Thursday, May 8, Comella's-Belmont will generously donate a portion of each order to the Winn Brook PTA to support our traditions for the 3rd grade class. Orders can be placed online via Comella's website (navigate to the "Fundraiser" section of the online menu and add "Winn Brook PTA" to your cart) or by phone/in person (mention "Winn Brook PTA" when you order). Note: Any order placed through 3rd party delivery apps is excluded. Thank you in advance to the entire Winn Brook community for your support of this fundraiser! All Winn Brook families are welcome to order, and encouraged to tell your friends around town!

We are excited to celebrate the rich diversity of Winn Brook students at this year’s Multicultural Night on May 16, 6:30-8:30 pm!
You can share your personal heritage or showcase a culture or country you've visited and loved!
Ways to get involved:

• Host a cultural tabletop with artifacts from a country or an activity kids will enjoy

• Bring some FOOD to share

• Put on a cultural PERFORMANCE (e.g., sing, dance, fashion show, story-telling, etc.)

• Volunteer to help run the event (set up decorations, help with performances, monitor tables, clean-up, etc.)

Sign up here - We need many parents to make this fun event happen, so please consider signing up or helping out!

Thank you for getting involved with this fun community event.

Questions? Email Michelle Miller at michebruno@gmail.com or PTA leadership at presidents@winnbrookpta.org. 

We hope to see you there!

The Multicultural Night Committee

As we continue to plan traditions that celebrate our third graders in their last year at Winn Brook, we wanted to share a few key updates and reminders:

If you haven’t already, please submit photos of your child at school using this link. Photos should be from field trips, school events, concerts, etc., but not non-school events like birthday parties. Ideally, upload 5-10 labeled photos of your child and their classmates.

We are celebrating our third graders with a special Winn Brook graduate yard sign. Each third grader will receive a yard sign, but to aid our fundraising efforts, we encourage a donation of $20 or more for the sign. The donation can be made to here. The funds raised will support end-of-year celebrations including the yearbook, class photo, party, field day, and clap out. If we are unable to raise the funds needed, we will have to trim down our ability to continue some traditions for our third graders.

Dr Laura Smith, CUE Principal, along with the Chenery PTO, would like to invite all current 3rd grade/rising CUE families to coffee with the principal on Friday, June 13th at 9:15am. This will be a hybrid (both in-person in the LCR, as well as remote via Google Meet) meeting. All visitors will need to check in at the front desk of Chenery, which is accessible via the entrance on Washington St.

Here is the connection info for the Google Meet:
Coffee at the CUE
Friday, June 13 · 9:15 – 9:45am
Time zone: America/New_York
Google Meet joining info
Video call link: https://meet.google.com/zih-wqry-owp
Or dial: ‪(US) +1 727-697-2155‬ PIN: ‪232 760 777‬#
More phone numbers: https://tel.meet/zih-wqry-owp?pin=6681494282286

We will send another reminder as the date approaches.

Thank you to everyone who joined our April Community Meeting. This was our first morning virtual format, and we were excited to see some new faces! We had a productive discussion regarding engagement, community outreach, Winn Brook gift giving practices, and reviewed some open committee chairs that we would love to fill for next year.

Please remember that many of the events and initiatives that you enjoy at Winn Brook are made possible through PTA volunteerism, and not regular school programming. You can make a big impact and help us to continue our great Winn Brook traditions with even 1 hour annually. Please keep an eye out for our 2025-2026 volunteer interest form, coming in a few weeks!

See Draft Meeting Minutes for a summary of the meeting, which we will vote to ratify at our next meeting, Thursday June 5 at 7pm (virtual).

Thank you to the Wellington PTO for coordinating this incredible bowling night, with joint PTA/O funding across the district! It was wonderful to see over 120 participants and volunteers from all the schools, and even some staff members came to say hi!

Creepy, crawly, and incredibly interesting…

First graders learned the characteristics of an insect and how to observe insects like an entomologist! Thank you to 1st Grade Enrichment coordinator Sarah Kurz for organizing this engaging opportunity!

Thank you to our 2nd Grade Enrichment Coordinators Alex Danahy and Kris Foster, 2nd grade staff, and the chaperones for making this field trip possible! 

Our 2nd graders entered the Harvard Peabody Museum as students and transformed into anthropologists. They learned about the environment and conditions of the arctic tundra, and used artifacts to learn how the Inuit, Inupiaq, and Yupik tribes relied on hunting to meet their 3 basic needs: food, clothing, and shelter. Students were also given some time to roam freely around the museum in small groups - ask them what their favorite room was!

Spring has sprung for staff treats this month. Many thanks to Rachel Hardin and everyone who dropped off drinks, snacks, and treats! We so appreciate everyone’s contributions. Only one more staff treats day (in June) for this academic year so sign up now to secure your opportunity to give back to our wonderful teachers! We'll also celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week May 5-9 with daily tokens of appreciation (more information to come).

We'd like to take a moment to acknowledge and celebrate some exciting things happening through the Foundation for Belmont Education (FBE). Though they are a separate entity, entirely independent from the PTA, Winn Brook, and the Belmont Public Schools, their grants and recognition awards provide for a "richer and deeper learning experiences for students." We are incredibly grateful to the FBE grants Winn Brook has received this year! Thank you to everyone who has assisted in grant writing and submitted teacher nominations. And thank you to the FBE for supporting Winn Brook!

Our wonderfully energetic 3rd grade teacher, Ms. Ackerman, has been awarded 2025's Winn Brook Outstanding Teacher. Outside of the excitement she brings to her classroom, you may have also seen her on the black top cheering during Walk to School days, or jogging around the block with the extracurricular Fun on the Run. Please join us on Thursday, May 1st at 6pm, in the Chenery Auditorium to celebrate Ms. Ackerman!

We already highlighted this enrichment opportunity in our last newsletter, so we'll spare you another recap. It was wonderful!

A huge thank you to Ms. Steingisser (reading specialist) and Ms. Cameron (Library) for dreaming big and receiving a $20k grant to "help revitalize the Winn Brook School Library and Bookroom with texts that are accessible, current, engaging and represent the diverse backgrounds, languages, and experiences of the K-3 students who fill our classrooms." We are excited to explore all the new content with our children!

You are invited to celebrate this year's FBE Outstanding Teacher Award recipients on Thursday, May 1st at 6pm in the Chenery Auditorium. Join us in recognizing Ms. Ackerman's infectious energy, and the other incredible educators we have across the district.

https://belmontwellness.org/parenting-group/

Meetings are held on the last Wednesday of each month at 7:00 pm and are typically virtual. All are welcome to join – so please feel free to invite neighbors and friends.

Join us via Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81577946616

This month we will meet on Wed. April 30 at 7:00pm and discuss Dating/Relationships Among Teens

There are many more Belmont events to explore:
Belmont Voice Community Events
Belmont Public School Community Events

Libby Weintraub & Meenal Bagla & Michal Feldman

Winn Brook PTA Co-Presidents

presidents@winnbrookpta.org