Sparky Speak:

A Guide for New & Existing Families


 

  •  Auction: Held in February, the MPE PTA holds an auction and party for parents, teachers and staff to raise funds for PTA programs and events.
  • Behavior Folders: Folders sent home every day with student in grades K-3 with important info on their behavior that day.
  • BETA Club: A National non-profit leadership service organization for grades 5-12. Its purpose is to stimulate effort, reward achievement, promote those qualities of character that make for good citizenship, and to encourage and assist its members to continue into higher education. Members must maintain a grade average of 85 or higher and an "A" in Citizenship.
  • Book Fair: Scholastic books are made available for sale in the library to students, parents and staff. 
  • Carnival: A carnival held in the Spring at MPE with games, entertainment, bounce houses, a climbing wall, a dunking booth, music and food. Fun for all ages!
  • Chess Club: Open to all MPE students, this club meets after school most Tuesdays from 3:00 - 3:45 pm in the  MPE Library.
  • Class Parties: Room parents plan individual parties for each class for the various holidays.
  • Clothes Closet: RISD Council of PTA’s clothing donation program. This is a great program for which you can donate your used clothing or your time to help RISD students in need to “shop” in the Clothes Closet for new clothes.
  • Dad's Club: A group of dads exclusive to MPE that help with student activities on a daily basis and at special events. If you are interested in joining, please check out the Dad's Club page on this website.
  • D.I.: “Destination Imagination”- Interested students in any grade form a team to work on solving academic problems logically and creatively in a district-wide competition.
  • DIBELS: Every child will take this test 3 times within the year to assess their Initial Sound Fluency, Letter Naming Fluency, Phoneme Segmentation Fluency, and Nonsense Word Fluency. Your child's results will be discussed with you at your Parent/Teacher Conference.
  • E-Panther/Wednesday folders: Every Wednesday, your child will bring home a large envelope full of graded papers and important information. Please sign it and return to your child's backpack. If you would like to save paper, you will have a chance to sign up for the e-Panther which are the same papers emailed to you in a newsletter form.
  • Ed-line: A convenient way to keep up-to-date on classroom announcements and assignments, as well as calendar updates related to the classroom, testing, school and district events. Visit www.edline.net for more info.
  • Enrichment Clusters: Each grade and class partakes in a 6 week-long study of certain special interests selected by the class (kinder) or multi-age interest groups (grades 1-6). This occurs in the fall and spring, and information will be sent out by your classroom teacher.
  • Invention Convention: Held in the fall, this district-wide event encourages interested students in all grades to employ a variety of critical thinking skills in the creation of their inventions.
  • Kindergarten Round-Up: Incoming MPE kindergartners visit in the spring to meet some future classmates while mom and dad register their child for the upcoming year.
  • Library Book Reviews: Mrs. Albert, the school librarian, has a bin of books that parents can read and review.  Once completed, the MPE library gets to keep those books!
  • Mystery Reader: Every Friday classes K-2 get to enjoy a mystery ready during the last 30 minutes of school.  Parents, grandparents, siblings, etc. can sign up to read through their child's teacher.
  • OLC: The Outdoor Learning Center: is located adjacent to the playground behind the school. The MPE OLC is a Certified Wildlife Habitat through the National Wildlife Federation.
  • Panther Pat: A child receives a Panther Pat from their teacher when they exhibit good behavior.
  • Parent Info Night: This is held during the first week of school at during the evening. Parents come to school for a PTA meeting and then get to go to their child’s classroom to learn from their child’s teacher about the school year. Plan ahead and get your babysitter lined up.
  • Pay Pams: Online service that allows parents to pay for cafeteria accounts and monitor what their children are buying for lunch. Visit www.paypams.com to sign up.
  • Peer Mediators: Students selected by teachers based on a specific list of criteria. Peer Mediators serve as non-partisan third parties who help students talk out their problems and come to a win/win solution.
  • PIN: Each student has a PIN which they punch in when they want to purchase lunch.
  • Power Hour: A concentrated hour every day where every student has the chance to receive extra support, additional academic challenges, or anywhere in between. Students are divided into smaller groups based on their special needs.
  • Pride Rally: At the end of every six weeks, the entire school participates in a pride rally to celebrate the successes of the students. The grades are split into K-3 and 4-6 so space isn't an issue, and parents are welcome to attend.
  • PTA: Parent Teacher Association: an important part of MPE's success! The PTA is responsible for and/or helps with most of MPE's programs and events. www.merrimanparkpta.org
  • PTA Executive Board: Parent and teacher volunteers who serve as leaders in the PTA and chair committees for MPE events and programs.
  • Quest: An enrichment program for identified second grade students, QUEST (Quality Experiences Supporting Talent), will give students an opportunity to demonstrate their gifted behaviors through the development of a portfolio which, in conjunction with standardized test results, may support future placement in REACH. All non-REACH students will be tested in the spring of first grade to see if they qualify for this academic program.  Quest classes begin in the fall of second grade.
  • REACH: "Realizing Excellence in Academic Cognition Heuristically" - RISD’s gifted and talented program available for K-6. Applications for kindergartners go out in October and qualified students will be tested in January. This application and testing schedule is different for 1-6. Classes are once a week during regular school hours. Once accepted, the student will no longer need to be tested and will remain in REACH through grade six.  However, if not accepted, the student is able to retest the following year.
  • Red Ribbon Week: Red Ribbon Week is a national tribute to drug and alcohol awareness, and takes place in the fall. Students show support with silly outfits throughout the week. The PTA funds an assembly during the week with a different performer each year.
  • ROBI: During the fall and spring semesters, ROBI instructors provide extension and enrichment lessons to kindergarten students in their home campus classrooms in order to encourage higher level thinking.
  • Safety Patrol: 6th grade students who assist other students before and after school with crossing the crosswalks.
  • Self-Manager: A student who manages his/her behavior following the expectations of MPE and their teachers. The Self-Manager program recognizes students who meet and exceed these expectations.
  • Specials: Each class attends different Specials each week - Gym is twice a week, Music is twice a week, and Art is once a week.
  • R-portal:  Also called Star Portal, this is a convenient way for teachers to record students' grades throughout the year and for parents to view them.