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BES COUGAR RECORD March2016
March 2016
BES Cougar Record
Cougar Cubs of the month important dates
3-2 & 3-3 Early Dismissal 1:05 3-2 Mystery Reader 6-7 PM 3-9 Cultural Arts Huga Tuga Live Pep Rally for Reading 3-16 Early Dismissal 1:05 3-18 Family Read 1st Grade 2:45-3:15 3-21 Cultural Arts STEAM Museum 3-24 Report Cards Home
3-25 NO SCHOOL
Message from the Principal
Regional School District 17 is seeking qualified individuals to work as substitute teachers. We offer regionally competitive pay for substitutes. Qualifications for substi-tute teachers include a Bachelor’s Degree (required) and experience working with children. A teaching certificate is not required, but definitely a plus. Substitute teaching is a great way to contribute to our schools for those who enjoy working with kids. Please visit the “Employment Opportunities” page of our district website (www.rsd17.org) for more information and to initiate an application. If you have any questions, please contact Larissa Johnson, Administrative Assistant to the Assistant Superintendent, 860-435-4534 x1110.
Dear Parents,
Around February each year, I begin to take inventory about where we are and plan for the
remainder of the year. I was really surprised by how much our kids and staff have done
already! This year, among other things, we have: started a student council and sent them
to a statewide leadership conference, created both staff and student groups to reduce our
impact on the environment, partnered with the PTO and parent volunteers to plan out
new learning gardens, planned two Mystery Reader Nights with the PTO, and got our Mak-
er Space up and running. And this doesn’t even include the work being done in the class-
room!
February and March are also times when the school gets to honor some students and vol-
unteers. This year, Natalie Houlton, Elsa Kuehn, and their parents joined Mr. Filippides,
Mr. Granucci, Mrs. Kelsey and me for the Connecticut Association of Schools’ Celebration
of the Arts this month. It was wonderful to recognize these two young ladies, and as I tell
the students every year, in many ways, they represent the many talented artists and musi-
cians of Burr District Elementary. Likewise, we will recognize next week four of the many
amazing and self-less volunteers we have. Thank you to Bridget Marshall, Karen Therrien,
Azra Hussain, and Elize Nizet for the hours you put in for our students. BES would be a
very different place without the army of volunteers like you who take time in our class-
rooms, at PTO events, and supporting our children in their evenings at home.
If you would like to be part of the garden club, we have a wonderful family activity planned
for March 17. Look for information to come. I wonder what the next 3 months will bring!
Have a wonderful March,
Eric
BES COUGAR RECORD March2016
Mrs. Bacewicz
Celebrating Chinese New Year!
Room 3 was so excited to cel-
ebrate Chinese New Year
with Larson's
mom, Mrs.McLaughlin! She
began by reading a book to
the class on the tradition of
Chinese New Year, and fol-
lowed up with a fun project
of Chinese dragon making!
Thank you, Mrs. McLaugh-
lin! We all learned a lot
about this very special Chi-
nese tradition!
BES COUGAR RECORD March2016
Mrs. Blasiak
Working as
Directors...
In reading workshop, the students have been working on learning about the characters in their books. They are exploring their feelings and character traits. They are also working hard to understand how their feelings af-fect the way the char-acters talk. They also have learned about dif-ferent clues the author puts into the sentences to help tell the reader or "actor" how to read their "part". Today the students worked in partners to act as directors. They listened to their partner read a page, and called "cut" when they heard or noticed their partner not sounding like the page should sound. They loved this partner time. It re-ally was a great way for students to practice their fluency and expression. Being "actors" learning
and practicing "lines" over and over was exciting for the children.
Mrs. Harkin
SLIME TIME!
2/12/2016
I'd like to
thank Mrs.
Spong for coming into our class today and
teaching us all about how slime is made!
She gave us a terrific lesson on solids and
liquids and introduced us to polymers. Af-
ter the lesson, it was experiment time! We
got to make our own cup of slime!!!!! This
was so fun and interesting too!
BES COUGAR RECORD March2016
Mrs. Harkin
BUSHY HILL
What an amazing day we had. We couldn't have
asked for better weather for our field trip to
Bushy Hill. We learned so many great things. Our
field trip consisted of three parts. We learned
about liquids and capacity with Miss Jen in the na-
ture center. We were amazed how the liquids fit in
all of the different containers. We learned about
pints, quarts and gallons. We then moved onto our
group with Mr. Brendan. He taught us how to iden-
tify a maple tree, how to see if it was ready to be
tapped, how to tap a tree and about circumference.
We even got to see a tree with buckets filling up
with sap. The next portion of our trip was with Mr.
Phil in the sugar shack. Here we learned how maple
syrup was made! We witnessed the sap/syrup as a
liquid, a gas and a solid. We got to sample freshly
made maple syrup and even got to try a piece of
maple sugar candy! As a bonus, Mr. Phil even
brought us to see a recreation of a wigwam, and we
got to sit inside of it. When this was complete, we
enjoyed our lunch in their beautiful nature center!
It was a super trip and we learned so much!
BES COUGAR RECORD March2016
BES COUGAR RECORD November 2015
FRIDAY FUN! HEARTS
AND SHIRTS!
Friday was full of excitement as we cele-
brated Valentines Day and Jersey Day!
We are very proud of Ian P. and Collin
for working together to plan and organize
such a great fundraiser for our school
makerspace. The kids also enjoyed a day
of learning with a Valentines twist. We
did Valentine math problems, Valentine
writing, enjoyed the love of reading with
our partners, and of course we had a blast
passing out and getting valentines from
our friends! It was a great day .
Mrs. Pommer
BUSHY HILL FIELD
TRIP
2/27/2016
The kids had an amazing trip! We learned a lot
about solids, liquids, and gases through the ma-
ple sugaring process. We even got to sample
some fresh maple syrup and maple candy.
Yum! Here are some highlights from our trip.
BES COUGAR RECORD March2016
Mrs. Zeidler
The girls and boys had a fun
time making this valentine
card for you!!! They got lots of
practice cutting and gluing!!!
Hope you enjoy it!!!
The children also worked to
make the valentine card hold-
er to put their valentines in!!!
We put all the holders out and
the kids went around and put
the valentines in their class-
mates' hearts! They had fun
doing it and I'm sure they en-
joyed reading and enjoying all
of the valentines at
home!!!! (We didn't want
them to get all mixed up in
school!!!)
Thanks for all your help with
the valentines!!!
Happy Valentine's
Day! 2/12/2016
Happy Valentine's Day!
Today we had a wonderful day cele-
brating our friendships in the class-
room! The students really enjoyed
guessing who their 'Secret Valentine'
was. They made beautiful valentine
cards to show each other how unique
and special each one of us is. Thank
you for your help with this project at
home.
A big thank you to Mrs. Sidlow for the
very cute Valentine craft that she did
with the class. They came out great!
And another big thank you to Mrs.
Therrien for making our day extra
sweet.
This truly is a wonderful class.
BES COUGAR RECORD March2016
Mrs. Kulmann
To celebrate the 100th day our class decided to attempt to
do 100 good deeds at home and school. It was amazing how
the children stepped up to the challenge! I was so impressed!
Peer editing and revising
The students have been helping each other edit and revise their stories. It is much fun to listen and watch them help one another during writing time!
WRITING CELE-BRATION WITH MRS. BACEWICZ'S 3RD GRADE AND MR. TALBOT'S 4TH GRADE CLASSES
On Wednesday, students from third grade visited a fourth grade classroom. Our students from 4th grade shared what they learned from the Informa-tional Multisource Synthe-sis Essay project. Third graders showed what they are learning in their poetry writing and talked about their animal reports.
BES COUGAR RECORD March2016
Mrs. Barse
LINE PLOTS! We took data on our shoe sizes to create a line plot.
Mrs. Atwood
We loved mak-
ing our sight
word crowns!
BES COUGAR RECORD March2016
Mrs. Lenahan
Rocks and Mineral Science Unit - Observing Minerals
Student Council
The Burr Student Council is busy planning our school's first student TALENT SHOW coming up this spring. Please save this date: THURS-DAY, JUNE 2nd. Students K-4 will be invited to share their talents with the school community on the evening of June 2nd. Save the date now and look for more information to come home soon! Burr District Gives Back
100th day PTO sponsored $258.46
Bracelets for Emma Becker $290.97
Wear Red American Heart Assoc. $70.00
Jersey Day PTO sponsored for Maker Space $132.00
Nathan Field’s Memorial $61.00
Relay f or Life Dress Down Days $575.00
BES COUGAR RECORD March2016
DR. SPONG TEACHES US ABOUT SOLIDS AND LIQUIDS
MIXING COLORS FOR SLIME.
WE HAVE SLIME!
MRS. RODBOURN
BES COUGAR RECORD March2016
100 Day Fun Mrs. Atwood
Mrs. Bacewicz
Explore Time with Spaghetti and Marshmallows
Task: With your group try to construct a 3 dimensional tower that will remain standing using only
two materials- dried spaghetti and marshmallows.
BES COUGAR RECORD March2016
Notes from Mr. Granucci, in the Art Room
Thank-you parents, for sending in your recycled supplies for our sculpture unit. Students in grades K-4 have recently started their paper mache’ tropical fish and sea critters. Students are working in cooperative groups, problem solving while constructing their 3-dimensional re-cycled creations. Please continue to send in your recycled items. A complete list can be found on my blog page.
We continue to prepare for this year’s art show “Under The Sea” which will be May,3rd from 6:30 – 8:00 in the evening. Please be sure to mark your calendars. All the children have been working especially hard on their projects since September. I know you will be impressed with what your child has created this year both 2-D and 3-D. I hope you will make every effort to bring the whole family and friends on that night.
If any parent would like to help with hanging artwork for the art show, or taking down the art work after the art show, you can e-mail me at [email protected]., or reply at the end of this newsletter return slip. We will be hanging pictures and setting up for the show on Mon-day May 2nd , starting at 8:30am. It is extremely important that we have parental help with this task. We will start taking down the show the week of May 9th starting on Monday. It doesn’t have to come down all at once; A few hours anytime during that week would be appre-ciated. Help will be needed separating, sorting, and delivering the artwork to the classrooms. Please consider helping out our art show this year. The children are so excited about showing off their work. If you think you could assist in any way, please send in the reply at the bottom of this notice.
~Mr. Granucci
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your Name_________________________________________________________________
Phone_____________________Email____________________________________________
Your child’s name___________________________________________________________
Hang Art Show——Tuesday Morning, May 2nd __________________________
(We hang the art work all day)
Take down Art Show-Week of May 9th ___________________________________
(Any time during the day or week)
BES COUGAR RECORD March2016
March has arrived, and while this winter has been relatively mild, I hope
you are looking forward to spring as much as I am! This month, I am excit-
ed to return to our third grade classrooms where we will begin a conflict
resolution unit. Conflicts are a natural part of any relationship, and it is
important for students to recognize different types of conflicts and un-
derstand a variety of strategies to resolve them.
I also look forward to visiting our first graders again, where our unit will
focus on mindfulness and positive thinking. These strategies will build on
our emotional identification unit from the fall, and help students learn to be in charge of their thinking.
Mr. Bergantino
Can We Still Be Active During Indoor Recess?
The answer is yes! This week students learned some new games to play during indoor recess. These
games require students to be safe and active. We developed some creative exercise routines and
played What's My Name and Bottom Basketball. The students did a great job maintaining a safe envi-
ronment and were very active in a small space. Please, ask them about their class.
Mrs. Kelsey
WELCOME TO THE ART ROOM!
Mrs. .Kelsey and her students have been very busy
these past few months. Now that the art show
is quickly approaching in both schools we will be work-
ing at top speed to finish up and create new works of
art for the BES(May 4th) and KES(May 25th) art
shows.
At BES my student have been working primarily in
3D with clay. The kiln is being loaded and unloaded
weekly with clay projects. Next we will start to work
with plaster craft and paper pulp celluclay. Also, all of
the students are participating in the square one Art
fundraiser sponsored by the BES PTO. You will be
receiving information from the PTO regarding this Art
fundraiser. All the students have been very excited
about creating art work for this special fundraiser. I am
still in need of newspapers, plastic containers and cof-
fee- mate containers.
Library News
Our iPads have become such a wonder-ful learning tool in the library and classrooms. Students in all grade lev-els have been researching, creating, and publishing with the iPads and it's led to such motivated learners who are producing great work! Check out the Burr library and/or grade level websites to see an "Adobe Voice" pro-ject by Kindergarteners and "Chatterpix" projects by 1st and 2nd grade students. Also check out the websites to see internet safety iMov-ies from 4th graders and internet safety glogs by 3rd graders. If you want to learn more about the positive impact our iPads are having on learning and instruction at Burr, stop by the library!
BES COUGAR RECORD March2016
Math Corner Winter keeps us inside more, cooking and baking yummy foods. Check out these ways to include math in the kitchen. Have you ever stopped to consider how often you count, measure, estimate, and compare when you are cooking? Your kitchen is rich with fun and yummy ways for your child to learn the basics of numbers, counting, and measuring.
Math Is Measurement! Almost every time you and your child cook or bake, you need to measure. Measuring teach-es your child how to make comparisons and estimations, as well as to explore the relation-ship of parts to wholes. Of course, your child is also counting and adding as he puts the ap-propriate number of tablespoons or cups in a concoction. These are all essential skills that will be useful in learning the more complex math skills needed later in school for geometry and algebra.
When measuring ingredients, you can have your child explore how many small cups are in a big cup, or how many little teaspoons are equal to a big tablespoon. (You might want to have some extra flour or salt available for mathematical exploration, so that you can keep your recipe accurate.) Older children can discuss the fractions on the measuring cups. Ask your child, “What could I do if I needed ½ cup of sugar, but the ½ cup measuring cup is not here?” or “What if we wanted to double this recipe?”
Have fun together in the kitchen! Try this recipe!
Oatmeal Energy Bites Recipe adapted from AllRecipes.com
Ingredients: 1 cup rolled oats 1/2 cup almond butter (or substitute peanut butter) 1/2 cup chocolate chips 1/3 cup honey 1/4 cup ground flaxseed or bran cereal Optional: add-ins such as raisins, dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds, and dried cherries Directions: In a large bowl, mix all ingredients together. Roll out teaspoon sized balls and place on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Freeze until set about one hour. Enjoy and keep leftovers in a Ziploc bag in fridge or freezer. Makes about 20-24 energy bites. Excerpted from Scholastic.com parents website by D. Slowik, RSD17
BES COUGAR RECORD March2016
Bedtime stories: Reading Grows Brains!
By Perri Klass, M.D., Founder of Reach Out and Read, New York Times News Service
We know that reading to a child is associated with good outcomes. New studies examine the unexpectedly complex interactions that happen when you put a child on your lap and open a picture book.
The journal Pediatrics published a study that used functional magnetic res-onance imaging to study brain activity in 3- to 5-year-old children as they listened to age-appropriate stories. The researchers found that children whose parents reported more reading at home and more books in the home showed significantly greater activation of brain areas in a region of the left hemisphere called the parietal-temporal-occipital association cor-tex. This brain area is "a watershed region, all about multisensory integra-tion, integrating sound and then visual stimulation," said the lead author, John S. Hutton, of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
"When kids are hearing stories, they're imagining in their mind's eye when they hear the story," said Hutton. The different levels of brain activation, he said, suggest that children who have more practice in developing those visual images, as they look at picture books and listen to stories, may de-velop skills that will help them make images and stories out of words later
on. The ability to create visual images is essential as children begin to read to themselves in books with little or no pictures.
We know that it's important that young children hear language. It turns out that reading to - and with - children may amplify the language they hear more than just talking. Researchers found that picture books contained more "unique word types" than language used by parents talking to their child. "Books contain a more diverse set of words than child-directed speech," said the lead author, Jessica Montag, an assistant research psycholo-gist at the University of California Riverside. "This would suggest that children who are being read to are hearing vocabulary words that kids who are not being read to are probably not hearing." Vocabulary knowledge helps readers to more easily understand what is happening when they are reading to themselves.
Your child is never too old to be read to! Reading books with children means that they hear more words, while at the same time, their brains practice creating the images associated with those words - and with the more complex sentences and vocabulary that make up even simple stories. And as every parent who has read a bed-time story knows, this is all happening in the context of face-time, of skin-to-skin contact, of the hard-to-quantify but essential mix of security and comfort and ritual.
For more information, contact Carmi Kowalewski, Literacy Coach, [email protected]
BES COUGAR RECORD March2016
BES COUGAR RECORD March2016
Children’s Programs:
LEGO GROUP: 1st & 3rd Wednesdays, 5:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Grades K-4
MUSIC WITH MARGIE: Thursdays, 10:30 a.m., March
10th & 24th
2 ½ to 5yrs. Singing, dancing & musical fun! Limit 15. Please
register.
TERRIFIC TWOS STORY TIME: Fridays, 10:30 a.m., Jan
8 – March 11th
Welcomes toddlers 24-36 mos. Stories, songs, finger plays
and games.
PRE-SCHOOL STORY TIME: Tues. & Wed., 10:30 a.m.
Begins Jan 5th
Ages 3 - 5yrs: 2 sessions.
NUTMEG PLUS BOOK CLUB: Friday, March 18,: 4:00 p.m.
Age 12 & up Readers who like to discuss what they've read.
Refreshments served. “A Year Down Yonder” by Richard
Peck.
NUTMEG BOOK CLUB: Friday, March 25th Postponed to
April 1st: Library closed - Good Friday “One Boy and His
Dog” by Eva Ibbotson
Teen Programs:
TEEN ADVISORY BOARD (T.A.B.): 3rd Wednesdays,
6:00 to 7:00 p.m.
Voice ideas for improved teen services and plan events!
Grades 7-12. Assists with: children's programming, YA ma-
terial selection, activities, and Library duties. Pizza served!
Registration required.
Adult Programs:
BRAINERD LIBRARY BOOK CLUB: Postponed to March
31st, 6:30 p.m.
Meets monthly. “Bossy Pants” by Tina Fey
HEALTHY EXCHANGE BOOK CLUB: 1st Wednesdays,
6:30 p.m. March 2nd “Being Mortal: Medicine and What
Matters in the End” by Atul Gawandehe. Monthly. Note:
Book Club Only – not Author Talk
COLORING CLUB FOR ADULTS: Saturday, March 19,
12:00 pm
Coloring books aren't just for kids anymore! Adult coloring
books are everywhere filled with intricate designs and pat-
terns inspired by nature and art. Come to the Library and
spend some time relaxing and coloring. We recommend
bringing a friend to join in on the fun! All supplies will be
provided. Feel free to bring a box lunch or snack.
1-ON-1 COMPUTER HELP!: Fridays, 12:30-3:00 p.m.
Drop in Computer Librarian, Kristen Carpentier, provides
assistance.
THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL - A THRU HIKE WITH SAM
DUCHARME 1-2:30: Saturday, March 12, 1-2:30 p.m. In
March last year, Sam Ducharme set out on a 2180 mile, 14
state backpacking trip from Springer Mountain, Georgia to
Mt. Katahdin Maine. During his 6 month journey, he docu-
mented the rugged beauty of the Appalachian Mountains;
the wildlife, hardships on the trail, and the people, culture
and humanity at its finest. Come join him as he takes us
through the trail towns, over the mountaintops and through
the backcountry. The images and stories will leave you with
a renewed awe of the beauty of our country and its people.
CHARITY KNITTING GROUP: 1ST Tuesday of the
Month, 6:30 p.m. Join us as we "Knit for Charity." We knit
scarves, chemo & newborn caps, finger puppets, and sereni-
ty shawls for Middlesex Hospital. We also knit for Haddam
Public Health and the VFW; warm scarves and hats to be
worn under helmets for our soldiers. Donations happily ac-
cepted!
ENCOURAGING WORDS WRITERS’ GROUP: Fridays,
1:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Open writers’ group meets bi-weekly. Tap into creativity
with timed- writing exercises. Share stories or essays based on as-
signed topics. More info: Tanja Moriarty, 860-614-5158. Registration
is not required.
CALLING ALL GARDENERS AND FARMERS! BML is in the early stages
of planning a May 14th “Agricultural Day.” Please contact us with
thoughts on how you’d like to participate or contribute to the
BRAINERD MEMORIAL LIBRARY EVENTS: MARCH 2016
Sign up for our Spring programs at www.brainerdlibrary.lioninc.org!
BES COUGAR RECORD March2016
BES COUGAR RECORD March2016