Tuesday, June 7, 2011

June 7, 2011

Dear Parents and Families,

End-of-Year Events:

Tuesday, 6/7: Step-up Day: 2nd-graders visit WCS (during school day)
Weds. 6/8: WCS Band Performance: 2nd graders only – to WCS (during school day).
Thursday, 6/9: Fun Day @ WCS (during school day).
Friday, 6/10: Fun Day Rain Date
Weds., 6/15: Horizon’s End-of-Year Picnic at Maple Street Park.
Friday, 6/17: Last Day/half day. Report cards go out.

In Second-Grade Math, students are continuing their work with place value – working on really understanding how you regroup and why you regroup when you are dealing with problems like 183-48.
In Writing, students finished up their I Am… poems. Most kid shave brought them home to you already. Just a couple still need to do a final edit. If you haven’t seen your child’s yet, please let me know. I thought they were quite poignant and perceptive for 7 and 8-year-olds.

Read-Aloud: Mrs. Frisby is finding out how the Rats of NIMH became so smart. Nicodemus, the leader, we find, had once lived in the city. He and his friends were captured one night in the marketplace and brought to a laboratory. They got injections that doubled their life span and made them so smart they learned to read and problem-solve. When we left them today, they had just sneaked out of their cages for the first time, and they were preparing to head down the air ducts to escape!

Bolger Summer Book Club Reading Blog: I will be hosting a Summer Book Club again this summer. Last year a half-dozen students participated. We met once every two weeks at the Dorothy Alling Library, to eat potato chips and talk about our books. I ran a Summer Book Club reading blog, and posted questions for students to answer. They wrote to me and responded to each other’s comments. It was a lot of fun, and kept kids linked in to each other and to a common reading experience in the midst of their many differing summer activities. I have to charge a fee to pay for gas and for the work involved in working with the kids via email, phone, and the blog, but I think parents found it reasonable. I will be sending out a flyer giving more details early next week. Visit the blog using the following link:
http://bolgerbookclub.blogspot.com/2010/07/july-2-2010.html

Former Students: We were paid a visit by former students, Mark Lang, Doug Schmidt, and Emma Lieberman. They read memoirs they’d written – memoirs about facing difficult situations and gaining strength from them: the Penguin Plunge, an audition with a national theater company, or a run down a very difficult ski trail.
Harmony House’s Reading Restaurant: We all walked over to Harmony House at the end of the week and were treated to their Reading Restaurant dress rehearsal. Our kids were excited to read other kids’ writing; they were happy to be “old hands”, and gladly offered suggestions to their Harmony friends as they prepared for their Reading Restaurant that night.

The Sylvia Love Benefit: Last week, students made posters and did problem-solving problems related to Sylvia Love’s upcoming benefit. On Saturday Night, as you know, friends and family held the spaghetti dinner at the Federated Church to benefit Sylvia. Many parents, kids, teachers, and community members were able to contribute by attending, getting take-out, or simply donating. Sylvia was there with family; she spoke about having received a cut-off notice from the electric company and the cable company just that day, so the proceeds from the dinner (more than $3000.00) could not have come at a better time. Sylvia especially thanked the kids of Allen Brook who have been so loving and solicitous towards her over the recent weeks.

Report Cards will be going home on the last day of school. I will be in school through Wednesday, June 7th if you have any questions.

Thank you again to the parents and kids for the wonderful cards and goodies and the Kindle you gave me for Teacher Appreciation Day. I look forward to being able to try out the Kindle with our next Read-Aloud book.

Take care, everyone
(And, um, where has the time gone?)
David