Brandt's Friday Message
Friday, January 17, 2020
Happy Friday Brandt School Community –
We continued our strong start to the New Year this week. The staff and students are certainly in a mindset that allows for awesome moments of teaching and learning to be our normal state of being. This week I am pleased to give you an academic update for our upper grades, as well as a few brief reminders. Let’s get to it!
In grade five, our oldest scholars are doing a great job formulating ideas and drawing conclusions, as well as identifying patterns and connections among significant plot events, as they continue to work with the novel Number the Stars. They are also fine tuning their interpretations of big ideas by noticing contrasts and contradictions in the novel, and have also honed their skills to use context clues to ascertain the meanings of new and challenging words. In math, they’ve also done a great job explaining volumes of solid figures by examining the non-overlapping parts. As I pass by and watch them in action, they are truly setting a great example for their younger schoolmates.
In grade four, students are doing a great job determining themes as they read the text What Would She Do? This text allows them to discuss and learn about rebellious and trailblazing women like Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, Michelle Obama, and Marta Viera da Silva (just to name a few). The students are also showing improved writing production and development of personal styles, most noticeably seen in their night writes. (Fourth grade parents, we told you it would be worth it!) In math, the students are showing a cross-curricular connection to ELA by growing when it comes to articulating and explaining their strategies in written form for solving word problems. They are also showing much understanding in generating and representing measurement data.
In grade three, students are starting to show their mastery of writing and composing narrative stories. They are hard at work trying to exhibit that same mastery for Literary Analysis and Research Simulation tasks. Through their novel study of Coretta Scott King, they’ve been able to integrate some valuable lessons about the Civil Right Movement and Martin Luther King, Jr. appropriately enough as we will honor his life and work with the observance of his upcoming holiday. In math, the students are applying the skills of interpreting measured data, and they continue to expand their computer prowess by using Google Classroom to complete online math work.
Switching gears, a huge thanks to all who made the PTO Yoga Wine Down fundraiser event a success, especially Michelle LaRue and Casey Repetti. Speaking of PTO fundraisers, by popular demand we are happy to say the Brandt Online Swag Store is open again! To make a purchase, go to http://www.agpestores/ecdu/groups.php. When prompted, the access code to enter in all caps is BRANDT. They have some new styles and a new trucker hat so be sure to check it out!
Next week I look forward to giving you an academic update for our lower elementary grades. Please keep in mind that this Monday, January 20th, school will be closed in observance of Martin Luther King Day. We will reopen on Tuesday, January 21st.
For this week’s playlist, in case you didn’t hear, Pearl Jam announced they are releasing a new album! So bearing in mind that I am a Pearl Jam maniac, I leave you with the following and wish you a restful three-day weekend.
Mr. Bartlett’s “Top Three Pearl Jam Songs of All Time” Playlist
“Breath” by Pearl Jam (from the Singles original motion picture soundtrack)
“Present Tense” by Pearl Jam (from the album No Code)
"In Hiding" by Pearl Jam (from the album Yield)