Bruneau Elementary Newsletter
April Issue 11
Upcoming Events
April 7th-21st ISAT Testing
April 13th School Board Meeting 7pm RimrockApril 24th Teacher Inservice
May 2nd-5th MAP Testing 5th Grade Only
May 9th BES MK Nature Center Field Trip
May10th-12th K-3 IRI Testing
Classroom News
K/1 Miss Wampler
2/3 Mrs. Pearson
I would like to say thank you for supporting your children in their math fluency homework. As they work on it at school and at home, they are continuing to see gains and it's making a difference!
Spider Collection
Spider Names
Learning about The Parts of a Spider
4/5 Mrs. Kangas-Hanes
What do Tuck Everlasting, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Maniac Magee have in common? They are three books which our 4th and 5th graders have read in the last week during our Literacy Circles.
Literacy Circle is a learning book club that promotes personal responsibility for the success of a small group, applies comprehension, accuracy, fluency, and enrichment of vocabulary at each child’s independent reading level, while giving the members of the clubs personal reading choice.
How does this look? If you were to visit, our reading class would seem unusual. Small groups of students are involved in meetings; each student has an important role that supports the success of their group. The students have determined how many pages to read in the last 24 hours, each student is assigned a role that enriches the reading; looking for rich vocabulary words, searching the reading for wonderful and rich passages, making personal connections, leading a discussion about the characters and their motivations, settings and plots. And finally, holding each other accountable and evaluating the participation of the group. The group also determines how many pages they will read in order to meet a goal for completing the reading. Miss Simper and Mrs. K are circulating with clipboards and grading sheets looking for indicators of engagement and participation while listening in on the meetings, offering needed assistance, and monitoring the participation of each student.
In just a week many of the Literacy Circles have finished wonderful novels all the while putting the reading strategies we have learned and practiced to work during independent reading. Literacy Circles are a way to promote reading and self-responsibility while teaching important soft skills in communication, independence, and interdependence.
Ask a 4th or 5th grader what they are reading and how their Literacy Circle is going this week, they will share the adventures of Tuck, Charlie and poor Maniac Magee!
Music Ms. Volk
Bruneau April Newsletter- Music
Spring has come to Ms. Volk’s classroom, and so has preparation for Bruneau Elementary’s spring program! This year, Bruneau students are preparing a story about a spring rainstorm, complete with narration, singing and instrument playing. As in the past, each grade will have a showcase part so they can demonstrate the concepts they are learning in music class.
When not rehearsing program music, all three classes are hard at work getting ready for the end of the year. Mrs. Hanes’ class just mastered their 5th recorder note of the year, C; they are also studying the different instrument families to prepare the 5th graders for 6th grade band. Mrs. Pearson’s class has been playing with boomwhackers to practice all their solfege notes. Lastly, Miss Wampler’s class read 10 Apples Up on Top in music class and will spend the next few weeks playing apple games to practice their rhythm reading.
March Students of The Month
Kindergarten Cruz Colyer
1st Grade Jaysik Anger
2nd Grade Rigdon Kunsky
3rd Grade Nataly Rivera
4th Grade Zane Velez-Noble
5th Grade Joslynn & Brynn Burk
Community Groups
Fifth Grade Focus
Brynn Burk
At school Brynn likes to work in the garden and hopes that Sue will be able to use the vegetables we grow to serve at lunch. When Brynn moves on to Rimrock next year, she will miss everything including the teachers and students at Bruneau Elementary School.
Jose Godinez
Art Around Bruneau Elementary
“Birch Forrest in Winter” is a multi-media art work which incorporated watercolor, oil pastel, cardboard brushed painting with tempera, and created two dimensions by applique techniques. While working with the watercolor, the students used chemical resist (rubber cement application to define a firm line between the watercolor pigments) and chemical reaction (various salts that create a look of crystallization) to create a winter-scape scene. This art piece taught the students that artists incorporate a number of mediums in order to achieve quality work, with each piece becoming unique and intriguing. Our thanks to our “Art Mom”, Mrs. Pearson, for teaching us these fun and fabulous techniques.