Bruneau Elementary Newsletter
February 26, 2018
Upcoming Events
Friday, March 2nd Teacher Inservice
Wednesday, March 7th 4/5th Grade Boise Philharmonic Field TripThursday, March 8th End of 3rd Quarter
Sunday, March 11th Daylight Savings Time
Tuesday, March 13th Student Led Conferences 4-8pm
March 19th-March 23rd Spring Break
Our Newest Staff Member at BES Laura Morrison
Classroom News
K/1 Miss Wampler & Mrs. Pearson
2/3 Mrs. Graham
We are making more progress on our PBL! The kids have started filing out their notes that they will get to put into a Keynote (PowerPoint Presentation). They have been doing some research and filing in the blanks for what they already know in hopes to get one step closer to the final product. We had an absolute blast with the STEM bus and our Valentine’s Day party! It is crazy to think that we are getting closer to the end of 3rd quarter. The kids have been working hard and will have a lot of cool things to show their families at the upcoming student-led conferences in March. Thank you to all who helped make our Valentine’s Day a success and a huge thanks to my kids and their families for all of the thoughtful Valentine gifts!
4/5 Mrs. Hanes
THE PBL IS HERE! THE PBL IS HERE!
Project Based Learning is designed to create an experience where students gain in skills and knowledge while working for an extended period of time, using their best researching skills to answer a complex question. PBL’s have key elements:
· The project is focused on student learning goals, standards-based content, and critical thinking/problem solving skills. The students must practice communication, collaboration, and self-management.
· The project is framed by a meaningful question: our class is asking “How did Native American Tribes provide for their needs using the resources available prior to the influence and pressures brought by European influences?
· The project requires that students engage in rigorous, extended research.
· The project features real-world tasks and speaks to the student’s interests or issues in their lives.
· Students are given both choice and voice in a majority of the decisions. (THIS IS SOOOOO HARD TO SUPPORT THEM THROUGH!) Including how they manage their resources and time for the completion of the project.
· Students individually and collectively reflect continually throughout the project on the effectiveness of their inquiry and project activities, quality of their work (throughout the process, not only the final product), and how to overcome obstacles and disappointments.
· Students give and receive, and use critiques and they revise, revise, and revise.
· Finally the big reveal, students make their project work public by showing the expertise they have honed and developed throughout the project.
So how does this look in our 4th and 5th Grade classroom? Stressful, adventuresome, overwhelming, and triumphant….sometimes all within a few seconds and repeatedly each day!
How can you help your 4th or 5th Grader?
Check daily with their progress. We have scheduled 1 ½ hours a day for our project to ensure that students who have alternative schedules get a full hour each day. Let them experience and problem solve through their failure; maybe their project will not look like an expert completed it. We are a classroom of YET thinkers. The next one will be better because we are learning…and please join us in remembering that with Project Based Learning we are experiencing and valuing each life lesson we receive each day. Ask your child about their time management and their management of their tasks. As of this writing THE WHOLE CLASS HAS NOT MET THEIR DAILY GOALS.
And finally….HELP WANTED!
If you are available the next two weeks to come and be an “Editor-In-Chief” I could use help. The students are required to document three peer edits before bringing their work to me for the final edit, but even with that 23 students time 7 to 9 paragraphs time 1.5 edit sessions (sometimes they have to rewrite…) is 310 paragraphs! Please call Mrs. K if you can join us. Our PBL is from 2:00-3:30 each day, it is so fun to help these kids hone their writing skills.
Please feel free to contact Mrs. K at the school or you can try to catch her at home…208.845.2126 (Bruneau) or 208.325.8136 (Donnelly). Always leave a message with a contact number.
Thank you for the privilege of being with your child everyday…each child and each day holds wonders and blessings.
Mrs. K
Music Ms. Volk
Boise Philharmonic Children’s Concert
On March 7, the 4th and 5th grade class of Bruneau Elementary will be attending a children’s concert put on by the Boise Philharmonic Orchestra, thanks to the generosity of Brunea PTO. The theme of the concert is Dances from Around the World, and Mrs. Hanes’ class has been studying and experiencing some of the dances. The program covers six different cultural dances that are nationalistic to the area they come from. We have been learning about the importance of folk music in all cultures and how most famous dances use folk music that everyone knows. The dances are all very different, from the graceful and elegant Viennese waltz to the lively and spirited Slavonic Dance from the Czech Republic, to the pentatonic Dance of the Yao People from China.
In preparation for the concert, Mrs. Hanes’ class has begun their annual unit on instruments, studying the different families (woodwind, brass, string and percussion) in preparation both for the upcoming concert and their future as potential Rimrock music students. In the second week of February, they finished their woodwind unit and were treated to a live demonstration by Ms. Volk of several of the instruments.
This concert is a unique opportunity for our 4th and 5th graders. According to the Boise Philharmonic website, “students learn about instrument families and sounds, concert etiquette, composers, orchestral repertoire, and how music and sound ties into their daily lives and studies”. For more information about the upcoming concert, you can visit boisephil.org/education/childrens-concerts.