May Specialist Newsletter
End of Year Wrap Up
Title 1 News- Mrs. Elliott
First grade students have been reading non-fiction text with an emphasis on citing evidence from the text about what they have read. We have completed foldables, graphed sight word recognition progress, and practiced writing to a short prompt about the text.
Second grade has been working with Making Words/Word Families in their word work activities. They have also read nonfiction text and completed a foldable focusing on fact and opinions. Other second grade groups have been working on sequencing the beginning, middle, and end of a story.
Third graders have been working with sequencing the events in a story, facts and opinions, and cause and effect situations. We have also been writing the story from another character's viewpoint.
Fourth graders have been reading a short fiction chapter book on Cobras. Then in addition to that chapter book, we are reading the companion informational text on King Cobras. We are comparing the fiction and non-fiction elements as we move along.
Fifth and sixth graders have been reading short novels with a focus on point of view. They have also been working with word analogies, analyzing the relationship between the vocabulary in the analogies.
Please remember to READ, READ, READ with your child over the summer. So much critical learning is lost when we let our minds sit idol for long periods of time!!
Art- Mrs. Ackroyd
Music- Mrs. Schlagenhauf
Hello, Bonjour, Buenos Dias, G’day, Guten Tag, Konnichiwa, Ciao, Shalom, Dobrey dyen. Hello to all the children of the world!
Leadership Performance on Friday Night was a huge success. Students performed original compositions about our Seven Habits accompanied by recorders, choirchimes, handbells, drums, guitar, and keyboard. I look forward to future performances of these compositions. Thanks to all the students for their creative ideas and musical input to all these compositions.
Summer Music Camp Opportunities for 4th - 6th graders
The Hickory Choral Society, in its ongoing efforts to support music in our schools, will again host its Children’s Choral Camp. This year’s camp will be held Monday through Friday, June 27- July 1, 2016 at the SALT Block. Karol Kimmel will be our clinician and has selected a variety of repertoire for young singers. The camp hours will be 8:45am – 12pm.
Each day our “campers” will attend music rehearsals, enjoy snacks, and attend an activity planned with our SALT block partners. The fee for the camp is $30.00 and is open to rising 4th-6th graders. Scholarships will be offered for those needing financial assistance.
Please let me know if you are interested and I will get you an application.
EC- Mrs. D. Bolick and Mrs. Dula
As we finish up our 4th quarter, our classes continue to work hard to achieve goals! Please look for progress reports in with your child’s report card at the end of the year. If you have any concerns or questions about your child’s IEP goals or progress, please contact us. Please see the included flyer, to help support the Special Olympics Softball Team! Donna Kay Bolick and Lynn Dula
Mrs. Hudson- Library
The end of the year is fast approaching…I will be sending home overdue notices soon-please encourage your child to find any missing library books.
Our outdoor reading garden it is almost complete! I love seeing classes enjoy our garden as they take advantage of some outdoor reading time!
Our “Oh the Places You’ll Go!” Garden is growing! We are hoping to add benches for another outdoor reading area! Stop by and check out our gardens!
Our Maker Space area is up and running! The students are enjoying the engineering challenges and the “Take Apart” tables…even our Kinders have been creating “Litter Bugs” during their Maker Space time!
Please continue to send in items for our Maker Space area. As you are spring cleaning, please look for any items that can be recycled and used to create or used in our take apart area! Some sample items: toothpicks, pom-poms, craft supplies, building blocks, Legos, foil, playing cards, ribbon, yarn, beads, feathers, stickers…
This summer our library is partnering with Southwest Branch Library in Mt. View. There will be a Blackburn poster at the SW Branch Library. When your child visits the library please have them sign/date the poster. Students who visit the library at least three times during the summer will receive a reading goodie bag in August and will be entered in a drawing for Book Fair Bucks to use at our Fall Book Fair!
Mr. Morrell- PE
We will be continuing to have lots of activities in P.E. which will lead up to Field Days on June 6th (K-2)
and June 7th (3-6).
Mrs. Hairston- Guidance
Mrs. Vue and Ms. Shook- ESL
Ms. Shook will be working on the study of plants and life cycles of animals the next month. I will be working on reading comprehension, text features, reading fluency and vocabulary the remainder of the year.
All of the ESL student who participated in Blackburn's Heritage Day did a fantastic job. We are so proud of you!