Dear Parents,

The 4th graders and the pre-schoolers planted the 2nd annual BCD Garden last week. Ms. Doherty, Ms. Sideropolis, Ms. Junod, Mr. Lee and Mr. Spitzer and the students all worked to make this year’s garden better than ever. If you have time this summer to come in and do some watering and weeding we’d love the help – I sent out sign-up sheets yesterday. Enjoy the photos on the attached slide show.

The class presented their Create-A-State projects in the Learning Commons this morning to the Lower School, families and friends. This project not only speaks to their creativity and imagination, but combines their map skills, writing skills, keyboarding skills and design/layout skills. They each created a physical map, a road map, a regions/resources map, a landmark map, a downtown  map, a history of their state along with a flag that reflected the significant events from their past. I’m not sure which was more fun for them, but I enjoyed shepherding them as they combined their skills and artistry into such a rewarding accomplishment. Thanks to Ms. Kisselbrock for helping with the photos attached.

We also have begun to prepare our year-end portfolios. As you know, throughout the year, the students  would select a few pieces from the work sent home at the end of the week to reflect on. Their reflections answered either; why the work was important to them, what would they want someone to know before looking at it, how they solved it, or how they would improve on it the next time. This process of collecting, selecting, reflecting and evaluating encourages each students sense of responsibility for their own learning, something I have worked to inspire throughout the year. Portfolios will be going home at the end of next week.

If possible, please send in some sturdy canvas bags next week. There are quite a few books to go home and cubby cleaning will  be on going. I will try to trickle things home during the week instead of all at once.

Included in the books will be the 4th grade math review book to help keep their math skills fresh. Please either do a bit each week or wait until later in the summer, – to do them all in June kind of defeats the purpose! And please refer to the BCD summer reading list to keep up with reading as well. As you know I’m a big believer in sending post-cards or letters as a fun way to practice writing/spelling. They can send to a classmate from a far away place.

I can’t begin to tell you how special this class is or how lucky I feel to have had the opportunity to teach them this year. I know each and everyone is going to shine in 5th grade as well.

Happy Summer to all and I hope to see you next week at the all-school picnic on Friday, the 8th!

Katharine

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