Celebrate the Blanchard Community

Last weekend, as I was watching my son's soccer game, I was talking with a new friend about where we had both lived as children.  I grew up in New Jersey--please don't hold that against me!  My friend told me she grew up in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans and had vivid memories of drinking from a segregated water fountain, going to the bathroom in a segregated bathroom, and riding on the back of buses.  Despite all the literature, the nonfiction books, and magazine articles that I have read for so many years, I was speechless, shocked.  How could someone who was around my age, experience that kind of treatment?

That conversation led me to reflect about our education of students and our Blanchard community.  We are so lucky to have such a long, rich history that we can celebrate and integrate into the curriculum, especially in the second grade with our field trip to Schoolhouse #2. (I was fortunate enough to meet one of the former students of Schoolhouse #2 at a town barbecue last week!)  I am equally delighted, however, to celebrate the many changes and diversity that make our community so strong and vibrant today. 





Schoolhouse #2

 

 

Johnny Appleseed Visits Blanchard!

Johnny Appleseed came to visit Blanchard this week.  In Dr. Bates final appearance as Johnny Appleseed, he continued a tradition that he created for the past eight years.  I wish you could see the excitement of the students as Johnny Appleseed, in full costume, hands out apples to the children.  Throughout the day, Dr. Bates reads a different book to each grade level, from the preschool through the sixth grade, that is developmentally appropriate.  I hope you can see the intense engagement and attention that the children give him in his reading and their enthusiastic answers to his questions.  Rather than asking Dr. Bates to read to the sixth grade students, the students gave Dr. Bates a book on Johnny Appleseed as a keepsake from their class. 

Below are just a few pictures from the day.