Happy New Year!

I have no idea why people celebrate January 1st as the start of the new year.  The real new year is the first day of school--a fresh beginning with new friends a new teacher and a new perspective on ourselves.  The custodial staff, including Dan Ralls, Mark St. Armand, Sean, and Ned Daniel, our secretary, Kathy Bower, Mr. Labb and I worked hard all summer to prepare for the new year but the building and the atmosphere only come alive when it is filled with students.  It was great to see all of your smiling faces. Welcome Back!

Mr. Labb greets Colin Robinson. 

Second Grade Auction Extraordinaire by Lauren Grady

On April 3rd, the cafeteria, with the help of many parent volunteers, was transformed into a Store Extraordinaire for the second graders. For the last couple weeks, students created products to earn money during our economics unit. With the money and interest they earned, students then became the consumers. First, came the auction with Dr. Tower as our auctioneer. Students had to make decisions about how much money they could use to bid on some lovely items including a soccer ball, lego set, and a stuffed lion. After the auction, they had a choice to buy assorted items. They were experts at figuring out how much change they should receive. Students had two choices of how to use their money. They could buy items or donate to the Children's Hospital. At the end of the auction, we were all winners. The second graders all had their treasures and had donated over $34 to the hospital! 

Finch Robots in Action by Jason Dimen

Blanchard 6th graders are getting experience in coding using Scratch!, a java-based software, to program Finch robots. These bird-shaped machines are able to turn, move forward and backward, and have built in motion and optical sensors. Students are pairing their creativity with technology to engineer the robots to perform programmable tasks. Use of the project materials comes from a grant through BirdBrainTechnologies.com.









This last picture is a PBL example; social studies and science intersected as some students, on their own, set up obstacles for the robots to maneuver around, culminating in a "battle" between an Athenian robot and a Spartan robot dressed up with materials from around the room.

African Drumming Is A Hit!

                                                   Gallery of African Art
                                                      by Tessa McKinley

Zachariah Combs is the director at the Gallery of African Art in Clinton, MA. He has partnered with Issa Coulibaly from Crocodile River Music to bring both the art collection and drumming lessons to our students. On display at the gallery are masks, musical instruments, carved figures, and ceremonial vessels. There are also artifacts of home life, including cooking and serving vessels, tools, textiles,and jewelry. Eileen Barnett and I were able to choose 20 or so of these pieces for display in our school's front entry. We will have the pieces for another month or so. The drumming classes were made available to each classroom and Zach and Issa tailored each class to be age-appropriate. The kindergartners played the rhythm to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom while the 6^th graders explored more complicated traditional African rhythms. Each student had the opportunity to play both the Djembé drum and the djundjun drum. Issa is a master djembe drummer who is originally from Mali, West Africa. He began studying drums when he was 11 in his home city of Bamako,Mali. After all of the students have had their drumming lessons, they will be treated to a concert by Issa, Zach and two other band members, representing music from all over Africa.

How Is Your Engine Running Today?

How is your engine running today?

We live and work in a culture that is  increasingly fast paced, high-tech, and more sedentary.  We are living in an area of the country where cold winters prevent many of us from getting outside and moving for months!  Our bodies and brains are not designed to sit for hours at computers, in meetings, or in classrooms.  

We have all experienced working diligently to meet a deadline or sitting for hours at a conference and encountering the moment when we “hit the wall”.  We need to move, take a walk, get a cold drink, get a crunchy snack, do something active to help us “power through” to the end.  

In Occupational Therapy and in many of our classrooms, we use terminology and concepts from the book “How does your engine run?”, the Alert Program for Self Regulation. Children are taught “if your body is like a car engine, sometimes it runs on high, sometimes it runs on low, and sometimes it runs just right”.  Through the comparison of our bodies to an engine, children and adults learn a variety of sensorimotor strategies for self regulation (methods to change our levels of alertness through what we see, hear, feel, taste, and how we move).

There is a range of alertness that can be considered optimal for learning.  In “optimal alertness”, children are attentive, they have a “sparkle” in their eye, their muscles are not droopy, and they can concentrate with little effort.  As educators and parents, we want to support children to find their “just right” range in which their brains and bodies function best for different tasks.

Using the concepts of the Alert Program, children and adults learn how to adjust their “engines” with “engine tune ups”.  Examples of tune ups we teach and use are yoga poses, breathing exercises, animal walks, seat push ups, sitting on a ball, rock or spin in an office chair, chew gum, crunchy or chewy snacks, fidget tools.  

It is helpful as adults to first identify our own strategies that we use for self regulation.  Once we understand what our own adult nervous systems need and use for self regulation, it is easier to consider how to support our children.  I invite you to explore the concepts of the Alert Program (www.alertprogram.com), examine your own self regulation strategies, and help your child discover their own favorite “tune ups”.

My favorite family winter tune ups:

• yoga
• twister
• Hullabaloo (commercial game by cranium)
• indoor obstacle courses (cushions, blanket tunnels)
• ice skating
• sledding
• building a snow fort
• swimming (*check out nearby YMCAs)
• rollerskating

Have fun, stay warm, and look forward to warmer weather, spring, and outdoor recess!!!!!

Ellen Sullivan, M.Ed., OTR/L

Occupational Therapist

Of skunks, and hawks, and second grade students...

Second graders were treated to a visit from some special guests recently. As part of our animal research, Drumlin Farm brought a striped skunk and a broad winged hawk. Second graders did some quiet observations noting how the animals moved and what they looked like. We discussed how animals have special features to survive in nature.   

Contributed by Lauren Grady 

Students Make A Difference

The Blanchard community is a generous one.  The students (and staff and parents) participate in food drives such as the Souper Bowl in which the food goes to the Acton Pantry or Loaves and Fishes, clothing drives such as Coats for Kids and Crates to Crayolas and the Mitten Tree, in which the hats and mittens collected are donated to the Acton Food Pantry.  Primarily, our charity drives focus on the Acton-Boxborough community.  However, when students at Blanchard are affected, we extend our reach.  Every year, a Blood drive is conducted in honor of a former student, Ashley Ge.  In the last few years, we have supported the Decibels Foundation that the Dunning family founded.  The Decibels Foundation provides services for Early Intervention programs and resources for parents and schools.  The primary fundraiser for the Decibels Foundation is Stink Week, in which students will wear the same T-Shirt for a week to raise awareness of hearing loss as well as to raise money.

This week, I'd like to call attention to the sixth grade students who are learning CPR.  They were an enthusiastic group, eager to take on the responsibility of learning how to save a life.

In addition, I want to recognize Wendy Barrett who donated all of her birthday toys to the Toys for Tots organization because she thought it was a good thing to do.  Below, she is shown delivering her toys to the organization.   We are all proud of you, Wendy!

I would also like to recognize Jack Dunning and Thomas Walsh who have coordinated all the activities in the school for Stink Week for the past two years.  In 2011, the Blanchard Memorial School community received the Classy Award, given to nonprofit organizations for outstanding contributions in fundraising.   Thomas is also involved with fundraising for ALS.  His family participates on a charity walk every year and he has raised money through other means, such as a lemonade stand.

It isn't surprising that elementary school students are so thoughtful and reflective about the world, but it is nice to recognize students for their efforts.   If you know of a Blanchard student who is doing  something that makes a difference, please let me know.

Sixth Grade Students Talking about CPR Training with Fox News

Thomas Walsh and Jack Dunning: Fundraisers for the Decibels Foundation

Wendy Barrett and Toys for Tots