First Grade Music Class Chimes In

First graders are learning to play an accompaniment with one of their new favorite songs: "Charlie Over the Ocean."  This instrument looks like a Xylophone, but it's not!  It's a Metallophone.  Ask your child to explain the difference to you.  --Margie Callaghan

Blanchard Answers the Ice Bucket Challenge

The Principal at the Douglas Elementary School in Acton challenged Mr. Labb and the Blanchard Community to participate in the Ice Bucket Challenge to bring awareness of the disease ALS to the public.  Mr. Labb and the Blanchard community answered that challenge with commitment, and creativity!  The entire student body and staff gathered on the playground at 1:30 this afternoon.  Students brought their water bottles or cups of water (some provided by their classroom teachers).  However, the staff did not need to bring water bottles.  Fire Chief White and his staff drove over on their firetruck and readied the hoses....to douse any willing staff member.  And there were quite a few who were willing to endure a soaking.  It was a fun 15 minutes for all of us and a reminder to be grateful for our own health and mindful of the challenges of others.  As soon as the videos are edited, we will post those as well.

Marine Biology in KIndergarten

The PTF has once again sponsored the Marine Biologist's visit in Kindergarten.

Both classrooms were able take part of Ellen Goethal's knowledgeable presentation and hands on opportunities to experience ocean life, both living and non-living.

Sixth Grade Students Must Scale and Strengthen their Ambitions

First, Mr. Dimen requires his sixth grade students to define the problem and then plan and design a solution to that problem.  This week, his students are creating paper and pasta bridges.  This is a mini-STEM project in which students apply the engineering process, learn to manage constraints and model solutions. The engineers have paired up and have named their firm. Each firm has been given $5000 virtual dollars to buy materials - fettuccine, vermicelli, linguini, or spaghetti. Each type of pasta has a different tensile strength, thus the engineers have to consider both material and cost (the wider and denser fettuccine is $500 a piece, for example) when designing their bridge. The engineers will test the bridges on Friday and see which structure will hold the greatest load before collapsing. However, the "winner" of the project is the structure with the lowest Efficiency Ratio of cost to load, that is the lower the  cost, the higher the load, the better the structure! 

 

Conversations

This afternoon at 1:45, Blanchard students participated in a fire drill.  We had a little extra time outside and I spoke with the third grade students.  One student new to the school and the country asked how many times we had fire drills. Another student asked why we practiced.  Still another asked if we would have a lockdown drill and evacuation drill (Yes and Yes).
One student asked if he should do the same thing if there was a real fire.
     "Of course," I answered confidently, "that's why we practice."  And then the questions came in rapid fire (sorry about the pun) from many, many students.
     "Well," another student raised his hand, "what if the fire was here in the back of the school.  Should we still meet here?"
     "What if the fire was in the back of the school where are classrooms are?  Should we still meet here?
     "What if the school exploded?  Where should we go?"
     "What if I'm in the bathroom and there aren't any adults around?  What should I do?  Should I find adults?"
     "What if the fire was in the front of the school?  Where will people go?"
     "When do we go to the fire station?  How will we know when to go?"
To be honest, I didn't know there were so many concerns about fire drills and their safety.  We did talk about listening to the adults who would know when to go to the fire station and when to go to another area of the school.  We spoke about how we keep track of every student in the school by class and by the specials schedule as well as checking the bathrooms.  I let the third grade students know that we do not go back into the school until every child and staff member is accounted for and there is no threat of danger.  I think I assuaged their concerns.  However, it might be nice to speak with your children about the fire drill because they have such fertile imaginations and may need to discuss their safety concerns in more detail.

On a lighter note, I had a conversation with several fourth grade girls who were thrilled to use their new email accounts through Acton-Boxborough.  Yesterday, one student had asked me if she could use the account to email anyone in the AB system and I assured her that she could and told her how to use the email.  This morning, I looked in my email inbox to see a thank you note from her.  When I thanked her, the other girls joined in about how they could use the account to email each other.  One girl wanted to email her teacher, Mrs. Owen and the email would say, "I love you.  You're amazing.  You rock because you're the best teacher."  However, she added, "I need to be careful because there is a boy with the same last name in this school and if I sent it to him that would be awkward."  Yes, Megan, yes it would.  (I have her permission to use her words.)

So, parents, please know that your fourth grade students have new digital powers and we all need to help them use them wisely or it could be awkward!

Community Spirit

Mr. Labb started the day with the James Taylor song, "Shower the People" and translated that idea into actions when he asked the entire Blanchard Community to create a shower using their hands and feet.  Ask your student to create the shower for you.  When the kindergarten students left for the day and saw the evidence of rain on the ground, several were convinced that they had made it rain!

In addition, the fourth grade shared the poems they created with the theme: If I Ruled the World. Ask the fourth grade students about their poems and the audience response to some of their ideas!  The fifth grade students showed their enthusiasm for the STARR value of Respect for our environment, making us all think about how to Recycle and Reuse the materials we use to Respect our environment.  This will be a continuing theme for the year as we work to save energy throughout the building.

STARR Talks

Mr. Labb and I spoke to the students at every grade level about the expectations we had for students' behavior in the class, during recess, in the cafeteria, and on the bus.  Mr. Labb focused on the STARR values (Support, Teamwork, Attitude, Respect, and Responsiblity) to help students understand the importance of helping each other, having a good attitude, respecting teachers and students, being responsible for doing homework, taking care of school property and each other, and most of all being good friends.