February 3, 2023
Preschool
Samantha Hyde from the Brown County Public Library came to visit Preschool to read and tell stories!
Kindergarten
Kindergarten has been hard at work! They are learning how to describe the attributes of 2D and 3D shapes and decompose numbers. They are learning about the letter Ss. There is so much to do with the letter S! They are blending and segmenting words, reading, spelling and writing words that all have to do with the letter S. Kindergarten is also working on short and long vowel sounds and learning their Red Words: his, as, and green. They also published and celebrated their books in Writing Workshop! This wonderful work connects so well with our district priority of all PK-2 students demonstrating typical growth in essential reading and number sense skills. We are working hard to meet that goal!
1st grade
Brown County Schools is working to establish a PK – 12 Career and Connected Continuum. We are working PK-5, in our building, with Beable and the World of Work to help reach this goal. All students K-5 know their RIASEC code. This code will help them explore a wide range of career opportunities to help them reach our BCS Graduate Profile goals connected to the IDOE Graduates Prepared to Succeed Roadmap.
Samantha Hyde from the BCPL came to the first grade room! The kids prepared questions to ask her about being a librarian as a career so that they could better understand their RIASEC codes and the skills required to do her job.
2nd grade
Students in 2nd grade are diving into OG (Orten Gillingham). Kids are pounding/tapping red words, using their sand trays and decodable readers! They are also are setting goals in Beable and listing careers of interest. They are reading about their interests and striving to improve their reading!
3rd grade
Third graders are writing informational reports on animals. They are learning to research in books and online. Learning to paraphrase information and turn it into a report has been a priority. Beable is being used and students are learning so much about future careers. Their adopted cow, Darcy, is 4 months old now and weighs 180 pounds. They love getting pictures of her and have learned a lot about life on a dairy farm.
4th grade
4th graders have been investigating equivalent fractions in math. They are also beginning their poetry unit. We have been heavily focused on reading nonfiction and writing main ideas based on our reading. We’ve been reading all about early Native Americans in Indiana, early exploration, the fur trade, and The French and Indian War.
5th grade
This week 5th graders have spent time watching videos from the Crayola Creativity Week. They watched one video about NASA and learned about just a few of the hundreds of jobs it takes to put a man on the moon! They also watched a video featuring two comedians who share a book. They talked about how to use idioms and other figurative language to make their own writing more interesting and humorous! The videos were not only interesting because they helped us see new ways to be creative but they also connected to the World of Work by teaching them about a lot of new and exciting careers!
5th Grade Ambassadors
Our Student Ambassadors are the face of the building. They talk to guests about all of the great things happening in our school. Our priority of School, Family, and Community Engagement lends itself to this group and the great work they are doing.
They have been preparing for a Valen-drive! Food will be collected for Mother’s Cupboard. Details will be sent home next week!
PTO
Valentine Candy Grams! We will be offering Valentine’s Day Gummy Bear Candy Grams this year! Send a Candy Gram to your child, a teacher, or a friend. To purchase a Candy Gram, fill out the form that was sent home on pink paper. They are $1.00 each. These Candy Grams will be passed out on February 14th! Please have the forms filled out and sent back to school by February 10th.
Our next Movie Night will be February 24, 2023 from 6:00 – 7:30 p.m.
4-H Bots Club
We have a blast at Bots Cub! Aside from working on our 4-H projects for the fair, we have also learned the 4-H pledge and elected officers. Congratulations to Samuel Clifford, president; Declan Spalding, vice-president; and Memphis Anderson, secretary!
Though warm weather seems far away, I did want to let you all know that 4-H project judging for the fair is on June 1st. Your student does not have to be present at this project judging, but it is an awesome opportunity to practice public speaking skills in a learning-centered environment.
For those students in kindergarten through 2nd grade (known as Mini 4-Hers), their projects all receive the same ribbon, and they talk to one judge about all of their projects. Mini 4-Hers are welcome to create and turn in as many projects as they would like in this non-competitive introduction to 4-H.
4-Hers (Grades 3-12) may talk to several different judges depending on which projects that they complete. Judges ask questions such as
- What did you learn from completing this project?
- What was your favorite part of this project?
- How did you do this part of your project?
The judging process is more of a one-on-one conversation than a formal interview, and once the judge has finished asking questions, 4-Hers leave their project with the judge, who will attach a scorecard with feedback and then give it a ribbon after the judging window has closed. 4-Hers and their families then get to see what their project received on the first night of the fair (June 12).
I will collect the computer projects that we complete in Bots Club to ensure their safe arrival to project judging. However, your student is more than welcome to attend project judging on June 1 from 5-7 P.M. if they are able, and there is no penalty if they are not able to talk with the judge on that day. Their projects will be judged and receive a ribbon regardless of attendance.
Be on the lookout for our next Bots Club date, and thanks for being part of Brown County 4-H!
Our 4-H Bots Club meets once a month and is run by Kirstie Tiernan and Katie Finney.
Science
Scientist of the Week! Jaxson Burris Gr. 5
Helmsburg News Cast
We have a Helmsburg News Cast operating during the school day. The cast is made up of 4th and 5th grade students. The students are learning all parts of a news cast and will go to the PBS station in Bloomington to learn even more! Our group members are Violet/Declan/Eyan (they provide the Tiger comedy), Eleanor/Cash (the Interview the Scientist of the Week), Roni (she does the teacher feature and student feature sections), Roan/Aesop (they give us the weather), Roan/Finn (they are responsible for the animal of the week), Makenzie (she provides us with information each month on National holidays), Finn/Noah (they run the camera and edit), Mackenzie (provides the fact of the day), Cash/Eyan (they are the club creators), Makenzie (provides the ads), and we even get Bloopers at the end from the all!
Mobile Dentist
The Mobile Dentist is coming back to our elementary schools and will serve grades K-5. They will be at Helmsburg March 10th. Packets were sent home January 30th. Please fill them out and send them back to your child’s school by February 21st. This allows us time to process if your child qualifies to be seen.