Student Art Work

Congratulations to these wonderful artists whose creativity is displayed in the main office.

Cookie Trays from the PTO

Thank you to the PTO for the wonderful cookie trays which were delivered to every staff member on Monday! It takes a wonderful group of bakers, coordinators, tray creators, and delivery helpers to make this appreciation project a success. The list of volunteers is too long to mention everyone.
Cookie trays are one of the treats the Birch Meadow staff look forward to every year. Thank you to everyone who helped ensure the staff at Birch Meadow received appreciation!
Have a great holiday and THANK YOU!

Mice and Mozart

Thank you to the chorus and drama program for the excellent performance of Mice and Mozart. Click here for pictures if the images below are unavailable.

Friendship

Birch Meadow’s character education program focuses on 6 themes of character: Respect, Responsibility, Honesty, Friendship, Cooperation and Caring. Friendship is the character trait we will be focusing on this month. In order to reinforce Friendship through literacy, all students will be listening to or reading the book How to be a Friend by Laurie Krasny Brown and Marc Brown. This book reinforces how students can be a good friends, make good choices and find ways to settle arguments using words. Teachers and staff will be looking for students showing Friendship and we are encouraging parents to do the same at home. Your child will be bringing home a bear this week. Please reward your child when you see him/her showing Friendship by filling out the bear with your child’s name, room number and what they did to show Friendship. The bear will be added to the other bears in a container in the office and posted in the lobby.
Mr. Sprung will read one bear from each grade level at our next assembly.
The bear will be returned to you at the end of the month. Thank you for your cooperation with this program, and we look forward to reading how your child has shown Friendship at home!

Blue Ribbon School Improvement Planning

This past Wednesday two important events took place for Birch Meadow as part of the Blue Ribbon School Improvement process. The two events happened within a few hours of each other approximately 1300 miles apart.
The first event was a Birch Meadow staff meeting which included parents, students, and teachers. The meeting involved a presentation of Blue Ribbon data. After the data presentation teachers, parents, and students divided themselves into groups based on Blue Ribbon standards. Each group brainstormed ideas to address improvement areas for Birch Meadow.
On December 22nd the groups will come together again to continue brainstorming, share their group work with the rest of the staff, and discuss the next steps toward implementing the many great ideas.
Here are pictures of some of our Blue Ribbon groups.











Later Wednesday evening in Orlando, Florida Janis Gerety and Jennifer Emmett received an award for Birch Meadow. Birch Meadow Elementary School was recognized as a Blue Ribbon Lighthouse Point of Light School for our efforts in using the Blue Ribbon School Improvement Process to improve the school. See the picture below.


Congratulations to Birch Meadow as our work towards continuous improvement is on a path for success.

Good News for Birch Meadow

A special thanks to the facilities department and town of Reading for supporting Birch Meadow School!

Both the Board of Selectmen and the Reading Public Schools Committee recently announced that the Massachusetts School Building Authority invited Reading to participate in its Green Repair Program.

State to Help Fund Reading Elementary School Improvements

Festival of Trees

Thank you to all the students, teachers, and parents who supported the Birch Meadow Tree which was on display this past weekend! The tree received special recognition as you can see from the message from RTEF below.

A huge thank you to all our tree donors! You have all helped make this the most successful year ever. We received 13 grant applications from our teachers last week, and all money raised at the Festival go towards funding of these teacher-initiated grant requests.
We wanted to pass on the results of the voting. Congratulations to the winners!
Most Spectacular - Reading Cooperative Bank
Favorite - RMHS Drama Club
Most Unusual - Aines Boutique
Most Creative - Karen and Lizzie Gillis
Best Tree Topper - Parker Eco Club
Best Under Tree Display - Birch Meadow Student Council
Again, our sincere thanks and happy holidays!
Debbie, Cynda, Lori, Demetra and Laurie
The RTEF Board

Changes to the State Ethics Laws related to the gift giving policy

Information related to STATES ETHICS REGULATIONS posted on the superintendent's blog.

Conferences and Web Sites

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving. We are making the transition from finishing conferences and report cards to beginning the 2nd semester with renewed energy after the Thanksgiving break. Following conferences you may have taken additional time to digest information from the teacher or report card which may lead to additional questions. Please bring your questions to teachers or staff at any time.

This past week I located a few web sites which may be helpful for you as parents and are fun for kids. For your child's safety please monitor their internet usage while they are on the computer.

Enjoy the list...
http://www.lumosity.com/k/brain-teasers - Great activities to excercise your brain...Great for students and adults.
http://www.music-explained.com/ - Students can write about their favorite song
http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/flipbook/ - Students can make a flip book
http://tarheelreader.org/ - Create and read books written by others
http://www.wordgames.com/ - typing and word games, etc.