3rd grade students t-shirt winner

Reading Municipal Light Department (RMLD) and its Board of Light Commissioners recently hosted an awards ceremony for the 14 winners of 2012 Annual T-shirt Art Contest. Taking part in the celebration at the RMLD Reading facility were this year’s winners and RMLD representatives.

Reading Municipal Light Department (RMLD) Board of Light Commissioner Secretary Philip B. Pacino, RMLD General Manager Vin Cameron and RMLD Board Vice Chairman Richard Hahn congratulated the winners of the Annual RMLD T-shirt Art Contest at the recent awards ceremony. A first, second, third place winner from each town and honorable mentions from Reading were selected in the contest that encourages third and fourth graders to be more energy conscious, to be aware of their own impact on the environment and to be safe around electricity.

Congratulations to Matthew who was the t-shirt winner from Birch Meadow.

School Committee Room Art Work

Birch Meadow students have art work on display in the Reading School Committee room. Thank you to Mrs. Erb who took time to decorate the space. The art work on display was completed by first, third, and fourth grade students.

Character Trait - Sportsmanship

As you know, Birch Meadow’s behavior program is focusing on 6 themes of character this year: Respect, Responsibility, Honesty, Sportsmanship, Cooperation, and Caring.

Sportsmanship is the character trait we will be focusing on this month. A special thank you goes to our 2nd graders who introduced our guest speaker, YMCA Youth Sports Coordinator, Isaac Redmond. Isaac talked about sportsmanship and allowed students to share how they will show sportsmanship at home and school. Teachers and staff will be rewarding students showing sportsmanship 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 sportsmanship by filling out the bear with your child’s name, room number and what they did to show sportsmanship. 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 sportsmanship at home!

Native American Day

Congratulations to all of our second grade students for particpating in Native American Day. The presentations and projects were a big success. It was wonderful to see so many parents who came to experience this special day. Pictures are below and on our Birch Meadow Shutterfly page.

Student Safety

School Safety
A number of safety concerns have presented themselves in the past few weeks. Thank you for remembering these few guidelines which help keep students safe.
1. Drop off supervision begins at 8:10
Students being dropped off prior to 8:10 are left unsupervised and often end up in unsafe situations around the school (on the playground or the front steps of the school) without an adult present. Please do not drop off your children prior to 8:10.

2. Staff Parking lot should not be used for pick up and drop off
The back parking lot is not a safe place for a parent to be parking, picking up, or dropping off students. This is an issue at the beginning and end of the day when a lot of foot traffic is in that area. While I understand we have many parking spots potentially available, cars pulling into the parking lot, parking, and moving among students who are walking or riding bikes is not safe. We have had a number of cars pulling in or backing up and have come close to students. Please do not pull into the staff parking lot in the morning or at the end of the day in order to keep students safe.

Korean students

Korean Student Visitors
Birch Meadow has welcomed five Korean students to our fifth grade. This eager group of learners is visiting us for the month of January and in some cases through February vacation. Thank you to the students and staff who have warmly welcomed this group of students.

Top 10 lists

At the PTO meeting Wednesday evening I shared my Top 10 Apps and Web sites for students. See the list here.
http://www.edline.net/pages/Birch_Meadow_Elementary_School/BirchieNotices/Mr__Sprung_s_Top_10_Apps_and_W

Add to our Top 10
I have also created a document which allows anyone with the link below to add their own web site or App name to be shared with others. If you would like to add a web site, please cut and paste your recommended link into the appropriate column (by subject area) on our spreadsheet. You can type the name of an App into the spread sheet as well. A number of samples already have been included. This is a public forum to share web sites and Apps so please be sure an adult reviews the web site or App prior to sharing with students.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ApfIVsDTYF1BdHk5TTRNZFRYdkMydF9oMVhWZ3gzX1E – add to our Top 10 list

Chorus concert

We have wonderful students who participate in our chorus program. Prior to vacation, students performed a great concert for parents and students. More pictures will be added to our shutterfly page in the next week or two. Thank you to Ms. Steiger and Ms. Prindiville for leading the performance.