BOBCAT BEAT 3/1/24

Dear MBES Families,

Happy March 2024! We are back in the school groove following February break; it's been a great end to February at Marcia Buker, despite nature's early-spring temperament!

We are looking forward to kicking off National Reading month next week! Dr. Seuss's birthday and Read Across America Day fall on Saturday this year, and we will celebrate at school with a very Seussian Spirit Week, and our (much anticipated) Family Reading Night on Thursday. We hope you will be able to join us for a fun evening where you can hear teachers and community members read aloud, enjoy cookies and milk, enter to win a door prize, and go home with a free book!

If you are looking for ways to encourage reading at home this month and beyond, check out these ideas from the Scholastic Parents website:

Nourishing the Meal Time Have your kids read recipes aloud to you while you’re cooking dinner. From ingredient lists to cooking directions, this kind of family reading will help build vocabulary, fluency…and dessert!
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? While your family is eating together, discuss what your favorite characters would have for dinner – Harry Potter might like pumpkin juice and chocolate frogs while Geronomo Silton could crave some cheese! Incorporating characters of favorite stories into your eating routine is a delicious way to promote deep thinking about character traits and motivation.
Story Charades Choose a story your family knows well — like a well-read book or fairytale — and act out the beginning, middle, and end of the story. If you have more family than characters, a few could do the acting and the others can be the audience or be the narrator. This activity helps readers reexamine and understand story lines and details.
Who Am I? Choose one of your child’s favorite book characters, then describe the character's personality traits, problems, and physical descriptions until your child guesses the character’s identity. This game is a fun way to pass time when you’re stuck in traffic or at a bus stop.
Book Nooks Create “book nooks” with your child. Book nooks are comfy places to sit and read. They should have good lighting and containers filled with sticky notes, colorful pens, pencils, and a small dictionary. Book nooks will motivate your children not only to read, but also to select favorite parts with sticky notes, or look up words they don’t know.
Marking the Spot Making book marks together is a great, simple family reading activity. Just cut bookmark-sized cardboard from cereal or shoe boxes, then get crafty! Use brightly-colored markers to write titles, authors, and favorite quotes. Younger readers can draw or cut and paste pictures from old magazines.
Reach Out and Read Boost family reading by involving loved-ones who live far away. Using Skype or another video conferencing program, have your child share a book with relatives. Make sure the book is one that your reader has read a few times already; repetition is a fantastic way to enhance reading skills. Younger readers love to show-off their fluency, and oral reading builds confidence. Grandma will be pretty thrilled as well.
Kid Karaoke Download songs and their lyrics for a family karaoke night. Seeing words and singing them at the same time is a fun way to develop vocabulary…and practice your Elvis impersonations!

Thanks to our Parent Teacher Group (PTG), we will also be hosting the Chewonki educators next week for awe-inspiring wildlife presentations.

Wishing you a month of reading fun (and a wildlife sighting or two) with your family!

~ Mary

DATES INFORMATION

Saturday March 2 - Dr. Seuss's Birthday; Read Across America Day

3/4-3/8 - Spirit Week

Monday - Cat in the Hat Day- Wear your favorite hat, or wear red, black, and white.
Tuesday - Fox in Socks Day- Wear silly or mismatched socks
Wednesday - Wacky Wednesday Day- get silly! Wear your clothes backwards, inside out, or mismatched!
Thursday - Green Eggs and Ham Day- Wear your favorite Dr Seuss shirt or a green shirt.
Friday - Oh the Places You'll go- Dress to represent your future career or favorite school.

3/4 and 3/5 - Chewonki classroom presentations

3/7 - Family Reading Night Use the Reading Room Flyer to plan which rooms you would like to visit.

3/15 - A reminder that Friday, March 15 is a full workshop day for staff. There is no school for students.

March Menus

REMINDERS AND REQUESTS

Student Medical needs: Parents and guardians, if your child has a new or existing medical diagnosis or need, please be sure to bring this information to the attention of our school nurse, Ashley DeWever. Of course, we want anyone who needs to know, such as teachers or office staff, to have the information, and Ashley has the medical training to know what information needs to be shared, what information should be kept confidential, as well as the expertise to determine what supports, accommodations, or treatments are needed at school. Thank you!

BOBCAT SIGHTINGS

We are excited by the newly painted stage floor. Custodians Mary Carney and Liz Currie transformed the tired grey-blue floor we had into a professional looking black setting that will make all of our productions pop!

Mr. Ted replaces a ceiling tile and looks for new signs of leaking roofs, an ongoing job at MB!

Third-grader, Analise, wanted to make her school community a better, kinder place for staff and students. In February, as part of her writing program, she made a Valentine poster with tear off strips that had words of kindness written on them. Students and staff could tear off a strip and give it to someone to let them know they matter. Analise had to learn editing, spelling, and punctuation rules as she generated sentences of kindness to share. When another school heard about Analise's kindness poster, they requested copies to share at their school. Analise had to replenish her posters daily as the kindness gifts proved to be a hit! Over 1000 compliments were shared at Marcia Buker School and Jefferson Village School because of one student's wish to make the world a kinder, more loving place to be. Thank you Analise for being an ambassador of kindness in our community! ~ Tina Wood

Fifth-grade student Andrew often says, "I can't stand litter!" He has spent part of every day this week picking up the garbage that others have left along the story walk trail and on school grounds. He and educator Kathleen Leopold estimate he's single handedly collected 5-6 pounds of litter! Thank you for caring and taking action, Andrew! ~ Principal Bobcat

A morning circle challenge took flight in Mr. Kendrick's classroom!

PreK students learn about maple syrup and sample some on ice cream!

K-1 student using BeeBots. Tech Integrator-Teacher Becca Redman says students learn basic programming and directional skills while also practicing matching, consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words, and skip counting.