Dear Parents and Students s10

May 31, 2017 Dear Parents and Students, It is hard to believe that there are only eight and a half days of the school year left. Your child is my priority and I intend on making the remainder of the year memorable, challenging, and fun of course! I look forward to seeing you at Promotion on Wednesday, June 7 at 6:30 p.m. and sharing in this special event that honors your child. Daily homework and a classroom calendar of events can be accessed via School Wires. Please encourage your child to access both daily. Students are expected to access the June calendar from School Wires, record the events that pertain to them in the June calendar and keep the calendar in their take home folder. Students earned the silver spoon in the cafeteria for good behavior during the month of April. Students, challenge yourselves to “go for the gold” by: eating quietly, keeping a clean space, and listening to directions while in the cafeteria. Students wrote an essay answering the following question: Why do you believe you have the greatest mom and why should she deserve an evening out to be treated like a celebrity. With 517 submissions, four essays were selected by the CB Cares committee. On Thursday, May 11, Mrs. Kimberly Cambra, executive director of CB Cares Educational Foundation, presented Bella Munari with a pair of tickets to the Gala on June 4 for Mrs. Munari, Bella’s mother. Sammie Holmen’s sister, Krissy who is a ninth grader at Holicong Middle School won as well. Congratulations Bella and Krissy! On Thursday, May 18 Alli Troth won $20 worth of books at the Book Fair because she guessed the exact number (109) of marshmallows in the jar. Way to go Alli! On Tuesday, May 23 we were treated to the Spring Concert. It was music to our ears. Congratulations to the following students who are in the band, choir or orchestra and performed beautifully: Alan Bai, Kade Cimakasky, Kris Gallagher, Nina Harris, Sammie Holmen, Anthony Loria, Spencer Lund, Kevin Lytvnynov, Jack Mabrey, Ava Marquez, Nate Pipes, Alex Trichon, Alli Troth and Naomi Watson. It was music to our ears. Many thanks to the following parents for volunteering to help during Field Day: Mrs. Lund and Dr. Frank, Alli’s mom. Anthony Loria and Peyton Schellhorn will be our Field Day Captains. We are excited to have them lead us to do our best physically while exhibiting good sportsmanship. Many students have spent seven years together at Bridge Valley and saying good bye to friends and teachers may not be easy especially as they move onto different middle schools. I have planned some activities that allow students to gain some closure. Each student and I will give one another a written Pat on the Back (Pot B). Students were given a class list and asked to reflect about each person (from our class) in a positive way. Students will be given their envelope of Pot B’s on June 7. These sweet morsels should be savored for years to come. In addition, students will select a Bridge Valley teacher and write a letter to let him/her know the impact the teacher has had on their life. The letters were “mailed” today. A copy of the letter that your child wrote will be in this week’s Thursday folder. Students are working on a creative, independent project titled, Time Capsule from 2017. Each student will create a Time Capsule that highlights what they like during the current year. There are nine categories (technology, transportation, fashion, food, restaurants, entertainment, family, stores and prices) and students need to have pictures for each category. Each picture needs to be accompanied by a caption (written in complete sentences). Students should work on their Time Capsule for a minimum of 10 minutes every day. The Time Capsule is due on Monday, June 12 Finally, each student was asked to respond to a series of questions. Each student’s response appears on their own page as part of our class’ Memory Book which will be given out in the next week. I am reading aloud The Honest Truth written by Dan Gemeinhart. In all the ways that matter, Mark is a normal kid. He has a dog named, Beau and a best friend, Jessie. He likes to take photos and write haiku poems in his notebook. He dreams of climbing a mountain one day. But in one important way, Mark is not like other kids at all; Mark is sick. The kind of sick that means hospitals and treatments. The kind of sick some people never get better from. So, Mark runs away. He leaves home with his camera, his notebook, his dog, and a plan to reach the top of Mount Rainier. Even if it’s the last thing he ever does. The Honest Truth is a rare and extraordinary novel about big questions, small moments, and one incredible journey. In reading we are working on summarizing, synthesizing, and inferring. It is during the read aloud of The Honest Truth that I model how to fill out the STEAL graphic organizer. Students are currently reading one of five novels: Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis, Holes by Louis Sachar, Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli, Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick, and Things Not Seen by Andrew Clements. In addition, students are filling out a graphic organizer entitled STEAL (speech, thought, effect, action and look) where they record overarching themes about the main character from that section. Please take a look at the beautiful bulletin board outside our classroom. Students worked diligently on the writing project entitled, Picture This: Then, Now, and in the Future. It will be a wonderful keepsake for years to come. Bridge Valley's sixth grade has partnered with Central Bucks Sertoma and their Heritage Award Program. For over 100 years, Sertoma (meaning service to mankind) has served to improve the lives of those with hearing and speech needs, especially children, through education. Sertoma has purchased equipment that helped improve the children's ability to hear and learn in the classroom. The last couple of years, Sertoma partnered with Doylestown Hospital and delivered gifts to children who were hospitalized during the holiday time. They also raised money and partnered with East Coast Hearing Loops to install a hearing loop system (which allows those with hearing aids/cochlear implants with t-coils to have sound streamed to their hearing aids from the sound source, such as a microphone, directly to their hearing aids allowing clear, crisp quality sound with no background noise during shows) at the Town and Country Theater in Buckingham. Bridge Valley's sixth grade students wrote a 200- word essay about what their experience to wear ear buds was like. Students learned "how loud is too loud" with the help of Bailey, a mannequin equipped with a sound meter. Typed essays were due Wednesday, May 26. Sertoma will treat classes with 100% participation with an ice cream party on June 6. There will be two essay winners; the first- place prize is a $50 Visa gift card and the second- place prize is a $25 Visa gift card. Winners will be announced on Tuesday, June 13 at the Yearbook breakfast. First and second place prizes will be awarded during a dinner hosted by the Central Bucks Sertoma Club in their honor. Details about the dinner will be forthcoming. On Monday, June 5 we are headed to Philadelphia Sports Club (PSC) for the class trip. We will leave at 9:00 a.m. and return by 2:00 p.m. The following parents graciously volunteered to chaperone: Mrs. Bai, Dr. Bonin, Mr. Foster, Mrs. Lund, Mrs. Peri, and Mrs. Watson. Chaperones, kindly have your clearances up to date as you will need them to attend and meet us at the facility by 9:20 a.m. We will be finished the rotation by 1:30 p.m. and arrive back to school by 2:00 p.m. One of the best things students can do over the summer is read every day. The research is clear that children who don't read during the summer can lose up to three months of reading progress and that loss has a cumulative, long-term effect. Children who continue to read actually gain skills. Reading keeps our minds active and focused. Please encourage your child to read an hour a day, every day! I created a calendar of eight weeks (starting with Sunday, June 25 and ending with the week of Sunday, August 13) where students selected titles of books that they were interested in reading throughout the summer. Students should log the number of minutes read every day on the Scholastic Summer Read Program website. Logon information and passwords were in the May 18 Thursday folder. Below is the list of required middle school reading. Please be advised that your child is required to read at least two books this summer, one of which must come from the list below.

 Boy (Dahl)  King of Shadows (Cooper) *  Hope Was Here (Bauer)  Stargirl (Spinelli)  The Maze (Hobbs)  Transall Saga (Paulsen)  Flipped (Draanen)  If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period (Chlodenko)  Savvy (Law)  Eragon*  Ender’s Game*  The Crossover  QB1

* Indicates a challenging text

YOU CAN, YOU WILL, SUCCEED! Be the Best YOU Possible!

Rachel Moyer

“Cherish individual talents, cultivate creativity, celebrate diversity and inspire curiosity.” (Richardson)