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Burnham School Newsletter
April 2024
Dear Burnham Families,
There is so much excitement buzzing this week as students celebrate Autism Awareness and learn about what it means to be neurodiverse. We are welcoming back our guest speaker Jeremy Farrell, to talk about his experiences growing up being neurodiverse and to answer student questions. Burnham's library staff will be coming to speak to our students about resources and sensory bins that are available for our students to access. In addition, one of our very own parents, Joseph Pannozzo, will have our students participate in a hands-on sensory activity. This is being done in collaboration with our student council, which will kick off the week with a whole school morning meeting, anti-bullying pledge, and activities during library time. The activities will focus on acceptance, inclusion, and uniqueness. I want to also send a thank you to Cindy Rice, for supporting this event and supplying the solar lights that make Burnham light up blue in the evening. It might be nice to take a drive by one evening to see Burnham School all lit up!
Thank you to our Burnham PTO for holding another successful Read-A-Thon for our students. Almost all of our students participated and had fun diving into books, participating in activities, and winning exciting prizes!
We also had our Connecticut Invention Convention, which included students from 5th grade. We had our very own SRO, Officer Epps, and our First Selectman, Curtis Read, attend as judges. Our contestant who will be moving onto the state semi-finals is Penelope Cooper. A special acknowledgement to Beckett Cardonsky for coming in 2nd place and Jude Lucian for coming in 3rd place. Congratulations to all our students who participated! It was so enthralling to see all the creative and helpful inventions our students created.
Penelope Cooper
1st Place
Beckett Cardonsky
2nd Place
Jude Lucian
3rd Place
Looking ahead, our students are getting excited for our whole school visit to Shepaug to see our SVS students performing in Matilda. We also have some classroom field trips, our Elementary Concert – Jam Session (we hope to see you there!) and of course our upcoming spring break to look forward to.
Dr. Rhew
News from First Grade 🌺
First graders are blossoming in writing as they are working on informational pieces. They just finished researching and writing about wild animals. The animals they researched are tigers, crocodiles, elephants, and frogs. After reading books and articles, students organized information onto graphic organizers for physical characteristics, behaviors, and classification. Students took their notes and turned them into paragraphs and finally drew pictures to go with it. They learned so much about animals in their research and will continue to learn more in our science unit this month.
News From Third Grade 🌺
Third graders are excited to celebrate spring! They are working hard across the curriculum. In math, they are learning all about fractions. They learned that fractions are numbers that represent equal parts of a whole. Students partitioned concrete objects and pictorial models into equal parts. Students have practiced composing and decomposing a whole with units of halves, thirds, fourths, sixths, and eighths. In reading and writing, students have published weather books highlighting specific storms like hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, and thunderstorms. We can’t wait for some warmer weather!
News from Fifth Grade 🌺
Math:
In our math, we’ve been diving into Place Value Concepts for Decimal Operations. Students have been exploring the significance of each digit in decimal numbers and how they interact during addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Encourage your child to practice these skills at home by working with real-world examples like prices, measurements, and financial transactions.
Reading:
Our young readers have been sharpening their comprehension skills by focusing on Main Idea and Key Details. They’ve been identifying central themes in texts and extracting essential information. Encourage your child to discuss the main points of their favorite books with you. Remember, understanding the main idea helps build strong reading comprehension!
Writing:
In writing class, students have been crafting informative essays. One exciting topic they’ve explored is “How Earth Is Protected from Asteroids”. They’ve researched various methods, including gravitational forces, early detection systems, and potential deflection strategies. Additionally, students have chosen ecosystems they’re passionate about and are writing papers that highlight their unique features and importance.
Social Studies:
Our fifth graders have been hard at work on their end-of-unit projects. Their projects include detailed maps of America, showcasing geographical features, landmarks, and state capitals, and constructing 3D dioramas depicting Christopher Columbus’ historic voyage. These projects have allowed students to apply their knowledge of history, geography, and creativity.
Science:
In science class, we’ve been exploring the fascinating world of Properties of Matter. Students have investigated solids, liquids, and gases, as well as changes in state.
Invention Convention:
We’re thrilled to announce that many of our fifth graders participated in the Invention Convention! They’ve brainstormed, designed, and prototyped innovative solutions to real-world problems. From eco-friendly gadgets to time-saving devices, our students’ creativity knows no bounds.
Thank you for your continued support, and let’s make next month an inspiring and educational month for our students! 📚🌼
News from the Library 🌺
April for rainbows
And April for showers!
April for a bright hint
Of lovely May flowers.
April for nonsense
And April for play-
Best of all times
Is a real April day!
-Lenore Hetrick
Celebrate
April is certainly a month to celebrate. The month of April is: Celebrate Diversity Month, Arab American Heritage Month, National Poetry Month, and Reading Without Walls Month. Tuesday, April 2 is International Children’s book day as well as World Autism Awareness Day, and April 7-13 is National Library Week.
April is Celebrate Diversity Month
It is important to be aware of the diversity of the world around us. Opening our eyes to new cultures, new ideas, and new ways of celebrating is an important aspect of citizenship and character-building. This month in our library classes, we will be focusing on titles that highlight diversity. Students will also have the opportunity to take these thoughtfully chosen books and express their own thoughts and feelings about diversity.
Spring Reading…Time to Start a Series!
Now that spring is officially here, we’re ready to shake off the winter chill, grab a book, and head outside. We have dozens of new books in our library, just in time for spring. Kids can come check out our selection of popular series, such as the Baby Sitter’s Club Graphix, Wings of Fire Graphix, Keeper of the Lost Cities, and Spy School series for the older students; and the Dragon Masters, Dragon Girls, Roscoe Riley Rules, and Sisters 8 series for the students who are just starting to delve into the world of chapter books. We’re beginning to gear up for Summer Reading, so perhaps your child will find just the right book series to carry them through the spring and into the summer.
Read Across America: April
The National Education Association’s (NEA) Read Across America theme for the month of April is: Discover the Power of Poetry. As April is National Poetry Month, this theme is especially timely. The elementary title is How to Write a Poem by Kwame Alexander and Deanna Nikaido, which invites the reader to discover the world of poetry around them. The middle grade selection is Moonwalking by Zetta Elliott and Lyn Miller-Lachmann, a novel in verse that tells the story of the friendship between two young men from very different cultures who find common ground in music and art in 1980s Brooklyn. Both of these titles encourage readers to open their eyes to the art and poetry all around us.
News from Student Council 🌺
The Burnham Student Council is hard at work promoting our spirit week to celebrate Autism Awareness. Our students are coming together to celebrate everyone’s unique differences that make them special! Be on the lookout for the flier with our upcoming days like wearing a hat to school or wearing rainbow colors. The Student Council is also preparing for our Spring Catalog fundraiser. Items will be able to be purchased online and delivered to either the school, or directly to your home. More information on this to come!
News from Music 🌺
Thank you to everyone who participated in our “Bring a Friend to Music” Day! The students were so excited and so proud to show what they know. If you were unable to join us there is good news. You have a music expert who can tell you all about what we do in class and can demonstrate some of our songs and games! Check in with your student if you have more questions! :)
K students got to play instruments!! They learned to identify and safely play several including tambourines, sand blocks, and finger cymbals. We also continued moving in different pathways (space) while moving loose and stuck (flow), or heavy and light (weight). These movement activities help students successfully develop beat competence (time) as they continue to grow as musicians.
First graders learned about jazz! They improvised and scat sang. They listened to stories and songs. They learned about Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald, and Dizzy Gillespie. We have some pretty hip first graders!
Second graders built on their knowledge of chords to learn the blues! They learned the chord progression, improvised over the chord changes, and even wrote their own blues song! We even practiced improvising our own melodies for our lyrics!
Third graders continued their hard work on recorders. They can play at least 3 songs with the melody and chord roots (and harmony parts on some songs too!). They improvised endings to a song and learned to play familiar tunes in more than one key! Mostly they worked on being stronger musicians.
Fourth graders were rocking out on bucket drums! They learned grooves to play along with fun songs and then created grooves of their own! The tough part was putting grooves on the drumset!
Fifth graders continued their work on ukulele. They chose new tunes to work on and stretched their skills to accommodate the new chords they needed. Next they will learn to identify notes in treble clef (and bass clef) and write rhythms in duple and triple meter.
News from the Nurse 🌺
April is Move More Month!!! The American Heart Association has named the entire month of April as Move More Month to increase awareness of the benefits of physical activity and health behaviors throughout your day to prevent disease. Be an active family. Here are 25 tips to keep kids moving. Make moving a game. Be a movement role model. Take advantage of every opportunity to move. Everyone benefits with 60 minutes of movement a day.
Remember....every move counts!!!
Dates to Remember 🌺
4/2-4/8 Autism Awarenes Week
4/3 Music Jam Session, 10:00 a.m.- Parents are invited to attend!
4/4 All School trip to SVS to see the musical production of Matilda
4/9 4th and 5th Grade Field Trip to Prospector Theater
4/10 PTO Meeting, 7 p.m. via Zoom
4/15-4/19 Spring Recess
4/24 Spelling Bee, 1:30 p.m.
4/30 Smarter Balanced Testing Begins
5/1 Kindergarten Meet and Greet, 1:30 p.m.