Barry School Newsletter
December 4, 2018
December 2018 Events
12/5 Gr 3 Trip to 1890 House
12/6 Winter Concert, 7pm @ CJSHS
12/7 Holiday Shop, 6pm-6:30pm,
12/7 Holiday Family Movie Night, 6:30pm-?
12/10-12/11 Holiday Shop
12/13 MGRT-Keeper’s Voice, Gr 4
12/17 PTA Meeting, 6:30pm
12/20 Sing-A-Long and Holiday Parties, 2pm
12/21 Go Home Early Drill, Students Dismissed 2:55pm
12/22 -1/1 No School, December Recess
Principal's Message
We have an exciting month of celebrations coming up! I hope many of you are able to join us for our holiday concert, shop and family movie night. It is always wonderful to enjoy building our community and celebrating together. There is a lot of exciting and important information included in this newsletter. Please take a few minutes and enjoy reading about what has been happening in classrooms. Thank you for your support and please reach out if you have any questions. Happy Holidays!
Early Dismissal Drill
In compliance with Commissioner’s Regulations, we will conduct an emergency EARLY
DISMISSAL Drill on Friday, December 21st. Our afternoon dismissal will be 15 minutes
early (2:55).
Lost and Found
Please encourage your children to check the lost and found table located in the back of the cafeteria to claim their lost belongings. Also, we highly recommend that the students' name and/or initial are written on the tag inside their clothing.
Recess Reminder
Winter is here and our weather is often unpredictable. Please be sure your child is dressed appropriately for outdoor play. Except during extreme conditions, all students spend some time outside during the day. Please make sure your child leaves home every day dressed for outdoor play – boots, hats, mittens or gloves, snow pants and winter coat. Labeling these items with your child’s name will be extremely helpful if your child ever misplaces any piece of clothing. For your information, we go outdoors through the winter as long as the temperature, including the wind chill, is 20 degrees or more.
Spelling Bee
On November 27th, ten 5th graders and ten 6th graders participated in Round 2 of the Scripps National School Wide Oral Spelling Bee. This was following a classroom written spelling bee that took place a few weeks prior when all of the students were given a 25 word written spelling test. The 22 students who spelled the most words correctly advanced to the Barry School Oral Spelling Bee. The 5th grade students were Daniel Ford, Zachary Muir, Braxton Towle, Gabriel Mendiola, Zachariah Mumm, Gino Barnes, Abigail Wurst, Allison Nguyen, Kyla Campoy, and Marcella Giacco. The 6th grade students were Rebecca Upson, Morgann Doane, Maria Partis, Olivia Vitello, Austin Lind, Stella Humphries, Abigail Stanton, Karter Bush, Daisy Dukes, and Hailey Fiske. 

At the Barry School Spelling Bee, it took 10 rounds until one 5th grade student, Gabriel Mendiola, became victorious, calmly spelling each of his words correctly. The runners up, Daniel Ford and Marcella Giacco, went 8 rounds until Marcella Giacco secured the 2nd place win. Gabriel will advance to the District Wide Spelling Bee at the Kaufman Center on December 4th where he will be in contention against students from our other elementary schools in the district. Marcella will serve as a backup in the instance that Gabriel is unable to attend. Congratulations to all of our contestants, and good luck to Gabriel on the December 4th!
Student Drop Off and Pick Up
When dropping off and/or picking up students, all vehicles must be parked in a designated parking space. Students being dropped off for school must be dropped off in the designated drop off area in front of the building. Students must use the crosswalk near the flag and school sign. To ensure their safety when crossing the bus loop, students must look for permission to enter the crosswalk prior to walking.

All cars turning right into the parking lot must park in a designated parking space to drop off or pick up students. Do not block our crosswalks, fire lanes, or handicap parking spaces, as these must be accessible at all times.

Most importantly, please obey our crossing guards, use caution and drive slow while driving through our parking lot. Remember to stop for all pedestrians (children and adults) in the crosswalks and around the parking lot as they enter and exit our building.
Holiday Spirit Week 12/17-12/21
Sponsored by Barry School Student Council
Special Thanks
On Friday, November 9th, our Barry School Family recognized and thanked our veterans and some of their family members. It was an honor to have them join us for a breakfast reception and our morning program. A heartfelt thank you to our Veterans and their families for their service to our country!
Kindergarten
Kindergarten has been learning about plants, farms and seasons in listening and learning. We have also been learning a great deal of consonant and vowel sounds in skills groups. The children have been blending and segmenting those sounds to read and write three letter words. In math, our kindergarten students have become solid with number sense and shapes and are moving into composing and decomposing numbers to ten. We are looking forward to celebrating some fun holiday traditions this month! This week we began the science unit, weather. We made a KWL chart to display what we already K now about weather, what we W ant to learn about weather and the last part, what we L earned about weather will be added throughout the unit. We looked at different weather symbols, observed weather using our senses and started our weather science folders. We are very excited to learn more about weather!
First Grade
What we are learning:
  • Addition/subtraction strategies and skills 
  • Ancient Civilizations  
  • How sounds are made
  • Long vowel sounds  
  • Writing good sentences
We also made butter and biscuits for Thanksgiving and showed our creativity with our turkeys in disguise.
News From the Nurse
Getting a flu vaccine every year is the best way to protect yourself and your family from flu and its potentially serious complications. CDC recommends that everyone 6 months and older get vaccinated by the end of October.
What is new this flu season?
  • Flu vaccines have been updated to better match circulating flu viruses
  • Any licensed, age-appropriate flu vaccines are recommended
  • The nasal spray flu vaccine is again a vaccine option. Ask your health care provider about what vaccine is right for you"
PLEASE REMEMBER TO CALL THE SCHOOL NURSE AT 607-758-4154 IF YOUR CHILD WILL BE ABSENT, and send in a signed, written excuse.
Second Grade
In 2nd grade we just finished up our Unit 2 reader Bedtime Tales . We will begin reading Kids Excel in Unit 3. We’ll be focusing on spelling alternatives for /ae/, /oe/, /ie/, /ue/, and /aw/. Spelling this unit will focus on Tricky ‘a’, ‘o’, and ‘i’.

We are in the beginning of Module 4 in math; addition and subtraction within 200 with word problems to 100. We continue to work on our addition and subtraction fluency daily. Practice at home is important too! 

Domain 4, in Listening and Learning, is all about Greek Myths. For this domain, we will build on our Greek Civilizations knowledge from our last unit and what we learned about the Greek Gods.

Our next science kits have arrived! Stay tuned for more about our Smithsonian Unit, “How Can We Stop Soil From Washing Away?” 
Positivity Project
We have kicked off our next concept as a part of the Positivity Project. Students have been learning about and discussing the concept of “knowing that my words and actions affect others.” During the month of December we will continue this concept by teaching students about kindness, humility, and self-control.
Third Grade
The third grade classes have a busy December. On Wednesday, December 5th third grade students will be ringing the Salvation Army bells at TOPS from 5:00-7:00. Please stop by TOPS to hear us singing carols to the shoppers. Also on December 5th the third grade classes will be going to the 1890 House. We will take a tour of the house and learn about the Wickwire family history. The staff at the 1890 always go overboard when decorating for the holiday season!
Student Attendance
We don’t want your child to fall behind in school and get discouraged. Please ensure that your
child attends school every day and arrives on time. Here are a few practical tips to help support regular attendance:
  • Make sure your child keeps a regular bedtime and establish a morning routine.
  • Lay out clothes and pack backpacks the night before.
  • Ensure your child goes to school every day unless he/she is truly sick.
  • Avoid scheduling vacations or doctor’s appointments when school is in session.
  • Talk to teachers and counselors for advice if your child feels anxious about going to school.
  • Develop back up plans for getting to school if something comes up. Call on a family member, neighbor, or another parent to take your child to school.

PLEASE REMEMBER TO CALL THE SCHOOL NURSE AT 607-758-4154 IF YOUR CHILD WILL BE ABSENT and send in a signed written excuse.
Fourth Grade
The 4th graders worked hard to prepare and enjoy a Thanksgiving meal. The menu included turkey, ham, potatoes, apple sauce, beans, and cornbread. We appreciate everyone who was able to contribute food items and loved the linens supplied by Mason's family that helped created a fancy and festive atmosphere. We are truly thankful for the great group of children we have!
Fifth Grade
In math students are continuing multiplying multi-digit numbers and have started with decimals as well. We continue to read Esperanza Rising . The students have been focusing on quoting accurately from the text to support claims that we are making. This week, we are learning about descriptive writing and how to use descriptive language when writing a narrative. In Science, students learned that matter is the stuff all around us, and all of it has mass and volume. The students also determined the difference between physical and chemical changes in matter.
Power Hour Incentive
Students had a great time at our school dance incentive, with Mr. Ashley as our DJ! This month students will be working to earn an Fun Frozen Friday where they will earn a special frozen treat.
Band
The Barry Band students are preparing for their winter concert. The winter concert will be held in the high school auditorium on Thursday, December 6th at 7:00 pm.
Orchestra
Two Barry students participated in the district orchestra concert on November 28th - Mallory May and Stella Humphries. They did an awesome job in select orchestra this fall and also at our district orchestra concert.
Art Studio
Here is the breakdown of what the Barry Artists have been doing in the Art Studio! Nadia Bieber
  • K: LINE - Creating various projects related to LINE. AND, safety, care and use of various materials: crayons, pencils, markers, oil pastels, watercolor paints, Elmer’s glue, and scissors - they’re learning a lot about what it’s like to be an artist!
  • 1: Monster Project - Created our own monsters from imagination - focused on coloring techniques; taking time and PRIDE, and outlining to make it BOLD! When done, we’re sending the drawings to the HS where the New Media Art students will be adding their artistic touch to the 1st grade monsters, very exciting!
  • 2: Our Favorite Animals in their Habitats - first drawing from memory, then from observation by doing research (looking at books) to create a realistic animal in its habitat. It’s amazing to see the development in their drawings, they’re so proud! Next we’ll be making 3D animals out of clay!
  • 3: Mandalas - Circle/Center/Unity - Radiating Design - like rays of the sun - Symmetry - using wood shapes, beans, pasta, and other found objects to make patterns! They’re stunning!
  • 4: Native American Vests - creating pictographs (a picture tells a story) - using symbols - creating a faux vest from paper bags - adding patterns/details to create authentic vests!
  • 5: Masks - painting our papier mache masks from last year - large areas first, using big brushes, then details with smaller brushes and Q-tips - using patterns to exaggerate features - inspired by many cultures. Fun, fun, fun!!!!
  • 6: Value - using line to show the difference between dark, medium and light - Zentangles. It’s amazing to see the “push and pull” when using the different techniques to show dark and light!
  • For K-3rd graders- Students should have an art shirt to protect their clothing. Please supply an old t-shirt or button down, there’s no need to purchase one. If you’ve already done so, THANKS!  
Sixth Grade
In ELA the students are reading The Lightning Thief and various myths and determining themes in these different pieces of literature. In writing, we are continuing to align texts and providing evidence to support claims. In math, we finished Module 1 with calculating percents and Started Module 2 with dividing fractions by fractions. Science/SS, we are wrapping up our unit on energy, forces, and motion. We learned about Newton’s Laws of Motion. We will be learning about Ancient Mesopotamia in Social Studies, starting at the beginning of December.
Physical Education
Kindergarten had a blast playing cooperative games with the parachute and Thanksgiving tag games. In December, Kindergarten will work on their hand/eye coordination with bouncy balls and fleece balls. They will also work under upper body strength when they use the rock wall. The third and fourth graders completed the Pacer test, which is a running activity that tests their cardiovascular endurance. They are now beginning their basketball unit and will work on the foundational skills of ball handling, dribbling, passing, and shooting.
Bus Safety Tips
School bus transportation plays a critical role in the education of our nation’s students. More than 25 million children ride the yellow bus every school day. Here are some tips from the  National Association for Pupil Transportation  to keep our children safe at the bus stop as well as on the bus.
Getting Ready for School
  • Have your children put everything they carry in a backpack or school bag so that they won’t drop things along the way.
  • Encourage them to wear bright, contrasting colors so they will be more easily seen by drivers.
  • Make sure children leave home on time so they can arrive at the bus stop before it is due, ideally at least five minutes early. Running after or in front of a bus is dangerous. Read more...
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