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Week 36: May 28-June 1, 2013

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We open the school year with Labor Day weekend and close on the heels of the Memorial Day holiday.  Memorial Day is our most solemn holiday — a time for us to remember those who have served and those who are serving today and tomorrow.

We have just 8 days of school remaining to our 2012-13 school year.  The days will be busy with final assessments for June report cards, field trips, locker and desk clean out.  There will also be field days and other various end of the year traditional activities.  Your child’s class blog will provide the most up to date information about these events.

Below is a snap shot of our event this coming week.  Be sure to visit BIGGBY on Tuesday from 6-9pm.  There will be several staff members serving as Barista’s!

Have a great week!

Mrs. Reagan

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Paintball at Spring Hill Camp by Spencer

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Spencer Alexander’s story, PAINTBALL AT SPRING HILL CAMP was selected as worthy of a performance by the Art, Music and PE teaching team for our all school JUST WRITE CELEBRATION.

You can view the teacher performance below.  Congratulations,  Spencer, on being a JUST RIGHT JUST WRITE author!

Paintball at Spring Hill Camp

by Spencer Alexander

“Hurry get on the train Spencer it’s about to leave!” Tom screamed.

It was around nine o’clock in the morning at Spring Hill Camp, the best summer camp ever. The sun was shining through the trees and there was  a slight breeze.  At that moment I said to my self, “It’s a perfect day for paintball.”

At around nine fifteen my team and I were at the front of the paintball field. The first thing I noticed was a giant net, but I looked closer and there it was, the paintball field.  There were also bunkers, pillboxes, and fox holes.

Next, I ran to the new paintball shack and reserved all of my supplies,  which consists of a paintball gun, mask, Co2, and ammunition.  After that my team and I hit the field.  We took the far side of the field, and the other team took the other side.  At last, everyone was waiting for the whistle to blow.

“Go, go, go!” one of the older kids yelled at me, “Spencer get in that bunker, and make sure the other team doesn’t take it!”

So I did, but I should not have listened to that older kid because now I was down on my back and couldn’t move or I would get shot.

Finally, about five minutes into the game one of our bunker busters shot their machine gunner. So when I had the chance, I jumped up out of the hole and sprinted around to find a sniping spot. I settled around a big fat thick soggy smelly log.

After finding a spot, I immediately started to fire my gun. I actually hit about three guys, even though that does not seem like a lot. There was a total of fifteen team members on their team. But when I ducked down to reload my gun I heard, “Surround him.” I looked up and found four people where looking me straight into my eyes. I realized at about that time that I was ambushed.

But within seconds, four paintballs were about to hit me! It felt like one hundred hornets had stung me in my chest. When I started to crawl out of the field I realized it does not matter, I got out because I had a whole week left at summer camp!

Wow, that week must have gone by quickly because before I new it, my week at camp was over. I will always remember the time I had at Spring Hill summer camp, forever.  I have already reserved my spot for next summer, and I will be bringing a few friends with me.  I cannot wait!

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In three days…

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we begin our week long celebration of writing at Georgetown!  Each classroom has a designated open house time and these are listed below.  These are also on the school calendar!

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Many parents ordered JUST WRITE t-shirts for their children.  We have a stock of shirts in the office if you are still interested in placing an order.  They are $15 each.  Simply print this order form (Order Form 2011) and send cash or check to school with your child.  (Make checks out to Georgetown Elementary.)  We will send the shirt home the same day.

Mrs. Woodring’s first graders are incredibly techno-brilliant.  They created this wonderful video with their ipod touches which serves as a digital invitation for all you to attend our celebration next week.  Enjoy!

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In Celebration of Georgetown Teachers

spotlightGeorgetown Elementary is well into it’s fifth year of operation. We opened in September of 2006 and we are just one of SEVEN outstanding Hudsonville Public school elementary buildings.   This year, we have 591 students, ages 3-11 and in grades ECSE (Early Childhood Special Education) through fifth grade.  There are 35 teachers and over 20 specialists and paraprofessionals who support children in learning each day.  In addition, our two building secretaries (Mrs. Ripley and Mrs. Nurenberg) and our head custodian (Mr. Rob) and his three assistant custodians keep the building managed, clean and secure.

Often, the main stream media creates ripple sof negativity by saturating the news with articles focused on failing schools, ineffective teachers and poorly maintained and operating schools.  I want to use this post to highlight some POSITIVE work we are doing at Georgetown, which is just one of the successful Hudsonville Public Schools…a truly incredible district!

I have worked several schools throughout Michigan during my 25+ career in education—with hundreds of teachers, administrators and specialists.   With this broad perspective, I want you to know that at Georgetown, your children are working daily with an outstanding group of gifted educators.  Not only do they work as a team model and guide the most progressive instructional strategies, they collaborate before, during and after school to plan lessons that extend learning.  Throughout the year, they pursue advanced studies for their teaching degrees in reading, math, technology, specialized learning courses, at one of six local colleges, universities and several online sites.

The teacher’s blogs are designed to highlight student learning and celebrations of events that take place throughout the year.  I would like to encourage you to visit these and see examples of the great work being done in our many classroom.  All the blogs are listed in the sidebar to the left.  I have selected one from each area to highlight below.

Thank you for all you do to support us as educators and most importantly, to support your child as as learner!  We could not do our important work without your support.

Mrs. Reagan

Mrs. Estefan’s recent post shares how she and her students welcomed a consultant from our local intermediate to share the work they are doing as kindergarten writers.  The consultant, Mrs. Reimbold, shared a strategy that will help the kindergarteners add more details to their personal narrative stories.

Miss Taber, a first grade teacher, celebrates the great progress her students have made in working together to create a climate where all learners can listen and problem solve together.

Mrs. Kuieck,  a second grade teacher, provides an example of how she updates parents on assessments and events in her classroom.

Mrs. Flory, a third grade teacher, shares photos from a science field trip to the Outdoor Discover Center.

Mr. Kooiker, a fourth grade teacher, has posted curriculum maps for the fourth grade curriculum.

Mrs. Bouwens, a fifth grade teacher, created a video highlighting the work her students are doing to understand the core democratic values in social studies.

Did you know that we have specialized programs at our school?  These students are an equal part of our school.  To learn more about them, visit the Mrs. Van and Mrs. Murphy’s ECSE Blog and Mrs. Kok’s Blog

All of our specialists have blogs that serve as resources to help you with tips for reading , speech and language ,  art, music and PE.

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Just Write Celebration was Just Perfect

Thank you to everyone who celebrated our writing with us last week!  We had visitors from all places–near and far—and visitors who were special to us in many ways (grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, neighbors, cousins, friends, teachers, principals, board members and administrators).

Our stories (students and staff) were published on posters, lockers, in classrooms and in published books via  lulu.com.  If you did not get a chance to visit last week, please stop by this week.  The posters will remain up through June 7 when the writers will bring them home!

The slide show below highlights some of the events that took place.  We concluded the week with our traditional JUST WRITE PERFORMANCES.  Each grade level team (PK-5) selected a story worth performing.  This year we also had a new category…the specialists (art, music and pe) who selected a story that lent itself to the specials. These stories were video recorded and can be found on the JUST WRITE tab above.  We hope you enjoy them as much as we loved performing them for the students.