On Friday, 2/28 we celebrated excellent student behavior with our monthly Star party. Each day our Students are Taking Academic Responsibility by making good choices at school. They start the day with 4 stars and try to keep them all day or even earn an extra star for excellent behavior. Teachers kept track of student scores all month and averaged them to see who was invited to celebrate good behavior at our S.T.A.R. Party. Any student that averaged 3.5  stars or higher was invited to a dance party! We got our groove on to some popular dances such as YMCA, Ghangham Style, Whip Whip Nae Nae, and the YMCA.  Students who averaged 4 stars or higher were “Rock Stars” and received 2 glow in the dark bracelets to wear during the dance party.  Now we’ll begin working on making good behavior choices for March.

Next week we will celebrate Read Across America Week with some fun school-wide spirit days.

Monday 3/2= Wear your favorite color.

Tuesday 3/3= Wear your favorite hat.

Wacky Wednesday 3/4= Dress as a wacky animal.

Thursday 3/5= Dress like your favorite Dr. Seuss character.

Friday 3/6= Wear striped clothing.

On Friday, Dr. Berstecher from New Holland visited our third grade.  Each language arts class met with him to hear about how to keep our teeth healthy.  We learned we have 4 types of teeth, which foods help us keep our teeth health, which foods can cause tooth decay, and how to keep teeth clean. He had a lot of student helpers and gave us goody bags to take home.

Today was another club day at Brecknock. Students excitedly hurried to their club location for the last 40 minutes of the day to have fun exploring a passion of theirs.  My “Because Brecknock Cares Club” students wanted to do something kind for new students who register to attend Brecknock during the school year.  We created Starburst welcome bags for them that we hope they’ll love.  Mrs. Trofe will distribute them on the students’ first day.  Ask your third grader to fill you in on their club activity today.

Today we celebrated Valentine’s Day at school.  Students passed out valentines and enjoyed some treats.

Miss Erb has been teaching our science lessons on Weather. This week groups researched different forms of precipitation and created posters to teach the rest of the class.  Lots of great facts were shared!

On Friday Miss Erb lead our math class to create a Fraction Museum that showed ways to equally divide shapes into fractional parts. Students worked in groups to prepare their exhibit before touring the museum and taking notes on the various ways to portray each fractional part.

Preparing the Exhibits

Our finished Museum

Touring the Museum

Miss Erb has been leading our daily class meetings this week with a focus on growth mindset. “In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.” ( Dweck, 2015)

One of Miss Erb’s activities this week was for students to write down on a post-it note something they can’t do yet.  The word to emphasize is “yet”, because with continued hard work these goals will hopefully be accomplished.  By writing them on a post-it note they are easy to take down once the goal is met.

Miss Erb also read The book of Mistakes by Corinna Luyken where we saw how the illustrator made mistakes but found ways to incorporate them into the artwork so no one would know. Mistakes are part of the learning process and can help you grow!

This month we started clubs at Brecknock. Last Tuesday all students got to attend a club of their interest for the last 40 minutes of the day.  I am hosting a “Because Brecknock Cares Club.” We made homemade Valentine cards to contribute to Blue Ridge Cable’s “Touch a Heart” program. Our cards will be one of the many that they distribute to local soldiers, veterans, and nursing home residents. Ask your third grader to tell you all about the club they attended.

On Friday  we celebrated excellent student behavior with our monthly Star party. Each day our Students are Taking Academic Responsibility by making good choices at school. They start the day with 4 stars and try to keep them all day or even earn an extra star for excellent behavior. Teachers kept track of student scores all month and averaged them to see who was invited to celebrate good behavior at our S.T.A.R. Party. Any student that averaged 3.5  stars or higher was invited to wear pajamas and slippers to school. Students who averaged 4 stars or higher were “Rock Stars” and got to bring a stuffed animal to spend the day with them.  Now we’ll begin working on making good behavior choices for February.