The Excellence of Winter

Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.

~ Charles R. Swindoll

Welcome to the week before winter break.  The teachers at Eagle Ridge Academy will be working diligently to keep the focus on academics this week.   The Lower School Office will be open until 3:00 to accommodate any parents picking their students up from school early on Friday or taking students home after parties.  Please come to the Lower School Office to sign your student out from school on Friday.

If students have purchased Mitten Drive t-shirts, they may be worn to school on Thursday.  Student may wear jeans or uniform bottoms with their Mitten Drive t-shirts on Thursday.  These shirts may also be worn for any future Eagle Ridge Spirit Days. 

It looks to be a seasonably cold week.  Please make sure students have cold weather outerwear for recess.  The administrative team met and discussed the Eagle Ridge recess policy.  We have decided to continue with the 0 degrees air temperature or wind chill for the cut-off for outdoor recess throughout the entire school.  Thank you for your feedback on this topic.  When we are inside for recess in the lower school, the PTO is building some grade level carts with games and activities for the students.  We hope to have those carts stocked and ready to go should they be needed upon the return to school from break.  A big thank you to the playground committee parents for spearheading and organizing this project.

You should be receiving your parent reports for your child’s fall NWEA test on Tuesday.  These results will be sent home in student folders.  If you have questions, please contact your child’s teacher or me.

Some of my favorite things to see each day when I walk around the hallways are the “walls of excellence.”  I took some pictures this week, so you can see some of the amazing work our students do each week.  Check out the pictures below from various grade levels and subject areas.  We always encourage our students to persevere for excellence in all that they do.

School reconvenes on January 7th.

Have a wonderful winter break!

Mrs. Baier

Winter Wonderland

First our temperature dropped and now we have full-fledged winter here complete with snow.  Please remember your students need coats, boots, snow pants, gloves or mittens, and some type of head covering (hood or hat) when the weather is as it is today.  Students are not allowed to play in the snow without boots and snow pants.  At school students may build in the snow, but there are to be no snow balls and no snow may be thrown for any reason.  Please help remind your students the difference between playing in snow at home and at school.  

I visited all of the second grade math classes last week.  In one class students were working on making change with bags of real money.  They were given problems by the teacher increasing in difficulty and asked to not only make change, but to do it with the fewest number of coins possible.  In another class students were working on estimation.  They were estimating the number of fruit loops it would take to fill a tracing of their hands.  The finished work is posted in the second grade hallway and in the picture below.  The other class was working on writing fractions to show parts of a set.  All students were engaged in their learning and it was nice to see the rigor in the topics being covered in all classes.

Notes and Reminders

-The Toys for Tots and Mitten Drives continue.  Please feel free to drop off in the Lower School Office.

Have a wonderful week!

Mrs. Baier

Welcome to December

“Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.”
― Edith Sitwell

December is here and it is almost time for the first classroom party.  The classroom parents are working with the teachers to help plan  the winter parties to be held on Friday, December 21^st (time depends on the grade level). Please check with the classroom parent in your child’s homeroom if you are interested in helping with the party in some capacity.  Please note, we can only accommodate 3 volunteers per classroom due to parking lot constraints.  If it becomes necessary, we can park vehicles in pickup Lane 1 (not the passing lane) but those vehicles MUST be moved by 2:15 to allow time for afternoon pick up reset.  Please remember this is just the first party of the year and there will be more opportunities to volunteer as the school year progresses. 

 

A few parents have asked about our lunchroom policy of having students sit at tables with their homeroom classes.  Students in grades K-3 will be sitting at those classroom tables throughout the school year.  We find it important for the students to develop relationships with those in their homerooms.  There is not social time in the classroom and this is a chance for those relationships to develop.  Students in grade 4 will continue to sit with their homeroom classes until the 4^th quarter.  At that time they will be able to move around and sit at any of the 4^th grade tables (along with possibly sitting outside on the ramp when weather permits).  Students in 5^th grade are currently allowed to sit at any 5^th grade table.  This is a 5^th grade privilege and begins to prepare them for the Middle School lunch.  The Leadership Advisory Team and I feel this best fits the developmental levels of the students.  We also believe they have recess time to develop other relationships within their grade level.  Please contact me if you have any questions about the policy.

The 4^th graders have been studying infection prevention in science.  In this time of winter coughs and germs, they have made some posters to give us tips for preventing illness.  These posters are hanging outside the Mrs. MacNevin’s classroom for all to see.  Here are some pictures of the posters if you haven't seen them.

Have a great week!

Mrs. Baier

Notes and Reminders

• This Thursday (12/6) there is time for some focus group discussion at the Facilities Task Force Meeting.  If you are interested in providing some input, please join us between 7:00-8:00 to speak with ATS & R representatives. 

• Friday, December 7^th is a Free Dress Day.  Free Dress Day money is being collected this week by your child’s homeroom teacher.  The list of Free Dress Day fund recipients can be found in last week’s Eagle Eye. 
• Please don’t forget Eagle Ridge Academy is collecting toys for the Toys for Tots program and Mittens (gloves, scarves, and blankets, too) for Sharing and Caring Hands.  We have drop off boxes in the Lower School Office.