Happy Holidays!

On behalf of all of us at HBB we would like to wish the entire HBB Community a very Happy Holidays! Thank you for helping make HBB the best! We hope you all find time to rest and relax and we will see you all next year!

After School Programs
Please be on the lookout for the information regarding the after school enrichment program. The programs your child is attending, along with the calendar of meeting times and locations will be sent home today (Tuesday). Not every child got their first choice as demand was extremely high and sign ups were on a first come first serve basis. The after school programs will not run the week we get back! If you recently sent in a permission slip (within the past week) be on the look out as well as we had to send it back because all programs are full. Should you have any questions please give us a call.

Christmas Wishes
A huge THANK YOU to everyone who donated to help the Giving Tree Program this holiday season. The HBB community collected and delivered 4 over-flowing boxes of socks, toothbrushes & toothpaste. The St. Vincent de Paul program was truly appreciative of our efforts and were able to use the donations to help hundreds of local families!

2 More Days Till Break!

We had another great week here at HBB and we are very excited that there are only two more days until the holiday break!  Have a great weekend!

Bill Harley
Families from HBB and MKG were treated to another hilarious performance by singer/songwriter/author Bill Harley.  Bill was with us earlier in the year for an Author Study with grade 4 where he visited all the classes at that time.   This week he came back to entertain families from both schools and the performance was excellent.  Thank you to the PTA from both schools for organizing this great family event!

New Burkland's Best Gear
Not sure if you noticed but we have some staff and students sporting some great new Burkland's Best Gear......looks great!

Leadership
Congratulations to the Character Word of the Week Winners!

Wrapping up the week

Writing Challenge Due
Don't forget about the Where are You Headed Writing Challenge!  The day before the Holiday Break is the deadline to submit essays!  For more information about the Writing Challenge click on the right side of this page.

Make a Wish Foundation
Please help us raise money for the Make a Wish Foundation!  We are asking all students to write letters to Santa.  For every letter written to Santa Macy's will donate $1 to the Make a Wish Foundation in the name of Hailey Olson.  All letters will be delivered to Santa and you do not need a stamp, just a letter and an envelope.  We have a drop off box in the main lobby here at HBB.  The deadline is December 19th.

Thank you for supporting this worthwhile cause!

Golden Broom Award Winners
Congratulations to Mrs. Trottier's and Mrs. Kaufman's class for winning the Golden Broom Award!  Great job!

Character Word of the Week Winners
Congratulations to the winners this week!

MassPass Books

Attention all parents!!!

Please remember to return all MassPass Books if you are not purchasing or send in your check if you are purchasing. Remember we have prizes for the classes with the highest amount of participation.  Participation includes purchasing or returning books.  Please help us with this great fundraiser by sending the books back or purchasing!

Thank you!

Note about Report Cards and Winter Book Swap

After School Enrichment Program

At this point sign ups for the after school enrichment are closed.  Demand for the clubs was VERY high and we will do our best to make sure everyone gets their first choice but this may not always be possible.  We will be sending home information soon to all those who signed up!

Report Cards

With Report Cards coming soon we thought it might make sense to point out couple important changes regarding the report card, which will be coming home Friday December 12.

This year we made a slight change to the reporting category on the report cards. The scoring will be as follows.

4 - Demonstrating mastery of the standard

3 - Demonstrating significant progress toward the standard

2 - Demonstrating some progress

1 - Demonstrating minimal progress

Please understand that there is no correlation between our scoring of 1-4 and traditional grades such as A,B,C,D and F. Students are scored based on their ability related to each individual standard. For example, if the standard is “fluently adds and subtracts within 1000” a score of 4 would mean that the student has completely mastered that concept and all demands placed on the students related to that standard. They would be able to solve the algorithm, answer word problems and transfer their understanding of the concept to a variety of problems and situations.

A 3 would indicate that they are well on their way towards mastering that standard but have not quite mastered the concept. For example, maybe they continue to struggle transferring their understanding of the algorithm to word problems.

A 2 would indicate progress but the student may be struggling with multiple facets of the skill.

A 1 would indicate that the student is still pretty far from mastering the standard.

Please keep in mind that these standards indicate what should be mastered by the end of the year. At this point of the year you do not need to be overly concerned if your child does not score a 4.

Winter Book Swap

End of Week

Thank You Mrs. Abban
Today marks the last day for Mrs. Abban.  For the past few years Mrs. Abban has been a fixture in our computer lab, however, she is leaving us for an exciting new opportunity.  I would like to thank Mrs. Abban for her dedication to the kids at HBB and wish her luck in the future as she is off to bigger and better things.

We are in the process of hiring  Mrs. Abban's replacement.  Mrs. Johnson will be helping assumer her duties and Mrs. Bertelli will be running her after school enrichment program which is set to begin in January.  

College Day
All Students can go to college!  This week in an effort to promote a college bound culture here at HBB we hosted College Day and the kids had a blast.  Please help us continue encouraging the growth mindset and spreading the message that all students can go to college!  

Teamwork
This week's character word of the week was Teamwork.....congratulations to our winners.

Golden Broom Award
Congratulations to Mrs. Darcy's class! Great Job!

MassPass Books

MassPass Books
Just a quick reminder that all MassPass books and orders are due back this Friday!  All orders will be filled and sent home before Thanksgiving Break.....thank you!

Mini Book Fair and After School Programs

Mini Book Fair
Attention all Parents!!!!  We would like everyone to know that we will be hosting a Mini Book Fair during the Parent Teacher Conferences.  This can be a great way to stock up on stocking stuffers and we anticipate that shopping at the book fair will be easier than it was during Open House as the traffic will be spread out over two separate nights.  We hope to see you there!

After School Programs!!!!
We are very excited to announce that sign ups for our after school programs, set to begin in January, are now open.  Please return your sign up sheets and checks prior to the December Vacation.  Programs will fill up quickly and are on a first come first serve basis.  If you have any questions please let us know.

Another Great Week!

Writing Challenge
Don't forget to take the Writing Challenge!  All entries must be submitted before the December Vacation.  For more information on the challenge please view the right side of the Blog!

Parent Teacher Conferences
Parent Teacher Conferences are coming this week!  We hope to see you all there.  Please remember that Parent Teacher Conferences are not only a great way to learn about how your child is doing but can also be a great way to learn about how to support learning at Home!  Don't be afraid to ask questions and we hope to see you all there!

Clean Up Day

Order your Winter Spirit Wear!
There is still time to order your Winter Spirit Wear.  The deadline for orders is November 25th.  You can go to the website for prices and to view items.  http://hbbpta.weebly.com/  There will be samples available at the Parent Teacher Conferences and credit cards are accepted!

Thank You Harvard Pilgrim
This week we reviewed a check for $500 for the students at HBB.  I would like to thank Mrs. Bagangan for helping us secure this grant.  The money will be put to good use!

Power of One and Cyber Busters
This week we had our Power of One and Cyber Busters Assemblies for Grade 1-5.  During both assemblies students learned about how to deal with bullies and what to do, and not to do to make sure that HBB is a Bully Free Zone.  Please ask your child about the assemblies and what they learned!

Giving Tree

Golden Broom Award
Congratulations to this weeks winners...Mrs Enos....and the winners last week....Mrs. McPherson!

Character Word of the Week Winners
Congrats and Great Job!

Museum of Science Grade 4 
This past week we had the Museum of Science here for grade 4 for a presentation on Animal Adaptations.  The kids really enjoyed the presentation and we are very thankful that the PTA brought them in!

Writing challenge and some other stuff

Writing Challenge

After School Enrichment Program

We are VERY excited to announce that we will be starting an after-school enrichment program, sponsored by the HBB PTA. For a small fee ($35 for 10 weeks) students will have the opportunity to stay after school (3:30-4:30) to join a number of fun enrichment clubs. Please be on the look out for the sign up sheet!!!!

Dress Up Day

November 19th is College Gear Day. We want to encourage all students to wear their college gear. We are working hard to promote a college bound culture. All students can reach their goals if they work hard to get there. Don’t have any college gear? Make a sign, make a hat, and get creative in celebrating the fact that all students can go to college!

PT Conferences Questions to ask

Parent Teacher Conferences are coming up soon. Parent Teacher Conferences are a great way to support your child’s learning at home by learning what they are doing in school. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. A solid home school partnership is crucial to success in school. Some good questions to ask may include

- What areas is my child struggling with?

- What do you consider to be his or her strengths?

- What can we do at home to support my child’s learning?

Again, don’t be afraid to ask questions and we hope to see you there.

Books instead of gifts?
With the holidays around the corner and many of you considering teacher gifts, we have an gift option for you. The books in our libraries could use some updating. Many of them are very worn, outdated, or never get checked out. We want our students reading high-quality literature and nonfiction, so these books need to be available for our readers.

We have created an Amazon wishlist of books to add to our schools’ libraries. The books are from a variety of grade levels and genres that we’d love to see our students and teachers reading.

You can find the wishlist on Amazon by:

- Going to www.amazon.com.
- Click on “Wish Lists” in the top right of the Amazon homepage.
- Click “Find wish list or registry” and type “HBB library.”
- Browse the options and make your selection for purchase. Consider purchasing the “library binding” edition if it’s available.
- Have the book delivered to your home.
- Have your student bring the book to the library, and our librarians will give him/her a bookplate to fill out for the book you’ve chosen to donate to the library.

It’s that easy!

Please don’t feel pressure to buy a book. This program is intended to just be an option if you are thinking about a gift. Don’t hesitate to contact vvigna@middleboro.k12.ma.us if you have any questions. Thank you for your consideration.

Poppin Cafe Role Models!

Look at all the students who have been acting as Role Models during lunch.....great job!

Animal Visitors
This week Ms. Fecteau's class had some special visitors from the LaCroix's farm.  The kids had a blast.  Thank you to the LaCroix's for bringing in the animals!

Character Word of the Week Winners

Congratulations to the winners this week!  Great job!