PARCC and Yearbooks!

Thank you to everyone who took the time to fill out our School Improvement Survey. Your feedback is very much appreciated and will be used in developing our School Improvement Plan.

We had over 258 entries this year (up from 110 last year) and with each entry a raffle ticket was entered for the class for extra recess. All the surveys were collected and the winner of the raffle is Ms. Bartlett’s class! Congratulations and thank you again for doing your part in helping us move HBB forward!

PARCC
We are so proud of how hard our students have been working over this past week with PARCC testing. Throughout the building kids are persevering and taking the test with confidence. As always, we are working to remind our kids to work hard, but not stress out. Their grades are not impacted by their results and at this point PARCC is used more to see how we are doing overall as a school. We use the results to see what is working and what we need to adjust in regards to our curriculum and instruction. It is not meant to judge individual students and we don’t use it that way.

Please keep in mind that we are still in the middle of PARCC and MCAS Science for Grade 5. We would like all parents to keep a close eye on the calendar and make sure your child is present on testing day, make sure they eat a healthy breakfast and get a good night sleep!

Yearbook Orders!
The 2015-2016 HBB Yearbook is now on SALE. The yearbook includes the whole HBB community, grades 1-5. Don't miss your chance to order. All orders must be submitted by Friday, May 6th at the latest, ABSOLUTELY NO ORDERS will be accepted after May 6th. Order forms will be coming home in Tuesday Folders, but online ordering is available as well. The HBB PTA is offering all 5th graders a discount on their yearbook, so please choose the appropriate link.

Yearbook orders for Grades 1-4: (school code 21075)
https://www.yearbookordercenter.com/index.cfm/job/21075

Yearbook Order for 5th Graders ONLY: (if order is placed for a non 5th grader, it will be cancelled).
http://hbbpta.weebly.com/store/c1/Featured_Products.html

Any questions, please contact Sandra Tullish stullish@gmail.com

Brian Lies

In addition to PARCC testing this week we had one of our favorite Author/Illustrators here this week for grade 2....Brian Lies.  Thank you Brian for coming again this year.  The kids had a great time and thank you again to the PTA for supporting this excellent enrichment opportunity!

Welcome Back, PARCC Testing and 5th Graders Wear Your Burkland's BEST!

Welcome Back everyone!  We hope you all had a fun, restful and relaxing vacation!  We are now in the home stretch and we started out today with PARCC testing for Grade 5.  Please remember that we have testing from now until Memorial Day and we would like to ask all parents to pay close attention to the calendar and be aware what days your child is testing.  Click on this link for our school calendar HBB Calendar or scroll to the bottom of this page.

Additionally, we ask that you please make sure your child is here on testing days, make sure they get a good night sleep and make sure they eat a nice healthy breakfast on testing days.  Thank you in advance for your assistance in making sure your child is ready on testing days.

5th Graders Wear Your Burkland's BEST Wednesday

Have a Great Vacation!

HBB Rally!

Today we ended the day with a whole school rally to reinforce the fact that with hard work, confidence and perseverance our kids can do great things!  We got them pumped up and ready for PARCC by reminding them all that they are ready and with hard work they will do a great job.

To assist us in delivering the message we had a couple special guests.  The first was one of our own teachers Ms. Beird.  Ms. Beird is a 5th grade teacher who has been working hard and training to be a contestant on American Ninja Warrior.  She shared how hard she has worked and she spoke about how the first time she stepped on the course she could not do any of the challenges but with hard work, perseverance and confidence she was eventually able to do it!

Our second guest was Drew Drechsel himself.  Drew is one of the most popular and successful contestants from American Ninja Warrior and he too spoke to the kids about the importance of hard work and what can be accomplished when you put your mind to something....check out this video of  Drew in action!

The rally was, and always is, a great event for the school.  We are confident our kids are ready for PARCC and we would like to remind everyone that PARCC starts when we get back from vacation.  Please, please, please do your part and make sure your child is ready on testing day.  Look closely at the calendar to see what days your child is testing and read the flyer below for some good tips on helping your child be ready on test day!

PMC Ride

Thank you to Bill Goldsmith for not only organizing an amazing event to raise money for Pediatric  Brain Cancer Research but also for coming to visit all the kids during lunches to promote this wonderful event.  Please take a moment to read the flyer below and consider joining the second annual Cranberry Country PMC Kids Ride!

Good Egg Challenge

One of our favorite challenges every year is the Good Egg Challenge. We have kids doing so many good things for the school and the community and we have a couple worth mentioning.  First, we had three 5th grade students who organized both CCF and Wear Your Red Sox Gear day here at HBB which we had both this week.  Together both events raised $235.75 which will be donated to the Jimmy Fund for Pediatric Brain Tumor Research.....not bad!  

The other has been 4th grade students who have been working hard to clean up the grounds around the school.  Great job guys!

Staff Basketball Game

Thank you to everyone who came out last week for our annual staff basketball game!  This was a great way to get everyone from both Elementary Schools together and we all had a really great time!

Habitat Happenings

We are very proud of all our 1st grade students who hosted their Habitat Happenings events this week.  Students have been hard at work reading, researching and writing.  They completed their projects and parents were invited in to celebrate all their hard work.

PARCC is Coming!

PARCC Is Coming!

Please be aware that PARCC testing for students in grades 3-5 will begin upon return from April Vacation and will continue through the month of May. The Monday we return grade 5 will be testing in ELA. We will be rotating grades each day. Please pay close attention to the calendar for dates your child’s grade will be testing.

Please also help us in making sure your child is ready and prepared on testing days. While we do not want anyone to be stressed, it is just a test, we also want them to be prepared to try their hardest. Some ways you can help is to;

- Make sure they get a good night sleep on testing days

- Limit video games the night before a test

- Eat a healthy breakfast and a healthy dinner the night before

- Talk to your child and build their confidence!

Please remember this is just a test. Student grades are in no way impacted by their performance on PARCC. At this grade level PARCC is meant to be informational for us as a school in regards to what is working and what needs to be adjusted with our curriculum and instruction. As much as we want students to put forth their best effort we do not want them to stress out. Individual students are not being judged, our school overall however is, and we like to tell our students that this is their chance to show everyone how hard they have been working all year.

The kids are ready and prepared and should have nothing to stress about. Thank you in advance for helping make sure our kids are ready, prepared and confident on testing day!

For more information on making sure your child is prepared please read below.

Red Sox Day

On Thursday April 14th we would like to encourage all students to wear their Red Sox Gear, Hats etc. We are also asking for voluntary donations of $1 and all proceeds raised will be sent to Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Dylan Berrio’s name. Thank you for helping with this great fundraiser!

Good Egg Awards

Today during Community Meeting we gave out our first Good Egg Awards.  The Good Egg Award is one of my favorites! Kids were recognized for a variety of projects designed to make the community a better place.  Some examples were anti bully projects, organizing a 5K and cleaning up neighborhoods.  We are very proud of the 3rd and 4th grade award winners!

Character Word of the Week

Look at all the 3rd and 4th graders who were recognized for the Character Word of the Week at Community Meeting!  We have a lot of great kids at HBB!

Staff Basketball Game Coming and Thank You PTA!

Spaghetti Supper
Thank you to everyone who came out for the annual Spaghetti Supper.  We were amazed at the turnout and we would like to thank all the amazing parents that give so much of their time to organize events like this.  All the proceeds raised go right back to to the kids by funding things such as all the enrichment opportunities including after school programs, assemblies and field trips.  We are so lucky to have such a committed and supportive community....thanks again!

Staff Basketball Game

Please consider joining us this Friday for the staff basketball game.  There will be fun for the whole family.  Check out the flyer below!

School Improvement Survey
Please take a moment to complete our annual School Improvement Survey. We are sending home paper copies in the Tuesday Folders and we have a digital copy available by clicking here

http://goo.gl/forms/7IwCCkVbtp

Feel free to submit one separately for each child if you feel your responses to certain questions would be different depending on the experience of each child. The results of the survey are anonymous and will be very helpful in the development of the School Improvement Plan. The Improvement Plan is developed by the School Council, which is a committee consisting of equal representation of teachers and parents. All results from the survey will be looked at closely by this group.

This is your chance to have a voice in the Improvement Planning and we thank you in advance for taking the time to complete the survey! All surveys returned will enter your child’s class into a raffle to win extra recess with Me.

Reading Challenge

Are you curious how many students participated in the Reading Challenge.  Well each child that participated received a piece of duct tape which was used to tape Mr. Gobeil to the wall in the cafeteria.  Check out these pics!

Heart Healthy Students and Character Word of the Week Winners!

Congratulations to all the students in grades 1 and 2 who were recognized by their PE Teachers for the Heart Healthy Challenge and to all the winners of the Character Word of the Week Award!

Save the Date All You Volunteers!

We would like to ask everyone that has volunteered at the school to please mark June 9th on your calendar.  We will be hosting a Thank You Dinner starting at 4:30 and we hope to have a good turnout so we can express our appreciation for all you do!