BES Round Table Update

Dear Families of BES,

We are on week two of our second semester, and it is wonderful to see our classrooms and hallways filled with energy and purpose. As we settle into the new year, our primary focus remains on maximizing instructional time and ensuring every student has the support they need to succeed.

To help maintain a thriving and productive school environment, we are reinforcing our core values daily. We encourage you to talk with your children about these five pillars:

• Being Kind: Supporting one another and building a welcoming community.

• Being Willing to Learn: Staying curious and embracing new challenges.

• Being Responsible: Taking ownership of schoolwork and actions.

• Being Respectful: Honoring the diverse perspectives of peers and staff.

• Being Safe: Ensuring a secure environment for everyone on campus.

We look forward to seeing our students every day and appreciate your continued partnership in making this a successful semester.

Teaching integrity to elementary-aged children involves helping them bridge the gap between knowing the "right" thing to do and actually doing it—even when no one is watching.

Here are several activities organized by how they reinforce different aspects of integrity:

• Integrity Bingo: Create a Bingo card with squares like "Returned a borrowed toy," "Admitted a mistake," or "Followed a rule when alone." As they complete these throughout the week, they mark them off.

• Commitment Cards: After a family discussion, have everyone (parents included!) write one commitment on a card (e.g., "I will finish my chores without being reminded"). Keep the cards in a visible place. When the promise is kept, the card is "retired" with a small celebration.

“Find It” Reading Hunt

After reading, find:

1. One interesting word

2. One sentence that explains an important idea

3. One detail that helped you picture the scene

Create a Reading Comic Strip!

After reading your book, create a comic strip with 6 boxes that shows the most important parts of the story. Make sure you include the conflict and resolution! Did the characters stay the same, or did the characters change throughout the story? Make sure to use details!

Please make sure that your student is bringing home their science notebook every day and taking some time to review their current study guide.

Melting Ice Experiment

Concept: States of matter

Materials:

Ice cubes, Salt, Plate

Steps:

1. Place ice cubes on a plate.

2. Sprinkle salt on one cube and not the other.

3. Observe which melts faster.

What’s happening?

Salt lowers the freezing point of ice, making it melt faster.

Maker Space/Library - We are staying with the winter theme. Working on team building and creating and executing a trap together as groups of four. We are reading “How to Catch A Snowman”. Students will then be filling out a graphic organizer on how we plan to build the traps using manipulatives. Once students complete their trap project, we will complete another graphic organizer analyzing how well our plan worked.

STEM students will be working on engineering with Picasso Tiles and will move into coding!

Library - Fourth and fifth-grade students are working on their 4H projects. 3rd graders are working on dictionary skills.

Beyond the Bell starts back up on Wednesday, January 21! Our first club day is Friday, January 23. Our first Saturday Academy is Saturday, January 24. Just a reminder that our early risers program is 7:00 to 7:45 M-F.

We are very excited to have another amazing semester of Beyond the Bell! We still have a few spots open. If you are interested in signing your student up, please reach out to Mrs. Surface at osurface@bcpschools.org

Each month at our school assembly we recognize students and staff members for going above and beyond! Please take the time to Knight a staff member! Click on the following Google Form:

• As a reminder:
• For transportation changes, please write a bus note with physical address and bus number or contact the office by 2:15.
• Please remember to bring your ID when you come to visit, sign your child out, or have lunch with your child.