B.E.S. NewsOctober, 2011

Media Center News Would you like your child to be in our Birthday Book Club?  A $10.00 donation to our media center will give your child a chance to pick up one of our newest library books to donate to our school library!  A special book plate will be put in the book and a picture will be taken and put up in the media center showing your child with the book they chose to donate to our school library.  Even if your child’s birthday has past or is in the summer they can still join our book club.  Just fill out the form you will find in our newsletter and send it and the money to the BES Media Center to join. Remember I always need volunteers.  If you have some time to help I can find something for you to do!  Just contact me at linda.morgan@daviess.kyschools.us. 

********************************************

YES, I want my child/children to be part of the Birthday Book Program! My $10 donation is attached.

Student’s Name _____________________ Teacher __________________

Grade __________________Birth Date__________________

Student’s Name _____________________ Teacher __________________

Grade __________________Birth Date__________________

Student’s Name _____________________ Teacher __________________

Grade __________________Birth Date_________________

Kindergarten News We had a lot of exciting things that happened in October. On October 5, we went bowling. We had a great time practicing the bowling skills that we learned in PE with Coach Al. On October 21, we had our school Fall Festival. We spent time in the gym and front lobby playing all kinds of fun games like Hillbilly Golf, Bat Toss, Tattoo Booth, and many more. On October 27, BES will host the annual Trick or Treat at school. Everyone always loves to come to school to get candy and show off their costumes.

NEWS FROM FIFTH GRADE

There are lots of new terms this year associated with the change to the Core Standards in reading, math, and language. Many parents have asked questions about the reading change from the A.R. ZPD reading ranges to the Lexile measure for reading. Below is additional information that we hope you will find helpful as you select independent reading material for your student. As the article states, if you select books in the correct Lexile range, your child should be sufficiently challenged and experience maximum growth as a reader this year. The Lexile range for fifth grade is 770 – 980. Happy reading!! (use lexile.com to find the Lexile measure of book titles)

What is a Lexile measure?A child's grade level and reading ability are two different things. That's why a Lexile® measures the child's

ability based on reading comprehension, not grade level. A Lexile (for example, 850L) is the most widely adopted measure of reading ability and text difficulty. Lexile measures are valuable tools that help teachers, librarians, parents and children select books that will provide the right level of challenge for the child's reading ability—not too difficult to be frustrating, but difficult enough to encourage reading growth. The Lexile measure of a book is based on word frequency and sentence length. The higher the Lexile measure, the more difficult the text is likely to comprehend.

What is the difference between the recommended Lexile® range and the STAR reading ZPD range?

Both the Lexile range and the STAR reading Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) range are based on the premise that students can optimize their reading growth if they read books at a level that is appropriately challenging. The books should be challenging enough so that new learning occurs (e.g., the student encounters some new vocabulary), but not too difficult that students get frustrated and give up.

However, the actual recommended reading ranges for the two systems are quite different. A student’s Lexile range is the suggested range of Lexile measures between which the reader should be reading. The Lexile range of a reader is from 100L below to 50L above his or her Lexile measure. For example, a student with a Lexile measure of 750L is encouraged to select books with Lexile measures between 650L and 800L. This recommended Lexile range of -100L to +50L does not change according to the student’s Lexile measure, which helps to ensure that students at all levels are reading books at an appropriate level of complexity. Of course, students should never be discouraged from reading a book based on its Lexile measure alone. Reading books outside of the recommended Lexile range is fine, but these books may pose extra challenge or be less challenging than those within the recommended Lexile range.

The STAR reading ZPD ranges (“just right reading range your child was given at the beginning of school) are found on your child’s goal-setting chart (STAR report) and vary according to the student’s reading level. For example, the ZPD range of a student at the grade equivalent of 5.0 is 3.4 to 5.4, a range that spans two grade levels. Please have your child work his / her way to the top of the suggested reading range and move beyond it if possible. Challenging reading material provides the growth needed to reach the 990 + Lexile range suggest as the high-end Lexile of the fifth grade reading chart!!

Coach Al’s Corner Thanks to all the parent volunteers and students for the great time at Diamond Lanes South.  The children had a great time bowling and represented our school in a first class manner.  There are bowling leagues starting in January for children if you are interested.  Please call Diamond Lanes South and ask for Sharon. We will be studying Bones and Muscles in gym for the next two weeks.  We will do related activities such as bone tag, light dumbbell work and stretch bands to improve muscle tone.   Please ask your child to name the bones and muscles of the body if you get a chance.

Fourth Grade News Mrs. Fueger’s fourth grade reading class welcomed Fire Chief Mitchell on Thursday, October, 6th. We just finished reading several articles focusing on wildfires, smokejumpers, and fighting fires. Chief Mitchell provided the students with safety tips, information on how to become a firefighter, and what his job entails. Thank you, Chief Mitchell, for taking the time to visit our class!

September Students of the MonthThe character word for the month of September was Knowledge. Congratulations to the following students for being named Student of the Month for their class:

Riley Turner, Aiden Henneberger, Gabby Gutierrezz, Daniel Hatcher, Kaitlyn Wagoner, Jalen Rogers, Molly Dysinger, Jennifer Hernandez Reyes, Hattie Newman, Peyton Rust, Jasey Adkinson, Lily Martin, Morgan Bland, Annette Rivera Torres, Lauren Worthington, Nadia Holcomb, Yasmin Cisneros, Alex Wells, Isaiah Music, Jacob Bowen, Mia Lee, Keiandra Simmons, Fernando Perez-Lopez, Jackson Whittmer, Kara Green.

Upcoming Dates to Remember November 7 – 4th grade (River Park Center) November 8 – NO SCHOOL November 10 – Veteran’s Day Program November 15 – Reading/Science Night 6-7 pm November 23-25 – NO SCHOOL

Fall Festival

Trick or Treat