Category: General Information

Discover / Gifted Seminar

Hello, families.

We started Discover at Hambright and Gifted Seminar at Manor over the last few weeks.  Students are settled into a more structured day now that all of the Back to School information and meetings have finished.  The kids are busy meeting new friends – especially at Manor – and strengthening prior friendships.

Your child should have brought a letter home to you (yellow for Manor and green for Hambright) with a general overview of the year.  Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions.  Thanks to those of you who have subscribed to the blog.

Hambright is starting with the book Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun to discuss the differences in all of us and what makes each of us unique.  We’ve enjoyed some insightful conversations about why we need differences in the world.  Day B students can share more about our story and Day D students can share more after tomorrow’s classes.

The elementary kiddos have also had time to break out some of the new STEM equipment and work together to construct a new robot.

Manor has started with some team building fun!  We are working on forming strong cohorts in Gifted Seminar.  I happy to see the 7th graders expanding their friendship circles since there are four elementary schools coming to Manor Middle.  The 8th graders are also catching up with each other and forming new bonds because I mixed up their cohorts from last year.  You can see they still love to be silly together.  It’s good to have people in your tribe that understand you.

The 8th grade ladies are already checking planners to make sure they stay on top of their work.

Be on the lookout for another blog post tomorrow about our Speaker Seminars.  I would love your help!

~afd

Back to School

Summer’s over … it was fun
Now it’s time to get things done
Catch the bus and be on time
Standing straight in all those lines

Getting homework every day
Do it quick and then go play
Early nights and days so full
Following those school time rules

Do your best and you will see
Life will go by so quickly
For one day when you are grown
Your lessons written all in stone

You will know that in the end
These the best days you will spend
Sharing knowledge doing well
Your future has a lot to tell.

~ Francine Pucillo

Welcome Back Hambright & Manor Students!

Now that routines are being established and students are feeling more settled, it’s time to start gifted support classes.  My schedule this year is as follows:

Manor: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday

I am scheduling small groups and one on one meetings starting this week.  Our new Google Classroom is set-up, and all students were sent an invitation to join.  I will be posting our seminar schedule and a general idea of what we will discuss when we meet.  Students that opt out of participating in seminars will continue to meet with me once or twice a marking period to check-in.  All field trips, speakers, and special event activities are always open to all those on the gifted support roster even if they don’t participate in the seminar classes.

Hambright: Tuesday and Thursday

I will start pull-out classes at Hambright next Tuesday, September 13th.  Grades 1, 4, and 6 meet on Tuesdays.  Grades 2, 3, and 5 will meet on Thursdays.  Each grade meets at its own specific time.  I will send home a letter with the students next week with some more information for you.

Shank’s Mare Field Trip

Last Friday the 6th grade Discover students to their annual trip to Shank’s Mare to celebrate both the end of the elementary years and the excitement of going to middle school in the fall. It was lovely to meet our new Manor families and give an overview of Manor Middle and how gifted support works in the middle school. As I said Friday, please email or call me with any questions you may have.

We started our day with a morning kayaking trip. The water was calm, and the scenery was gorgeous. It was fun to see so many kids who hadn’t had the opportunity to kayak before really enjoy the experience.

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The trip was got very exciting for the Manor group as we were within 20 feet or so of a Bald Eagle eating his breakfast on our way back to the launch site. I had my iPhone and snapped some shots. They aren’t top quality because of the zoom, but I still got some and a video.

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…and he’s off with his fish breakfast – he did not leave that behind

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video of the eagle:     IMG_7271

After lunch, we were able to participate in the stream study in Fishing Creek. The kids didn’t care that it was cold (and some parents even jumped right in.).  The seine nets were a big help in trapping the macroinvertebrates.

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Looking for any larvae, bugs, or crayfish that could be found.

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Colin had proof that the stream was healthy.

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Nigel checking out what was found.

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What a fantastic group of kids.  So super excited to have this bunch next year!

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Welcome Back!

Welcome back, Manor and Hambright students!  I am so happy that I’ve been able to see so many of you.  You’ve grown, you’ve had wonderful, fun-filled summers, and now it’s time to start another year in your education journey.

I have some information for you that is divided by school.  Please read over and email me with any questions.

Hambright:

I sent a letter home with each student on Thursday detailing our schedule for the year, our curriculum, and a permission slip.  Parents – please sign the permission slip as soon as possible and have your child return it to their teacher.  If you need a new copy, let me know.  Classes will be starting next cycle; our first date will be Thursday, September 17th.

Manor:

I am using Google Classroom to communicate with the students.  I have posted questions, a survey and some other items.  If your child hasn’t accepted the invite to the Discover Google Classroom, please have them do so ASAP, and complete the survey.  I am trying to set-up our first meeting of the year with the information the survey provides; we will be talking about Gifted Services this year.

Welcome Back!

I hope you all had a wonderful first day of school for the 2013-2014 year.  I had a super busy one, but I can tell this year is going to be great!  Please make sure you subscribe to the blog to get updates sent right to your email.  It’s spam free (or so promised.)

I will be talking to each of the Hambright students this cycle, and the Manor students over the next two cycles.  See y’all soon.

Best wishes for a fabulous school year!!