The Bannockburn Star

The Bannockburn Star
June, 2015
Dear Bannockburn Families,
It has been a wonderful year and I have enjoyed getting to know all of the
students and their families in the Bannockburn community. Bannockburn is
truly a special place for students to learn, build friendships, and serve our
community.
We have had a very productive year. Our teachers have worked hard to bring
instruction to students that build their skills in writing in response to text. Our
goal for the year was to improve our reading comprehension both orally and in
writing in small differentiated instructional groups. Teachers incorporated
writing response journals and instructed students on evidence to support their
thinking. We will continue to provide our students with rigorous instruction
while building staff capacity to provide such instruction.
The one constant in life is change and we have changes in our staff for next year.
We wish those staff members who are moving on every success and thank them
for their service to our community. We say farewell to the following teachers.
 Laura Gordon, reading initiative teacher, is moving closer to home as a
reading initiative teacher at Richie Park ES in Rockville.
 Ross Mills, 3rd grade teacher, has retired after being at Bannockburn for 20
years.
 Ashley Libbee, 3rd grade teacher, has moved to Piney Branch ES. She has
cut her commute by 40 minutes.
 Spencer Madsen, 4th grade teacher, also moved to Piney Branch ES. He is
less than two miles from home.
 Monica Obstgarten, 4th grade teacher, moved to Clearspring ES. She is 5
minutes from her home.
 Anne Koyler, art teacher, will be missed as she takes long-term leave.
Twelve current staff members collaborated to interview over 30 candidates that
resulted in excellent teachers joining our staff. Please join us as we welcome the
following teachers to Bannockburn.
 Molly Snow will teach 3rd grade and is coming from Wayside ES. She has
four years experience in MCPS & TN.
 Amanda DaSilva will be a 3rd grade teacher. Ms. DaSilva joins us from
Jackson Road ES with five years experience in MCPS in Grade 3.
 Rachel Turner will join the 4th grade team. She is coming from Rolling
Terrace ES. She has six years experience in MCPS & SC.
 Rachael Tedesco will also teach 4th grade and joins us from Montgomery
Knolls ES. Mrs. Tedesco has six years experience in MCPS.
 Leah Ellert will teach Art She will be at Bannockburn for 3.5 days. Last year
she taught at Wood Acres, Kensington Parkwood, & Greencastle ES.
Principal, Kate Bradley
Information goes home weekly
in the Wednesday Envelope.
Tuesday, June 8
 Grade 5 field trip to Philadelphia
Friday, June 12
 1:00 p.m. Grade 5 Promotion
Ceremony
 2:00 p.m. or immediately following the ceremony Grade 5 Clap out
in front of school
 2:15 –3:30 p.m. Grade 5 reception
in the APR
Monday, June 15
 Last day of school.
 Early Dismissal 1:00 p.m.
2015—2016
Important Dates to Remember
Friday, August 28
10:30 am Kindergarten parent
meeting, gym
11:00 am-12:00 pm Sneak-a-Peek.
Visit your new classroom and meet
your new teacher.
Monday, August 31
First day of school
Wednesday, September 9
6:30—8:30 pm Back to School Night
What to expect from school this summer
Report cards will be mailed by MCPS on Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Summer office hours are from 9:00 a.m. — 4:00 p.m.
Construction on the HVAC in half of the building will begin on June
17th with an expected end date of August 9th. The office will be opened for all but a few
days in the summer when crane work is expected. Dates when the school must close will
be posted on the website when they are confirmed.
The summer letter will be posted on the Bannockburn website by the first week in August. A connect-ed will be sent when it is posted. If you need a hard copy, please let the
front office know.
Postcards with class assignments will be mailed to students on Monday, August 23rd.
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SUMMER
To Do
List…
Proposed Bell Schedule


9:05 – Students can arrive
9:25—School Begins/Late bell


3:45—Kindergarten students are dismissed
3:50—Grades 1—5 students are dismissed

Find the sun

Eat lots of popsicles

Play hide & seek at dusk

Catch lightening bugs

Take a nap on the porch

Blow bubbles

Giggle with your friends

Learn a magic trick

Build a sand castle

Play red light green light

Enjoy the summer
Page 2
 Look for summer reading ideas on the Bannockburn website.
 Read, Read, Read books, graphic novels, comic books, information books, newspapers, magazines, etc.
 Read to your child even they are in the upper grades. Use inflection and animation. This helps your child hear what
good fluency and reading sounds like.
 Play games like Apples to Apples, charades, 20 questions, Catch Phrase, scrabble, etc.
 Have your child start a book club, invite friends over, choose the book, and lead a discussion.
 Have your child create a PowerPoint to persude a friend to read a favorite book.
 Listen to books on an App that reads to you allows you to follow along.
 Ask your child questions about what they are reading:
What is the main idea? What is the point of view of the author? How do you know?
What are the characters like?
Where does the story take place? How would the story change if the
setting was different?
Show me how your informational book helps you learn information.
 Keep a journal about summer happenings, even if it is just one or two sentences. Drawings are a ggod way to express
your thoughts as well.
 Send postcards to friends, relatives, or teachers to share fun experiences.
 Look for summer math ideas on the Bannockburn website.
 Play traditional games to promote math thinking. You may not even know that some of the skills you use
every day are math skills. Once you know what skills certain types of games work on, you can pick games that help
build the skills your child most needs.
Board games help kids practice matching the sets of dots on a die, or a set of objects, to the correct number of
spaces to move. A game like Candy Land, for example, would fit into this category.
Matching games ask kids to keep track of where they saw items and patterns. Dominoes also lets kids practice
matching numbers and sets.
Mystery games, such as 20 questions or Guess Who? ask kids to keep information in mind to use as a strategy for
narrowing down to the correct answer.
Spatial strategy games ask kids to come up with ways to move pieces in order to block or capture other pieces.
This includes games like chess, checkers, Connect Four and Battleship.
Numerical strategy games involve removing, getting rid of or rearranging pieces to win. This includes games like
mancala and card games, such as Uno and trash.
Resource-management games, such as Monopoly or Carcassone, ask kids to think about how much money or resources (such as property) they have and how they can use them to get to a goal.