Week of October 6, 2009

Dear Parents:

This has been a nice, quiet week, so I think everyone has settled down, routines have become routine, and everyone is busy teaching and learning.

We have several field trips planned this week for Grades 2, 3 and 4, so be sure to check your child's weekly newsletters for details. Grade 3 will also be taking the CoGat Test. This 3-day test (about an hour daily) will give us some insight into your child's achievement, whether your child is working up to his/her potential, and will also give us an extra piece of data to determine your child's best learning styles and teacher course of action for your child. We also use this test to determine some part of eligibility for the Gifted Program.

We are sure that you have heard we are "green" at Blair! From Friday, Monday and Tuesday we have collected enough paper to save one tree. Needless to say, we are working on our own little forest to save in Wilmington! Our PTA is helping us weigh paper weekly and students can graph the results. Besides paper, we are also sorting plastic (mostly from water bottles)and aluminum cans as now required in Wilmington. Our children are learning early that our landfills need to be safe places without hazardous waste that does not decompose. We also are saving the juicy packs that our students bring for snacks and lunch. Do you know that we get 2 cents a piece for them? Doesn't sound like much does it? Well, we have made about $10 on them already! If you use them at home, please send them in! Our PTA is steering this program to help put $ into instructional projects throughout the year. If you have not joined PTA yet, please think about doing so.

Hope you have a happy week.

Sincerely, Barbara Stock, Principal