New School Year...2010-11

Dear Parents:

Welcome to the 2010-2011 school year at Blair....

Our Open House will be August 19th from 5-7 p.m.

School starts bright and early for Grades 1-5 on August 25. That is a Wednesday!! School hours are 8:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. Students may begin arriving at 7:30 a.m. and go to the classrooms.

If you are a new Kindergarten parent, you should have received your staggered Kindergarten letter. Your child will come to Blair one day-Wednesday, Thursday or Friday only, then start on August 30th full time.

I am available to you at all times...I believe in an open door policy. Feel free to email or call me at any time.

We know you will have a wonderful year here at Blair.

Barbara Stock
Principal

WEek of May 3

Dear Parents:

We are hoping that April's showers will be bringing May flowers!! We are very busy getting ready for our Grade 3-4-5 End of Grade Testing (EOGs), which begin for Fifth grade on May 14. If you have a child in any of these grades, please be sure that you are providing a stress-free environment during testing, providing a good nutritious breakfast, and providing positive encouragement for your child.

Our PTA has received many recognition awards this past week at the PTA Banquet. We were recognized for the following categories: New Hanover County Outstanding PTA Unit Award, District 2 Membership Awards, Ruby Acorn Award, National Healthy Lifestyles and the Communications Award. We are so proud of our PTA and all that they done this year for our students, faculty and school.

Please help us appreciate our staff on May 5. Ask the PTA how you can help them help us celebrate.

Wednesday evening from 6-8 pm is the Rita's Ice Cream PTA fundraiser. Part of the proceeds will benefit the PTA, which in turn will benefit Blair students. Please help support them!

On Friday evening, our school will be celebrating four retirees from Blair. The following will be retiring as of July 1, 2010:
Mary Ann Clay-Teacher Assistant
Ernestine Freeman-Teacher Assistant
Rosemary Minton-Data Manager
Sue Stott-Technology Facilitator
Please join me in wishing them the best extended vacation ever!

Hoping everyone has a great and relaxing weekend!

Yours in Education,

Barbara Stock

Week of April 26, 2010

Dear Parents:

As we are slowly approaching the end of the school year, we are making plans for a new School Improvement Plan for our school. Mrs. Powell, our Media Coordinator and Jessica Taylor, our Reading Specialist, as well as myself, have spent 3 full days in workshops learning how to design and prepare this document for the needs of our Blair students. We are now working on teacher input for areas of strengths and weaknesses that we need to put into place to make Blair the best school it can be!

This week teachers are working on small group sessions for our Grades 3-5, a program called PowerUp! This helps students with reviews and practice for areas that will be tested on the EOGs. Testing will begin May 14 for Grade 5 Science and May 18-21 for all REading and Math testing. More details will follow as we get closer to that date.

We hope that everyone is enjoying the fresh air and warm weather. This is a great time to read outside in the sun with your children.

Yours in Education,

Barbara Stock, Principal

Week of April 19

Dear Parents:

Do you ever wonder where the time flies??? This is the last week of April and our last school day for students is June 8....

This week at Blair we will be concentrating on Power Up groups that emphasize specific objectives we are working on for EOGs. We will be having a visit from 72 Pre-Kindergarten students next week as well. We have made little goodie bags to welcome them to the school.

Our PTA will be celebrating our last formal meeting of the school year on Tuesday night at 7:00 pm If you would like to join us for our cookout, please fill in the blue PTA sheet sent home on Friday and return it to school. We have a lot of activities planned for the final PTA meeting.

In honor of Earth Week, on Wednesday, there will be two assemblies, one for k-2 and one for 3-5 for conservation. On Thursday, Earth Day, we will be dedicating and planting a tree in the front school lawn area at 1:45pm.

On Friday evening we will be having our voluntary Relay for Life Tent and Walk at Ashley High School beginning at 4:00 pm. We hope to see many of you there.

Have a great week. Please listen to your child read this week!

Yours in Education,

Barbara Stock, Principal

Week of April 12, 2010

Dear Parents:

It is about 4 weeks to EOG's ...how time flies when you are having fun! We have been working hard getting our students ready for testing. Please remember, though it is important, it is one test of measurement of your child. We do not want our children totally stressed out over testing. All students who do not pass have another chance to retake the test with parental permission and can improve their scores.

Our PTA Green Team has results for the Third Grading Quarter on our recycling activities:
Most recycled classrooms:
K-Mrs. Donna Davis
1-Mrs. Kolander
2-Mrs. Norris
3-Mrs. Peacock
4-Ms. Shannon
5-Mrs. Williams
We have recycled 745 lbs of paper and have saved 17 mature trees this year so far!!

Things in the plan for this coming week:
Tuesday evening there will be a PTA fundraiser at Domino Pizza-you may dine in or take out!
Friday morning is our Relay for Life Carnival. Students will all receive 2 free tickets so that everyone can participate. This should be a fun time for everyone!

Hope everyone enjoys the weather this weekend. Sit outside and read with your child.

Yours in Education,

Barbara Stock, Principal

Week of March 15

We have some fun things going on at Blair this week:



Monday: The fifth grade students will be doing a week long Starbase project that begins with a fun (secret) activity arriving at 9:30 a.m. Also, students will be blasting off their rockets at our Friday rocket launch. This is an activity we have been doing for years and all students of all ages love watching this....



Wednesday: If you are a parent representative for our School Improvement Team, we will be meeting Wednesday at 2:45 to discuss our new improvement plan for the next three years, the survey of partnership needs and needs of students for next year.

March 17 is also our St. Patrick's Day celebration.


Thursday, March 18 is our PTA "Go Green Nite" from 5-7 pm at the Blair Cafeteria. Please join us for some "eco-friendly" ideas and items to help our environment.

We would like to thank all our volunteers this year for all their time and services to our students and faculty at Blair. You guys are terrific!!

Remember, next week we have a half day (release at noon) on March 25 and there is no school on March 26 for students.

Yours In Education,


Barbara Stock, Principal

Week of March 8, 2010

Dear Parents:


March is coming in like a lion....Our weather sure has been colder than usual.


Our Data Manager, Rosemary Minton has retired....we didn't believe her, but she really did it. Congratulations!!!!We promise we will not call you before 8:00 a.m. to ask any questions!!


We are working on extra structured time for Math and Reading practice, as well as Fifth Grade Science to begin preparing our students for EOG practices. We are confident that the students are prepared and are great 21st century learners. But first, we need to do the important things....I promised to kiss a pig on Friday, March 5th if the school read over 3,000 books in a week. Welp...watch me squeal and pucker up, as the students met the goal!!!!!!!!! I will be kissing the pig live on Blair on the Air tomorrow morning. No snorting or pig jokes....

On March 11, we will be presenting at our annual Technology Fair at UNCW Warwick Center beginning at 4:00 p.m.


To give you an update as to what we are planning ahead, I would like to list the activities and dates for your reference:

March 15- a.m. Grade 5 begins their week of StarBase training with the parachute launch on the 19th. We have a special (secret) treat for the students on March 15 in the morning.....


March 18 5-7 p.m. PTA Green Team Environmental Night


March 22 3-5 p.m. We will be selecting Student Intern candidates from UNCW for next year.


March 25 noon dismissal for all student


March 26 Teacher workday


March 29-April 4 Spring Holiday


April 15 Tax Day!


April 16 Relay for Life Carnival at School


April 21 - a.m. assemblies from Public Utilities Co.


April 22-Earth Day Showcase 8-10 a.m.



This should keep everyone busy for awhile! Have a great week. Read a book with your child....



Yours in Education,



Barbara Stock, Principal

Week of March 1, 2010

Dear Parents:

Happy March madness! We are slowly approaching our testing accountability times for the school year. We are planning many academic and fun activities for your students. Coming soon will be a carnival, several PTA dinner opportunities, some Relay for Life Activities and some guest speakers and readers.

On Monday, March 1, we will be practicing how to prepare if a tornado strikes. This is part of our Severe Weather Month training. This will be a mock drill that students have practiced for. We will most probably have a mock lock-down as well this month. We practice a required monthly Fire Drill as well.

On Tuesday, March 2, our PTA is sponsoring an Ice Cream Social. This is in conjunction with our Dr. Seuss Week and our evening Book Fair. Please join us for both on the same evening!

On Thursday, March 4, we will have our Spring Pictures taken. This will be your last opportunity to order pictures of your child this school year. This evening the PTA is sponsoring Chick-Fil-A night. Take your family out to dinner for a change....and allow the proceeds to go to our PTA for technology, books and games donated to our school. We love and support our PTA..

On Friday, March 5, we have a very, very busy day....Mrs. Stock and Mrs. McCarty will kiss a real live pig if the Blair students read 3, 400 books in less than a week......Mrs. Stock is practicing pucker-uping just in case! We will have many guest readers throughout the day in our classrooms, including Dr. Lerch, our Superintendent. We will also have our Book Character Parade right after the pig kissing and Blair On the Air.

Hope everyone has a fun Dr. Seuss week!

Yours In Education,


Barbara Stock, Principal

Week of February 15, 2010

Dear Parents:



Happy Valentine's Day. Hope everyone had a great weekend and a great Monday off. Unfortunately, our teacher's did not get the day off, but are busy doing workshops. Fortunately, those workshops help them learn more for your children.



Our students collected $611.72 for the "Change for Change" Haiti Relief Fund! We were pleasantly surprised at the outpouring of donations for this great cause. We will be presenting a check to the Red Cross in the next week or two. This is just one example of student community work that we are so proud of. Thank you teachers and parents for your support as well!



Activities next week include the following:



Feb. 15 Monday: No school for students. Teachers are in workshops.



Feb. 16 Tuesday: Grade 3 in cafeteria for StarLab.



Feb. 19 Friday: PTA Bingo Nite in the Cafeteria !!!!!! We did this last year and it was awesome. Come join us for fun, laughter and family time!!



Everyone have a great week!!

Yours in Education,



Barbara Stock, Principal

Week of February 7, 2010

Dear Parents:

February may sound like a nice quiet month, but ask any of our teachers and they will tell you different! February is our time to go over all student assessments with a fine tooth comb. We are busy collecting and disaggregating data on each and every student at Blair. We progress monitor their growth and check to see that every child is at least where he/she should be at this time of the year. We are closely checking on the achievement of every student.

This week at Blair we will have our Faculty Meeting where we will share strategies that are working to help our sub groups of students and their performance levels. We will also be discussing budgets for next year as well as Kindergarten assessments for incoming Kindergarten students. Kindergarten registration begins later in February, but you may want to think about setting up Doctor appointments for Health Screenings as they tend to book up quickly if you have a child coming to Blair this coming school year.

Our PTA will be hosting the PTA Student Art Show on Tuesday the 9th at 6:30 p.m. This exhibit will showcase all the wonderful things your students create through the Fine Arts Department at Blair. We hope that you will join us and find out all the wonderful things our PTA does for our students and teachers. The PTA will also be hosting the Valentine Breakfast for our faculty on the 12th. You know the old saying, "If you feed them, they will come!"

The Wilmington Police have contacted us with concerns from corporate establishments that our afternoon parent pick up lines are causing blockages to some of the businesses on Market Street. We will fully cooperate with the Police Department and look at any way we can to improve that situation. If anyone has any suggestions, we would love to hear them! Please be safe when waiting to pick up our students. You do have the option of parking your car and coming to the front office to pick children up as well.

We encourage you to come and volunteer in your child's class, the Front Office or our very busy Media Center. We certainly would appreciate any help you can give us. Have a great week!

Yours in Education,

Barbara Stock, Principal

Week of February 1, 2010

Dear Parents:

Please forgive me for not sending a blog last week. My middle daughter had her first baby-or better yet, Grandma had her third grandbaby! I took 3 days off to spoil my new grandson (who lives in Raleigh) to the best of my ability!!

This first week in February brings a lot of cold weather. Please ensure your child has his/her gloves and hats this week as we do go out in cold weather for atleast a short time.

On Tuesday evening, our Blair Chorus will be singing for the School Board at 6:30 p.m. at Spencer Center. Other than that, our extra curricular activities are quiet this week. We are looking for girls to be part of "Girls on the Run" for quarter 3. Please ask any teacher about the program that helps boost girls' self esteem.

We are hoping to have student led conferences some time in late February or early March. We hope you will all join us to discuss your child's educational growth.

Happy first week of February.
Yours in Education,

Barbara Stock, Principal

Week of January 18, 2010

Dear Parents:

This is a short week, and therefore, a short blog! Students are off on Monday the 18th and will be off for half a day on Thursday the 21st. . I am sure you are all asking why we have half days. Central Office has allowed several half days built into the calendar so that teachers can be afforded the opportunity for staff development to keep them current with new educational trends. This month at Blair we will be doing a staff development on the "Fish" Philosophy, a way to boost morale, improve results and help make our students and faculty more positive and self assuring.

On Wednesday, we will be having a panel of judges for our school Science Fair. It should be quite interesting and a lot of fun. Grades 1 and 2 will also be going to the Pied Piper performance. Our School Improvement Team will meet after school and it is open to the parents if they wish to attend. It will be in our Media Center at 2:45 pm.

Have a wonderful week, enjoy the warmer weather to come, and enjoy your children.

Yours in Education,

Barbara Stock, Principal

Week of January 11, 2010

Dear Parents:

Happy New Year!!! Hope everyone had a terrific holiday season. Our teachers all look very well rested and are revitalized and ready to continue teaching all our Blair students. Hope your students are happy to be back as well.

Friday was a 2-hour delay morning, but all went well and our students were excited at the thought of snow. That is something we don't see here very often. From an old northerner originally from the Lake Erie area of Cleveland, Ohio, believe me when I tell you the snow is over-rated!

This coming week includes the following events, suggestions and notes:

1. As long as the weather is not freezing, raining or heavy winds, we generally do go outside for recess, even if it is for 10 minutes. Studies show fresh air is good for all of us, moves our blood and oxygen levels around and helps us focus better the rest of the day. We decide on a day-by-day basis whether students will go outside. Even if we have inside recess, students still have to bundle up to move to electives and lunch in the cafeteria. All this being said, please be sure your students have hats and gloves and an appropriate coat for the weather. If you are in need of any heavy winter clothing items, please feel free to contact me or Ms. Bass, our counselor. Of course, it will be kept confidential. We have given out over 40 pair of gloves just this last week!

2. On Tuesday, we will have a Family Math Nite at the Food Lion at Market and Gordon Roads. The idea is to have the family help students work on real-life math problems in the grocery store. Food Lion will provide worksheets where students find items in the food aisles and solve mathematical problems from the grocery shelf items. No purchases needed! Please join us from 5-7 pm. We are hoping that this will be a yearly activity we can provide our students.

3. The uniform survey results showed that 60% of parents surveyed were NOT in favor of uniforms for students at this time. Therefore, we will not pursue the issue for the 2010-11 school year.

4. On Wednesday our faculty will be honing in on assessment testings of your students. Our K-2 teachers will be sharing Dibel data and Grades 3-5 teachers will be sharing ClassScape Assessment data with each other. This exercise will help teachers with strategies to improve student learning, share positive results and help teachers assess where we are and where we all need to be to ensure successful students for the 21st Century.

5. On Wednesday morning, I will also be having a "Coffee with the Principal" and invite all of you to join us for questions and issues you might like to discuss in an open forum. An invitation will be sent out on Monday. We ask that you return it if you plan to join us, as we need to purchase coffee and a light breakfast we would like to share with you. We will begin at 8:00 a.m. We would love to have you there. In April, we will do a "Coffee with the Principal" in the evening for working parents who cannot attend in the morning.

6. On Thursday, our PTA is offering a fun activity for your children. We are offering Skate Nite at JellyBeans on Oleander Road for our Blair students. The admission is $6.00 per student and if parents do not want to skate, admission is free to just watch. Skate Nite is from 6-8 pm. Hope to see you there!

Stay warm and have a wonderful week!

Yours in Education,

Barbara Stock, Principal