May 2011 - Johnston Community School District

Greetings from Beaver Creek!News from Beaver Creek ElementarySubmitted by Nancy McGill, ELP TeacherI have thoroughly enjoyed the children this year and thank each and every one of you for your support,words of encouragement, and assistance as you helped to make the 2010-2011 another very good year!There has been such growth and excitement this year as children in grades 3,4 and 5 explored the high levelof challenge in the Language Arts study! I wish everyone could experience the tremendous level ofengagement and collaborative problem solving that goes on during a sentence, paragraph, essay or poemanalysis. It is so exciting!Fourth graders chose a classic novel from their Caesar’s English text to read for the last book of the year.Choices include The Yearling, War of the Worlds, Lord of the Flies and Alice in Wonderland, to name a few.The books are proving challenging, but rewarding to the children. It has been a great finish to a year ofchallenging reading!Math Olympiad participants outdid themselves this year! Our Beaver Creek team achieved the honor ofbeing in the top 10% of all teams participating in this worldwide contest. Our top scorer, Preston Peddicordfrom Ms. Segebart’s fifth grade classroom achieved an overall score of 24/25. Congratulations! Fourthgrader, Aditi Jithendra was our second place winner with a score of 20/25. We have a tie for third place:Jack Lucas and Ethan Haezebroeck, both scored 19/25. No one scored below 10/25 this year – also a first forus! We had a great team this year and I thank everyone who made that possible!I have been very busy as the year draws to a close, meeting and working with as many students as I canfrom the primary grades. I am meeting new First and Second grade friends and learning about theiraccomplishments this year and seeking information that will help me recommend cluster groups for thecoming year. We have been reading, thinking, solving problems, playing math games, writing and readingpoetry and generally getting to know one another. I have really enjoyed this opportunity to meet manychildren who are eager and ready to learn!The identification process has been completed and again, I want to thank parents for all their supportthrough out this process. It is lengthy and can be tedious; however, it is such a fantastic process to help usget to know the children, appreciate their academic growth and help identify an appropriate level ofservice the 2011 – 2012 school year.As always, should you have questions about the program or what your child is doing please contact me;Nancy McGill, your ELP Beaver Creek staff person. I am happy to help. Have a relaxing summer!6