Doughnuts with Dad

In line for doughnuts from Gingerbread House Bakery.

Our parking lot was packed this past week as we celebrated the special men in our children's lives at our Doughnuts with Dad celebration. Students brought uncles, grandparents, dad, step dad, special friends, etc. to school with them to share a special morning and breakfast. Groups were greeted at the door by Mrs. Concus and welcomed in to have their picture taken and doughnuts from Gingerbread House bakery. YUM! The kids decorated #1 "Dude" Ribbons as a thank you gift for their special guest.

A first grader perfects his rainbow ribbon by selecting the perfect final color.

We love our Bon Air Families!

A kindergarten holding up his finished ribbon.

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Revving our Engines for ISTEP Part 2

The green flag is about to wave for ISTEP Part 2 as it begins in our schools. Our students are ready to press that gas pedal and charge full speed ahead towards the finish line. We are thrilled to support all of our third, fourth, and fifth graders in this final race of the test-taking season. The staff and K-2 students have rallied around them and are cheering for them from the stands! If you see a third, fourth, or fifth grader make sure to tell them GOOD LUCK! DO YOUR BEST! YOU ARE AMAZING! AND WE ARE PROUD OF YOU!

The school pulled together to support our test taking kiddos these next few weeks. We hope many small acts of kindness and some silly teachers can offer some motivation and encouragement for this stressful time of year.

Check out Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Hollingsorth, and Mrs. Sobie's video on You Tube!


Every year we provide water bottles and peppermints to the kids as they take their test. This keeps them hydrated and refreshed. (According to a study in 2007, peppermints supposedly stimulate part of your brain and improve alertness......who knew?)

Our Kindergarten, First, and Second Graders, with some help from adults in the building, designed "happy" face labels to wrap around our 3-5 students water bottles. Each student got a specially designed label from another person in the building and no two bottles were alike!

Bon Air Staff and Students Go CRAZY for Reading

At the beginning of March our students were challenged to read 10 minutes or more a night with their families for the entire month. Students tracked their reading on a Cat in the Hat reading tally sheet and turned them in when they reached their goal. If the school collectively could read 5,000 minutes Mrs. Concus and Mrs. Smith would have a WEEK of crazy hair!

Our students met this goal before the month had even ended! And to our amazement they continued to read towards a higher goal and nearly tripled their original target mark! In celebration, the Crazy Hair Week was extended to the teaching staff this week and our students joined in the fun on Friday!!

All together our students have read over 20,000 minutes and still counting!

WE ARE SO PROUD OF OUR STUDENTS FOR READING AND MEETING THEIR GOALS! KEEP GOING KIDS!

The Champion Is........

THE HUNGER GAMES!!!!

We nearly doubled our average weekly votes for this week's contest and in our final match-up Hunger Games won our championship round! Congratulations Suzanne Collins, Katniss, Peeta, Gale, Prim, President Snow, Finnick, and the rest of the Hunger Games family for your win!

Did you know Suzanne Collins went to Indiana University? Wow!

Our library copies of the Hunger Games will receive a gold medal sticker stating their BOOK OF THE YEAR 2015 award.

Thanks to all that voted!

Final Standings
Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 437
Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney 308

Tournament of the Books FINAL ROUND 2015

Our first Tournament of the Books is coming to a close, thank you all for your participation and continuous voting. In our semi-final round two powerhouse series have emerged as winners to advance to our championship.

Semi Final Totals

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney 238 votes
Junie B. Jones Series by Barbara Park 27 votes

The Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins 318 votes
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton 38 votes

VS

You can cast your vote for the final round by clicking BEGIN below. There is no limit to the number of times you can vote and voting remains open until April 6th.

We are inviting students to begin an online conversation regarding the remaining two books. We encourage students to post their favorite parts, characters, and thoughts about the books that remain. They may post their comments in the comments box below this blog post.

Please remind them of proper online etiquette and the types of posts that would be acceptable. They must click on the word "comments" and begin typing their thoughts. They may post as Anonymous or use their Google Account, but we would like them to include their first name and last initial in their post. :-)

Tournament of the Books Round 3

The NCAA College Basketball Tournament is in full swing and brackets are being busted across the country. Even if you don't participate in watching college basketball throughout the year it is always fun to hear about the inspiring stories of the teams in the tournament and the Cinderella stories of the small schools who win big.

Even the competitors of our own tournament have some interesting stories. 

• Did you know Jeff Kinney, the author of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, also created the website Poptropica.com? 
• Did you know the Junie B. Jones series is banned in some schools because of Junie B's bad manners? 
• Did you know Suzanne Collins graduated from Indiana University? 
• Surprisingly S.E. Hinton wrote the majority of the book, The Outsiders, when she was 16 years old. 

After 309 voters...here are our current winners:

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series by Jeff Kinney 128 votes 

Fault in our Stars by John Green  117 votes

Junie B. Jones Series by Barbara Park 130 votes

Fault in our Stars by John Green 101 votes 

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 243 votes

Sideways Stories by Wayside School by Louis Sachar 55 votes 

Wonder by R.J. Palacio 96 votes

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton 156 votes 

This next vote will be a head-to-head battle of two Elementary series and two Middle School titles!

Click  BEGIN to vote in the next round. 

Reading Contests- Dr. Seuss and My On Reader

Today a reader, tomorrow a leader! We are currently running several reading contests in our building. Students are encouraged to read 5 hours this month to help us reach our school goal of 5,000 minutes. If this goal is met Mrs. Concus and Mrs. Smith will have WILD and CRAZY hair after Spring Break. There were Dr. Suess Hat tracking sheets sent home with students at the beginning of March. Students color in stripes on the hats every 10 minutes they read or are read to. If you need an additional sheet please come to the main office.

In addition to this contest, we are also encouraging students to read online using our My On Reader software. My On Reader offers students the opportunity to read books on their level or have audio books read aloud to them. Their time spent reading can include these online books. Students who increase their reading level and spend the most time reading online can earn the chance of being a contestent in our end of the year Minute to Win It and Fear Factor events.

Here is the break down of ways students can earn entries from MyOn Reader:

• Increase your reading level- 1 entry
• Class who spends the most time reading- 1 entry per student
• Student with highest time spent reading per class- 5 entries for that student
• Highest Lexile growth in each class-10 entries for that student.

Website: www.myon.com 

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