BRES Sharing Parade (2011)!!

On Tuesday, December 20th, Blue Ridge Elementary school celebrated its 26th annual Sharing Parade. The Sharing Parade is an event where students, faculty and staff come together help families in need. This year's theme for the parade was "Uniting." As our Sharing Parade coordinator Kathy Roe says, the purpose of the event is to "brighten the holiday season to those in our community; show we care; help instill in our students it is important to give, to help, to share, and the good feeling you get when you help someone."

Throughout December, students donated food items to their classroom. The day of the Sharing Parade, the students bring all their items to the auditorium and place them on tables in front of the stage. This "parade" of giving is a very special tradition at Blue Ridge Elementary.

Parents are invited to come and join in the celebration of singing and sharing thoughts. Kristen Burkhart, elementary music teacher, led the students in song. Thena Summers, a community member and volunteer for the Great Bend Fire Company and American Red Cross, came to speak about the unity she witnessed this September during the devastating floods our community suffered.

This year food boxes were given to 30 families in need. A ham and a bag of potatoes were donated by Blue Ridge Elementary PTO. Toys for each child in the family were added in by Kristen Hinkley, another Blue Ridge teacher, on behalf of the Toys N Tots and Leo Club programs.

Photo Caption: Students read their sharing thought on stage while their classmates hold the UNITE sign. From left to right (reading): Brock Gumaer, Tommy Gudykunst and TJ Hand. Holding sign: Evan Snyder, Andrew Merrell, Kaleb Folk, MaKayla Phillips, Jillian Stone

Clcik Here to view another blog of the Sharing Parade: http://brsdgifted.blogspot.com/2011/12/26th-annual-sharing-parade.html.

PreK Visits Emerson Apts (Elderly Housing)

The BRES PreK classes took time out of their day to sing Christmas Carols and provide the Elderly at the Emerson Apartments with a Holiday snack and an Ornament for their Christmas Trees.

Mrs. Templeton's 4th Grade Math Class

Mrs. Templeton’s fourth grade math class recently began their geometry unit. The students will be studying such things as polygons, lines, points, rays and angles. In these photographs, the students are using geoboards to make various polygons. They were asked to make a triangle, quadrilateral, pentagon, hexagon and an octagon. Great job class!

Once again, Blue Ridge Elementary partnered with Trehab and WNEP Channel 16 to collect food items during the annual Feed-A-Friend food drive. Students in grades PreK-5th collected a grand total of 638 food items. Those food items ranged from
Jell-O mix to canned fruit and applesauce. This year the first grade class collected the most items with 157 donated boxes of pudding. They were rewarded with extra recess time on their new playground equipment.

Caption – First graders at Blue Ridge Elementary School enjoy their extra recess time reward.

1st Marking Period Honor Roll.............Grade 5

Honors:
Beach, Makayla E.
Beesley, Samuel J.
Carr, Aleksander T.
Clapper, Cassandra A.
Colwell, Jason E.
Cramer, Micah L.
DelLongo, Danielle R.
DeVoe, Clayton J.
Gelatt, Brandon R.
Glatzel, Matthew J.
Goff, Danielle L.
Goff, Joshua J.
Kelly, Jerry P.
Kerr, Mary V.
Lewis, Mackenzie M.
Martin, Alec J.
McAndrew, Christopher J.
Perrington, Autumn E.
Phillips, MaKayla M.
Schell, Jerni G.
Smith, Zachary T.
Stepniak, Lauren T.
Vogel, Sarah M.
Wojtkowski, Wesley A.
Zawiski, Jeff W.

High Honors:
Bailey, Devon M.
Bonner, Anna M.
Brant, Taylor P.
Bryden, Kimberly M.
Cosmello, Samuel J.
Cramer, Tabitha P.
Dissinger, Parker J.
Folk, Kaleb M.
Gudykunst, Benjamin V.
Gudykunst, Karly G.
Gumaer, Brock H.
Hand, Todd J.
Hepler, Krystal E.
Johnson, Natasha L.
Lewis, Frederick D.
McAulliffe, Jillian E.
Merrell, Andrew C.
Mirra, Ashley M.
Morris, Isabelle N.
Mudge, Avy M.
Mullen, Micah M.
Powell, Kyra J.
Reynolds, Robert G.
Roe, Adam T.
Snyder, Evan M.
Stilloe, Ardine
Stone, Jillian S.
Tierney, Daniel P.
Tobon, Luis A.

Check our BRES Student Artwork on Artsonia!!

Click on the link to check out our online student gallery at Artsonia. Blue Ridge Elementary gallery can be viewed at http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=17116 We have about 237 pieces of student work and counting! I'm hoping to have at least one piece of student art for every student by the end of the year. Students can purchase items from the gift shop with their own art on the merchandise. Part of the money is put towards funds for our art class. This is all done through the Artsonia website.

Sarrah Dibble
Blue Ridge Elementary Art Teacher

The Blue Ridge Elementary School would like to thank our local Robb’s supermarket and School/Community Family Members for their partnership with the eScrip program. eScrip is proven to be a fantastic resource for fundraising where participating business partners contribute a percentage of your grocery loyalty cards, credit card, and debit/ATM card purchases to the school, group or organization of your choice.

Here's How it Works:
•You register any one or all of your existing grocery loyalty, debit and credit cards for use in the program.

•Participating merchants will make contributions to your chosen group, based on purchases made by you, just by using the cards you have registered.

•Your purchases are tracked and available to you online, allowing you to see just how much you are earning on your child's behalf!

Pictured above(attached), is Matthew Button (Blue Ridge Elementary Principal) and Robb Robinson (Owner of Robb’s Supermarket) holding a certificate recognizing the Blue Ridge Elementary School for being among the “Top Participating Groups” in the ShurSave/eScrip Community Rewards Program for the Fall of 2011.

Grade 1 is Learning About "Careers"

In the first grade reading curriculum their is a unit on "Careers." During the first week of December the students learned about various careers in the world and the week concluded with many first grade parents visiting first grade and presenting on their career.

Pictured above, is Mr. Button reading "Frog Principal" and explaining to the students what it is like to be a Principal.