October 2013 Edition

It’s a BOOtiful Day for School!

All of our teachers got in the spirit of the day by donning costumes. Halloween at Brookfield included specialthemed activities in each class, a recitations of Poe’s The Raven by the 5th graders, a “Science is Magic” showpresented by the 7th Graders, Mentor group activities for the Middle school students, and ended with a fabulousHalloween Party hosted by the Brookfield Parent Association. Our school may be very academic, but we knowhow to have fun, too! See more photos of Halloween activities on page 11 .

Thanks for a greatparty, BPA Parents!

Dr. Jo gave the Technology Academyclass a lesson on developing an inter-view guide and conducting an inter-view. The students applied these tips tointerview new student, Izzy Asker(pictured in red sweater), and collabo-rate on a “human interest” article abouther. When the final drafts were ready,Dr. Jo and Mrs. Schumacher read thearticles and selected the winning arti-cle, which will be published in our stu-dent newspaper, The Brookfield Buzz.

Each teammate received a covetedHomework Pass and his or her choiceof a Jamba Juice gift card or Bake SaleTicket. Technology Academy classteaches publishing and media skills inaddition to basic programming and ad-vanced tech skills.

Congratulations to Athena , Khem , and Tammy forwinning the “Human Interest Story - Interview Chal-lenge.” Great job, kids!

Our Second Grade Glass completed a great cross-curricular unit onplant s. The y studied all about plant structure and development inScience, examining real plant samples and growing their own bean

plants from seeds.

When a few of the students showed Dr. Jo their growing plants,she asked, “Are you going to try to climb your beanstalks like Jack

in the Beanstalk?” That triggered an idea for Mrs. Cullen to parlaythe study of plants into a Reading and Language Arts activity. Mrs.

Cullen shared several versions of the “Jack and Beanstalk “fairytale with her students, and inspired them to compose their

own “magical beanstalk” story about their bean plant. The stu-dents really enjoyed writing imaginative stories that featured them-selves, classmates, and family members as characters. They also addedArt into this unit by illustrating their stories.

The stories are on display in Mrs. Cullen’s classroom this month.Come by and take a look! Pictured right is the first page of Preston’sstory and Grace’s illustration.

One of the benefits of private education is instructional freedom. Ourteachers are encouraged to design creative lessons and take advantageof “teachable moments” like this one that inspire students. Our aca-demic program is carefully designed and monitored, but our teachers

are not shackled into a specific method of instructional delivery orscripted curriculum. Our program emphasizes critical thinking andcreativity while providing a strong foundation of critical knowledge

and skills for success.

Second Graders are Experts on Plant Growth and Creative Writing

Brookfield MiddleSchool Students Lend aHand (or two) at theBPA Spaghetti Dinner

It sure was nice to see so many of our students vol-unteering as servers at the BPA Spaghetti Dinner!As always, the food was delicious and a nice way tobring our school community together.

The Brookfield Parent Association has had a verybusy month. The Spaghetti Dinner was followed bythe Scholastic Book Fair and Family Breakfast, andOctober came to a close with the annual All-SchoolHalloween Party! The BPA hosts events and raisesfunds to support student activities. More impor-tantly, it functions as a means to bring our schoolfamilies together.

Our First Grade students are en-joying practicing apostropheplacement in contractions. Thetactile placement of apostrophescreated from bits of colored tapeon contractions written in chalkare a great tool for kinestheticlearning. Physically manipulat-ing the parts of contractionshelps to imprint the structure ofthese “squished” words in theirminds.

Nadia and Nathan are happy toshow off their work-in-progress.

This unique project is the inven-tion of Mr. Davis, who is al-ways seeking out new and betterways to teach writing, grammar,and usage.

First-gradersLOVE

Building

Can't and couldn't, isn't, wouldn’t

I’m and she’s, you’re and he’d

Won't and I've and let's, and didn’t!

Wouldn’t , shouldn’t, we’ll and she’d

Contractions every one!

There’s only one dummy at Brookfield, and that’s theone Mr. Flolo uses for weight training and wrestling.Our Pre-first boys are working on strength building bylifting and holding the dummy at waist height. The girlsin class seemed to find this exercise extremely entertain-ing! There were plenty of giggles to go around. Ourmiddle school kids take it a step farther by lifting andholding the dummy over their heads! Brookfield kidshave strong minds and strong bodies!

Cross country is one of the many sports offered at our school, and Coach Flolo makes this sport extra fun for ourrunners by arranging meets with neighboring schools. Pictured above are our runners starting a fun against Ber-gamo Montessori. Below are photos of our “Pumpkin Run” 10th Annual Eagle Invitational Cross Country Tourna-ment that took place this month in Land Park. The students especially enjoy this meet, because they have the op-tion to run in costume or crazy dress. Parents and other family members are invited to join in as well.

Reading Buddies!Pre-first student, Kai, and his 5thGrade Buddy, Brandon, spendsome time together reading eachweek. This activity reinforcesgood habits and builds commu-nity between the primary andmiddle school students. The 5thgraders enjoy taking on this lead-ership role, too!

C'est quoi ça?Our poor, suffering, eighth graders are be-ing tortured in French Class; forced to eatdelicious French pastries against their will.Don’t they look miserable?

Apparently, they are engaging in culturalimmersion through this class celebrationof la semaine du gout (the week of tastes)from Oct. 14-20.All week long the Frenchoffer creative and original recipes to share.

I think I will need to sit in on more middleschool French classes. “S'il vous plaît,passez-moi les macarons…”

-Dr. Jo

Brookfield 8th Grader Leads Assembly with Anti-bullying Message

Stephanie did a great job organizing a schoolassembly centered around appreciating dif-ferences and against bullying. Coordinatinghis event helped Stephanie earn her SilverAward in Girl Scouts. She solicited the helpof her fellow 8th graders and the entireschool community to donate colorful socksfor use in this assembly. After a rousingcheer from our Peewee Cheer Squad, thestudents listened attentively to Stephanie’stalk . Then every student was given a pair ofmismatched socks to wear for the rest of theday as a reminder of the assembly’s mes-sage . The assembly ended with a school“sock hop” to the Cha Cha Slide led byStephanie and the 8th grade class. It was afun and meaningful way to celebrate our di-verse school community!

Mentor soirée chez madame! Middle School French Teacher, Madame Stiehr, invited hergroup of mentees to our lovely home. The girls enjoyed exploring Madame’s yard, trying outthe piano, and spending quality time together off campus. Brookfield started our MiddleSchool Mentor Program last year, and it has been very successful in building teacher/studentrapport and extending friendships across grades. Each mentor group comprises of mixed gradelevel students. The students appreciate having a teacher available to them to guide themthrough the challenges of being an adolescent.

At Last! Proof that our Middle School Students areVery Spooky Creatures! (Like we needed proof…)The Middle School students worked on Spooky Storiesunits in grades 6 through 8. Students read stories by EdgarAllen Poe, Ray Bradbury, and other spooky authors. Afteranalyzing the stories for elements of suspense and mood,each student embarked on writing his or her own spookystory. Eighth graders were challenged by adding an addi-tional writing genre of mystery to their tale of fright.

After extensive in-class revision, the students illustratedtheir stories and self-published them with one of a kindcover art! On Halloween day, the middle school cametogether for a Spooky Story Celebration, where studentsread aloud excerpts from the stories. You can review thesefantastic stories on the wall in the English classroom dur-ing the month of November. A winner from each gradelevel will be featured in the Brookfield Newspaper, andthe full story will be available on Brookfield’s web site.

In addition, the English classes took advantage of thespooky mood and the Book Fair to hold a “Fresh Blood”Book Drive for English classroom library. Students whobought a book from the book fair, brought one from home,or bought one from a Scholastic catalog during the monthof October received a free homework pass! What a greatway to support the BPA fundraiser and enhance our stu-dents’ selection of in-class reading! The students will helpDr. Tracy organize a new genre-based shelving system fortheir updated class library. The goal is to make sure everystudent can always find a good book to read!

Jared reads aloud from his original story to our middleschool students. Very spooky stories!

Middle School Mentor GroupActivities Tie it All Together!

While the girls were bonding over a treat-makingactivity, the boys were learning how to properly tie a tie.

Mr. Bogart generously provided the“curriculum” for this lesson, as well ashis collection of ties! They look ready todo some business, don’t they?

The girls were also kind enough to makeenough treats to share with the boys.