Happy Holidays from our family to yours!!!!

Festive last day of year at EES!  Happy Holidays to you all!  

Hour of Code at EES!

Thanks to Dr. B-T, students at EES are participating in the Hour of Code.  The Hour of Code is a global movement reaching tens of millions of students in 180+ countries. It is a grassroots effort to encourage millions of students to try an Hour of Code during December 8-14, 2014, in celebration of Computer Science Education Week. 
"Every student should have the opportunity to learn computer science. The Hour of Code helps nurture problem-solving skills, logic and creativity. If we start students early they will  have a foundation for success in any 21st-century career path." (http://hourofcode.com/us)

These pictures were taken today as some of our fifth grade students participated in a coding lesson.  Dr. B-T introduced them to the notion of coding and then shared the activity with them.  Students will create a snowflake by moving Elsa (from Frozen) across the ice. They have to follow directions at the bottom of each page.  For example, CAN YOU CREATE A SNOWFLAKE USING THE REPEAT BLOCK TO MAKE A SQUARE 10 TIMES AND THE TURN BLOCK TO TURN 36 DEGREES BETWEEN EACH SQUARE?  Each time the student is successful in following the directions, a pop up appears congratulating them.  Students are practicing their mathematical skills while creating code in such a fun fashion.  Once the students are congratulated, they can click a button to see the code that they just created!!!

Parent volunteers are supporting the Hour of Code in each of our grade level sessions in the computer lab.  Some teachers have decided to extend these opportunities into the classroom.  If your child wants to practice this at home, they can go to Dr. B-T's website to access the Hour of Code website or type in the URL.  Students have a log in and can easily continue this at home.  There are easy to follow tutorials for each activity.  

Brian Lies, Author Visit

Brian Lies Biography ( cited from http://www.brianlies.com/brian_lies_bio.htm )  

I was born in 1963 in Princeton, New Jersey, which back then was a quiet college town, surrounded by old farmland slowly giving way to housing developments. I spent a lot of time building dams and forts in the woods across the street with my best friend, inventing things, and writing and drawing with my older sister. At various times during my childhood, we had newts, gerbils and rabbits as pets. When I was in fifth grade, an author and illustrator visited my school, and I was amazed that one could have a job writing and drawing. I wished it could be my job! But I didn’t think I was good enough at either writing or drawing to even try.

I had always liked to draw, though, and kept doing it just for fun. During high school, I also painted with oil paints and made stained glass windows. I actually sold some, too—my first taste of self-employment. I went to Brown University after high school, where I studied Psychology and British and American Literature. I began to think about what I really wanted to do for a career, and what I really wanted was something that involved art. So after graduation from college in 1985, I moved to Boston to study drawing and painting at the Boston Museum School (also known as the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston).

At the Museum School, I started getting paintings in exhibitions and won a few prizes, and then was able to get political illustrations published in the Christian Science Monitor and the Boston Globe.

Suddenly I had a career as an editorial and political illustrator, working with a lot of magazines and newspapers. In 1989, I illustrated my first book,Flatfoot Fox and the Case of the Missing Eye, with Houghton Mifflin Company in Boston.

Since then, I’ve illustrated over twenty-five books, including my latest one, Bats at the Ballgame, which I also wrote.  My other four written-and-illustrated books to date are the New York Times bestsellers Bats at the Beach and Bats at the Library, Hamlet and the Enormous Chinese Dragon Kite, and Hamlet and the Magnificent Sandcastle.

I also get lots of work published in Cricket, Spider, Ladybug and Babybug magazines, and I enjoy visiting schools to work with students on writing and illustrating stories.

I live in a seaside town in Massachusetts with my wife, my daughter, and two cats. My hobbies are bicycling, woodworking, and tending a big vegetable garden behind the house. I’m very interested in old-fashioned food preparation, too, and sometimes try making my own kimchi, sauerkraut, cheese, and other things (including a vinegar-laced drink called switchel, which I kind of liked but which everybody else in my family thought was really nasty).

I also read a lot, which I think is important—it keeps my imagination going, and leaves me feeling much more relaxed than television does!

Thanks to the EES PTO, Brian Lies visited our school today and met with each kindergarten and first grade class.  He read one of his books and explained the writing process to our young students.  He repeatedly stated, "PRACTICE MAKES BETTER!!"  The students had great questions and comments for Mr. Lies.  He ended his visit with each class by drawing a bat picture for the students to keep in their classroom.  Included are some pictures from Miss Kelley's visit with the author.

Happy Thanksgiving! (also some pics from third grade Colonial Day!)

I would like to extend my best wishes for a happy and restful Thanksgiving.  I often think about how blessed I am to work at such an amazing school, with such a dedicated staff, in a wonderful community!!!  I am also thankful for my amazing family that continues to grow and grow….over the past year I have gained a daughter-in law, son- in law, a new granddaughter, and a wheaten terrier grand puppy!  They will all be at our house for Thanksgiving and I cannot wait to get home and start cooking!  Enjoy your holiday, and enjoy the Colonial Day pics from today!!!

Gaga Pit at EES!

Have your children been talking about the new Gaga Pit at EES?  I thought you might enjoy seeing some pictures of the new pit and students learning the game in PE class.  I am also including this link in case you want to watch children play this game.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjK7V9420nI

Thank you to the parent volunteers who worked from 9:00-4:00 on Saturday building this pit!  They were:

Steve Bixby

Jenn & Jonathan Cort

Chris WIlliams

Bernie Holmes

Also, TM Turfscapes (Karen & Tom Moulton) donated the turf and a 3 person crew for 3 hours.

Finally, thank you to the parent volunteers who have signed up to oversee "the pit"next week when children begin to use it during recess.  Linda Collins has been so kind as to teach every student at EES how to play this game during PE this week!  Great team effort!!  We are so blessed to have such amazing parents!!!

Hour of Code at EES!

 Have you heard about the Hour of Code?  Last year, the Hour of Code was launched as a grassroots campaign to recruit ten million students to try their hand at computer science during National Computer Science Week.  The idea behind it was to break stereotypes and to remove the veil of mystery that surrounds the field. The campaign supassed its goal in only a few days, and has now reached 47 million students worldwide. 

We are thrilled to launch the EES Hour of Code in early December.  This Hour of Code will coincide with National Computer Science Week, which kicks off on December 8.  The main goal is to empower learners young and old to take their first steps toward learning computer science basics in a fun and accessible way!!  Innovators like Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates are behind this national push to promote computer science.  It is predicted that by 2020 there will be one million computing jobs without qualified applicants. Now is the time to expose our learners to the exciting possibilities of computer science and technology!  We live in a digital age, but few know how to make it work.  The Hour of Code is looking to break that cycle.

Please join me in supporting the students and staff as we chart our course for a coding adventure.  Mr. Bodmer-Turner, technology teacher, will be working with students during thier computer class that week.  He  would appreciate having two parents per class to support this initiative.  If you are interesting in helping, please email him directly.   In addition, some teachers might be reaching out to you for classroom support.  We are aiming to share our coding progress with the country at hashtag #HourofCode.  I encourage the EES community to check out Code.org for more information about the importance of teaching computer science in our classrooms, and see the positive momentum this campaign has garnered.  

In just one hour, we will align our compass for an engaging, meaningful exposure to computer science!  And quite possibly, we may launch the coding wizards of the future!

GRANDMA Roberts!!!

Our first grandchild was born on Tuesday, November 4 at 4:46 AM.  This is a photo of the new grandma holding Madison Kyle Roberts (6 lb. 9oz.) for the first time.  She is so beautiful!!!  This has been an amazing year for my family.  My son Jeff is such a proud Dad!!!

WOW…..making volcanoes in third grade!

Students in third grade were learning about different types of volcanoes in Science.   This is a timely topic based on what is occurring in Hawaii….Today they watched a YouTube video about the volcano and learned about Sheild, Cinder Cone, and Composite volcanoes.  Students made these various types of volcanoes out of clay and "erupted" them with vinegar.  It was so much fun seeing how engaged they were today.  One student said, "I LOVE SCIENCE!"