Dear Parents and Friends,

Our children have worked right up to the final buzzer, and apparently enjoy every moment. They are consistently eager to charge up the stairs to class each morning, and enthusiastic all the time! They are clearly well on the way to being “life-long learners”!

Our cute, kinetic Kindergartners made nearly-life-size, very impressive models of the characters from the books they like best. They varied from Babar to Spiderman!

The First Grade enjoyed this day-of-days. They completed a five-week Reading Challenge, which asked each of them to read thirty books. They read an average of 127 books each instead, totaling 774 books!! Pretty impressive. Their reward for this was to dress, today, as each one’s favorite character. Today we welcomed: The Littlest Leaguer, Madeleine, Mike Mulligan, the Blue Ranger, Scat Cat, and Kai (the Ninja). They are proud and happy. And they read really well!

The Second Grade completed a five-week Reading Challenge. Their reward for this was to dress, today, as each one’s favorite character.

Ace Reporter Ishan Deshpande gave the Second Grade report. They have learned to divide by 2 (multiplication backwards!), learned vocabulary words about Galileo Galilei and space, went on a field trip to the New-York Historical Society, and wrote “Lucky Leprechaun” writings, reflecting on their own good fortune. You will enjoy knowing that having “parents who care for me” and being smart and going to Alexander Robertson School are high on the list!

Third Graders are honing their literacy skills: summarizing, ascertaining cause and effect, inferring, and identifying the main idea. They will be writing reviews for “The New Yorker” in no time. They learned that two negatives in one sentence is a “no-no”, the difference between plane and solid geometrical shapes, the body language for lines, modeled by James Owen, which looks like a cross between calisthenics and semaphore. They chose their Science Fair topics, and gave a shout out to Hunter on her birthday!

What’s up with our Fourth Graders, who consistently describe their weeks as “fun”? The long division of large numbers, for example, is described as “fun”! Non-fiction reading featured Owney, the U.S. Rail Mail Mascot, who lived in the 1880’s. They wrote “further adventures of Owney”, using their knowledge of the world he may have encountered. Social Studies focused on the lost colony of Roanoke, which remains a mystery, though you might ask a Fourth Grader his/her theory, and a leprechaun broke into the classroom and left footprints and treats. We are encouraged to wear green tomorrow!

The Fifth Graders always try to teach us Math. They not only know how to find the area of geometric shapes, they know WHY one has to do it in that particular way. Knowing the three branches of the Government and their respective functions clears up a lot of present realities – fortunate and unfortunate. Women scientists were the focus of individual research projects. Does anyone know who the woman scientist in our parent body is? It’s Bela’s (First Grade) mother, Linda Damko! She will make a guest appearance in conjunction with the Science Fair!! The final “persuasive writing” exercise was a dialogue between a cat and a dog debating the better of the two! New Yorkers do that all the time.

My father, Henry Merlin, circa 1932, in the car he built, because he couldn't afford to buy one. Ask your child about it. The children's observations about the possibilities and implications of being poor were thoughtful and insightful.

We wish you and your family a restful and refreshing Spring Break! Please return to school Monday, April 2, and please remember that we have “off” Friday, April 6, and Monday, April 9.