INSIDE

The Borderite Report

Point Roberts Primary School News

Kindergarten, 1st & 2nd Grade
by Mary Edgley, Teacher

We have gotten off to a wonderful start in the new school year. The kids amaze me every day with the things they are learning and with their creative talents. It is exciting to realize how many things we have accomplished already and the year has just begun.

Literacy is a major focus in our classroom and we spend a large portion of the day reading together, writing and sharing great books. With our small class sizes I can conference with each child every day on the stories they are creating and on their developing use of reading strategies. Furthermore, thanks to our wonderful instructional assistant and our fantastic volunteers, the children receive a tremendous amount of one-on-one interaction time. Each child has already created several books of their own, based on the things we are reading in class. It has been really exciting preparing for open house this year because the kids have so many great things that they are looking forward to sharing with their parents.

In math we have worked on basic computational skills, place value, and reading and creating graphs. The students have collected data about members of our class using surveys and Venn diagrams and then turned that data into pictographs and bar graphs. Students especially enjoyed activities like determining class members’ favorite colors of Skittles (of course by sampling them) and then graphing the results of their work.

Thanks to our wonderful location, we have also been making good use of the outdoor opportunities Point Roberts has to offer. We have explored the woods surrounding the school, and caught and examined various types of bugs. We walked to a farm near the school to pick apples, and then returned to turn our apples into applesauce. We have also made our first trip to the beach, where we caught crabs, examined rocks and enjoyed the sunshine.

As I mentioned before, we are clearly into an amazing school year and we have just begun.

Superintendent’s Corner
by Ron Spanjer

September has been a very busy first month at Point Roberts Primary School. We have realized higher than anticipated enrollment this year, with a total of 14 students starting in the program.

If you have not had an opportunity to visit the Blaine School District website and learn more about the happenings across the program, we hope that you will do so. We are making a number of changes on the Point Roberts Primary page, with our goal being timely, informative and supportive information for both parents and community members. You can access the website at www.blainesd.org.

I am in the process of developing a more formal schedule with respect to days that I will be at Pt. Roberts Primary School this year. In addition to the afternoon of the third Tuesday of the month, I plan to spend one additional day monthly at Pt. Roberts Primary. This second day will be identified in cooperation with Mrs. Edgley. Mrs. Sim will have my Pt. Roberts Primary schedule on file at least one month in advance.

It continues to be a pleasure to meet new parents and learn of concerns and expectations for our students. Pt. Roberts Primary remains a very special place to work and learn and we are looking forward to an exciting and productive year for all students.