The Briarwood Buzz
From the principal…
Spring has sprung at Briarwood! Children are
making such progress as they dive into their
independent reading books!
Our 2nd grade students had a blast at the PTA
Fun Night! Ms. Tierney’s class took the win for
math bingo. Thank you to Mrs.
Takla and Mrs. Seubert for
their organization and
execution. Everyone enjoyed
the evening and had fun while
displaying their math skills!
BWD Students had a blast
during our Jump-a-thon! Thank
you Ms. Chapin for all your
efforts to create a meaningful
event!
Our Earth Day Celebration was a success! We
began the events with a school wide read aloud!
I
enjoyed reading The Lorax by Dr. Seuss and having a
rich discussion on what we can do to help protect
our Earth. The children then worked with their
Briarwood Buddies, each painting a rock. All rocks
will be used to create an Earth Mosaic to be hung
on our school!
We also conducted our Earth Day lunchroom
garbage experiment. On Thursday, we collected 3
garbage bags per grade level. On Earth Day, when children
brought in reusable containers and reduced their disposable items,
we collected only ½ a garbage
bag worth of garbage! We can
truly make a difference by being
mindful of what and how we use
everyday materials!
All guardians welcome, please
join me at the May 4th Principal’s
Forum from 6-7pm at the BOE
Office. I hope to see you there!
Warm regards,
Mrs. Glaab
Kindergarten
News…..
Our kindergarteners continue to
work diligently each and every
day. We are reading, writing,
working with numbers, and this
week we are learning about the life cycle of chicks.
Yes, we are all playing Mother Hen and hatching chicks.
The children are very excited to see what will hatch out
of each egg.
We are also preparing for
our Authors Celebration at the
end of May. The children are
truly looking forward to sharing
their writing pieces!
Our Kindergarten Celebration
is on June 14. All the children love going to music and
learning all the songs with Mr. Serfozo.
This has been a wonderful year! All the children
have grown so much academically! We wish them all the
best in first grade!
April is Autism Awareness month! To celebrate, we decorated the
Briarwood bulletin board with puzzle pieces to
represent autism. Mrs. Orlando and Ms. Kneler
went around to the different classrooms and
read “My Brother Charlie”, a book about a
child with autism. The children enjoyed
spreading awareness for the month of April!
Briarwood Jump-A-Thon
This years 16th annual Jump-A-Thon
was a huge success. Briarwood
students not only learned how to jump
rope, they also learned how to keep
their hearts healthy.
They did this by taking
the zoo crew pledge.
This pledge challenges
the students to drink
water instead of sugary
drinks, to eat a fruit or vegetable at
every meal and to be active for at least
60 minutes a day.
Briarwood families raised over $9,500
this year for the American Heart Association.
Way to go Briarwood!!!
April is Occupational Therapy
Month!
In honor of April being Occupational Therapy Month, I wanted to
share my love and passion for developing fine motor skills with
my Briarwood family! I recently came across an article entitled,
“Hand Grip: Weak Hands? Weak Body? Why Kids and Millennials
are Losing their Grip” on ilslearningcorner.com. The article talks
about how technology is infused in everything we do now. This is
great because there are several apps and learning tools out there.
Being well versed in technology is the way of the world and a
great advantage to our children! With that being said, we have
to be aware that with the increase in technology in our homes
and classrooms we use our hand strength and fine motor skills
less. A recent study in the Journal of Hand Therapy shows that
“young adults have surprisingly less hand strength and hand grip
than older generations.” One might say that this is just a sign of
the times and who cares. When was the last time that you wrote
more than your signature or maybe jotted down a shopping list or
a note to your child’s teacher? While this is one argument, it is
important for our community to know that hand strength and fine
motor skills go beyond handwriting and tying shoes. A connection
has been found between the development of fine motor skills and
hand strength and “how the brain transitions from right-brained
learning (creative, emotions) to move left-brained learning (logical,
critical thinking). If the brain fails to transition from rightbrained learning to left-brained learning, children become more
emotional instead of logical as they get older.” The great news is
that you can help your child! As parents, you can “ignite the
left-side of the brain for higher learning processes like
organization, completing tasks, remembering facts and details,
emotional control, expressive communication, and more” by
strengthening your child’s hands and working on their fine motor
skills. Although technology is important, incorporate other types
of play into your child’s repertoire.
¬ Set a timer to limit your child’s time on technology.
¬ Play with building toys that provide resistance when pushing
the pieces together such as Legos, Lego Duplos, Coinstruction
sets, Plusplus, and marble tracks.
¬ Encourage your child to cook with you! There is a lot of
hand strengthening involved in mixing with a spoon (or your
hands), pouring, scooping, and handling kitchen materials/
tools.
¬ Encourage your child to dig in the dirt or sand, maybe start
a garden! Spring is a great time to practice climbing,
swinging on the trapeze, or monkey bars.
¬ Warm weather is a great time to take out messier toys like
Kinetic Sand and Play Doh.
As Mr. Rogers used to say,
“Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious
learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really
the work of childhood.”
By Danielle Manger, MS, OTR/L
A special thanks to the PTA for
the great assembly THE NED
SHOW! The children and staff
enjoyed it!
Important Dates:
5/29 Memorial Day (school closed)
Remember to use
www.razkids.com at home!
Also, visit
www.fun4thebrain.com and
www.gregtangmath.com for
some great math activities!