Pinewood families we hope everyone has a wonderful holiday break.  We will miss all of our students but know how important family time is.

As a mom I know that during the next two weeks there will be a few times where my daughters will be complaining that they are board or arguing and fighting over who knows what.  It is during those times that I encourage them to read.  Taking a break with a good book saves all of our sanity.  Reading also will keep them doing something academic so they don’t fall to far out of their routine.

We have created a building reading challenge any students who are able to complete the challenges can bring the form in and earn a fun reward and the chance to have lunch with Mrs. Brown.

Parent volunteer reading at one of our holiday parties

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The Kindergartners had fun at their Holiday party with games, crafts, a book gift exchange and yummy food!  They were so excited to be playing Holiday bingo and enjoyed making bells out of little cups.

Creativity, communication, critical thinking, and a whole lot of collaboration is you will find if you step foot into one of the three STEM classrooms at Pinewood on any given Wednesday.  It has been amazing to see how far the students have come in their understanding of STEM and its concepts in such a short amount of time.  Students are more and more willing to take chances without the fear of failure.  Mistakes are no longer something that causes students to become upset, but instead they are something to be analyzed and learned from. The students are currently working through some engineering units that have them observing materials and their properties in order to design either a hand pollinator, windmill blades, or submersibles depending on which grade they are in.  After the students complete these units, we will begin a highly engaging unit of computer coding and robotics. Exciting things are certainly happening at Pinewood Elementary.

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Photos courtesy of Rachael Tans

Our Pinewood 6th graders held a bake sale to raise funds to purchase sister hedgehogs and create their habitat. We become habitat experts in order to welcome our third graders into our “zoo” during their habitat unit for Science.