Dear Readers,
All of those who are parents might have kids who go to MES. Well, let's say they're in the first grade. They might come home and say they're going to start a school program called the Accelerated Reading Program (A.R. for short). Parents who don't know about this program may wonder what your child is talking about.

A.R. is a program where your child reads a book from the school library, their teacher's classroom, or maybe from their own home, but it must be on the A.R. list. After they read the book they must get on the school computer. Then, they must type their teacher's name, then a list of kids in that class comes up on the screen, then they type their name, then a list of all the books they may take a test on comes up. Your child types in the name of the book, if they haven't already taken that test, they will see a box with the question, "Are you sure you want to take this test?" If the child is ready to take the test, he or she presses the button that says yes. If he or she isn't ready, they press no. If they are, they take the test. At the end of the test, a box appears. It tells them how many questions they got right and the percentage right. At the end of the year, kids who have so many points or a pretty high reading level get to go on the A.R. field trip. Last year they had to have 50 points or more to go on it. So, for parents who read this, maybe you'll know what your child means when they come home and talk about A.R.

In other news, Ms. Betsy Brinkley's first grade class studied the tropical fruit mangoes last Thursday afternoon. They eagerly gathered around the table as Ms. Betsy brought out the mangoes. She asked students to guess what kind of seed was inside. Then she peeled the fruit asking the students different questions that encouraged them to think and relate the fruit to all kinds of things they had learned in class. For example, they had been studying the letter "M," the beginning letter for mangoes. Once the fruit had been peeled, the inside flesh revealed a rich, yellow color. They talked about colors, shapes, textures and smells. Students used different words to describe what they saw. Before they finally tasted the fruit, which was a first for most of the first graders, they read a poem they had been reading last week that tells about the mango fruit.

Mrs. Malissa Anderson's second grade class used a watermelon to practice the skill of estimation. They estimated how many stripes were on the watermelon, how long the watermelon was, the circumference, and how many seeds were in each piece they got to eat. They talked about the color, taste, and smell using descriptive adjectives to tell others about the experience. Each student enjoyed a delicious slice of watermelon which helped them retain what they had learned that day in addition to being just plain fun.

Fourth grade classes began going to the science lab this week. Getting to use the science lab is an exciting part of going into the fourth grade.

Finally, the announcer for last week's opening announcements was Casey Gunter. Casey led the school each morning in the pledge of allegiance and read student and teacher thoughts about why it is important to say Yes Ma'am, No Ma'am, Yes Sir and No Sir. The announcer for the previous week was Alex Rider. Students ar MES are working hard to remember to say Yes Ma'am, No Ma'am, Yes Sir and No Sir, Thank You and Please.