Hello families--

Happy Memorial Day (and day-after-my-husband's-birthday)! It won't be long now before your beloved son or daughter will embark on a wonderful adventure into the wilds of the Adirondacks. It's such a beautiful place; I wish I could do a continual live-feed so that you could all have the opportunity to experience it, too. Rest assured that your child will be well taken care of.

If you haven't sent in your medical forms, and I'm still missing 10, PLEASE get them to me on Tuesday so that I can fax the "medical hot sheet" to the camp director. It is a requisite that every child provide one...

It looks like Thursday might rain just a bit. We'll see... It's a good idea to keep an eye on the weather and pack accordingly. Rest assured, there's lots to do in any eventuality. Do pack some lightweight rain wear (I have an inexpensive poncho) that is easy to slip on in case it begins to shower. Again, I urge you to consider--less is more. A change of clothes and evening attire (and toiletries) is about it.

We'll plan to leave as close to 7:30 as possible on Wednesday. (Your children can still ride the bus to school; we'll wait for them!) We'll return between 5 and 5:30 PM on Thursday. I'll provide my cell phone number for emergencies, which I'll include in a flyer that I send home tomorrow.

LETS TALK ABOUT THE "STEP-UP" CELEBRATION!

Monday, June 14th, at 7:00 PM

I need volunteers to help decorate. We can begin any time after 1:00 or so. I'll also send home a notice with a place to sign up.

I need someone willing to call around for the best price on [red] roses, then pick them up on the afternoon of the 14th and bring them to school. I need about 22 of them, each with one of those little plastic thingies on the bottom with water in them.

I need someone who is willing to pick up and return the helium tank -- The place we've generally gotten one at Merriam Graves on Williston Road in South Burlington. (It has always been the cheapest place to go.) Taylor Rental had a smaller one for $78.00, which we used last year, but we ran out of helium. Feel free to call around: we usually blow up about 250 balloons.

If enough volunteers show up, we should be done decorating in just a couple of hours. Then we can all go home and relax before the big event.

WHAT'S COMING UP...

• We'll have our all-school meeting on Tuesday this week to accommodate our leaving on Wednesday. It will be their last regularly scheduled All-School Meeting. (On the last day of school, there is one final All-School Meeting that is both symbolic and poignant. It is when the six graders rise and ceremoniously relinquish their benches to the upcoming elders. They are subsequently dismissed, leaving the auditorium in solemn silence as their school family bids them farewell.)
• We're finishing up Poetry Anthologies for Language Arts, and
• concluding our discussions about the Revolution as we prepare for watching the PBS documentary, Liberty!
• We'll take a final writing assessment this week (either tomorrow or Friday),
• and a Spelling assessment as well.
• We're also concluding Reading assessments in the next few days.

The end of the year sure is a hectic time! It's also a fun time as the year winds down.

Thanks, as always, for all that you do...

Teri