On Thursday, June 6, Barnard Elementary held our 2012/2013 Academic Awards assembly for grades 3-8. Outstanding students were honored for their academic achievement and hard work this year. Students were recognized for Perfect Attendance (all year), 3 quarters of attaining A/B Honor Roll, Principal's Award, Citizenship, Most Improvement, as well as outstanding achievements in Science and Humanities. In addition, Highest Gains for the End of Year NWEA were awarded for each homeroom, as well the Top Score for NWEA. Special recognition was given to Mr. Reginald Hill and Mrs. Theresa Hill for their hard work and dedication with our Barnard basketball team. Click here to view a gallery of this very special event! Click here to see a full list of this year's honorees.

Barnard class of 2013, future College Graduate class of 2021, will take their final walk through the Barnard Auditorium aisles Tuesday, June 11th at 10:00 am. Special International Baccalaureate (IB) recognition will be awarded as well as Valedictorian and Salutatorian honors. Watch our webpage, for updated photos of this event in our Gallery.

We have received many inquiries from local attendance area families based on the few signs that are posted around the area as well as the door hangers that have been distributed on some blocks. We still need your help! Please volunteer to help with one of the following:

• Place a Learn Local lawn sign in your yard.
• Write a short blurb about why Barnard is your school of choice (for an example, click here to see the Learn Local webpage).
• Volunteer to help distribute door hangers on a few remaining blocks in our attendance area.

Together, we can get the word out about Barnard's exceptional teachers, staff, children and families. Email Assistant Principal Meg Burns to help at mmburns1@cps.edu. Thank you!

Barnard is extremely fortunate to be partnering with the Chicago Arts Partnership in Education (CAPE) program. CAPE works to bring teachers and teaching artists together to collaborate. They address academic and artistic questions and challenges. Building on these ideas, they plan an arts integrated curriculum that moves in and out of arts and non-arts subjects as the project progresses. Ms. Lee's 3rd grade has been busy working on a very special percussion project with the CAPE teaching artists.

We are exceptionally pleased that our partnership is set to continue for another 2 years with this outstanding organization. The pinnacle of this year's work will be presented this Tuesday at 1:30 in our auditorium.

Click here to view a gallery of a Barnard CAPE workshop.

Click here to learn more about CAPE and it's work throughout Chicago.

Beginning next year, Barnard will fully implement their new Positive Behavior Intervention and Support system school wide. On the last day of school, your child will receive an introduction to the new PBIS program from their new homeroom teacher, as well as an orientation to our school wide behavior matrix.

All Barnard staff are in the process of being trained in this system, which focuses on the 80% of student behaviors that align with what is normally labeled "acceptable" behavior. The focus is to teach students what is expected through reviewing and rehearsing desired behaviors and providing guidance and reinforcement to help students better understand how they should behave in certain situations.

Watch this newsletter and Barnard website for more information on how you can help reinforce this new approach to school wide behavior management at home. At the beginning of the 2013/2014 school year, we will kick off our new program with special assemblies and an intensive social emotional curriculum to orient students to this exciting and effective program.

Be a hero to your Barnard student! It's easy! Your child can earn an out-of-uniform day just for you reading this eNewsletter and clicking on the link below to take a quick survey (And when we say quick - we mean quick!). You will be prompted to insert your children's names and grade at the end. We will need this to issue them their out of uniform passes for Friday, June 14th. Please take the time to answer a few short questions about our communications with you so that we can better keep you informed about your child's education here at Barnard. Thank you for your time and your involvement in your child's learning! Click here to access the survey!

Barnard Parents are asking for Summer information for their students. Last week's newsletter contained an important article on potential programs and activities for your children.  We're reprinting this information as well as additional links to help you find meaningful activities for your student.

More than 100 organizations across the city have joined forces to integrate learning into summer activities for youth of all ages in every Chicago neighborhood.

Participants learn over the summer with local programs (i.e.: zoo, library, parks) and earn badges along the way. The badges they earn roll up into city-level badges. The city-level badges unlock access to the challenges where learners can make projects and learn more skills, and then showcase their work at a set of events in Chicago at the end of the summer.

All of that badge info—everything from the initial organization badges to the top-level challenges and badges—feeds back into the schools in the fall.

The Chicago Summer of Learning site is almost ready! In the meantime, if you have earned a badge, enter your email address and secret claim code onto the Summer of Learning website. They'll email you when the site launches so you can create your account and see your badge!

Click here to launch the Chicago Summer of Learning website.

Click here to link to the Barnard website Parent Page with more information on this an other programs throughout Chicago.

THIS WEEK:   
Monday, June 10:     RED DAY    

                          
Tuesday, June 11:   BLUE DAY - 8th Grade Graduation - 10:00 am
                                                   - CAPE Performance - 1:30 pm  

                         
Wednesday, June 12: GREEN DAY

 
Thursday, June 13:  RED DAY - Pre-K Picnic Noon - 2:00 pm         

Friday, June 14:   BLUE DAY - Pre-K Celebration - 9:00 am