The Defer Staff is working on two, school-wide goals. Read below to stay informed about both!!
One School, One Book
March is National Reading Month and Defer is taking reading to our families! During the months of March and April the entire Defer community is reading the same book - The Lemonade Wars. The Defer PTO purchased a copy of this book for every family, and the Defer staff has organized six weeks of reading activities including:
Kick-off assembly in which Chapter 1 of The Lemonade Wars was read to the entire school followed by a glass of lemonade and a class discussion of the characters and setting
Three chapters assigned for home reading per week (This week is Chapters 4, 5, and 6)
Trivia Tuesday – All students compete is answering a trivia question based on the previous week’s chapters. Winners from each class receive a lemon head candy
Guest readers every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday in the Defer library for those students unable to read at home that week or those who would like to hear the chapter again
Covering our One School, One Book bulletin board with pictures of families enjoying reading The Lemonade Wars at home
So read – improve your child’s chances at school. It will entertain and delight them, and it will also develop vocabulary, improve their ability to read, and – perhaps most important – foster a lifelong love of books and reading.
Batter-Up Baseball
The Defer students are hitting homeruns in our new school-wide Batter-Up Baseball program. Our goal is for all of our students to master their basic math facts. What does master mean? It means that they can recite the math fact answer as readily as they can say their names. Can your 2nd grader tell you the answer to 5 + 7 automatically? Does your 4th grader know that 6 x 7 is 42 and can recite that readily? That’s our goal.
So here’s how it works:
The Batter-Up Baseball bulletin board lays out a baseball field with all the Defer staff playing in the field.
Each week in school students spend time on the computer using a fact mastery program called Xtra Math. Each Friday their progress is reviewed and if they achieve their goal, a baseball with their name is placed on the bulletin board.
Students can add tally marks to their baseballs each Friday as they continue to reach their goal.
Our kick-off last week was marked by a special guest. Chris Getz, a former GP South student and professional baseball player for the Kansas City Royals sent a video clip to the Defer students. In the video he introduces himself and tells about his career in baseball. He shares how important knowing your math facts is to baseball and calculating statistics and he applauds them for their hard work to master them. His message is Go For it DEFER – Math is important!
