Student Athletes from Downers Grove South's Athlete's Committed to Excellence organization "stampeded" through Fairmount visiting all of our classrooms yesterday to deliver age appropriate messages on good character. Through skits the high school students presented scenerios on characteristics such as fairness, caring, and respect to name just a few. They also spoke to our sixth graders as to what they could expect at middle school and high school.

The DGS students did a wonderful job interacting with our students while delivering a very positive message.

It was great to see a number of former Fairmount students involved in this organization at DGS

Author Ridley Pearson spoke to the 4th-6th grades on Tuesday, May 1st. Mr Pearson in addition to co authoring the Peter and the Starcatchers series with Dave Barry, is the award-winning author of Kingdom Keepers.

In this series five young teens are engaged in adventures in Disney World after dark pitted against Disney villains who threaten the future of Disney World and the stability of the world outside it's walls.Our students were fascinated with Mr. Pearson's account of the writing process and his research for the books in which he had full access to all of the Disney theme parks.

Fairmount School was a sea of blue last Friday as the students and staff all wore blue to show their support for Brenna, a second grade student student at Kingsley School in Downers Grove who is battling cancer. Students, their families and Fairmount staff have made generous contributions to a special fund to help Brenna's family offset their expenses.

The Fairmount School Variety Show played to a full house last evening. Forty-eight students ranging from kindergarten to sixth grade performed in thirty-three acts. The acts included singing ,dancing, instrumental music, gymnastics, and magic. The students pride and enjoyment came shining through their performances. A special thanks to teachers Mrs. Kelly, Ms. Pope, Ms. Meehan, Mr. Luciano, and Mrs. Nedich for producing and directing the show. Additional photos can be found in our gallery.

The Downers Grove Fire Department’s Public Education Officer Marsha Giesler visits our third grade classes seven times throughout the school year. Each Learn Not to Burn lesson includes a particular area of fire safety. In May the students will explore a variety of fire fighting equipment as Fire Fighter Giesler will be arranging for fire trucks to come to Fairmount.

Some days my meanderings in the building really pay off. Today I wandered into a sixth grade math lesson on Pi, the numerical value of the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter 3.14159. You see, March 14 is National Pi day 3.14. Mrs. Bloom lead the student's through some interesting math activities pertaining to Pi.

Her lesson was so sweet I just had to stop in on Mrs.Chick's math lesson for seconds!

Last night the Fairmount Choir put on a wonderful performance of When “Silents” is Golden. A musical about the Golden Age of Film. This had to be the most ambitious program that our music teacher, Mrs. Coates, has directed at Fairmount. A large cast, six scenes, plenty of dialog, acting, all supported by 8 musical selections made for quite a production. The students really did a nice job and appeared to be so proud of their work. Additional pictures can be found in our gallery.

Mrs. Bloom's sixth grade class should not have any difficulty selecting a book the next time they visit our LRC. They have been "speed booking". I walked in on a speed booking session today in the LRC. Mrs. Bloom and Mrs. Farrow selected a variety of titles in two different genres. The students spent a minute with a pair of books, reading the first page or two of each selection. If a book caught their interest they wrote down the title for future consideration, if not they moved on. The students were exposed to almost 60 titles today.

Second grade’s Flat Stanley project is well underway. For those of you unfamiliar with Flat Stanley, he is a character in a popular children’s book that through a freak accident gets flattened. He survives and makes the best of his altered state and soon he is off on a variety of adventures, sliding under locked doors, flying as a kite, and traveling to visit friends by being mailed in an envelope.

Our second graders, after reading the book, have each created a paper Flat Stanley. The students then composed a letter and sent Flat Stanley to friends and family across the United States and foreign countries. In the letter the students asked the recipients of their Flat Stanley to keep a journal for a few days, documenting the places and activities that Flat Stanley experiences during his visit. Flat Stanley is treated like a visiting guest. After a period of time Flat Stanley is mailed back to Fairmount. Students enjoy reading about Stanley’s adventures. The students also plot a map of his travels. Stanley often returns with photos of his travels. Some of the journal have started to return. Flat Stanley is having some wonderful adventures and is meeting some interesting people along the way. More to come.....

At the March 2 Institute Day Fairmount classroom teachers joined their district colleagues in professional development sessions on both Guided Reading and on the new math series that we will begin using next year. Our specialists attended the County Institute Program that offered a variety of professional development opportunities in their areas of expertise.

Author Nancy Krulik visited Fairmount recently and spoke with our second and third grade students about her career, the writing process, and her latest book in the popular George Brown Class Clown series. The children were delighted when her friend George Brown made a surprise appearance.

This author visit was one of many arranged by our library teacher Mrs. Farrow. The author visits this year have been targeted at specific grade levels. Mrs. Farrow has even used Skype to allow students to interact with some of the authors. I also want to thank Anderson's Book Store for sponsoring some of these visits.

We celebrated Leap Day with a "Read-A-Round". Our teachers leapt one grade up to conduct a read aloud with some of their former students. Of course the theme for all of the readings were Frog Stories. The children were "hoppy" to listen to their former teachers read them a story.

On Monday our third and fourth grade students put on a wonderful music program for an audience of their parents and extended family. Mrs. Coates our music teacher lead the students through a number of musical selections that highlighted what the students had learned about harmony. The children here proud to perform for their families.

The fifth graders, as a culminating lesson in their sight and sound unit, recently dissected cow eyes. The students learned first hand about the anatomy of the eye and the functions of the eyes various parts. The students were well prepared for the activity through an online video that taught the students about the functions of the eye and actually demonstrated the eye dissection process. Mrs Nedic skillfully led both fifth grade classes through the dissection process. Students worked in small groups assisted by adult volunteers. The students found the experience to be quite amazing.

In a recent science unit our sixth graders studied Newton's Law. One activity in the unit was for students to create a mini parachute from household items. The goal was to design a parachute that would create the greatest amount of air resistance so that the parachute would gently lower it's load to the ground. THe students did a great job.

Our Student Council's most recent community serve project has them creating Valentine's Day cards for children that find themselves admitted to Good Samaritan Hospital on Cupid's special day

The 100th Day of School is a big event in our primary wing. Our K-2 students were engaged in all sorts of activities; art, movement, adding, subtracting, multiplying, sorting, singing, writing, and reading......all involving the "power of 100". Some of the activities were tasty!. Third and fifth grade buddies helped the primary students with some of their activities. Check out our photos in the Fairmount Gallery on our home page.