Brandywine Elementary -

Mrs. Alstott's third graders celebrated March is Reading Month yesterday with a little Dr. Suess on his birthday!

Magic, Morals, and Myths! Oh my! Brandywine Elementary is celebrating March is Reading Month with a slate of activities, including Dress Up Days.

Friday, March 6 - Dress cozy so we can curl up with a good book!
Friday, March 13 - Dress up like an idiom or a word with a silent letter.
Friday, March 20 - Dress in all black for black out day. No technology today!
Friday, March 27 - Dress up as your favorite character from a myth, fairy tale or fable.

Students in fifth grade STEM class solved a special conundrum last week!

They had three lions and three wildebeests that had to cross a river, without the lions outnumbering the wildebeests on either side, while also having a max of two animals on the raft at each time, and one to row it back to the other side. How'd they do it?

Check out the full riddle here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADR7dUoVh_c

Some of our third graders had a special visitor today!

Denise Halgren, children's author, visited our students this morning and read her newly published book from "The Crazy Cat Lady" adventure series. She read them "The Crazy Cat Lady Gets a Puppy."

Mrs. Halgren is a retired teacher and began writing children's books after retirement. Thank you for spending some time with our students today!

Brandywine Elementary turned in their ROAR tickets today for some sweet prizes! ROARS tickets are given when a student follows the Positive Behavior and Intervention Supports (PBIS).

ROARS stands for Respect Others and Acts Responsibility and Safely!

Frijole Fiesta is BACK at the Hacienda on Portage Road in South Bend.

From March 2-13, students in grades 1-6 will have their Bean Art displayed at Hacienda. On March 12, there will be a giveback night for the Brandywine elementary art program. Students who participated will also receive a coupon for free ice cream!

Mrs. Anderson's sixth grade math classes are planning The Ultimate Spring Break Vacation!

Students have an angel investor that is giving them $5,000 to create a travel itinerary with transportation, lodging, food, and activities for March 28 - April 5. They have to stop and see one National Park as part of their travels.

Students at Brandywine Elementary played floor hockey in gym class today!

Deputy McG spent some time last week with friends in Mrs. Alstott's class! She helped students with their worksheets, while students taught her about the book they are reading, Loki and the Dwarves.

In Mrs. Anderson's sixth grade math classes, students are learning about surface area so students brought in their own Rubik's cubes to build with. Today, they also created and constructed their own cube.

Our sixth grade science students in Ms. Zeller's science classes are using microscopes, some of them for the first time. They were fascinated by what they saw, such as that under the microscope, sand looks like glass crystals. Due to popular demand, they spent two days working with microscopes instead of just one!

Our fourth graders are inventors!

Students in fourth grade have been studying famous inventors as part of their latest CKLA unit. To round out the unit, students invented their own product and had to present to a panel of judges "Shark Tank" style on Friday. Inventions included an automatic hand washer, a salt Roomba, a water bottle reminder, a face scanning locker, and a heated basketball. The creativity of our students was limitless!

Hear from our students and their teachers on the upcoming episode of Cat Chat this Wednesday!

Fifth grader Alexia created this awesome painting at home to hang up in the Brandywine Elementary art room!

Copper is enjoying all of his student visits!

Three 6th grade Bobcats earned a reward visit with Copper last week. Way to go Alivia Flynn, Ana Dodd, and Elias Young! Thank you for modeling good behavior for your peers!

In Mrs. Wallick's third grade class, students who are being respectful in and out of the classroom, showing kindness, showing grit by doing their work well, and being an active participant in class, are titled the Greatest of All Time (for the week) or GOATs. These students earned that very title last week! Way to go, kiddos!

In fourth grade's CKLA Inventor Unit this week, students were given a challenge to design an invention where they could throw trash away without leaving their seats. Students had to plan, design, build, test, and redesign their idea, if necessary. Inventions were considered successful if their design worked 75% of the time. All teams accomplished that goal! Way to go, fourth graders!

A few of our Brandywine Elementary students earned 20 or more reward tickets by meeting schoolwide expectations and acting as examples for their peers and were able to have a visit with our therapy dog, Copper! Congrats to:

Javon Blakemore, 3rd grade
Laura Frye and Rocky Earles, 4th grade
Olivia Williams, 5th grade

The 2026 Mini Basketball Cheer Clinic is coming up for K-6 students. The Cheer Clinic Performance is Tuesday, February 3 at 6:45 p.m. at the basketball game. Students should arrive by 6:15 p.m.

The cost is $40. Sign up dates are at the high school on:
January 24 | 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.
January 25 | 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.

Practices are:
January 31 | 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.
February 1 | 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.

For more information and questions, contact Coach Mia Frazier at mfrazier@brandywinebobcats.org.

The 2026 Mini Basketball Cheer Clinic is coming up for K-6 students. The Cheer Clinic Performance is Tuesday, February 3 at 6:45 p.m. at the basketball game. Students should arrive by 6:15 p.m.

The cost is $40. Sign up dates are at the high school on:
January 24 | 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.
January 25 | 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.

Practices are:
January 31 | 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.
February 1 | 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.

For more information and questions, contact Coach Mia Frazier at mfrazier@brandywinebobcats.org.

Our third graders are working on their multiplication tables! We are piloting different math programs this year and these students are working with "Reveal."

By encouraging curiosity, exploration, and a growth mindset, Reveal Math allows students to see math as a dynamic set of problem-solving strategies instead of the application of memorized algorithmic or computational procedures.