It’s audition time for the Burns Park Players! Initial auditions will be held on Monday, October 15th at 7:00 p.m. in the Tappan auditorium with callbacks held on Tuesday, October 16th. If you would like to audition but are unable to make the audition day, please notify Susan Hurwitz, susanh22@aol.com or call 994-3508.

Scheduled annually on the first Sunday in May, the Burns Park Run, a 5K and 10K race through the streets around the school, is a community wide event and a major fundraiser for the PTO each year. The run committee needs over one hundred volunteers for a variety of tasks before, during and after the race.

Visit the BP Run site: http://www.burnsparkrun.org/

The upper elementary students work with the PE teacher to organize and supervise games for two field days (upper elementary and lower elementary) which are held in early June. Parent volunteers supervise the students and help run games during these afternoon events.

Please join us for the Special Interest Fair!

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Hey parents – it’s time again for the Special Interest Fair! The fair is a Burns Park tradition, and we hope you’ll encourage your student(s) to participate. Last year approximately 80 students shared special interest projects with their classmates, teachers, and families.

All students from kindergarten through 5th grade are encouraged to submit a project! The purpose of the fair is to encourage students to pursue a topic of their interest and provide a showcase for their efforts. The fair is non-competitive, and children may work alone or in a group.

This family event, typically held on an evening in March, provides opportunities for students and parents to explore activities related to a particular topic, such as biology, chemistry, earth science, or math. This enrichment event is coordinated by the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum who has designed the activities and provides all the materials and information. Parent volunteers staff the event, explaining activities and encouraging participants.

For more information about the Hands-On Museum, see http://www.aahom.org.

Interested students meet monthly in this after-school club to discuss, plan, and implement community service projects. Projects can focus on topics of interest to the children that relate to helping people, animals, and the environment. One project, for example, involves collecting Halloween costumes and donating them to others in our community. Parent volunteers will assist the chairpersons with leading meetings and activities.

Interested students in grades 2-5 will again be able to participate in this year’s Washtenaw Elementary Science Olympiad, a competition against other schools typically held the first Saturday in May. In the winter, students sign up to participate in events such as Circuit Wizardry, Water Rockets, No Bones About It, Straw Tower, Wright Stuff, Estimania, Mystery Architecture, Boatmania, Map Reading, and more. Students are placed on grade-level teams and are guided by adult coaches to explore their topics and prepare for the event.

The Special Interest Fair is an annual event held in the spring in which students of all grades have the opportunity to create projects on topics of their choice and display their work for other students and families to view. Topics are wide-ranging, dependent on student interest and experience, and have included the following in recent years: Tornadoes, Geysers, Biography of Duke Basketball’s Coach K, Great Apes, Bombing of Pearl Harbor, Mexico, Works of Shakespeare, Volcanic Eruptions, Balloons, Ballet, Plant Growth Experiments, Dolphins, Dinosaurs, and many more.

To help our students get started with research on Africa for the Special Interest Fair, we’ve developed a list of books and other resources in conjunction with the PTO’s Multicultural Committee. These books are available from the Burns Park school library (media center), and the call numbers are listed at the left of each item. Check it out!

Walk & Talk is a special Burns Park activity developed to complement our annual Burns Park Run. Interested students in grades 1-5 have the opportunity, three days a week during the fall and spring, to walk or run around the school’s adjacent field for fun and physical activity. Parent volunteers supervise students and keep track of miles walked/ran. Volunteers are needed weekly on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, during lunch recess (11:48 am – 1:20 pm) from late September to early November and again during March and April.