After weeks (and months!) of preparation, the auction is tomorrow night, March 9, at 6:30 p.m. in the Gym. Please check your child's backpack for the auction catalog, which we sent home earlier this week. One catalog goes home to each family, and it is your guide to all the evening's great happenings and exciting items. Don't forget to bring your catalog to the auction tomorrow night -- we will have a very limited supply at the event.

Within the catalog, you will notice a new category: Sign-Up Parties. These parties provide opportunities for many children or adults to take advantage of the same event for a set price as opposed to bidding against each other. Each party has already indicated a date and time, as well as the maximum number of participants. The first people to sign up to attend these events (by writing their auction bidder numbers on the event description at the auction) will win the opportunity to participate in the event offered. For a full list of Sign-Up Parties, click here.   

The 4/5 Coopers and Redtails are researching plants and other goods that were brought to or from the New World during the Columbian Exchange. Inspired by her research about blueberries, Maddie Kocher wrote this poem, which was not an assignment but a personal venture that she shared with her classmates.

The Burgundy Barnyard is a web page that serves as a "jumping-off point" to a variety of academic resources online.  At school, the Burgundy Barnyard is set as the home page on our internet browsers on computers that students and teachers use.  To provide an easy way for students and parents to access the Burgundy Barnyard from home, we have added a link to the page from the "Family Resources" navigation link at the bottom of the Burgundy website.  Now everyone can use the links provided there to access:

• Burgundy Barnyard
• Community Resources (documents and information of importance to parents)
• PCR Family Portal
• Haiku Login

Our next Middle School Book Talk will be about Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. Not only is this the central text of the next unit in the 8th Grade Humanities curriculum,  it's also the 50th anniversary of this seminal book of the Green Movement. We invite you to come by and join us to discuss the 60s, pesticides, sustainability, science journalism, and whatever else strikes your fancy. We will host this Book Talk on Monday, March 18, from 8:40 to 9:40 a.m. in the Library.

If you are interested in attending please RSVP to Stephanie Borges (stephanieb@burgundyfarm.org or 703.842.0465), so that we may plan accordingly. 

Alumnus Shares New Book at George Mason University

Jonathan Bates '88 invites you to see him speak about his new book, Paradise Lot: The Making of an Edible Garden Oasis in the City, at George Mason University March 12 at 7:00 p.m. in room 1201 University Hall. For more about his book, click here.   

Spend Quality Time at National Portrait Gallery

The Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery hosts events appropriate for children and their families, including "Portrait Story Days: Marisol Escobar" (Sunday, March 10, 2:00 p.m.), during which young children and their families can listen to a story about the sculptor and create their own piece of art; "Three-Point Tour: Justin Martin" (Satuday, March 16, 2:00 p.m.), during which biographer Justin Martin shows how the lives of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Walt Whitman and H. H. Richardson are tied to the tale of his latest subject, the pioneering landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted; and "Facing History: Be the Artist Family Program," (Saturday, March 16, 2:00 p.m.), a class designed for children ages 5 and up to explore portraiture in depth with their families. For a full calendar of events, click here.