Well another week is in the books and I have to say it was nice to have a cooler week weather wise. We had a spectacular day hiking Mad River on Friday. The students did a great job with the hike and I loved their energy. It is nice that we live in a community that our school can take some time and take in the beauty that nature provides us.
This past week I talked a lot about the concept of kindness and what that looks like at school and outside of school. I also talked about why acts of kindness can make such a huge difference and focused on the importance of thinking of others. I used several read-a-loud books to reinforce the concept of kindness. You can listen to them by clicking on any of the titles listed here; Kindness Makes Me Stronger, Kindness is My Super Power, & Kindness is Cooler.
Your child may have told you about "testing" with Ms. Figdor. Allison is our interventionist and is helping conduct all of the screenings and assessments that we do at the start of the year. Ms. Figdor was my daughter's 3rd and 4th grade teacher and she is simply amazing. All of her work will allow me to target my teaching to meet each of your child's needs.
Lucas Foley, of Friends of the Mad River, joined our class on Wednesday. as we kicked off our study of erosion. Lucas started with defining some vocabulary with the kids. He then showed them a presentation that showed how the weather can have the Mad River look very different at times as well as playing a big part of how the river flows. The students then took their science notebooks out to the small brook behind the gazebo. Their job was to draw examples of what they saw as they observed the brook. On Friday, they were able to add more to their observations with colored pencils and crayons. We will be headed to the Mad River this Wednesday. Please have your child dress appropriately.
We took advantage of the gazebo and worked on our Hopes and Dreams (goals). The kids have each identified a goal that they want to work on as we start the school year. They have each illustrated these and they are all hanging up in our classroom library. The students then used those goals to develop rules that they needed in our classroom that will allow them to achieve these goals. Our new rules are as follows:
1, Be Focused
2. Be Calm
3. Be Respectful
4. Be Kind
5. Be Your Best
This week we will reviews these, we will start modeling these and introduce Logical Consequences. I will talk more about these in next week's post.
NOTES:
*Anyone who still wants to sign up to volunteer, please use this link to sign up. I highlighted the four blocks where there are openings.
*Homework bags will not go home on Fridays. However, many of the students forgot to bring theirs back on Friday. Please check to see if your child has theirs and send it in on Monday.
*We will have picture day on Wednesday. Our time slot will be around 10:15. Please do your best to have your child there for the class picture.
*There will be information on book orders in your child's homework bags on Monday afternoon. Scholastic is a great way to get discounted books.
We are off to a great start and we are close to being in full swing with all of the academic components. I am looking forward to all of the things we have in store for this coming week.
Peace,
Mr. Young
