Good Morning
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving break. I always enjoy the opportunity to be with my immediate family and having my girls home. As my kids get older and older, I realize how much I enjoy any time I get with them. All I can say is, as crazy as times may seem now (with young kids) make sure you enjoy it. The time goes so fast and you only get one shot with them. I will say watching them as young adults has it own rewards too.
Instead of focusing on the academics in this week's blog, I thought I would take a different approach. This year, we as teachers, are focusing in on "gatherings and building relationships" with our classrooms, as a school, and within our district. Our staff meetings and professional development commonly have us reflecting on this. With this in mind, I wanted to fill you in on .
We have 5 round tables that the kids sit at, in the room. Each table group has become a team. Each team created a team name, identified a team mascot and then created a logo shield to hang over their table. Each table will keep track of the We Rock cards they earn during the month of December. I talked to them about working as a team and doing their best for their team and for the class. The kids are very excited about this and it's great to see them reminding each other about doing their best. I love when they are working together and helping each other be the best they can be.
This week the students finished the Financial Literacy assessment. Since we finished a day early, I used the time to have the kids make new connections. I had them partner up with someone they don;t usually play games with and asked them to choose a game to play. It was so great to see the interactions and new connections. I felt like it was such a good use of the 20-25 minutes we had available.
Secret Pal: Another way we build community at school is the staff does a Secret Pal event and we gather to celebrate each other and to spend time together. I want to do the same for the class. Here is how it will work. If you want your child to participate, they must be signed up here by 12/11. I will assign them a Secret Pal on Friday and send home a note with the information and schedule.
To Participate Your Child Will Need To Bring the Following on Each Day
*12/19 They will make a Happy New Year's Card for their Secret Pal. I will send home the paper they can use on 12/15
*12/20 They will need to bring a healthy snack for their Secret Pal. A simple item or two, no drinks are necessary. We have milk and water.
*12/21 They will bring in a gift for their Secret Pal with a value of less than $5 (This can be bought or handmade). If this is a difficulty for anyone, please let me know and I will gladly cover that expense.
NOTES:
*I decided to not do the December book order. I was worried about getting them in before the break.
*Please, please label all of your child's winter things. I also ask that you check the zippers of your child's coats. I zip the coats for kids that need the help (after they put on their mittens) and some of them are quite tricky.
*Zip's mom is coming on on Wednesday to talk about Hanukkah on Wednesday. If anyone else wants to come in and talk about what they celebrate in December, please let me know. We usually do this on Wednesday afternoons at 1:00.
That is all for now. Have a great week.
Peace,
Tommy
Good evening all. I hope you all had a great weekend. This past week (and continuing this week) the kids will be doing a lot of assessments. They are all working on their final small moment stories. The kids all completed a sight word test, and this week we will have a spelling assessment, a math assessment and early literacy assessments. The good news is they won't be assessed during lunch and recess. We feel they have a good handle on this 😀. 
This past Wednesday, I used our project time to talk about resolutions and the idea of New Year's resolutions. I tied this into our focus on kindness. The class broke into three groups and each group read a book about kindness. They then each identified a kind resolution for school and home and created a mini poster about each one. These will be sent home this week as well as displayed in our room.
