We started our week off with the K-5 All School Morning Meeting with shirts that had positive messages on them. I enjoyed reading all the shirts about Being Kind as that has been our monthly mission. Then we had a grade level Kindness Challenge that ended in Charlierose from 3rd Grade challenging her teacher Ms. Webb. Charlierose beat several students and even beat her teacher. This is a game they also get to play at Lunch with Ms. Beers. Right from the meeting we headed to CSU to practice for the Winter Concert. The weather was great for the walk and the practice went very well. When we got back it was already time for Mandarin and Lunch so we didn't even get to start our Kindness Mission until after Think Tank in the afternoon BUT the first two on or list this week was our secretaries: Mrs. Robinson and Ms. Hawkins. We made a mini Thank You Card garland for them and also brought them some poinsettias. These ladies work very hard to keep our Office running smoothly and WE APPRECIATE THEM! We did some brain storming on some of our new Central Idea words: Economic Activities, goods, and services. Our daily Read Aloud: Frindle By Andrew Clements also has allowed for good conversations on what consumers are as well. As you can see we have lots to learn when we come back in January. Tuesday was HAT DAY and For our Talking Tuesday Soft Start they read the article: Be Here Now. It talked about Mindfulness and its benefits. Ask them what they learned or wondered from this article. For our Kindness Mission on Tuesday we took the time to appreciate our Security Officers. We consider them our Superheroes because they are the ones that protect our doors and school and have been trained to keep us safe. Officer Palmer visits our room at least a couple times a week just to say Hi and check in on us and since the other two women are newer we decided it was our mission to get Ms. Ervin to smile and I'm HAPPY to say we did it! Ms. Glover works the side door and I don't get to see her but her job is just as important too. We also gave them some Contigo bottles since they work right by the doors that keep hot liquids hot for 5 hours and cold liquids cold for 12 hours. During our afternoon Math Stations students got to come over and make their family a Christmas Tree Ornament. I hope they all made them home safely. My mother in law went through a huge down sizing this year moving away from the family farm and towards the end of the packing was just throwing things away. Those bulbs being one of them!!! I just knew that we could turn them into something creative and here's a glimpse at just a few that I know will make their trees look great for many years to come. This was also another great activity to see if they could listen and follow directions. On Wednesday (HOODIE DAY) we learned through Ady that Ms. Beers' word for the year is JOY so we came up with a list of things at school that bring us JOY in hopes that when she read the list it would bring her JOY in knowing these were the experiences and places or people that meant that to us. After that we made a collage of those words and framed it as well as delivered it with a candle called Joy + Laughter so she could take some JOY home over Winter Break too! Ok so we got some tears from Ms. Beers but they were HAPPY tears and we actually got to sneak into her office which most if not all have never been to so that brought them a lot of JOY! My Thursday started off with two of our explorers prepping the hot chocolate for the Hot Chocolate Bar for the Holiday Party. I Loved hearing their thoughts on how to measure and what to use so that we had enough hot chocolate for the whole class. If you've never cooked or baked with your children I highly recommend it. It's not only good for measurement skills but it builds vocabulary and it's also a great time to just have conversations just about anything in a fun setting. Twin Day pic thanks to Mrs. Taseff Once the students arrived in our classroom Thursday morning they started prepping the stage for our Reader's Theater Performance of "The Three Snow Bears" by Jan Brett. The stage crew, scenery creators, readers, actors and actresses were very busy getting the room set up. The props they brought in were amazing. The details were very thought out right down to the spotlight (aka flashlight :-) Sorry it made the pictures dark but the effect was heartwarming. We definitely will be doing this again. Dr. Parcell and Ms. O'Rourke stopped by to enjoy all the hard work and were very impressed. I did video the rehearsal the day before and will try to post it on SeeSaw. Then we travelled to Ms. Lestock's Room for The Wild Christmas Reindeer performance, Ms. Englsh's Room for Christmas Trolls and Finally Mr. Morris' Room for The Mitten. All the stories were by Jan Brett and each room had really good performances and ideas we thought about using the next time. Before lunch we started our Kindness Mission to turn Ms. O'Rourke's Office into a Winter Wonderland because there's SNOW one kinder than her!! and her commitment to IB at our school. She is also in our room a lot to see what we are doing on a daily and weekly basis. AND this was the best surprise yet because as she happened to turn around the corner we were sitting there taking our picture! Our Thursday ended with Hot Chocolate, Holiday Treats and our Book Exchange. I hope they enjoyed it. That's not to say we didn't have some reflecting and learning to go along with the experience. Some didn't want to give their books away and others didn't like the book they got BUT Ady (the Kindness Elf) even let them know in the morning in his letter and we talked about it and what we could do if we didn't like our book. (Give to a girl/boy, friend, cousin, sibling or Little Free Library)
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Ady, the Kindness Elf, showed up last week and set us out on a mission to spread kindness around Campus International. Ady's name comes from Germany and means a noble and kind person in the community. At the K-2 Morning Meeting last week we listened to Ms. Dottore talk about filling ten frames as we collect the pajamas and how we will be able to help others and wear our Jammies on Friday, December 21st if we can collect at least 10 from our classroom. We ended up collecting 23!! My favorite number :-) Thank you families! Tobin was awarded the Learner Profile Award for being Knowledgeable at the meeting. They also performed a sneak peak into the Winter Concert next week. A few fliers have come home with time, location and what to wear. Our Monday Morning Weekend Wrap Up They have been busy the past two weeks working on their final informational books. In Mandarin they spent some time learning about animals in the arctic. On Tuesday we had our 1st Kindness Mission- to write a note to every student in Mr. Morris' Class and sneak in like Kindness Ninjas while they were testing and give it to them. The smiles on their faces when we left were priceless! On Wednesday we made Nurse Gwen a band aid box full of KINDNESS but we kept missing her and had to wait till this past Monday to deliver it and we left her in HAPPY tears! Last Thursday we shopped at the Holiday Gift Shop and bought gifts for our family and friends. They had so much fun shopping and wrapping up their gifts. Friday's KINDNESS Mission... Send Mr. Albright some kind words and creatively arrange our post-its to spell Mr. Albright's favorite initials! ****P.E.**** Last Friday morning for Fuel for Thought Friday we wrote our perspectives, thoughts and wonders about this quote. Then we shared them during our reflection time during Morning Meeting. This Monday's KINDNESS Mission landed us in the Balanced Cafe where we made a poster to Thank all of our Breakfast and Lunch Providers. They proudly hung their sign for everyone to see ;-) We also started an Inquiry into Canada's Arctic Region and the Baffin Islands before reading our story for the next two weeks: The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett. Tuesday Ady had us make a book of compliments for our Media Specialist Ms. Snyder. On Wednesday Ady left us some crayons and we knew we were headed for Ms. Cohen. She ended up needing us to switch to Friday last minute so we had to hold on to her KINDNESS surprise for a few days. Planning KINDNESS is hard work-ha!ha!ha! For Throwback Thursday we looked at this image and sat in groups of 4 to talk about what we saw and wondered and then shared during our Morning Meeting Reflection time. Did I mention we have a KINDNESS Kerplunk in our room where they pull a stick every time we are kind to someone in the classroom? We've had one ball drop (we've pulled many sticks) and they think they know which one will make them all fall-it's going to happen soon. Mr. Phil, our custodian, was one of our most surprised Kindness recipients this week. He was bubbling with happiness after getting all of our Thank You messages for the job he does every day to keep us clean and healthy. He randomly showed up at our door so my camera did not catch his expression which is a bummer because it made our mission so meaningful. Mr. Taseff, Cases's Dad, stopped by during Lunch Time this week and got to participate in a kindness competition with his son :-) I LOVED the inquiry and action Beatrice took at home this week to invent and create a pair of shoes you can jump in. I can't tell you how many questions these shoes had them asking. I know that if your child sees bubble wrap and tape anytime soon they might try to make these shoes----Especially since Beatrice said you could jump off a counter top with them !!!! Our week ended with a Kindness Mission for Mrs. Pohl. Our special treat from Ady was that we also got to ignore the name tents on the tables when we walked in for Fuel for Thought Friday and sit anywhere they wanted. Reading is so much funner when its.... Flashlight Friday! Check out the organization of this writer!! I wonder what Ady has planned for us on our last week before Winter Break?????
On Monday we had the K-5 Morning Meeting where we got to listen to Ms. Beers' neighbor and friend from the Cleveland Orchestra play his violin, 2nd grade students talk about Speaking Kindly, Ms, O'Rourke talk about Acts of Kindness, and 3rd Grade Students playing their recorders with Mrs. Pohl. When we came back they did their Weekend Wrap-Up with a partner where they got to share what they did over Thanksgiving Break and ask questions and wonders based off of what their partner shared with them. In Mandarin she read them a story about Polar Bears and they used the map to talk about where you would find them in the world. Here's the picture we wondered about for Throwback Thursday. They noticed a lot of important details like gears, rollers, the wooden barrel and a water spout. Several even thought it was a washing machine. In the afternoon we had our Charlotte's Web Book Party. We started off by sitting at tables with the book characters: Wilbur, Charlotte, Fern and Templeton written on name tents and answered these questions with their table partners and then as a group. Then we enjoyed some theme related snacks: Tobin and his mom made haystacks, Ja'Vae brought in animal cookies, Case brought in Cow Tails (yummy caramel and cream candies) and I brought in string cheese to peel and make a web with and then grapes and pretzels to make Charlotte. Our Friday soft start is called Fuel for Thought Friday. This is where we read a quote on the board and find our name tent and sit with a new group of classmates each Friday and share our perspective, connection, wonders or thoughts about the quote.
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AuthorMrs. Humphrey
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