New Year, New Discoveries, New Happenings

 Our students at SOS really rock!!  It was wonderful to see them all on Monday.  They seemed happy to be back and also struggled a bit to get back into the routine.  However, they did great and we got right back to what we had to do.

I began with letting the children listen to the book titled One Word for Kids by Jon Gordan, Dan Britton and Jimmy Page.

Jimmy Page is the one who did the read aloud.  After that they all had to choose a word that they wanted to be their one word for the year.  There were many great words chosen, Kind, Generous, Reader, Joyful, Wonderful and so many others.

Once they chose their word they had to write 3 ways they were going to accomplish what they set out to be.  It was a great way to jump start our first week back to school after our Winter Break.

We are also continuing our work on Informational Writing.  The children all have topics chosen and have been researching and reading about their topic.  This week they will be given access to Book Creator, an online resource in which they will put all the information into an online book.  This program is a wonderful tool.  It helps the children create a book cover, table of contents page and all of their pages, along with being able to add illustrations to go along with their topic.  I cannot wait to get this process started and see what they come up with.  

Our Morning Meetings continue each day.  Once the children are settled and have eaten breakfast they join everyone on the rug to begin the meeting.  I have discovered that in this process and routine that children have participated more and know that their feelings and thoughts matter.  Wonderful discussions are being held and their morning message gets them ready for a day of discovery and learning.

The children have been assigned the next book project.  It involves reading a biography and then creatiing a biography bottle to represent the person they read about.  There are many influential people they are able to choose from.  They need to make sure the person is approved before they begin.  Also, there was a handout that went home to explain it.  It the event that it did not make it home, your child can find it on Google Classroom.

I cannot wait to display these once they are presented and turned in.  The due date for this is February 28th.

Friday was our first Virtual Snow Day.  There was some confusion around holding google meets or not and late Thursday night we were given clarification.  With that being said, in the event of other snow days, teachers will post work on Google Classroom as well as, hold google meets to check in with the students and answer any questions they may have concerning the work.  Teachers can also be reached by email, google classroom and dojo throughout the day.

It was great to see their entire faces on Google Meets and to see their beautiful smiles.  That is something I truly miss due to wearing the masks.  Overall, it was a successful snow day.  Most of the children attended the meet, others emailed me throughout the day and some I did not see.  I hope that the children were able to get outside for a bit and enjoy the first snow of the season.

It has been another busy but progessive week.  The upcoming week is sure to be full of discoveries and learning new material.  The children will take the Aims Web benchmark assessment.  This will show us how they have progressed from the beginning of the school year.  Lots of learning is happening and we are all back into the routine.  Have a wonderful weekend everyone and stay safe.