Dear Parents,
 
Thank you for attending your child’s recent parent teacher conference this week. We strive for 100% participation because we know how important it is for your child’s success that we work together on their behalf. 

Thank you for sharing your wonderful children with us!

Miss Gleason

A blurb from Ms. Rossbach's E-blast... "SPARK is an acronym for our expectations that everyone is Safe, Proud, Accountable, Respectful andKind. SPARK puts everyone in the school on the same page with common expectations. A complete list of our behavioral expectations can be found on page 24 in the Student/Parent Handbook. You can access it here.

 

Thank you to all of the parents who were able to attend our SPARK Refresher Assembly on Tuesday afternoon. Before the assembly, students worked in small, multi-age groups to identify a problem and solution for one area of our school. They collaborated together to write a skit, and then presented the skit at the assembly for all to see. Parents commented about how nice it was to see the older students working alongside the younger ones as they performed their skits. For those who were unable to attend, here are links to videos from each group. Enjoy!"

SPARK Blue 1 Team

SPARK Blue 2 Team

SPARK Orange 1 Team

SPARK Orange 2 Team

SPARK Yellow 1 Team

SPARK Yellow 2 Team

SPARK Green 1 Team

SPARK Green 2 Team

SPARK Red 1 Team

SPARK Red 2 Team

SPARK Purple 1 Team

SPARK Purple 2 Team

We have been starting a new focus in our reading mini-lessons all about vocabulary. Our learning target it asking and answering questions to determine and clarify the meaning of an unfamiliar word or phrase. Today during reader's workshop we tried it out in our reading groups and will try it out again tonight with you!

On Friday we had the chance to visit the 5th and 6th graders research projects about Egypt! Wow it was awesome! Great job 5th and 6th graders!

During writers' workshop we have been focusing on the structure of opinion writing. We have been making sure we provide our readers with reasons and examples when judging our collections! Look at us working on this new concept!

Today when Mrs. Lutz was here we talked about being a good friend and including others. We also talked about making new friends and inviting others to play!

This week we have been reviewing SPARK behaviors and expectations with a focus on the letter K for kind. Our reading lessons have been tied to Jacqueline Woodson’s story Each Kindness, which takes place in an elementary school setting. In the story it is wintertime, and the snow is falling quite heavily, covering everything like a thick blanket. The story begins one school morning.

As a class we discussed the plot of the story, as well as characters. Chloe, an elementary school student, seems to be pretty content. She has two best friends, Kendra and Sophie, and together, the three girls spend their lunch hours laughing and sharing secrets on the playground. Chloe does not seem open to making new friends, which the audience can clearly see when the school principal brings a new student to join Chloe’s class. The new girl, Maya, appears at the door wearing tattered clothes and spring shoes with a broken strap. She unassumingly takes the empty seat next to Chloe and greets her with a kind smile. Instead of returning her gesture, Chloe moves a little closer to the window and looks away from Maya. Throughout the story, Maya tries to make friends with the girls in her class, but they refuse to welcome her. Instead, Chloe and her friends ignore her and won’t play with her at recess. making fun of her for always wearing second-hand clothing. Maya continues to reach out, inviting the girls to play jacks with her. She even brings a few other toys to school in hopes that someone might want to play with her, but she always gets the same answer. One day Maya does not return to school. The children’s teacher, Ms. Albert, gives a lesson on kindness. She drops a small stone into a big bowl of water and explains that every kind thing done goes out like a ripple into the world. She then invites the children to drop the stone into the bowl and say one kind thing that they have done. Everyone except for Chloe has something to say. She cannot think of one kind thing that she has done, so she passes the stone on. Chloe promises herself that she will greet Maya with a smile the next time she sees her, but Maya never returns to school. Days pass and Ms. Albert informs the class that Maya has moved away. Chloe is filled with regret as she realizes that she has missed her chance to show any kindness to Maya.

Our class repeated the same activity Chloe’s teacher did in the book. We filled a large bowl with water and passed our marble jar stones around the classroom. Each student thought of something kind they have done or felt in our classroom and dropped the stone into the water and watched their kindness form a ripple. We had a discussion about what it means to have a ripple effect of kindness. We will continue this activity each morning as our morning greeting routine.

Today and the rest of this week we will be demonstrating how to come to carpet for our lessons ready to learn. Our "I can" statement is: "I can come to the carpet with a quiet voice and sit in mountain pose, with eyes and ears ready to learn."

On Friday we designed our very own survey questions to ask our classmates. We came up with a topic, a method to collect our data, and a way to record it! Today during math we did it! We then recorded our work and discussed our findings!