This week was full of excitement and energy.  It was also full of thoughtfulness and work. We have been focusing on the areas of self-management, working together respectfully and having empathy.  We began our week exploring choices and considering the number of choices we make in a day.  We thought of the big choices and the little choices and we began to think about them from someone else’s point of view.  We wondered, “Does something I don’t even think about and consider small feel the same way to others?”  We learned about full body listening – we talked about what it looked like and why it matters.  We connected that idea with a second exploration of what “caring” looks like.  There are two types of caring:  being kind and putting forth effort in order to be proud of ourselves.  We are in the beginning of this conversation and have a long way to go as we work to identify and build habits for success.

Celebration of Friendship

 Thank you so much for supporting friendship in 3E. Yesterday we had our “Secret Friend Celebration.”  The children had drawn their names randomly from a hat for this project and those combinations couldn’t have been better.  Children had the opportunity to think about classmates in different ways.  They got to learn about different classmates.  The work they did to write a letter, poem or story for their classmates was wonderful.  They thought about favorites and kindnesses they have seen or felt through the year. I wish you could have heard them all and seen the looks on their faces.  Many of them fairly beamed.   Along with the writing, they created a piece of art for their friend, wrapped it and brought it to share. Wednesday was so exciting – the children walked around the table hoping to find their names wishing the share was “NOW.”

The gifts once open and shared were beautiful!  The expression on the faces of the giver and the receiver were precious.  I wish I could fully capture the joy and excitement of each of the children as they discovered who their secret friend had been.  The joke in the circle was “thanks, a box…” the light in their eyes when the box was opened and the shear happiness on their faces was magical.   Each friend truly shared gratitude and appreciation for all that had been done for him or her.  Each friend was thrilled by the time and effort. The letters, sharing how important they are to each other and to the class were beautiful.  These memories and keepsakes are something to keep forever.  They are truly a wonderful class of kind and caring friends.

The expressions, comments and affirmations were wonderful gifts in and of themselves.  “Wow!  I would like that…  Oh, look she included… It’s beautiful…It’s so sweet…. thank you!”  We have an amazing group of friends. What a wonderful thing to know as we move into a new year.

 

Exploring Peter and the Starcatchers

Last week we began Peter and The Starcatchers.  It is the story that happens before the Peter Pan we know.  In it we’ll learn how Peter comes to fly and we’ll learn about the lost boys and mermaid lagoon.  Right now the book is taking place on three ships:  the Never Land, on its way to Rundoon, with Peter, Molly and four other orphan boys, The Sea Devil, captained by Black Stache the most feared pirate on the seas, and the Wasp, her majesty’s ship sailing the richest treasure ever put to sea from England to Rundoon.  We know something is about to happen and we are guessing that everything is soon to change.  We’ll be left hanging until we return on January 2.

Bits and Pieces:

• We are slowly but surely working our way into multiplication.  We learned to play the game Circles and Stars – it is a great game for connecting repeated addition to multiplication, learning facts and ending with the challenge of combining a long list of numbers to get a final sum.
• We are continuing our exploration of mapping and geography.  We have read an overview of each of the continents.  We have compared them and learned something about the land features, the diversity of the habitats and the people.
• Each of the children has selected a country they are interested in researching and learning about.  The outcome of this project will be exploring global cultures, geography, understanding the qualities of effective information writing, and creating a visual display to teach others about the topic.  This will likely be a five-week project.  Most of the work will be done in the classroom, but a few small pieces will be part of homework (for example: creating a flag and learning about the choices and the symbols.)
• Several of the children did make new posts on their blogs.  Some of the posts share their artwork, others writing and book reviews and some combine information with tools they are learning in technology.  (They love GarageBand!)  We hope you have a chance to read them and comment.
• I’ll be back into the Monday Reading and Wednesday Math posts over vacation if your child is saying he or she needs something to do once the holidays are through. 😉

I hope you all have a fantastic, restful and joyful time with your families during this vacation.

Happy New Year!