Monthly Archives: February 2018

Good News Moment

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I wanted to let you know about an addition we have made to our morning line time.  It is called “Good News Moment”.  The students even created a fun little jingle to add after the news is shared.  The good news moment is a piece of our morning line that I am asking for some support from you at home.  This is something that I have wanted to do for sometime now and I am hopeful it will have a lasting impression with our students. The idea behind “Good News Moment” is to recognize the good in our world.  “Be the change you wish to see in the world”, is what I think of when I say “Good news moment”.  With your help, students may bring in newspaper articles, web links, personal stories, magazine articles, and such, that share good news happening in the world around us.

Some examples that have recently been shared included an article from our local North Ogden Connection about a student from Weber High that created a project called buddy bench.  The idea is for these benches to be placed on playgrounds at our local elementary schools. “Too Often, a kid is alone at lunch, bullied in a classroom, or alone at recess.  The idea is that a bench can be placed outside at recess where a student may sit if they don’t feel included, feel low for the  day, or are just alone.  Other students will see the bench, and the person on it, and respond in the loving, caring ways that children do”.  Another good news was shared about the local North Ogden Jr. High student who saved his money to buy flowers for students, at his school, on Valentines day.  His hope was to bring happiness and smiles to everyone on that day. One student shared how Cherrios company is planting extra flowers to help save the bees. Another article that was shared helped for students to reflect briefly on the things they take for granted and see how their own creativity and ingenuity can help others.  A man invented adjustable shoes for poor child.  The article can be found here.

I encourage you to look for these opportunities and share them with your children, so they can bring them into our classroom.

 

Home Projects

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The “I wonder…” projects have been so much fun this month.  Thank you for supporting your child with these important assignments.  Tomorrow is the last day of the month and we will be entering our new home project topic for March.  If your child has not yet completed their project for February, please encourage them to be accountable and complete the work, even if it is late.

Our next home project is to choose one of the 50 states, every child will have a different state.  Tomorrow I will be taking sign ups, so I have asked each child to come to class with their top 3 state choices.  I will provide a template to guide their project research for this project.  I like to think of this project as a mini International Festival.  If the children want to bring artifacts, samples of food, vacation pictures, and such, they are welcomed for this project.  If you have questions or concerns, please let me know.

Also, on a side note.  I am doing something a little different for Roaring Readers and hope to have these ready for those students starting tomorrow.  I will send a separate email explaining the change.

Thank You

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Thank you for a wonderful round of parent teacher conferences.  Your children are amazing and its so fun to celebrate with you all of their accomplishments.

I also want to thank the wonderful mothers who came to support our celebration of love of Wednesday.  Special thank you to Ms. Mandee, for planning all the fun, and to everyone who help to provide supplies.

I also want to thank you for the thoughtful gifts and cards.  I truly love each and everyone of your children and appreciate the opportunity to work with them each day.

Sorry I forgot to send home their weekly reflections.  A personal weekly highlight for me, was teaching the students the lyrics to the “Star Spangled Banner”.  We will continue to practice, but they were loving it.

We are currently entering our study of North American and starting with the United States.  Our up coming projects will be a state report, so begin brainstorming with your child.  We will try and cover 30 different states, so only 1 state per student.

Have a wonderful Presidents  Day weekend, see you Tuesday.

 

Volunteers for Valentines Day

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Hi,  Mandee Stephens, our room mother sent out a sign up sheet, asking for volunteers to come support our class activity this Wednesday from 11:30 a.m.-12:40 p.m.  We would love the extra help and this helps toward your 40 volunteer hours. You can find it on our school track it forward.   Also, if you are not available to come, but would like to help, we are in need of donations for strawberries and canned whipped cream.  You can send Mandee an email at: mandeestephens@outlook.com and let her know you would like to help with these items.  Thanks so much.

Valentines

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We will be passing out valentines cards on Wednesday, February 14th.  Sharing valentines is optional, but I would like for all students to bring a box or bag to collect valentine cards.  It can be decorated, but it needs to fit inside their locker.  I will not send home a formal list, it can become quite cumbersome with the short time we have to navigate finding everyone’s box or bag.  We have 31 students who will be participating.  Our room mother is planning an activity after lunch and she will send an email asking for additional support.

Just a reminder that early out begins this day through the remainder of the week.

MAPA

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MAPA Board  is currently looking for a VP for the remainder of the year who will then become the president for the 2108-2019 school year. Please contact heidibradley81@gmail.com if you or you know someone who would be interested.

Don’t know what MAPA is… it is our schools PTA program. The fall festival, gala, book fairs, teacher appreciation, safety, box tops all happen because of MAPA and we want that all to continue to happen, so keep your eyes and ears open for someone who would do a great job!

We hope you all are enjoying the track it forward program. All events whether it is school wide or for the class room will be through track it forward from now on. There is a way to categorize events by teacher, school wide or both together:

  1. Login to you track it forward account

( if you have not signed up please do so by going here https://www.trackitforward.com/site/mapa

  1. Click on event sign ups
  2. Click on filter by category (the little blue writing on the sample pictured)
  3. You can then select what categories you want to see the calendar for. For example if you want to see only Ms. Joy’s sign ups click on Ms. Joy. If you want to see just Ms. Joy’s and the school wide events click on both Ms. Joy and school wide. You can do as many as you want.
  4. If you do not see your teachers name on the category selection yet, be patient. They have not yet created an event on the track it forward calendar yet. But there next event will be on there. So keep a watch out:)

6. Sign up for event and your done. Track it forward will email you a reminder 2 days before the event.