Thursday was so much fun! Gary Hogg visited and all lower el went to an assembly with him. He has such good energy and really gets the kids excited about writing. Not only does he talk to them about writing but he also encouraged them to manage their distractions and be in charge of their own bodies and actions. We were also able to attend a workshop with Gary. He had the children do some writing and as they wrote, he walked around and randomly picked up a few of the notebooks he wanted to share. One of our students had their writing shared. How excited he was! It was so much fun! ![20160908_144243_resized](http://blogs.mariamontessoriacademy.org/jalee/files/2016/09/20160908_144243_resized-300x169.jpg)
If you sent money and an order to school Friday, your books will come shortly. If you sent money and an order to school Thursday and did not receive your books, please let me know so we can get it all sorted out.
I have included in the blog a page at the top titled “Year at a Glance.” This includes all major things we will doing this year. Things like home project dates and field trips are included so you can plan ahead. I will also send home a hard copy with the kids this week.
Friday at school, we did a class friendship web. This is where we through a ball of yarn around the circle while sharing characteristics about each other that make us all good friends. In the end we have a good strong web. We then talk about what happens if some of us are not good friends and some of us let go so we can observe what happens to our strong web. Here are some pictures from that.
![20160909_094527_resized](http://blogs.mariamontessoriacademy.org/jalee/files/2016/09/20160909_094527_resized-300x169.jpg)
We also started P.E. and music this past week. In music and the classroom we are learning a song for International Peace Day called “Light a Candle for Peace.” We have P.E. every Tuesday. Please try to remember to send your child with shoes that are good for running and physical activity.
As always, thanks for all that you do!