Dear Families,

What an exciting week we had. Returning students did an excellent job mentoring new students, including Ms. Lana. Students learned classroom expectations, worked together to build our community, and received spelling and arithmetic assessments. Ms. Carolyn taught students the playground expectations along with fun games to play (hop scotch, letter bounce, tether ball, tag, etc. )

Here are the highlights from our week:

1.Who is missing?

This was a hit for community building. Each student closed their eyes. Ms. Lana would tap a student on the head to hide under a sheet. The other students would open their eyes to try and determine who was missing from the group. The students had to use their observation skills to identify the missing student. As a group, they got good enough that we hid six students at once!

2. Crossing the river

This game allowed students to see similarities between each other’s interests. Ms. Lana would call out a phrase such as, “if you like bananas, please cross the river.” This opened up more friendships within our classroom.

3. Alliteration name game

Students were asked to think of a noun hat started with the same letter of their name. For example, Ms. Lana stated, “Lana lizard.” Students laughed with each other and learned their peers names.

4. Gratitude

We end each day with gratitude. Each student can choose to share their gratitude or kindly say, “no thank you.” This exercise is a great opportunity for students to stop and think about the good that happened in their day.

5. Mountain Lion Mentors

We ended the week by working with our Mountain Lion Mentors. This year, our class is teamed up with Ms. Shanan’s class of Upper Elementary students. Today, we had a lesson on who Maria Montessori is, her birthday, and one thing she is known for, hats. We broke up into pairs (UE student with a LE student) and together they created their own hat. Laughs could be heard and smiles shined through. Each student, if they desired, shared their hat.

Thank you for your support in making this transition for all of us smooth. Please remember to see when your student presents their home project next week so we can continue to learn about each other.

As always, please contact us with any questions, concerns, or comments.

With gratitude,

Ms. Lana and Ms. Carolyn