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Hi there. Happy Sunday!!! I hope you all had a great weekend. Mine was full of relaxation, playing board games with my kids, preg testing cows, watching a cattle drive go up our street, making cookies with my son, going to church, and having our weekly family dinner on the ranch! All of my favorite things. Well the testing cows for pregnancy...not so much fun, but watching Zach be a true cowboy...that is the fun part! He is an amazing man!
Church this weekend sunk home for me. The lesson was all about being kind to those that need kindness. To seek out those that are alone and different, and having the courage to go up to them and just say hello. That does take guts when you are an adult. I think kids have it a little easier here. They have that sense of innocence in them. Adults, or at least I am, at times are reserved to those that may require some of our precious time. But, that is a mission on Earth...to be kind to one another for no reason at all. Since the shooting in Connecticut, I have made sure to add kindness to our CC Meeting and my ducks in a row board each day. On Friday, I had them do something a little unusual. I had them look around the room and find the one person that they just really don't know very well. They know them in class, but they just haven't made a connection to them yet. Not for fault of their own, just that they have not had reason to. Then, I had them go over to that person and say hello. I also had them ask that person for their phone number. I asked that they make a resolution to call up that person and invite them to play sometime in the 2013 year. I did this as an example that so many times we make new year's resolutions that take away things from their life; things they are no longer going to do. I wanted them to make one that may add something to their lives. So, please encourage them to take a risk and invite their mystery friend over in the next few weeks. Sometimes, we make new friends with people that we never would have dreamed we would connect with. I also shared that my best friend is a boy (not Zach, although he is my dearest friend). Sometimes boys and girls become friends and stay that way for life. It is an amazing connection. So, I told them not to shy away from the person they are thinking of connecting with just because they are the opposite gender. Rusty's show today was the exact way of thinking. He shared about being positive with new goals for the New Year. Amazing how he and I think alike!!! :0) Ask your child who they connected with. Their name and phone number should be in their planner on the first page. Make a plan with your child for when they can invite them to do something fun together. All I asked of them was to give it a one shot chance. If you discuss this, write FRIEND in the planner for $20.
Friday was a fun day altogether! As you can see in the video we did a lot of hands on learning. It started with our reading class. They are reading about objects in space, and we came to the moon. I figured that we might as well have some fun while learning, so I brought out the Oreo cookies. Kids had to only use their teeth to create models of each of the 8 moons we see throughout the month. It was harder than we thought. We tried to glue them down, but they just were not meant to be stuck to paper. They were meant to be in our bellies! All we were missing was the milk. :0) The best part for me, was when Alyssa raised her hand and said she was having a self to text connection. She said that in CC Meeting this morning, we just said that if we make learning fun it sticks in our brain, and now we were doing that. WooHOO!!!! Awesome connection Alyssa!
In Regional Social Studies, we stopped in Iowa on our Midwest tour. There, we learned about farming and ranching. We learned that the life of a cowboy is not always fun and games. We sang the song, Home, Home on the Range together. Then, kids had to come up with words, describing cowboys or cowboy's ways, using all of their senses. So what does a cowboy smell, taste, see, feel, and hear. They had some pretty funny and predictable answers. I then had them write a new verse to add to the Home, Home on the Range song. After a bit, they all performed for us. We then voted on which song we liked the best, and the video shows you the one that won. It was pretty funny!!! Everyone was great and very brave to sing their songs...including Ms. Erickson, whom would never, ever, ever win American Idol no matter how much she believed in herself. :0)
We ended the day with our usual Fun Friday Team Builder. This week, I wanted kids to work together as a team and to make a plan BEFORE starting. Some teams did this naturally, and some...not so much. It was pretty clear after 10 minutes which team designated people for this and than job and those that didn't have much organization. We once again took a vote, and Kenzi's team took the Human Snowman Prize! It was a great team building experience for all, and it tied right into our science study of Snow-ology!
This week is the last week before the end of the 2nd quarter. Reports will come home on the 17th. Just a reminder that kids do NOT have school on Monday, the 14th of January. That is a work day for teachers. I will be doing report cards that day along with taking a training on our new LEAD 21 reading series in the afternoon. Teacher's never stop learning I tell ya. Again, that is NOT this Monday, but next! :0)
This week will be business as usual. Mr. English is on military leave once again. He will be gone for 6 weeks. He is learning to fly some new equipment and has to get in a lot of air time. We are so grateful that he is out there fighting for our rights and freedom! Mrs. Hardgrove will be here the entire 6 weeks in his place. She is a retired principal, that never seemed to retire. :0) We love her dearly, and she is so amazing with our kids. She has been here many times, so she knows many of our Bitterroot families. Feel free to stop in and introduce yourself. She is also up to speed on all the new safety procedures in our school. I feel absolutely safe and confident knowing she is our leader for the next 6 weeks. A BIG welcome to her.
Lastly, we have gym tomorrow, so please help remember to pack or wear those gym shoes.
Have a wonderful weekend, and be kind to one another! :0)
