Le jour de l'Action de Grâce

It's already Thanksgiving!  Today we took a little minute to think about things we were thankful for and write them down.  While we are thankful for many things, sometimes we forget to think about them.  For some of us we had to think quite a while to find 5 different ones, but we did it!  The result is rather festive and now hanging outside our door in the hall if you'd like to come admire it.

We're working on building our stamina when writing and reading independently, getting ready to move into Daily 5 in our Literacy Block.  The minutes on the graph are increasing with each practice so we're moving in the right direction!  It is very exciting to see students taking their learning seriously!

Have you noticed that from time to time students are writing their goals in their agendas?  These goals are related to our class mission statement and remind us to keep working on being the best that we can be in the area that we might need to work on.  These are always great conversation starters.  This month we are working especially on the habit of being "Proactive" and we make really good decisions when keeping this habit in mind.

Have a great weekend everyone!  Looking forward to seeing you back on Tuesday!

Lots of little tidbits

The beginning of the year events aren't quite over yet.  And there are some important dates to pay attention to.  Here is a list to keep in mind:
1) September 24: Magazine sale ends
2) September 29: the first deadline for Hot Lunch ordering.  Check the yellow sheet in your child's planner for details.
3) September 30: Scholastic orders due (beforehand is fine!) The flyers came home today.  :)
4) September 30: Terry Fox Run in the afternoon.  Please remember to send good running attire to school that day!
5) October 5: Picture day.  There are two dates marked, but our class sees the photographer Monday.  Yes, I know.  Monday.  I have to set my alarm too!  I usually forget the morning of...which means I get a candid!

Today we started thinking about our class mission statement and made a personal plan of how we were going to do one part of it.  At the end of the day, we each reflected on how well we did.  The yellow post-it note should be in your child's agenda and is a great discussion starter!  We'll be paying regular attention to our mission statement and that will form one aspect of the goals we set throughout the year.

Mathletics passwords are coming out soon, along with yearbook notices.  Keep an eye out for them in agendas :)  

I haven't take the time to mention how much I enjoyed visiting with all of you who were able to come out to our Meet the Teacher Barbecue last week.  Thanks for taking the time to fit that into your schedule and for those of you I haven't met yet, feel free to stop by to say hi or set up a time when you're sure to catch me.  It is always such a pleasure to see you all :)

Our class mission statement

In the last few days we've been thinking about the 7 Habits that make us great leaders in our school and our world.  We've especially been thinking about how that applies to our classroom community and it has been great to see how it has become a little easier to talk about being proactive or putting first things first or even beginning with the end in mind.  Perhaps the one we keep coming back to the most is "synergy".  We're working together to create lots of new things: class climate, science projects, a way to organize our activities and our classroom.  It takes a lot of energy and a lot of reflecting.

Then yesterday we set to work creating our class mission statement.  We had a lot of ideas so it is very long.  It will give us lots to talk about and consider as the year goes on.  It will also a good jumping-off point as we start to set personal goals each day.

This afternoon there was a lot of synergy flowing (not to mention paint!) as we created the poster to put up in the classroom.  But true to our mission, we also did an excellent job of cleaning up afterward!

Grade 5 patrollers: this work is our gift to you as you were working on another way to be a great leader in our school this afternoon.

Our finished work is still drying, but here are a couple snapshots:

And because you're all going to wonder what it means, here's a loose translation:

Our class will take care of others, encouraging them and helping them

both inside and outside our school.

We will listen to the person who is speaking

and be proactive, being prepared and keeping our classroom neat.

We will speak French

synergizing with others in our activities.

We will do the right thing even if no one's watching

 and remember to take time for ourselves.

We will begin with the end in mind.

P.S. It would probably be a great idea to send a paint shirt to school for this year.  We could be getting our fingers colourful pretty often :)