Gratitude is the quality of being thankful; the readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness. Assembly Read Aloud: The Thankful Book by Todd Parr
I am thankful for music because it makes me want to dance. I am thankful for my feet because they help me run and play. I am thankful for kisses because they make me feel loved.
Additional Titles:
An Awesome Book of Thanks by Dallas Clayton
Thankful by Eileen Spinelli
The Secret of Saying Thanks by Douglas Wood
Bear Says Thanks by Karma Wilson
The Most Thankful Thing by Lisa McCourt
Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? By Dr. Seuss
We had so much fun celebrating Halloween! We played sight word bingo and got to march in a parade with the entire school. Thanks to the class ambassadors for helping with bingo, getting dressed, and keeping everyone organized!
On Friday afternoon, our class had a great surprise – our first Mystery Reader! We listened to the story Spookley the Square Pumpkin by Joe Troiano and talked about acceptance. It was so much fun!
Today, all of first grade celebrated themselves as writers. Everyone got to meet up with their kindergarten buddies (and their kindergarten teachers too!) and share what they learned while doing Small Moment (Personal Narrative) writing. Some awesome things I heard were: make characters move, reread your writing, add talking, add feelings, stretch out words to help spell, and more. All the writers in our class have grown so much – they all deserve a pat on the back!
I am so excited to say our whole class has grown so much, both as learners and as citizens of William O. Schaefer! After some reflection, I began to realize that using our class “bucket” (You can read all about bucket filling in the book How Full is Your Bucket? For Kids by Tom Rath and Mary Reckmeyer) to encourage hard work and excellent behavior would be more beneficial to our classroom community than having individual buckets. Now, students’ individual behaviors don’t just put tickets in their buckets – they contribute “drops” to our entire class. The children love working together and helping each other, so I think this is a great way to foster team work and to really allow students to be proud of their behaviors (I mean, at least I would be pretty proud if I personally helped the whole class!). If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at bbookman@socsd.org.
On Friday we earned our first class reward! The rewards are random, and this one happened to be “teacher surprise.” So I decided we should have a glow in the dark dance party! It was so fun! Keep up the good work Dream Team!
Every night in the United States an estimated 600,000 people live on the streets. This October, SoulPancake and Kid President want 2 million people to prove that even the smallest acts of love, like donating a pair of socks, can make a big difference in the lives of our neighbors who are homeless.
Socktober was launched by Kid President creator Brad Montague four years ago. It’s a movement to get kids and grown-ups to help the homeless in an easy, fun way.
Last year, more than 10,000 schools, families, businesses, and churches rallied together to bring Socktober to life. People from every state and continent have taken part in Socktober! This year, William O. Schaefer is participating and we are having a “Sock Drive” the last week in October!
All of the socks we collect as a community will be donated to a local shelter.
H/T to Ms. Kolesar!
Take the Sock Challenge. Leave your answer in the comments below!
We were learning about greater than/less than, so we learned a little song about it! Obviously, we couldn’t help but dance along! If you want to learn the song too, click below:
The Thankful Book by Todd Parr
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