Patriotism is the word of the month for our Character Education program. On May 17th we will come together as a school community and wear red, white and blue.

Patriotism is the quality of being supportive for one’s country. One way to show devotion to our country is to honor and respect the American flag. Pam Ryan’s The Flag We Love reminds us of our country’s ideals.

Ronald Reagan said, “If we love our country, we should also love our countrymen.” Another way to show your patriotism is to honor our service men and women. Vetiquette is a character education program that teaches children the importance of showing gratitude for our veterans and particularly for gold star families (families that have lost an immediate family member in service to our country). Here are additional biographies of some true American Heroes – Vetiquette 2019.

A Blue Star Family Member is someone who has an immediate family member serving now. (Immediate family member means a parent, child or sibling)

A Gold Star Family member is someone who had an immediate family member die while serving our country.

Celebrating holidays like Labor Day, Patriot Day, Independence Day and Flag Day are ways to show Patriotism. Memorial Day is this month and is an important holiday to show patriotism. Here’s more.

April is blue for respect.Respect is to show polite regard and consideration. Respect is a feeling of admiring someone or something that is good, valuable, and important and should be treated a certain way. Everyone deserves to be treated with respect.

Cottage Lane’s book of the month, Pinduli, is a surprising story about self-image, self-acceptance, and treating others with respect. After reading, sharing and discussing this special book you will realize how a few tiny words – bad or good – can create something enormous!

Do you think that by hurting someone else’s feelings it made the animals who made Pinduli feel bad, feel better about themselves?

Additional Resources:

• Respect Each Other
• Shaquem Griffin’s Story
• Amazing Kids of Character: Respect

This month please practice respect toward others, adults and the Earth!

It is time to get those creative juices going again! Mrs. McBride is offering another opportunity to put your skills to work. Find out more details for this month’s challenge here – The Gummy Bear Challenge.

Kayleen loves to write. She has been looking for ways to get her work published. Besides writing often, she has submitted entries to Storyworks magazine. After several tries, she has successfully won a contest. See her name celebrated here – Kangaroo Contest. Be inspired by Kayleen and check out their web page Storyworks Contests.

On Tuesday and Friday, please wear blue. As a school community, we are going to show our support for Autism Awareness and our monthly assembly, Respect! This is a great time to show respect for others and others diagnosed with Autism.

What else can you do? Please visit Mrs. McBride’s website for further details – Blue for Autism.

March 21st is World Down Syndrome Day (WDSD.) “It is a global awareness day which has been officially observed by the United Nations since 2012. Down Syndrome International (DSI) encourages friends all over the world to raise awareness of what Down Syndrome is, what it means to have Down syndrome, and how people with Down Syndrome play a vital role in our lives and communities.”

Rock Your Socks tomorrow March 21st to show your support. Visit Mrs. McBride’s website for more information.

Green with Integrity!

• Integrity is the quality of being honest, having strong moral principles and total sincerity.
• Honesty is often viewed as saying the right thing and integrity is doing the right thing.
• Oprah Winfrey states, “Real integrity is doing the right thin knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not.”

Read and listen to our book of the month, Mr. Peabody’s Apples.

In the story, Tommy realizes the damage he has caused to Mr. Peabody. He says, “I have a lot of work to do.” Pretend you are Tommy and write an apology to Mr. Peabody which explains how Tommy plans to amend what he has done.

SOCSD afforded an amazing opportunity for students in grades 5-8. Malala Yousafzai spoke to our students about the importance of education and especially for girls. She has a new book called, We are Displaced. Please read or listen (scroll to the bottom of page) to her biography – Malala Yousafzai. Watch an interview with her below.

“Malala is a symbol of hope and an inspirational role model, particularly for girls. On her 16th birthday, she gave a passionate speech to the United Nations. She was inundated with awards, culminating in the ultimate honor in 2014, the Nobel Peace Prize.”

Read more here:

• Kids Rights – Malala
• Biography – Malala
• Time – Malala
• Time for Kids: Heroic Returns
• CBS interview “We are Displaced”

What amazed you most about Malala? Post your comment to this blog.

We had a once in a lifetime experience yesterday when the incredible Malala Yousafzai visited SOMS to speak to the 5th and 6th graders about the importance of education, especially for girls. We were truly inspired by her! Malala is a symbol of hope, strength, peace and determination. We spent weeks learning about Malala’s life – including her childhood, her motivation, her hopes and dreams and her accomplishments.

Please think about all that you have learned from Malala. Reflect on her words from yesterday. How has she inspired you? What were you most moved by?

Students are smiling away at our new window display by Domenick and Matthew. These boys firmly believe, “Chickens are an underappreciated animal. So, we decided to honor it at Cottage Lane.” Domenick and Matthew were challenged by re-sizing the original design to fit the window and hope their chicken makes you smile!