Planner Police

Room 100 has spent the first month of school getting organized. As students rotate between several classrooms, organization helps them experience success. Students are learning to maintain planners and binders daily. This task will only feel like a mammoth chore if it is neglected over a period of time. 

You may monitor your child's progress at home by checking the folders in the binder. Assignments are placed in subject folders and every student carries a folder labeled Take Home. Graded papers and school notes are placed in this folder. These graded papers may come out of the binder at night. I hope you will take time to discuss your child's work and offer encouragement.  Organization skills are worthwhile life-long skills. The goal for organization is to eliminate tardiness, forgetfulness, and lack of preparedness.   

The Planner Police make frequent visits to Room 100. Their job is to check students' planners, binders, and desks. If needed, students are ticketed and encouraged to get organized before they get the incentive treat. 

Today's planner police treated the entire class to donuts. It was a timely visit- right before conferences! Students were proud to show parents clean, organized desks.

We are off to a great start. It has been such fun getting to know these kiddos. Thanks for taking the time to attend parent teacher conferences with your child. Please know you are always welcome to contact me with any concerns. 

Enjoy your 3-day weekend!

Brick by Brick

Schools celebrate students in dozens of different ways. They celebrate students' citizenship and creativity, academics and attendance.

Norfolk Middle School is celebrating our fantastic students by building a brick wall.

Principal Hughes introduced a new program at the middle school this year that will recognize and encourage positive character qualities in our students.

“We hope to see all of you get a brick and get your name up on the wall. Brick by brick, we are going to have a good school year. Once we build our wall, the school is going to stop for an afternoon and have a school celebration.”

The Brick Award is raising awareness of respectful and kind behavior in our school.  It has caught on in this Full Classroom and bricks are beginning to stack up!  

Collaborative Conversations

At the beginning of the year, mini lessons teach students how to communicate with others in a respectful manner. The speech bubbles are a visual reminder of how to share opinions, ideas, and thoughts.

 A little time spent teaching students how to have respectful conversations can make a difference in cooperative learning groups.  

Scream!

We jumped right into writing this year with an ear-piercing scream!  I often combine writing lessons with art lessons - what a pair! 

We all agree that the first day of school is an explosion of fun, energy, nerves, and excitement.  Our first writing assignment captured our feelings in an essay titled, "Scream."  

After writing our essay, we took a look at Edvard Munch's art titled, "The Scream" to see how expression can be created with lines and color. 

We worked on drawing a screaming face of correct proportions. We then had fun adding the hair color using watercolors and a straw to blow crazy hair.

 The kids had a blast with this project!

 Our hallway screams with excitement!

Credit to the inspiration for this project to Josyln who posted it on her blog in 2011.