Fast Friday Focus: December 2012

Curriculum Connections...

Happy Friday to everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful, productive and positive week - I know although it was busy for me, it was awesome because I saw such incredible stuff (see the details below)! Please hold on to this newsletter until after the break because it covers that first week back!

I must begin by extending a HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to Melanie and her FIANCE Matt!! It was so awesome that Cantiague served as the backdrop for this special moment - may you both always be happy and remember to always communicate and never go to sleep mad each other (that is what my dad told me the night before our wedding but its harder than it sounds). On another note, thank you again to everyone for asking about Kelly - her back is feeling great and she is back to normal! We have officially reached Paul's actual birthday weekend - tomorrow is the big day and he is so excited to be celebrating all over again but this time with his family (we actually get to be included this time).

I want to wish everyone a happy holiday season - regardless of the holiday, I hope everyone takes the time to celebrate, rejoice and rejuvenate as we prepare to usher in 2013. It is hard to believe that we are entering our 6th year of working together -time does fly when you're having fun! Thank you for giving me the honor of being the Lead Learner of this incredible learning community -I learn so much from each of you as I walk around this building each day! Just this week I learned from Lisa P. that I could write on the tables/desks in our classrooms using dry-erase markers and then everything can be erased - AWESOME! I also learned how to correctly place my tongue to make the "S" sound from Lois - thank you! Finally, Meryl stumped me this week with an awesome poem about a safety pin that I thought was some sort of sea creature- thank you all for helping me grow!

Meanwhile, just some important reminders for the next few days...

SLO Targets due for all K-2 teachers in Math & ELA in early January- please see me if you have any questions or need any assistance completing the information!
Monday morning, at 7:55am, will be our Staff Photo - please join me for some fun! We may also take a school-wide picture either indoors or outdoors depending on the weather; that picture will take place right after morning announcements!
Holiday Luncheon and Party on Wednesday- lets get ready for some fun!

I also had a lot of time to spend in different classrooms and spaces and cannot express how much I value and treasure this time with each of you and our kids - I learn so much! During my visits this week, I...

Spent some time in Mandy's room where the children were learning about how to add one to a number within the Math In Focus program. During the math period, Mandy had the children create a human number line, pulled a small group for additional support, had the children play a game using dice and had the children come up to the SMARTBoard to show their work - it was awesome!

Spent some time in Lesley's class while she introduced the concept of personification within poetry as part of their unit of study in Writing Workshop. After introducing the concept with a short video clip of SpongeBob (awesome connection for the kids), the children left the rug with enthusiasm and generated some awesome poems - their use of personification was impressive!

Spent some time in the Learning Center and have really enjoyed watching the work that Jeanne and Karina do with our children - they are a wonderful team; while visiting, Jeanne was working one to one with a 1st grader to help him build his literacy/reading skills with explicit instruction. Karina was working with a small group of kindergarten students and they were working on developing their literacy skills - the small group works so well for them!

Finally, I have had the chance to sit in on two grade level planning meetings with Lisa DeRienzo and the conversations have been impressive. Both grades 1 and 3 spent time thinking about how to increase the amount of time devoted to small group instruction, which is so important in this day and age of Common Core Standards!

Tech Tip of the Week...

Magisto.com is an often used web tool for quickly taking video from an activity such as a field trip or class project and mashing it together with music to create a nice, professional-looking video that is interesting and can easily be shared. Even better, while Magisto is a web tool, it is also a fantastic app for the iPhone or Droids, so now you can shoot video with your phone and have the video ready to go in mere minutes.

Schedule of the Week...

Monday, December 17

Happy Monday
"A" Week
Planbooks Due This Week for ALL Staff (in whatever form)
Staff Photo at 7:55am - please join me!

Tuesday, December 18

Faculty Meeting at 3PM for all staff

Wednesday, December 19

Staff Holiday Luncheon - A Thank You from Tony
CST at 1:20pm
5th Grade Bake Sale
Staff Holiday Party

Thursday, December 20
SECRET - 5th Grade Student vs. Staff Volleyball Game
Cultural Arts

Friday, December 7
Happy Friday & Happy December Break!
Payday

Wednesday, January 2

Happy New Year! Happy 2013!
CST at 1:20pm

Thursday, January 3

Cultural Arts

Friday, January 4

Happy Friday!

Kids' Korner

If anyone needs a smile, just come outside during Kindergarten recess and watch them playing on the sandy playground - it is a special experience!!

Pics of the Week...