Happy TGIF to the most amazing community of educators on the planet... you all ROCK! By the time you read this, I will be on my way to Philly for another weekend of learning. I hope everyone has an awesome weekend as we speed into the holidays... where did this year go?? Although I have all my holiday shopping to do, first and foremost I must successfully navigate this weekend! It is going to be a busy weekend - first a trip to Philly for some classes at Penn on Friday and Saturday and then back home to celebrate Paul's 10th birthday on Sunday with a bowling bash with 20 of his closest friends! With that in mind, thank you all for all of your support, flexibility and kindness over the last five weeks while Paulie has been staying with me - it means more to me than you know. Just so everyone knows, Kelly's mom seems to be making some small strides in a positive direction so hopefully she will be out of the hospital soon and we will regain some normalcy in our lives.
A special thank you to Sunshine for organizing a wonderful Holiday Fiesta on Wednesday! It was such a great evening to just kick back, chat and enjoy some delicious food. Our school community is really an amazing one and that was highlighted for me watching the many interactions during the gathering where most of them involved laughter, smiles and good times. Happy Holidays to all!
As I mentioned at the FEO on Tuesday, we will be celebrating the SEVEN DAYS OF HOLIDAYS starting Monday, December 15th (also happens to be Paulie's birthday). The plan is as follows...
Monday - Dec. 15 - Manic Monday - No HW for all students & No planbooks being collected this month for all staff!
Tuesday - Dec. 16 - Training Tuesday - wear your favorite workout/training/exercise gear!
Wednesday - Dec. 17 - Warm-up Wednesday - there will be some coffee and/or hot chocolate available in the office!
Thursday - Dec. 18 - Thank You Thursday - leave a HANDWRITTEN Thank You note for someone on staff (and dress down so you are comfy while writing that note)!
Friday - Dec. 19 - Fuzzy/Flannel Friday - wear your favorite flannel/fuzzy PJs, shirt or pants & be comfy today!
Monday - Dec. 22 - Manga Monday - join me as I host my annual THANK YOU Holiday Luncheon in the Faculty Room (and dress down with comfy pants so you can eat as much as you want)!
Tuesday - Dec. 23 - Team Cantiague Tuesday - wear your favorite Cantiague or Jericho gear!
This week, as I walked around the building, I spotted these #EDUWINS...
- Christine launched a new book with her book club but this time each child got an iPad and the book was accessible there using the Kindle app! Christine devoted the kick-off meeting to showing them how to use some of the note taking features of the app and by the end of the session the children were expert users and they were making some awesome predictions. Love this integration of technology especially as it relates to virtual note taking - AMAZING!
- Thank you to everyone who embraced the Hour of Code challenge and gave their students an opportunity to try some coding - you all ROCK! Whether experimenting with Scratch or trying out LEGO Robotics, many of our children responded really positively to the experience and were excited to engage in coding, which should be our goal with every learning experience. With that in mind, I recommend that you try an hour of coding once a month moving forward... why not?? (I will have the results from the survey about Innovation Day soon!)
- Joe P. did an awesome lesson with third grade where he integrated the concept of partial product (which can be abstract and confusing) into the topic of area and the children did an awesome job with this approach to multiplication! They were breaking up numbers, multiplying them and then putting them back together in a meaningful (trying to find the area) and appropriate way!
Tech Tip of the Week...
Check out this link for some ideas on how to continue the CODING CRAZE that the Hour of Code may have started in your classroom...
SCHEDULE OF THE WEEK...
Monday, December 15
Tuesday, December 16
Kids' Korner
Pics of the Week...
SCHEDULE OF THE WEEK...
Monday, December 15
"B" Week
Happy Monday (& Happy Birthday Paul)!
Happy Monday (& Happy Birthday Paul)!
Tuesday, December 16
F.E.O. at 3pm for all staff!
Gr. K & 4 PD at Cantiague (AM is Gr. K & PM is Gr. 4)!
STAR LAB - Gr. 2
Gr. K & 4 PD at Cantiague (AM is Gr. K & PM is Gr. 4)!
STAR LAB - Gr. 2
Wednesday, December 17
Happy Wednesday!
Holiday Break begins in ONE WEEK!!!
Holiday Break begins in ONE WEEK!!!
Thursday, December 18
CST Meeting at 1:20pm
Carvel Ice Cream Sale (pre-orders only)
Cultural Arts!
Carvel Ice Cream Sale (pre-orders only)
Cultural Arts!
Friday, December 12
Happy Friday!
Kids' Korner
While participating in a coding experience, a fifth grade stopped me and said, "This is awesome Mr. Sinanis - can we do more of this??" That was music to my ears!!
Pics of the Week...
Check out Cantiague's Week in Tweets - click on the following link to see our Pics of the Week...
Happy Birthday Paul!!
ReplyDeleteI am loving the seven days of holidays, so fun Tony! This week using the LEGO robots with Joe was amazing for the kids, they loved it! Their only complaint was, "can we each have our own?" Ha! Looking forward to using it more this year!
ReplyDeleteLove the holiday countdown idea! Looking forward to the hot chocolate and dressing comfy. Thanks Tony!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear Kelly's mom is making some progress. I saw the Hour of Code in many classrooms, and it was very cool and all the kids were totally engaged! No planbook this month...nice!!! Looking forward doing the F&P Benchmark Assessment with so many of you this week!
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