September 14 - 18

I want to begin this week's messages by giving Kudos to all of your children. We watched Bridge to Terabithia on Friday and used it to transition into a discussion on death. The discussion followed a script I had written (which I'd be more than willing to provide you a copy of if interested). We touched bases on several different ideas. First off I explained to them why I felt it was important for us to hold this discussion. I told them about my father passing away during my student teaching and how, when the students asked questions, I really didn't know how to answer them because I had no idea what their parents or teacher had taught them about death. From there the discussion focused on feelings. In the book, and movie, Jess' best friend dies while he is out at an art exhibit with his teacher.

I posed two retorical questions: How would you feel if this happened to you? How should you feel if this happened to you? The second question wasn't meant to invalidate any feelings they might have been considering, but because, in the book, Jess felt guilty. He thought it was his fault that Leslie ended up going to Terabithia alone and if he'd have been there, the rope wouldn't have broken and she wouldn't have died. With that, we talked about the guilty feeling, and how death is just as inescapeable as life, and it's never our fault if someone else passes on. I explained to them that there are a whole array of feelings that would be appropriate to feel in this situation, but guilt is not one of them.

I then handed them a paper with a few questions on it: How would you feel? How would you react? How would you want to be treated? Etc. After they filled them out, I asked for volunteer to share some of their answers and we used their answers for some more topics of discussion. Our discussions led perfectly into the poem that I ended the lesson with:

“You can shed tears that she is gone,

or you can smile because she has lived.

You can close your eyes and pray that she'll come back,

or you can open your eyes and see all she's left.

Your heart can be empty because you can't see her,

or you can be full of the love you shared.

You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday,

or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.

You can remember her only that she is gone,

or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.

You can cry and close your mind,

be empty and turn your back.

Or you can do what she'd want:

smile, open your eyes, love and go on.”

- David Harkins

With this poem and the idea of it in mind, I had them end with writing a paragraph on why Jess' life was different now, not because she had passed, but because he had the opportunity of having her as a friend. It ended up being a far more powerful lesson than I could have ever asked for.

Our picture for this week comes from our class performance of "Don Gato" during our Drama period.

A few notes for parents: We started our box top collecting this week. The class that collects the most box tops, gets a soccer ball for their classroom. I also sent home book orders on Friday. Book orders can be done online now, or you can send in a paper copy and I will send them in online. If you do the ordering online from home, each order to come in online earns a free book for our classroom. Book orders are due by September 30. I am going to be getting the list of books the students are planning on using for their book reports on Monday. I will also assign them their exact date on Monday. I will make sure they write these in their planner, and then I will also give plenty or reminders. Again, the week for book reports is going to be October 12-16.

There's not a whole lot out of the norm coming up this week. We will be getting new spelling lists on Monday. Being a full week again, we will test them on Friday, so be sure they are practicing at home as well as at school. Our Basal story this week is going to be Darnell Rock Reporting. It's a story of a boy whose article on creating a garden for the homeless inspires others into action. We started measurements in math this week and will be continuing on with it for the majority of next week. The read aloud we will begin this week is Flat Staney. It's a pretty short read, but when we're finished with it, we are going to create Flat Stanleys and send them to a buddy class taught by my cousin in Wisconsin. Finally, in science we finished the Kingdom of Monerans this week and move into the Kindom of Protists next week.

"Practice what you know, and it will make clear what you do not know." - Rembrandt