Final Calendar for "Character Matters"

October 24, 2011

I just wanted to quickly put up last weeks homework board. There were so many things I wanted to get done before I left last Wednesday and I vowed to myself that for once I was not going to come in over a long break. I didn't succeed in getting quite everything done before I left, but I did succeed in not coming in over the weekend.

Remember, the official end of the first term in this week. If your student has any last minute assignments they'd like to get made up before things are final, they'd better do it quickly. I'm looking forward to a good week this week. I hope everyone else is feeling it too!

"Just smiling goes a long way toward making you feel better about life. And when you feel better about life, your life is better." - Art Linkletter

Red Ribbon Week

Monday, October 24 - Friday, October 28

Theme: “High on Life!—Stay Drug Free!"

Monday---Get a natural high…Wear Your Favorite Jersey—make sure you wear a shirt with sleeves underneath if the jersey doesn’t have sleeves—uniform pants

Tuesday---Crazy sock day—crazy socks make you happy and keep you high on life—pink Socks if you have them—Breast Cancer Awareness Month—wear your uniform

Wednesday---Crazy hair day—Crazy hair—color it pink—Being High on Life celebrates Breast Cancer Awareness—Pink—Breast Cancer Awareness Month—wear your uniform

Thursday---Get high on life while wearing your favorite hat—can have to do with Halloween also—wear your uniform. Moosebutter concert…gets you high on life.

Friday---Backwards/inside out—pink ribbons—Breast Cancer Awareness Month

October 14, 2011

Hey everyone! Yet another successful week behind us! Just a few short things to share this week.

* Remember that fall break is next week, so we will only be in school Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

* Cultural Fair is due on Monday. We will be judging Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning. I'm not entirely sure if Mrs. McGuire got all of the volunteers she needed, but if you're intersted in helping out with judging any or all of those days, send her an e-mail and I'm sure she'll reply to you. (tmcguire@syracuseartsacademy.org)

* The end of the term is October 26. The last assignments for this term will be next Wednesday, 19, and the cutoff for any missing assignments for the first term will be the 26th. Report cards should go home by November 4th.

* Also remember that November 4th is the last day the students will be allowed to use scripts during the run throughs for our play, so make sure they are ready. I am still planning the performances November 21 and 22, but that might change depending on the construction in the auditorium. We are finally getting lights and curtains and I'd love to be able to use them, so if I have to push it back a week to be able to, I will.

For those who do not know, we have a student in fourth grade, Grace Hinds, who has been put into a medically induced coma to help cope with the seizures she's been having. You can see the full story on KSL (http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=17656075&autostart=y) There a few fundraisers the school is supporting to help raise money to support the family. The first is the Race for Grace. It's a 5k and Carnival going on tomorrow at Jensen Nature Park in Syracuse. There should have been a flyer come home about it today.

Also, on Monday, the Syracuse Papa Murphy's is hosting a Teachers Takeover for Grace. The teachers will be working the Papa Murphy's as a fundraiser donating I believe 15% of the money made during that time to Grace's family. I will be working there between 5 and 6, so if you're interesting in having Mr. Pratt make you a Papa Murphy's take-and-bake Pizza, that's the hour you should come by.

I believe that covers it. Come support us as at the Papa Murphy's as we try and help the Hinds family through this difficult time.

"The purpose of life is not to be happy - but to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to have it make some difference that you have lived at all." ~Leo Rosten

October 6, 2011

Well, first parent teacher conferences are done and out of the way. Thank you all for coming in. It was good to really sit and talk with some of you parents that I haven't seen since back-to-school night. All in all we have a really good group of kids this year and it was fun to share the successes. It is also a good time to look at things we can work on, especially with the end of the term quickly approaching! (I can't believe we're more than halfway through it already.)

Things are as they are here at school. There's not been anything too abnormal. Cultural Fair is quickly approaching as well. The projects will presented October 17-19, so please make sure your students are staying on top of it. It is a really fun project, from a teacher's point-of-view, to see the heritages these students have been brought up with.

Mrs. Weidenbacher, the integrated arts specialist for our school, brought in a guest for us from Tandy Leather. He showed the students many different leatherworking projects and gave them the opporunity to pound some designs into a piece of leather. They really enjoyed getting to beat at the tools with the mallets. It's not every day that their encouraged to hit things like this. They loved it!We've got just a few other big things going on around the classroom. First off, book reports are due this coming week. I have given the students an assigned date but in the event that their paper got lost between school and home, here are the assignments again: Finally, we have our play, Character Matters. It's a very cute mix-up of a bunch of fairy tales put together in such a way that it teaches different character development and social traits. The parts have been assigned and we've run through it a couple of times in the classroom. Just so you know, here is the basic schedule I have planned out for it.
Notice that I am planning 3 performances between November 21 and 22. With limited seating in the auditorium, parents are only officially invited to the third and final one. If for some reason that absolutely cannot work for you to see it, talk to me and we'll see what we can do to fit you into one of the others, but please, do your best to come to only that one performance. Besides, it's the third performance, so it will be the best one! I will also be filming the performance and taking a cast picture that I will be offering afterward for pretty much the cost of the supplies. It is coming along really well and I'm excited to see what we can put out after a month more worth of rehearsals. It will be a show you won't want to miss!

"We've got a show, a story that features, fairy tale folk, and fairy tale creatures!" ~Character Matters Opening Song

October 1, 2011

Here's the homework board for the week. Everything is moving along. Cultural Fair has had several of its parts come due, so please make sure your student is staying on top of it.

Reminder about parent teacher conferences coming up this Wednesday and Thursday. I did have a few people change times into the open spots. Thank you for your flexibility. If you've forgotten your time or need to reschedule, please talk to me.

We have completed our Second Unit in this new Math Common Core. I feel really well about how the students did on this test. The majority of our scores were in the 80s and 90s. Congratulation kiddos! I know we've worked hard to get to that point.

I plan on continuing the at-home reading of our Basil Reading stories, however, with the shortened week this week we will not be doing one, so we'll have a break this week. Expect to have another note to sign the following week.

Beyond that, there isn't much to say. We've gotten our scripts for the play, so its coming along. I'll let you know when I've got a more firm date on performances, but we're looking sometime just before we go on Thanksgiving break in November.

I'll end by saying thank you to you parents. Teaching is a hard profession, but dealing with your kids is why I do it, and having parental support like I do from you makes it that much easier. Thanks!

"Hem your blessings with thankfulness so they don't unravel." ~ Unknown