Growing in God's Love: November 2018

Thank you for assisting your children as they completed their saint reports. They were very proud to present and read these to their classmates, and the reports are now hanging on in the hallway. We'll continue to pray to the saints as we look to them as models of living a Godly life. We'll study about individual saints all year on various feast days.

During the month of November, we are learning about the virtue of gratitude. We have learned the ASL motions for "giving thanks to God" and are learning to pray "prayers of Thanksgiving." We also created our "Wall of Remembrance" where we pray daily for our loved ones who have died and are in heaven with Jesus. We are thankful for God, our family, and our faith!

Be thankful that you don't already have everything you desire ... if you did, what would there be to look forward to?

Be thankful when you don't know something ... for it gives you the opportunity to learn.

Be thankful for the difficult times ... during those times you grow.

Be thankful for your limitations ... they give you opportunities for improvement.

Be thankful for each new challenge... which will build your strength and character.

Be thankful for your mistakes ... they will teach you valuable lessons.

Be thankful when you're tired and weary ... because it means you've given your all.

Find a way to be thankful for your troubles and they can become your blessings.

Our Wall of Remembrance

I am proud of the students for their hard work this past week learning about bats and informational text. We will wrap up this week with fictional stories on bats and take our assessment to see how well we've grown our SCHEMA about this literature-based science topic! The students have also really enjoyed our realistic fiction chapter book A Veterans Day Visitor, and we'll finish that story and write an acrostic poem using the word VETERAN. Speaking of chapter books, we have been reading Ilene Cooper's adorable beagle dog series called Little Lucy - much to the great enthusiasm of the first graders. :) We have read Little Lucy Goes to School, Lucy's Tricks or Treats, and are now reading Thanks to Lucy. If you're looking for a wonderful series that's accessible to early readers and has endearing characters and relationships, be sure to check it out.

The first graders and I want to give a huge THANK YOU to all the parents who volunteered to help with our Halloween party, whether that meant you could attend and run a game, or whether you supplied prizes or treats or decor for the class, it all made our day super fun and special. After this post are a few shots from our fun day as well as some great pictures from our STEM center building creations.

CONFERENCES ARE ALMOST HERE! I'm looking forward to meeting with everyone for parent teacher conferences next Monday, November 19th. In case you missed the email for sign-ups, you can sign up here to reserve your spot. Conferences are for parents only (no children) and are 15 minutes long. I encourage you to let me know ahead of time of any specific questions you have so that I may be well-prepared to make the best use of our time. The children will be attending school that Monday from 7:35-11:15AM. Please send a snack and water bottle.

Thank you for your support, parents! Enjoy the photos below, and I wish all of you a blessed and Happy Thanksgiving!