Bully Free...

This past week we recognized children in our school who were being bully free.  Each quarter we recognize children who have been working really hard on being friends with everyone in the room and around the school.  These children have been cheering on others, helping others, being respectful, taking pride in their work, and have been displaying great character traits.  It was a fun day handing out these awards and having the other children in the room telling them why they were being such a great friend!  I always look forward to recognizing children who are doing what they are suppose to be doing!

Mr. Stahl's and Miss Todd's A Class Bully Free Winners.

Miss Todd's and Mr. Stahl's B Class Bully Free Winners.

Holidays with our Buddies...

On Tuesday we had our buddy meeting with our 3rd grade buddies from Mrs. Ryba's class.  In November and December we have been discussing kindness in our meetings; therefore, we decided to make Holiday cards for our friends.  We brainstormed ideas on what to write to our friends (the children had some awesome thinking).  Then, the children decorated the cards and the placed a candy cane inside of them.  The children were thrilled to give them to their buddy as a sign of kindness!  We also read the book "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and found examples of kindness.  Thanks to Mrs. Ryba's 3rd graders for another great meeting!

Buddy Fun...

Today we met with our 3rd grade buddies from Mrs. Ryba's classroom and worked together on kindness.  We learned this week is World Kindness Week and discussed ways to be kind to one another.  We came up with the ideas of helping friends pick up things, holding the door for friends and adults, saying nice things, giving hugs to our friends, smiling, telling each other nice things, and many more.  Each buddy group worked together to trace their hands and write a way to be kind.  We then took the hands and placed them in a circle to make a kindness wreath for the holidays (we made two so one could hang in Mrs. Ryba's room and one could hang in our classroom...we mixed up the hands so each room has some kindergarteners and third graders).  We made the wreath so we could be reminded of many ways to be kind to one another.  It was wonderful to see the many children working together and the 3rd graders helping the kindergarteners with their writing, cutting, and tracing.  Our 3rd grade buddies are such a kind group of children.  The children are already looking forward to seeing them in December, plus they love seeing them in the hallways at school :)

  

October Buddy Meeting...

On Thursday we worked with Mrs. Ryba's 3rd grade class on our bully free prevention.  Children worked cooperatively and created posters about our school rules and procedures.  This was a way for everyone to review what we do at WT.  One of my favorite things a group wrote was "Everyone is included at WT."  Thanks Mrs. Ryba for a wonderful meeting and we look forward to our November get together!

Our Buddies...

As a school we have a bully prevention program. One of our ways of working with preventing bullying is having buddy classrooms where we discuss various character traits and work with how to be good friends. Our buddies this year is Mrs. Ryba's 3rd grade class. Today our buddies came down and we worked on how to be a good friend. We read the book "Friends," which is one of my favorite books about friends sticking together, making decisions together, and working together. Next, the children worked together to create a list of being a buddy. In addition, each child received a 3rd grade buddy they will be with all year. This will allow the children to foster a relationship with another child in the school. Once the children met their buddies together they drew a picture and wrote about what friends do. We look forward to our monthly get meetings to learn about friendship. Thank you Mrs. Ryba and her children for having a great meeting!

3rd Grade Buddies...

From Buddy Meeting

Each month we have the opportunity to work with our 3rd grade buddies in our character education lessons. As a school each grade has teamed up to provide lessons in a unique way to teach character education and bully prevention. The children and teachers look forward to this time each month because it gives a great learning opportunity for the children to work together. This past Friday the children learned about respect and teamwork. The children worked together as a team to carry a unifix cube on a popsicle stick across the gym floor. I heard a lot of the children using great communication and having to figure out how to work with the height difference and also the length of each child's steps. It was great to watch and the children discussed afterward about how they had to use teamwork to make it work!

Fantastic Week...

We had an AMAZING week this week. I cannot believe it is over! We learned the letter Ee and the long sound. Just wait, before you know it your children will become basic readers! We worked on writing the letter Ee! In math, we worked on comparing and the children compared fabrics, cookies, buttons, etc. They have done a fabulous job with this. This past week also was our first week of homework! I was VERY happy because we had a 95% return rate. I am thinking next week we can make it to 100%! If you did not turn in your homework and you would like to, feel free to turn it in on Monday. Just as a reminder homework is sent home on a Monday and needs to be returned by Friday. There is usually 4 practice activities for you to complete, which allows for you to do one a night! In addition, please work on identifying letters of the alphabet, writing their name, and counting!

Finally, today was a special day because we had our first school wide "Buddy Meeting." We met with the third grade (Mrs. Ryba and part of Mrs. Coleman's class...Miss Todd's class meets with Mrs. Matheny and the other part of Mrs. Coleman's class)and completed an activity with BrainPop Jr. regarding bullying. We also will have third grade pals. We are looking forward to working with our third grade pals throughout the year! We had a blast and are looking forward to learning from them!