Zoo trip, Veteran's Day, and Grand Day!

Laura Dean
Nov 14, 2016
3 min read

Good Afternoon First Grade Families!

These past two weeks have flown by and I can’t believe we are one week away from the week of Thanksgiving Break. From Halloween and the zoo trip last week to Election Day, Veteran’s Day, and Grand Day we sure have been busy! Since our last blog post I’ve met so many more family members as you volunteered your time to accompany us to the zoo and attended our Grand Day celebration. Thank you! I was blown away by the number who attended both of these events and know it meant so much to your children.

I apologize that with the exception of the few pictures on the bus the others are just from my group at the zoo. If any chaperones captured any pictures from the zoo I would love it if you could send them to me so I can share them.

We wrapped up this week by sharing with the Grandparents a big book we read when the weather changed (titled The Wind Blew by Pat Hutchins), and a big book we made together about all the things we are thankful Grandparents do for us. The kids also shared one thing they had each learned or their favorite thing (many shared books they were reading from their book box or wrote during writing workshop) and our gathering song Count On Me. We were honored to have Grandparents also share any advice they had or a wish they had shared with their grandchildren. As a school we wrapped up the event by sharing two songs together. One was the familiar Love can Build a Bridge but the other was called Nothing More. Please belay thank yous from me and the children to the Grandparents for making it such a special event!

This week we also talked about Veteran’s Day and Election Day. In terms of the election we had a small talk the next day where the children could share if they accompanied you to vote and what this experience was like. We were not focused on the candidates, but rather the process and the fact that each person had an opinion and was able to voice that opinion through their vote. This next week we will talk more about government in general from the authority figures in our school, state, and country to the role they play and the roles we each play as citizens. For Veteran’s Day we talked about what it means to be a Veteran and we wrote thank you notes either to family members we knew that were veterans or to unknown service men and women to express our gratitude for their service and their role in protecting our country.

This next week we will start collecting for passing of the cans which will be on December 9th. As a reminder from last year this is our annual food collection drive which supports Harvest Hope food bank. We will be sorting and counting the non perishable items brought in.

I will be sending home a permission form today about both first grade classes attending the Nutcracker on December 1st. The price of the trip is $10 and the form is due the last day before Thanksgiving break. As always, we will be looking for chaperones but in order to come you must drive yourself to the Koger Center and pay for your own ticket. The form has additional information and I will also provide more closer to the event.

Pictures from Author Shares and math workshop: