We had all of the winter weather come down upon us in February. As a result, I hope that March brings us the pleasant weather of Spring! It is Ohio, though, so please continue to check the forecast and send your children to school with coats and boots. Even if the snow is gone, the mud is not! Wet socks all afternoon is no fun!

We are five chapters into Lost on a Mountain in Maine. This weather is helping the children appreciate what Donn Fendler went through eighty years ago. We read outside in the land lab last week and even ate strawberries when we read that Donn found a strawberry bush in a clearing. This week we will continue reading to hear how our main character persevered through his difficult situation. 

In addition to reading a fantastic book, we are writing our own narrative stories. The children worked all week on their drafts. This week we will continue to revise and edit with hopes of starting a final copy. The creativity and joy in these pieces is contagious. I am looking forward to seeing their final pieces. The students will be graded on capitalization, punctuation, spelling, grammar, and sentence structure. 

We have switched back to science in our afternoon block. We are studying the earth's resources, and we will have some fun this week as we explore rocks and minerals. Miss Rice will be teaching the students on Wednesday and Thursday. She has a great rapport with the class already, so I am looking forward to watching her lead these lessons with the students.

I have a couple of housekeeping requests for my great families. As you are out shopping this week, we are getting low on Clorox wipes, believe it or not. I am so thankful that we have wiped our desks once or twice a day since the beginning of the year; it keeps us healthy! With 20+ desks, though, we go through a container quickly. If you can send your child in with wipes, I would greatly appreciate it! In addition, we could use a roll or two of paper towels. Thank you!

Dates to Know:
March 8 - Guest speaker for fourth grade survivalists
March 9 - Builder's Club after school
March 11 - PTA Meeting
March 17 - St. Patrick's Day
March 18 - No school for students

I feel like I should introduce myself all over again to you and the children tomorrow. It feels like forever since I have had the class in school! I will be honest, I have a love / hate relationship with these weather-related cancellation days! On the one hand, my body is appreciative of the sleep and my mind is embracing the time with my daughter! On the other, I am beginning to wonder how long it will take us to get back into a normal routine! I am hoping we get two solid weeks of school in after this four-day week. I think we all need it!

I would like to start by saying that we do have some grades in already for the third quarter. With the inconsistent days at school, some children are struggling with turning work in or putting forth their best effort. As a result, I want to remind you that students are emailed about missing work, and I try my best to put grades in to Progress Book weekly. If I am missing an assignment, I will flag it for you electronically in Progress Book. To receive alerts on missing work (or low grades), please make sure you go to "Alerts" under Family Information on the left side of the website. There you can check boxes and update settings to meet your needs.

We will be wrapping up our social studies unit this week and beginning science again. Please note you will not see any science grades in Progress Book until next week for third quarter since we switch back and forth in the units. In addition, students are in STEM right now. STEM is a graded Encore and the students will receive a third quarter grade from Mrs. Racin for her assignments. 

Finally, we have a good handful of students out this week and next for vacations. Please note that I will post a summary of what we did in Google Classroom daily (end of the day). I will post it under "Make-Up Work" in the classwork tab. This will not include math since students either go to Mrs. Coen or work at their individual paces. If students have access to Lost on a Mountain in Maine, they are welcome to read along with us. If not, they can catch up when they return. Please note that students will receive extended time to complete assignments. For example, if a student misses two days, they will get a two-day extension. When possible, I will provide work ahead of time, but please note that my plans have been fluctuating based on our weather days, STEM, and the pace of the class. It is not always possible to foresee all assignments in advance. Thank you for your patience and understanding!

Dates to Know:
February 22 - Two's Day! Dress with twos or as a twin!
February 25 - Bath Team Hero Shirts / Popcorn Friday
March 11 - PTA Meeting

I think Random Acts of Kindness Week is upon us at the perfect time! I am not sure if it's the snow (hard to resist a snowball fight) or being together all day (what siblings don't fight), but I have seen a shift in our classroom culture over the last few weeks. We have one rule in my room, which is respect. During this week, we will focus on random acts of kindness to show respect for one another. I know kids will not always like one another, but I hope we can re-establish the respect we had for each other in the first half of the year. 

The class did a fantastic job with the PTA's Read-A-Thon! You can see our final numbers and record holders are beyond impressive! Congratulations to everyone who participated. And, again, a huge Thank You to the Rotili Family for supporting us with the pizza party on Wednesday afternoon.

Monday this week will be dedicated to a standard math period, followed by some Valentine's Day fun. We will enjoy a movie together, pizza for lunch, and the card exchange and games in the afternoon. Our day will end with gym and STEM... it doesn't get better than that!

We will spend the rest of the week getting back into a routine. We finished Because of Winn Dixie, so we will be moving to our next novel. The book is called Lost on a Mountain in Maine. You will see a new reading journal in Schoolwork, and we will be doing some fun activities to make the book feel more true-to-life. This includes one language arts period in the land lab, so please make sure your child has warm recess gear. If you need anything, please send me an email, and I will make sure we get boots, snow pants, etc., for your child.

We will be wrapping up our Heroes of 1812 project this week in social studies. The children are weaving their fictional characters into real battles between the Americans and the British. It has been a good learning experience for us all! I hope they share their final videos with you at home.

Dates to Know:
RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS WEEK
   February 14 - Valentine's Day / Random Acts of Kindness begins - Wear Red and Pink
   February 15 - Wear Your Favorite Team Jersey or Bath Team Hero Shirt
   February 16 - Wear Animal Print Clothes or Accessories 
   February 17 - Pajama Day!
   February 18 - Wear tie-dye or "peaceful" shirts 
February 17 - Girl's STEM Club
February 21 - No School (President's Day)
February 22 - Two's Day! Dress with twos or as a twin!
February 25 - Bath Team Hero Shirts / Popcorn Friday

I hope you had the opportunity to enjoy the snow days with your children last week! I loved hearing Dr. Tefs on Friday. Even more so, I loved the photos that you all sent me of your kids earning Friday. Thank you for sharing them with me. I will tweet them tonight but here they are for you now:

I am curious how many of my students think they only had two days of school last week since Wednesday was “Global School Day of Play...” I have not had a chance to reflect with them yet, but here are some things I saw them learning as they had the opportunity to just play with one another:

• I saw a quiet leader teaching others about her game while humbly accepting feedback on things that could be changed.
• I saw a proud student banking during Monopoly and felt pride because he knew the game rules so well he could lead others.
• I saw children struggling with the chaos learn to find safety through forts, rock-paper-scissors, and quiet time alone.
• I saw a girl step up to help others organize playing cards. She saw a need and a system unravel before her own eyes.
• I saw perseverance solving logic puzzles that would have been easy to walk away from on any other day.

And I heard a lot of laughter. I was so pleased to see the class come together and just... play.

This week we will be watching the movie Because of Winn Dixie to compare the book to the film. It will be one of the writing options during our reading journal wrap-up. Please note that the BOWD Reading Journal #2 (found in Schoolwork) is due Thursday. Students will have plenty of time in class for the last section. However, while grading this morning, I still saw some former areas that need to be completed. Please check with your child to make sure it is all done.

We are also working on a “Hero Builder” activity in small groups to help our class learn about the War of 1812. Several battles occurred, and children will be writing about their fictional characters in these real-world situations. It will be fun and engaging. The final portion of the project will be for the group to create a script that they will use to record a video about their hero. I hope they all share it with you when they are done!

Last  on my agenda this week, I want to mention that the Read-A-Thon ends Thursday, Feb. 10th. The top reader in fourth grade has read 1,130 minutes!! Our top reader, just in our class, has read 860 minutes! These are astounding numbers. More importantly, when I checked tonight, we have raised $2,050 so far!! The mind-blowing part to me is that 13 kids in the class raised this money!!! Imagine what we can do for Bath Elementary School if all 23 students participated this week! If you have not already done so, please click on this link to activate your reader’s page: https://www.read-a-thon.com/readers/r/SGQEcu

Dates to Know:
February 7 - Wear OSU or "Buckeyes for Booth" Shirts
February 10 - STEM Encore starts (and goes through February 25th)
February 11 - Teacher Professional Development (no school for students)
February 14 - Valentine's Day / Random Acts of Kindness begins - Wear Red and Pink
February 15 - Wear Your Favorite Team Jersey or Bath Team Hero Shirt
February 16 - Wear Animal Print Clothes or Accessories 
February 17 - Pajama Day!
February 18 - Wear tie-dye or "peaceful" shirts 
February 21 - No School (President's Day)
February 22 - Two's Day!