 |
| Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all. ~ Aristotle |
In our classroom, as we approach February, our project and many discussions will be about celebrating the friendships that we have made this year and showing kindness to others. We will be talking about this in class during our community meeting times and talk about how showing kindness to others is an important aspect of our character that we can learn to develop and nurture.
We recently learned about a school in Africa where the students live in conditions that make it very hard to learn. The students viewed pictures of the school and saw a very different setting than what they see every day! They immediately wanted to help. Our contact person in Africa said that her students would love encouraging words and cards from our students, so we got to work... As the students got busy creating cards, I heard wonderful conversations happening. They were excited to help and I could feel the positivity in the room as the students figured out what to write as encouragement in their cards.
Another project we like to do at this time of the year is our Boxes of Hope and Inspiration project. It is a project we adapted from Laura Candler and is based on the story, "Hattie's Birthday Box" by Pam Conrad. It is a historical fiction story where the main theme is about how the best gifts are not material gifts at all! For this project, students get a secret box buddy that they will be observing and paying special attention to so that they can create their own box of hope and inspiration for them. In school, we will be writing stories, letters, poetry and creating beautiful illustrations that will all be put inside our box for our buddy.
At home, your student will need to complete some sort of craft to give to their box buddy based on some of the information they have learned from their person. This craft is due January 31, 2018. All other items for this project will be done in school. Occasionally though, students will need to finish some things at home that they started in school. Please don't hesitate to email with any questions. An information sheet went home, and your child was asked to discuss this project with you.
Every year, it is a joy to watch the students receive their Boxes of Hope and it is something that is fondly remembered when they look back on their experiences in fifth grade.
I hope that you talk to your student about their ideas for a craft, and help them to complete this for another student in our classroom.
As we near the end of January, it is important to keep talking to your student about school and helping them to process getting through these next few winter months. These months are sometimes difficult because we don't get outside as much, and there are many colds and flu viruses going around. With Term 3, students begin a different electives schedule, and workload increases and the pacing gets a little quicker and more intense. We talk about keeping up our motivation to do our best every day, and always putting effort into our work to show our learning. For many, this is tough work!
I appreciate all you are doing at home to help us with this awesome task of molding these children, our future. Thank you for your support.
