Days keep rolling along in between icy mornings. Though we experienced another school delay earlier in the week for safety reasons, staff, students, and parents are doing their best to get back into a routine. Wacky weather everywhere...
Here's a snapshot of our very, very busy week. Enjoy!
Kinder celebrated all things 100 Days on Monday. Teachers and students always make a big
to-do out of this milestone and I caught a few of them in the cafeteria that day with their special 100 day hats. Love the enthusiasm from our youngest learners. Big hearts for all they do!
Additionally, these students have also been doing other learning activities around the concept of 100 (a big deal for Kinders) and I especially loved the student artwork in Ms. Davidson's room. Students created portraits based on what they thought a 100 year old person would look like (one Kinder told me she knew someone who was 106!), and as you can imagine, hair was often at a minimum. Priceless.
We will be gearing up soon for our own Scottie Olympics, but as you can see the celebration is under way as the Sochi Winter Olympic Games take place. Always exciting.
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| Coach wearing his Torino 2006 cap |
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Book Fair carried on in between all weather happenings and kids were clamoring each morning to get in the library and
to those books! How cool is that? Librarian Cheryl Mullins really gives it her all during the week long Fair, along with our annual Book Fair/Poetry Slam night tri-chairs Christy Savage, Suzanne Gonzalez, and Stacy Mendelson. We had over 80 performers at Tuesday night's
Viva el Slam, with a packed house as always. It was also fun to kick off the evening with my fellow slammer Lizanne McDaniel. Thanks to all student participants and to the folks who coordinate this event year in and year out. This is the sixth year for the Slam and I hope it lives and grows well into the future.
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| Waiting to perform at the Slam! |
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| Stacy & Christy workin' the Book Fair |
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| All poetry was original. Cool! |
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Mrs. Hunter's and Mrs. Duquette's language arts classes have been studying Shakespeare over the last few weeks and it was iffy how performances would go, given the practice time weather interruptions. But they pulled it off without a hitch. Those fourth graders on Thursday's performance day nailed it. They knew their lines as they performed shorts acts from MacBeth, Hamlet, A Midsummer's Night Dream, and more, and they delivered those lines with expression, accuracy, and confidence. Very impressive delivery of sometimes difficult language for our modern day kids to grasp. Huge confidence builder, not to mention a way to build understanding & connections to learning.
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| A delightful fairy with King Oberon |
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| Witches & More Waiting pre-performance |
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| Rubber swords of course for these fine young men! |
Big thanks to Angela Cardenas, of AISD's SEL department and our own SEL champion Cari Land for a very informative overview of Second Steps curriculum at Wednesday night's PTA meeting. Our in school implementation is being done with fidelity and is on target, but we have plans to pump up the consistency for the all important at-home support piece; we even have tentative plans for an SEL student presentation at our May PTA General Meeting. Whole Child Learning encompasses much, with adults as models, facilitators, and our own SEL perceptions/needs at the heart of the work. Striving for a more connected, authentic, healthy society for all. Thanks ladies!
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| Angela and Cari |
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Furthering our path to common understanding in and around SEL initiatives, our newly formed book club group met for the first time to receive our book selection, Same Kind of Different As Me. We
have 15 staff members participating, we are ready to read and explore and have open, courageous conversations related to race, friendship, homelessness, faith, and other subjects often difficult to tackle, most especially in a work environment. Those who have read this true story tell me it is inspiring, gritty, but ultimately uplifting and I am truly looking forward to our first Sunday afternoon meeting together. Special thanks to Angela Ward of AISD's Department of Academics, Cultural Proficiency & Inclusiveness for providing the books to get us going - important conversations for us all.
Two last things to share. All things HP Spring Fling Silent Auction are in the works for next weekend. As you can see from the purple raindrops hanging from the ceiling (can you guess this year's theme?), the chairs are gearing up for a fun evening that supports all things programming and initiatives at our school. One big part of the event in recent years is the grade level student created artwork. Early this morning, I was able to catch a few fifth graders, along with grafitti artist Zuzu, working on their own grade level piece. It, along with others, will go up for auction soon and from what I could see today, the pieces are
quite cool, and quite Austin. On to the Fling!
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| Zuzu and students in grafitti stance! |
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Finally, big hug to everyone on this Friday Valentine's Day. What a few weeks it has been, we are truly gearing up for STAAR testing at grades 3-5, and hopefully, the snow and ice delays and cancellations are behind us. Busy weeks ahead for us all, but enjoy the Valentine's Day ahead, along with the good weather weekend. We will see you back here on Monday, Feb 17!
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| Ms. Maca's student created hearts - lovely |
