Gratitude and heritage…what a combination of topics to celebrate. And those were the themes of our most recent community week at the Kennedy. I love when students show gratitude, and a simple 'thank you' after an activity I put time into arranging really means a lot to me. One exercise we've done a few times this school year is one that has been encouraged over our school's morning announcements. It involves simply thinking about one positive thing that has happened over the last 24 hours. Regularly reflecting on and expressing gratitude for the positive aspects and experiences in our lives is surely a healthy habit, and it's something that often gets lost in the shuffle of our day-to-day lives. So it's a nice activity to do, and we even put those thoughts down on paper this week in our creation of "gratitude wheels". With Thanksgiving right around the corner, hopefully we'll get a chance over the next few days to do even more activities centered around gratitude.

This community week's theme also directed our attention to our own heritage. On Tuesday, we discussed what we know about our family's heritage as a class, using a globe to locate the various countries from which our ancestors came. We also had a Heritage Fair on Wednesday. Several parents from our school community kindly brought in various objects, games, and tokens from different countries around the world. In the gym, six stations representing the six inhabited continents were set up with items from that continent. The kids went around to the different stations to explore these items, while also trying to answer some related trivia questions. Make sure to check out the pictures below!

I'm excited about where we're going in ELA right now, because I've been working with Mrs. George (one of our district's ELA coaches) to integrate the 4th grade social studies standards with our nonfiction reading unit and expository writing unit. So for the next few weeks we'll be applying nonfiction reading strategies to informational texts on U.S. landmarks, and use the information we gather to create our own magazines on Book Creator that convey the importance of a particular national landmark. Weaving together all three of the subjects that I teach is something I'm really trying to focus on this year, and I'm hopeful that my students gain a lot from this integration of subjects.

Our Bucket Fillers this week were Lila and Dylan. This is Lila's second time getting Bucket Filler, which isn't exactly surprising. She is very thoughtful and kind, and she's one of those kids who does regularly express gratitude for the things we do in class. So it's a fitting week for her name to get pulled! Dylan was absent on Friday, so the fact that he's Bucket Filler will be news to him on Monday! One characteristic I really like about Dylan is his natural tendency and desire to help others in need. For example, I'm often misplacing things throughout the day, and Dylan is always ready to help me locate what I've misplaced, often "on the hunt" to find it before I even finish my sentence stating what I'm missing! I love how eager he is to help those around him, and I'm looking forward to telling him that he won Bucket Filler!