Reading Buddies, Crews, and Clubs!

Hello!

There is so much happening in our community right now, it's hard to keep up!  Last week, we introduced 3 new ways to help our community stay connected with IA. 

Reading Buddies is a time where we will be working with the 5th graders and reading some  good books in pairs!  Our first meeting was really special.  We met in the Multipurpose Room and did a Meet and Greet Circle.  Our Kindergarten friends sat in the inner circle, the 5th graders sat in the outer circle, and they faced each other to chat.  The inner circle rotated so that students were able to get to know everyone!  Before meeting our new friends, we practiced what it would look like to introduce yourself to someone, how to shake hands, and made the connection that this time might feel like our morning interview time!

We will be meeting with our Reading Buddies every Wednesday afternoon.  Today, we talked about what impression we wanted to give the 5th graders when they came to visit our class.  We agreed that we were going to impress them and show them that Kindergarteners really know how to be school people!  We were also going to help the 5th graders find a cozy spot to sit, show them where our books are, and make them feel welcomed in our class.  It was really lovely to see how genuinely excited our friends were to be together!

Crews is an opportunity for us to give back to our school and help do a very special job.  We will be helping create and tend the school's Garden, along with the 7th and 8th grade class!  Last week, we met in the Multipurpose Room, shared what our initial ideas were about gardening, and then got into groups of 3 (K,7th, 8th graders), and took a walk through of the area we would be working on.  There is lots to do to prepare!

Today, we made a list to help us plan what tools we might need while gardening. Our list included seeds, shovels, rakes, trash cans, gloves, hats, shoes, and much more.  Please come check it out, it's currently on our Information Table near the door.  Any donations you could make to help us do this wonderful job would be highly appreciated!  I just stocked up on gloves for gardening, so we can check that off of our list =]

Clubs is another opportunity to meet new friends, work with new teachers, and learn new skills!  Our friends were able to choose from four different clubs:  Art Studio with 1st grade teacher, Jennifer; Games with 2nd grade teacher, DeeDee; Storytelling with 4th grade teacher, Patrick;  and Teamwork with myself.  These Clubs are available to K-2 graders, so we are making even more Cross-Class Connections!

In our first Teamwork Club meeting, we brainstormed what types of things teams do, what types of teamwork do friends do in their classes already, and then we tried some out!  One thing friends liked to do in teams was reading!  When you read in teams, you can ask your partner for help sounding out words.  That's teamwork!

There is so much community building going on, I'm so proud to be a part of this team!  And thank you again or sharing these very special people with us. 

Love, Gaby