Our Wizards are Magical!

 Dear Families, 

We are off to an amazing start here on Team Wizards! It's only been three days, and we are blown away by our new students! You wouldn't know that school just started. They have really caught on to routines and expectations.  Plus, they are kind, engaged, and are good problem solvers! We've had LOTS of adults around the building spending extra time on our team, making connections with the students, and they have also commented on how impressed they are with the new Wizards. We have kept the walls between the classrooms open this week to make it easier for students and their new teachers to get to know each other. It has also enabled us to send a consistent message in terms of expectations. 

Here are some highlights! Be sure to ask your student what they enjoyed most this week. 

Students met our administrators and support staff, who also reviewed cafeteria expectations. "Mindy," AKA Ms. Anderman, helped model clean-up procedures. 

Mindy's theme song is Mission Impossible when she models routines. 

We did an activity called Team Tally, where students were put into groups and had a list of prompts. There were points involved, but really it was just about making connections.:) 

We played a game called "Contra Commands."  A silly movement game that required focused listening skills. Unfortunately, we don't have pictures because we were all so focused on playing! Ask your kid about the "Stop/Walk" game, which is what they're most likely going to remember this as. 

We have team snack & recess outside all year, and Thursday's weather didn't disappoint! We'll be missing that warm sunshine in January.

We played Human Bingo, where students had to make connections with lots of people on the team. Blackout was the goal, and we had some winners!

After reviewing cafeteria expectations, students worked in groups to create acrostic poems. Again, their ability to work in groups with brand-new people is a testament to their flexibility and willingness to make new friends. Just look at the teamwork!  

After they completed their acrostic poems, we did a gallery walk so they could see everyone's posters. 

On Friday, the students were presented with a group engineering challenge. They had to build the tallest tower they could with only 4 pieces of paper and 20 inches of masking tape. We got to see their creative problem-solving skills, ability to compromise, and some stellar engineering.:) 

We called this one the leaning tower of crumpled paper.;) However, it was one of the few that were freestanding.

On Friday afternoon, we had our first school-wide assembly.

We are so looking forward to the rest of our school year with them! We hope they came home feeling as good as the teachers did!