It's been a BUSY start to the year!

We've accomplished a whole lot in 12 days! We've laid the foundation for how we will function as a team and begun to create a culture of acceptance, kindness, and safe risk-taking. The kids continue to impress us with their kindness and helpfulness. They are successfully navigating the building and their busy schedules. Last week, we got them organized for learning and started our normal class schedule.

Hopefully, you've seen their binders. If not, please ask to see them. They are a work in progress and will be added to throughout the year. On Mondays, they will receive a weekly planning sheet. It will live in the binder. Make sure to check this out. It will keep you informed of their homework, and at the end of the week, we have them write a summary statement about what they have learned in each of their classes. PS- Reading homework will OFFICIALLY start this week, but not regular homework yet. We are still getting systems in place this week.

Ask to see their purple planning sheet so you can get a sense of what we have introduced this week.

Thank you to everyone who sent in the $10 to cover part of the expense of the binders & the Scholastic magazine subscription! If you haven't sent in the money, it's not too late.:) Please reach out with questions. Here are some suggestions for how to use Scholastic News. PS- Their access link is on their Language Arts Google Classroom. They would sign in using "Google Classroom, not a class code." Reach out to Ms. Michael with questions about this if you're having trouble accessing the digital resources.

Here are just some of the things we've been up to on team Wizards the last two weeks.

Students had drawn emojis to represent how they were feeling on the first day of school and then revisited them at the end of the second week. The theme that emerged was that kids were feeling food about their transition to CBMS!

Last Monday, we watched Inside Out. This is a Wizard's tradition. The movie anchors so much of the social-emotional learning that we do here on team Wizards. The students created their own islands of personality, which we do as a getting to know you and connection activity. You'll get to see their islands at Open House on October 16th.

During our whole team meeting, "Dr. Know-It-All" came to answer some of our students' burning existential questions. Somehow, when asked about the meaning of life, the answer had something to do with waffles... If your student didn't tell you about "Dr. Know-It-All," you should definitely ask them about it. This is just another example of how we build a culture of fun here at CBMS. It's a great place to learn!

We did fit EVERYONE in Ms. Michael's room for our
WHOLE team Morning Meeting!

The students participated in more teambuilding activities and then debriefed on which skills they needed for each activity. Ask them what consensus means and why we played a game named Consensus. Below are pictures of River Crossing. We have some really creative problem-solvers.