Building Our Community

Happy weekend, families!  I hope everyone is enjoying the turn of the weather towards fall and the comfortable settling in to the school year routine.  Autumn, officially begun with the equinox this Wednesday the 23rd, is my favorite season of the year.  If you haven't figured it out already, I love school (surprise, surprise).  But I also love football, campfires, comfy sweaters, and drinking hot tea on chilly days.  Fall in fifth grade is fun because we are coming into our own as a class and the students are becoming convinced in their roles as leaders in the school.  They proved it on Friday.

We had our first "community team" meeting this past Friday, the 18th.  This Captain tradition mixes up all of the students in school and divides them into twelve mixed-age teams, grouping siblings and families together.  We meet in our teams periodically throughout the year and share common learning about a variety of topics impacting our Captain community.  Last year, we studied courage.  On Friday, we met in our teams for the very first time and it was our fifth graders who facilitated the entire session.  Your children led their groups in a get-to-know-you activity to help illustrate how connected we all are at Captain.  Although I only have photos from my team, I have it on the word of many other teachers who came to me to compliment our class that your children were fantastic leaders.

We are also in the process of giving our classroom library a little make-over.  This year the teachers are studying how to build their classroom libraries in a way that will serve the students best.  One thing we noticed was how uninviting the books organized into baskets appears in the fifth grade area.  I have a dream that we could transform our little classroom library (of a little over 600 books) to look more like Barnes and Noble or other bookstores.  It's never safe to let me go to a bookstore alone.  I would stay all day because I love looking at all the books and it is so hard for me to narrow down my choice of purchases.  I would love it if we all felt that we could hang out all day in our classroom with the books getting lost in all the choices!  To help me in the process of beginning this transformation, a couple of students have volunteered some of their free time this past week.  Dr. Martin caught them working on the library this week and sent me these sweet pictures.  It's looking good so far thanks to these volunteers!

Finally, I have some exciting news!  During our journalism unit, Mrs. Cohen put us in contact with a Clayton alum, Mr. Rubin, who is now the company head of the Republic of Tea in California.  One of our classmates emailed him to ask him some questions for a news story for the blog.  To our delight, he offered to Skype with our class.  Plans were made and calendars marked.  On Friday, I received an email from him that he was canceling our Skype appointment...because he's coming to visit in person on Tuesday!!!!!  You'll have to keep checking the blog for the story!

Looking Ahead:
Tuesday, 9/22 - Visit from Mr. Rubin from the Republic of Tea at 1:00
Thursday, 9/24 - Picture Day
Friday, 10/9 - Early Release Day (teachers will be preparing for parent teacher conferences)
Monday, 10/12 - Thursday, 10/15 - Parent Teacher Conferences (remember to sign up here)
Thursday, 10/15 - Friday, 10/16 - No School (parent teacher conferences)
Friday, 10/23 - PTO Sponsored Family Dance 6:30 PM at Captain
Friday, 10/30 - Picture Retake Day & Halloween Parade and Parties