Today was a "sunshiny" day!

The sky is blue, I feel good, and today is a sunshiny day! These words were squealed with delight by a second grade boy, who was talking to a friend, on their way to lunch. He was just so happy to be back at school and so was I! This morning I woke up with a spring in my step and a “can do” attitude. I was so elated that the students were coming back to school, I couldn’t stop smiling. I get so much energy from them! It was a pleasure greeting them and the staff as we ushered in the new school year after the winter break. Our winter break was preempted by a snowstorm that caused us to have a snow day prior to break. This was disheartening to staff and students alike as we adore the last day before break. On this cherished day we gather for our annual school sing-a-long with many community members joining us. It was certainly missed by all. That being at the end of 2008 we are excited to launch into the school year in 2009.
Over the break I was able to arrange for a comic artist to come and meet with the 4th grade “lunch bunch” – so, we are meeting this Wednesday and will submit our entries for the contest. Since I am over 18, I am unable to participate – chucks! I will try my hand at creating a comic strip though…you know that phrase – lead by example – should be interesting! This afternoon I worked with a fourth grade class and there was a lot of “buzz” about our guest artist since he is a former Sleepy Hollow student.

Planning for guided reading continues to be tricky as the time is so short and working technology into each lesson a key component of mine. We continue to focus on vocabulary as we know that a student’s vocabulary has a direct correlation to how well they read and how well they perform on standardized tests. Tomorrow we will be building on meteorological vocabularies. I have to run and check out a web site that has links to many interesting sites about snow. http://nsidc.org/snow/blizards.html if you are interested.

As an aside, our school psychologist informed me today that she drives by a school on the way to her “second” job and on the marquee each week they post a Word of the Week. Well guess what, yes – that is correct, Sleepy Hollow is going to have a WOW word each week beginning next week on the marquee. The word will correlate with ISAT vocabulary and I will announce it Monday Morning (maybe Tuesday – we’ll decide as a staff). I’ll chat with the staff about it at our staff meeting Thursday, and they will help to structure it. How cool is that!

With joy,
Anastasia