Greetings, Lyme families!
It has been wonderful to return to the Lyme School after spending precious time this summer and fall with my new kiddo, Norah! She was born in June and is rocking it at daycare! Perhaps you’ll see us strollin’ around town! I received such a warm welcome from students and staff - it's so good to be back! Thank you for all your support and best wishes for our growing family :-)
Since I have been back in the classroom, kindergartners through fifth grade have been hard at work, learning and playing together.
Kindergartners learned about whole body listening - using our ears, eyes, calm body, and quiet mouth while looking at the speaker. We learned that we listen so that others feel good, so that we can learn, and so we know what to do to stay safe. If you caught the talent show Thursday, then you might have heard “The Listening Song” students learned with me and Mr. Chapin. They did a great job performing and the first graders who sang last year even joined in! We just began our Expected and Unexpected Behaviors unit - stay tuned for more information on that next time! Lovin' these new, fun, and thoughtful K-Kiddos!
First graders have been learning about bucket-filling and bucket-dipping. When we fill buckets, we help people feel good, and as a result, we feel good too as our buckets get filled! Students came up with lots of ways we can fill other people's buckets: Whole Body Listening, including peers at recess, asking if someone is ok if they look sad, doing what is expected during class and specials, and many more. We discussed how we want to work hard to make sure we aren’t doing or saying anything that might make people feel upset, or “dip” from their bucket.
Second graders have been learning about our Lyme School Value, “Responsibility”. If you were able to attend the talent show, you also saw them perform “The Responsibility Song” where they sang about how each person is in charge of their own words and actions. We also talked about ways that they can and need to be responsible at home (chores, feeding animals, taking care of their bodies, helping be a role model for younger brothers and sisters, etc.) and at school (making good choices to help teachers teach and learners learn, etc.).
In third grade, we have been talking about MISTAKES and how they help us learn. The group did a super team building activity where they needed to make mistakes in order to achieve their class goal. They did an awesome job of supporting each other during the activity and thanking one another for the mistakes they made - they realized they were essential to solving the problem! Students started to make connections to situations at school and in their own lives where mistakes were essential to reaching their own goals. I look forward to these students celebrating their mistakes!
Due to Stanton Time falling on a couple Thursdays fourth grade and Mrs. Stanton being out, I dearly miss my fourth graders as I have not been in their classroom. We will continue our work on self-care and self-compassion when I return next week!
Fifth graders have started a unit on Growth Mindset - learning about the difference between “growth” and “fixed” mindset. We’ll continue to explore self-talk and thoughts. I am also looking forward to spending time with 5th graders during the adolescent health unit with Lisa Damren, our Health/PE teacher, next week!
I will begin co-teaching Adolescent Health with Lisa Damren the end of this month and am excited to be in class again with our middle school students!
Hope everyone is having a great start to the year! Look forward to seeing you around school! Keep up the good work, kiddos!
With Gusto,
Mrs. Stanton