Meadowlark ACE

After doing a few art projects to establish our group, and after all students decorated their special writing binders, we Magenta Magicians have now built some good daily routines for drawing, writing, and learning. We’ve read a couple of books in class so far; “Caps for Sale” was a favorite, and more recently we read “B is for Beaver,” an alphabet book about Oregon. After we learned a little about our state, we thought it would be fun to learn about each other, so we followed a template for an “I am” poem: “I am goofy and smart, I like to play baseball,” etc. A few wrote seriously, while others used their imaginations to write funny or scary poems inspired by Halloween (one girl pictured herself as a vampire and wrote from that perspective). Also, everyday at ACE we learn a “word of the day,” and groups take turns presenting a skit about the word. Yesterday we Magicians performed the best skit yet seen at ACE, involving the word “embark” and a noble dog-sledding team in Antarctica. Ask your child for a reenactment: you’ll be impressed! (Kids love showing off to their parents about new words they’ve learned.)

Our first family night will be Tuesday, November 13, 2007. The students are invited to stay after ACE and families will join them at 5:30 for a fun filled night of Pizza and ACE Activities until 6:30. Our entire staff will be there and they can’t wait to meet you!!

We’re now more than two weeks into the program, and so far things are going great! On one of the first days we read a book called Have You Filled a Bucket Today? It’s about how every person in the world carries an invisible bucket. When you do something good for someone, or when say something nice about someone, you fill that person’s bucket. At ACE, we try to fill other each others’ buckets as often as we can. Also, we have a beautiful bulletin board with a bucket that’s starting to overflow with all the good things that ACE teachers have said about the students, written with the student’s name on little blue pieces of paper in the shape of raindrops. Next time you come to school, be sure to look at our board and see if you can find your child’s name on it!