October 15

On Tuesday we were lucky to have not one, but two special events at school.  In the morning we were treated to a visit from poet X.J. Kennedy, who read some of his poetry and shared a bit of his story becoming a poet.  The students listened attentively and later many of them wrote in their notebooks that they felt calm while listening to him.

In the afternoon the Second Graders had their turn to hear the local fire fighters talk about fire safety.  We were reminded to make sure the batteries in our smoke alarms are changed regularly and to have an outside meeting place if the family needs to get out in an emergency.

Today we began our Balancing and Weighing science unit with a wonderful discussion of what balance means to us.  Many children used the words "weight" and "equal" when talking about this topic.  Each child had the chance to try to make a paper butterfly balance on the tip of an un-sharpened pencil, first with no weight and then with a paper clip attached.  The butterflies came home today- maybe your child asked you if you wanted to try?