Mahalia Mouse Goes to College and No Name Calling Week

This week I was in all 3rd, 4th and 5th grade classrooms to finish up my lessons on careers. In 3rd and 4th grades, we read the story, Mahalia Mouse Goes to College. This story is about a mouse, who's family does not have much money, but she is still able to persevere and go to college. She doesn't give up and ends up earning her bachelor's degree at Harvard University. This story lead us to a discussion about the importance of receiving a college education and the many different options for how to pay for college. We then discussed what careers they are interested in and how they will probably want to choose a career based on their personal interests.

                                             

In 5th grade, we began our more extensive career unit, where we will be completing a booklet called "Moving on to Your Future". This unit will take 3-4 lessons and involves discovering their interests, so they can choose certain pathways to careers that may be a good fit for them based on those interests. It also has a focus on choosing electives and courses for middle school that might also align with their interests.We also discussed the difference between "jobs" and "careers" and how one is short-term and one is long-term. Our last lesson in this unit will include getting to go on an interactive website where students can look for careers based on the type of lifestyle they want to have when they grow up. They will choose their lifestyles and it will let them know how much money they would need to approximately make to have that kind of lifestyle. The website is called "Reality Check" and that's exactly what they sometimes get when they realize how much money they will need to make to have all the things they want. ;-) The kids have had a lot of fun with this in the past! More to come on that later!

Next week is No Name Calling Week! It will be our second school-wide activity that we are required to complete to keep our designation as a No Place for Hate Campus. The activities for next week are as follows:

Tuesday, Jan. 19- Compliment Day- Write a compliment down on a SMALL piece/strip of paper in your class today and place the compliments in the box that is outside my door. You can decorate around your compliment if you like, but keep the paper very small (no bigger than the size of a post-it note). The NPFH coalition will help to glue the compliments on a big banner that we can display in the school. Try to give compliments to others all day.

Wednesday, Jan. 20-Take a Stand Against Name Calling Day- If you see anyone being put down, made fun of, or called a name today, or any day, stand up for that person. Let the person who is name calling know that you don’t agree with what they are doing and it is not funny. You just might end up making a new friend.

Thursday, Jan. 21- Crumple Up Mean Words Day- Write a mean word you have called someone in the past (this can be anyone; it doesn’t have to be at school) on a small strip of paper. Crumple that paper up and add it to the trash bag that is at the front of the school, labeled “Mean Words are Garbage.” There is only one place at Oak Hill for unkind words and that is in the garbage. Let’s see how many mean words we can get rid of by filling up the bag and make a promise to not use that word again towards someone.

Friday, Jan. 22- Kind Words Day-Let’s spread the love at Oak Hill and forgot all our differences. Bring a nice to note to your friends and to someone who you don’t normally play with or hang out with. You could also give a nice note to your teachers, showing them your appreciation for them. Focus on saying kind and loving things to everyone you come in contact with today! Teachers can participate in this, too! 

The No Place for Hate Coalition and I look forward to spreading kindness next and taking the focus away from name calling an being unkind. 

Have a great three-day weekend!! 

Student Council Clean-Up of Patton Ranch Road and Career Lessons

Last week kept me busy after our nice winter break! I was in Kinder- 2nd grade classrooms last week completing my required career lesson with them. We read the story, I Can Be Anything by Jerry Spinelli and played a career game! I had a bag with career finger puppets and block people and gave clues to the kids about what each career was. They had to guess the career and then I would pull them out and show them if they were correct. If they got it correct, they got to hold it for the rest of the lesson. We then followed our game up by writing about what they want to be when they grow up. It's never too early to start talking about future careers and how they will accomplish those dreams they have. If we instill the value of continuing education, working toward and achieving their goals, and following their dreams at a very early age, that road will be much easier for them when it's time to pursue all those goals and dreams. Preparation helps it to be easier and they know more what to expect. We also discussed how there is no career that is just for men or just for women. A man or a woman can get into any career they choose!

This Saturday we had our Student Council Clean-Up of Patton Ranch Rd. for our partnership with Keep Austin Beautiful. This is Student Council's second service project of the year. Students came out before the Fun Run to clean up trash all along Patton Ranch Rd. It is a very important reminder about making sure we don't litter, especially when they see how much trash people toss out of their cars or walking along the road. It is also an important reminder that even if it wasn't us who littered, we should all pitch in as a society to help our environment whenever we can. A very special thank you to the Bourque and Wallace families for helping to run this event and making sure children were safe as they were picking up trash!

 

This week I will be in 3rd- 5th grade classes to complete our career lessons. More on those lessons at the end of the week. I will also be meeting with my No Place for Hate Coalition this week to plan for No Name Calling Week next week!

Have a wonderful week! :-)

The Season of Giving and College Week

We have survived another busy, but fun week!! This week I wrapped up with all my small groups that I meet with. I have seven different small groups of 3-4 kids each, that have been running for the last six weeks and this week we had a celebration of completing our last one. I also was in kindergarten-2nd grade rooms to give a lesson about the power of giving and showing compassion towards others. This is the perfect time of year to remind them of that! We watched a video from Howard B. Wigglebottom and then I had them draw four different ways they could be giving and compassionate this holiday season. We talked about how it is also important to remember to be compassionate and giving all year and not just during the holidays. They came up with many great examples, like taking clothes and food to those in need, or donating toys they don't use anymore!

This lesson tied in perfectly with the Giving Tree drive that Student Council has been working on for the last few weeks! We were able to collect enough gifts for 17 families in our school, who were in need of some help this Christmas! That is pretty amazing, especially if you got to see all the gifts pile up in the room we stored them in like I did. We collected around 265 presents!! This is just amazing and we couldn't have done this without the help of parents and staff who chipped in. I also owe a big thank you to many parents who either volunteered to help me sort all the gifts, helped put up the Christmas tree, bought wrapping paper, tape, and bags, and helped me make the ornaments that went on the tree with the items in need!! You helped make this huge project a success! I can't wait to call the parents to pick them up and hopefully make their holidays a little brighter! Thank you again to everyone who contributed in whatever way you did! :-) 

 

 

It was also College Week this week! This week helped our young learners by exposing them at an early age to the many options they have to further their education and to help them realize how important it is. They were also able to think about what they want to choose for a career when they grow up, like this little artist, veterinarian, scientist, and teacher (she wore a badge that said she was Mrs. Kanak) below! They were so adorable and had such great aspirations for the future, already in kindergarten! The younger we start them thinking about these things, the better chances they have in achieving all their goals and dreams.

We also had a college banner contest this week! Everyone did such an amazing job on their banners and it was so hard to choose, but here are the winners: 

For Pre-K/PPCD- Mrs. Cabrera's Class

For Kindergarten- Ms. Siller's Class

For First Grade- Ms. Grabel's Class

For 2nd Grade- Mr. Torres' Class

For 3rd Grade- Mrs. Tarpley's Class

For 4th Grade- Ms. Atkinson's Class

For 5th Grade- Ms. Ly's Class

THE GRAND PRIZE WINNER...MRS. ROLLS' CLASS

Next week and the following week I will be in the remaining PK, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th grade classes to give my lesson on giving and compassion. 

Have a great weekend!! 

Giving Tree, Our World, Our School, and Personal Safety

Wow!! This month has been crazy busy, but awesome!! I haven't had time to update on my blog for a while because things always get extremely hectic at school for me during the holiday season! It is hectic for good reason, though. Student Council was able to launch the Giving Tree this month, No Place for Hate (NPFH) got to hold a booth at Our World, Our School (OWOS), I got to take 47 kids in need to Operation School Bell and Payless to get clothes and shoes, and I taught personal safety lessons to all students in PK-5th grades!! All of this in just a few weeks! I need to take a deep breath now! ;-)

Here are some photos from our Giving Tree launch at OWOS and our NPFH coalition's booth they had our OWOS:

Giving Tree is an opportunity to purchase Christmas gifts for families at OHE who are in need. If you would like to sign up to purchase a gift for someone, click on this link and sign-up: 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1G1LmrK4CRLcYkog_tJS1KkzDKxBMdTySgHV7T2IpMJE/edit?pli=1#gid=2

Please bring any gifts you purchase to the front office, unwrapped, by Monday, November 30. Please also be sure to tape a note with the ornament number you selected and your name on it, so we can sort them into the right families. 

Personal Safety

Last week and this week I went to all PK- 5th grade classes to give the required Personal Safety lesson. This can be an uncomfortable topic for some, probably more so for the parents than the kids, but it is a very important lesson. We would all like to think that bad things can't happen to us, or to our kids, but we know that is unfortunately not always the reality, so it is important to be as educated as possible on some of these more difficult topics. The lessons are delivered in an extremely age-appropriate way and you should have seen the books they made come home and the letter to the parent. In PK- 3rd grade classes, we read, I Can Play It Safe, which was followed up with either the booklet called, "Very Important People"(PK-1) or "Good Touch, Bad Touch" (2nd-3rd). Knowing that kids know how to keep themselves safe makes me very happy. In 4th-5th grades (I will still be finishing up with 5th grade next week), we read Not In Room 204, followed up with a worksheet on stranger danger and information about personal safety.

                   

Please go over the booklets with your children at home and review with them who they can go to if they are ever hurt or touched inappropriately by someone. Knowing it is okay to talk to you about these things makes it easier for them to come to you if something bad does happen. Here are a few statistics to help you to realize the importance of talking to your children about what to do if anyone ever touches them in their private areas: 

• Experts estimate that about 1 in 10 children are sexually abused before their 18th birthday.
• Youth are 2.5 times more likely to be raped than adults.
• 35% of child victims are 11 years old or younger.
• 9% of all 10-17 year olds receive unwanted sexual requests while on the internet. 
• 23% of all 10-17 year olds experience unwanted exposure to pornography. 
• 80% or more of child sexual abuse incidents happen in isolated one-on-one situations.
• 90% of children who are victims of sexual abuse know their abuser. 
• 10% or less of children who are sexually abused are abused by a stranger. 
• 60% of children who are sexually abused are abused by people the family trusts.

These statistics come from "Darkness to Light's Stewards of Children." You can find more information about them and sexual abuse at this website: http://www.d2l.org/site/c.4dICIJOkGcISE/b.6035035/k.8258/Prevent_Child_Sexual_Abuse.htm#.VItS2NLF9Qg

This information is not meant to scare you, but just to help you be more aware of the reality that this type of abuse does occur and many times it can be people you know and have earned your trust, but have no idea are doing this. If children learn at an early age what to do if this ever does happen, we can help to ensure their safety.

Sorry for the lengthy blog this week, but I had to play catch up, since I wasn't able to complete my blog the last couple of weeks! ;-) 

I hope you have a wonderful weekend and a fabulous Thanksgiving next week!! :-)