Dear Friends,
I hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend with their children. I spent a lot of time with my family over the weekend, for it was my dad's 60th birthday! I hope your family time was as cherished as mine was. On Friday, I attended an informational session on early literacy development, and am looking forward to applying many of the activities I learned for enrichment purposes with the children. During the session, there was a quote I read that has really stuck with me, and I thought I would share with you. The quote is "One of the first goals in early literacy development is nurturing a positive attitude toward reading... those attitudes usually result in voluntary readers." As a teacher, I strive to teach my children to love and respect books, and to "dig deeper" within the pages so they can get that magical feeling every child should experience when reading books. The National Reading Initiative states that reading aloud to a child is one of the most important experiences that brings a child into the world of literacy. I hope the reading folders your child brings home from school is developing into a positive experience with both you and child, and with your child and reading.

Love and friendship was truly in the air this past week. On Tuesday, the children celebrated their heart's birthday with a pancake breakfast. Mike Herchik, the grandfather of Isabella Dutton, was kind enough to volunteer to make pancakes and sausage for the entire school! Yes, that is right, all 93 students and 10 staff members were able to enjoy heart and mickey mouse shaped pancakes and sausage, all while sitting at decorated tables with their food placemats they made, having conversations with friends. The children enjoyed watching a puppet show and singing songs while they waited for their turn to get their breakfast. I couldn't decide which picture to post, so I decided to make a slide show of the event instead. Enjoy!

This slideshow design customized with Smilebox

They were so happy and "stuffed" after their breakfast. They wrote the nicest cards to Mr. Herchik to thank him for such a special morning. Here are Andrew's and J'Lyn's:

On Thursday, as I am sure your child made you well aware, GSCELC and SCOPE participated in their 2nd Skype session with #1 best selling author, Mr. Eric Litwin. This session, Mr. Eric focused on the steps he takes during his writing process as well as what inspires his writing. The children loved hearing if he had a "special spot" where he likes to write and if he is apart of a writer's club. When he responded yes to being part of a writer's club, the children all exclaimed, "We are too! Our classrooms!"