Visiting Tacoma's Main LIbrary

We visited the main branch of the Tacoma Public Library today.
They are currently hosting an exhibit on Maurice Sendak.

The librarian read a variety of monster books to us,

and they were wonderful! (and not even scary!)

Then the kids had the opportunity to find books to read from the stacks.

Fun times at the library today!  We checked out the books and illustrations by Maurice Sendak.

Happy Thanksgiving!

You know when the handprint turkeys come out, it must be
Thanksgiving!

Chocolate dipped pretzels-our contribution to the school
feast.

Thanksgiving is a special time with our Ladybugs.  We have been talking about gratitude and thankfulness and how fortunate we are at Seabury.  We celebrate with turkeys and feasts and remember the rest of our community with clothing and food drives.  Happy Thanksgiving.

Happy Halloween!

Fun times in the Ladybug class.  The Halloween party was a big hit!

Mentors

Why do we have mentors at Seabury?  Is it just a time filler?  A resounding "No"!  Mentoring develops sense of community between our older students and our youngest students.  The younger kids make friends with the big kids (with a little hero worship thrown in) and the big kids act as role models for the little kids.  Having the big kids around allows us to work on projects that require one on one attention and on concepts that might be a little tricky for the youngest kids on their own.  Are we just playing?  No, today we worked on math strategies.  Some days it is number recognition and number sense, addition concepts, ramps and angles, mazes, engineering projects and some days it's an art project.  Mentoring is about relationships and developing a positive mind set in our youngest students.  They learn, yes, they can tackle a difficult project and with a little help from the big kids, they can be successful and ready to try something else new.

Gathering

The Ladybug and Bumblebee classes led gathering today.  They led the flag salute, performed 2 songs, led the Brain Break and gave a presentation on pumpkins.  They did an amazing job!

Pumpkin Patch!

The best way to start the pumpkin patch . . . a hayride!

There were chickens to feed . . .

apples to pick. . .

radishes to pick . . .

and goats to feed.

Finally, there were pumpkins! 

The next day,

we used the pumpkins for some pumpkin math with our mentors.

Grandparent/ Special Friends Day

It's such a treat for all of us when the children bring their special people to school.  Thanks for coming!