First of all, I want to thank all of the parents who participated in last week’s “surprise” by creating videos for your kids to tell them how special they are.  I was blown away by the power of your messages, and I think it will be something the students will always remember.  They are keeping the pictures that “triggered” the videos in their GT folders, and will be able to refer to them throughout the year.  It helped me to get to know you better, too, and I feel like the project has really made our home/school bond greater.

I also want to thank everyone who was able to attend the Parent Orientation on Tuesday night.  Please don’t worry if you could not make it, however.  I will be sending out links to the information later this week, and feel free to ask me any questions you may have.

Our cardboard challenge has been progressing wonderfully!  There is so much creativity and engagement going on that I can’t believe I have never tried this before.  We are definitely going to participate next year, and I have even bigger plans…

Speaking of building things, you might be interested in this great website, Built by Kids, that I just featured on my professional blog.  If you aspire to spend more time on projects with your children that involve your hands and old-fashioned hard work, then this site has plenty of ideas and how-to’s to get you started.

These are just some of the pics of finished projects, and a couple of pictures of tickets the kids made to invite classmates to play or view their creations during recess next week.  I will try to post a few more next Wednesday.  (You can click on the thumbnails to see larger versions of each pic.)