Weekly Update

Dear Families,
Tomorrow is Amy's last day with us.  It is hard to believe that time goes by so fast.  She certainly will be missed by us all.  We wish her all the best in her new ventures.  We are having a small surprise party for her tomorrow afternoon and I am still looking for some things.  We have juice, cups and cupcakes, but would also like to ask for some cookies and/or muffins.  If your family can contribute, we would greatly appreciate it.  Once again, thank you so much for your generosity.

The students at Allen Brook filled the Bee-Hive again.  Tomorrow is another swarm party and it is HAT DAY!  The children (and the adults) can wear a special hat all day.  We just ask that the children do not try on each others' hats.  Thank you for discussing this with your child.

Denise Wentz and I are almost done with the web-site that goes along with our year-long project on researching aspects of our school for "A is for Allen Brook."  We will share it with you as soon as it is done.  The children have already seen parts of it. As a last step in this process, we would like to video-tape the children reading their own writing pieces.  We would like to link these videos to our web-site.  The video would provide another celebratory way to share the students' writing and hard work and it would also allow more children to access all the research that was done throughout this project.  The web-site will be public when it is done and it will be shared in various ways (such as linked on my blog, shared at the technology conference that we're attending etc).  The children's names will not be shared.  In fact, there will be no names and identifying traits connecting to the videos and the writing pieces. If you and your family wish to opt out from this video-taping, please respond and let me know via email by May 2nd.  If you give permission to have your child be video-taped reading his/her writing and posted on our web-site, there is no need to tell me.  If I do not hear from you, I assume you have given me permission to link and share this video.

We have scheduled our Reading Restaurant for May 22nd.  We will send out more information when we get closer, but we normally provide two sessions for parents and families to visit our classroom.  The first session is usually around 6pm and the second seating usually starts around 6:50pm.  I will send out information about our reading restaurant the first week after we return from April vacation.  Our theme this year is the seasons.  Each classroom on Team Harmony will decorate their classroom around a season.  We are working on various art projects around Spring and the classroom is starting to relflect this.  If only the outside could as well!

Have a great day tomorrow and a wonderful, restful and safe break.

Maria