We have been very busy the past couple weeks in first grade! As we continue our theme of mindfulness and altruism, we remain vigilant in our contribution to our 100 Acts of Kindness chart. This kind of awareness helps us recognize thoughtfulness in our day to day lives. We heard lots of heartwarming stories involving parents, siblings, neighbors and teachers.  Additionally, we made friendship bracelets using letter beads to spell out an act of kindness or the name of someone who was kind to us. We were very excited to make as many as we could! Our team really appreciates everybody’s hard work!

Last week we wrote our first journal entry about a time when someone was kind to us. This will continue to be a weekly activity for us as it helps us practice our writing and spelling comprehension. We made so much improvement in such a short period of time! All of us are very eager to share our stories!

In an attempt to help us better understand our emotions and feelings, we read The Color Monster followed by an art project. The story is about a young girl who helps a monster sort out his feelings using color. Thoughts and emotions can be confusing and we want to help each other identify them. After the story we made our own Color Monsters using colorful markers and crayons to indicate how they feel. We have a very vibrant and diverse collection proudly displayed in the hallway for everyone to admire! The past couple weeks have been so much fun, we look forward to what we have in store for the month of October! Until then parents!

We had a happy return from our summer break with lots of good stories to share. For the first couple weeks we have been getting to know each other through group games and activities. A couple favorites are making paper airplanes, origami, Four Square, Animal Charades and Mad Libs. We like to keep our bodies and minds active all day with a focus on cultivating mindfulness and teamwork.

A reward system has been set in motion to inspire more awareness and sensitivity. In our classroom hangs a “100 Acts of Kindness” chart. Each day during our meeting time, we share an act of kindness we witnessed recently. This includes: helping a friend with homework, resolving a conflict, compromising or finding a happy medium in disputes, encouraging someone, sharing, taking turns fairly, and displaying good sportsmanship during games. This will help us foster compassion, mindfulness, self-awareness and respect.

We continue to learn more about compromises and solutions with better listening, “Am I listening, or am I waiting to talk?”  (Listening with an open mind is a great way to convey our empathy). In the short amount of time we have been at LEDP, our group has made tremendous stride! We have a lot of considerate and helpful friends whom set a great example for our kindergartner group! It feels good to be kind- we really appreciate everyone’s participation and support! This has been a tremendous beginning of the school year and we all look forward to more fun-filled days ahead of us! Until next time!