<sup>So much to celebrate!!! As we closed out the month of September, we were able to look back and celebrate all of the successes, achievements and blessings that God has put in our lives even throughout the past month.Thank you for the part each of you have played in helping your child grow and learn. 

On Friday morning, Meta shared with the class a DVD produced by Adoption Associates. He shared with us the story of his life and the beautiful love that God his filled his life with. We talked about how we can see that God has been and is faithful in the life of each person in our class. God love us. In turn, we want to share loving kindness with those around us. We read I Corinthians 13 and reflected on what love looks like and how we feel when we are blessed with love and when we bless others with our love. It is my prayer that these words would characterize our classroom environment:

4</sup> Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
⁸ Love never fails.

We've been using manipulatives in math to understand the value of numbers and compare their differences. Above, you see Cooper using pattern blocks to make two-unit patterns and three-unit patterns. 

We have added Read to Someone in our Daily 5 reading program. Your child has been paired with another student with whom he or she is comfortable. About twice each week, your child will read a book with this partner. One child will read aloud a book he or she is confident in while the other child asks simple comprehension questions. Already, I am seeing confidence, enjoyment and ability growing in our budding readers!

Our email accounts have been activated (thanks, Val!) Each child is working to publish an ebook of the story he or she is working on. When completed, we will be able to email you a copy of the final results. They are just beautiful! You'll hear your child's voice reading the text which accompanies each illustration. They are so proud. So am I :D  Keep an eye on your inbox!

We closed the week with our writing celebration. The children were spectacular!!! Each child read his or her story from the director's chair and used the microphone. I snapped a picture of each student and emailed it to you. If you did not receive a message from me with your child's picture, please notify me and I'll try again. After we enjoyed each story from our authors, we treated ourselves to some punch and cookies and talked casually about our goals for the next writing unit. I will be keeping this story to hold for our end-of-the-year writing gala! At this event, you will be invited to read through all of your child's published work and compare this first story with the final publication. Such a tangible way to see growth in your little writer. We have much to be grateful for and much to celebrate!

Senorita Verastegui has been working with the children on various projects that flow well with what we are studying in the classroom. You can take a peek at some of this work on her wiki: 

 http://walden.hollandchristian.org/groups/spanishk1st2ndgrades/

Important Dates:
October 10: Grandparents/friends Day
October 18 & 19: No school. Staff Development
October 22 & 23: No school: Parent/Teacher Conferences.