FEBRUARY...MY FAVORITE MONTH!

MAD HATTER'S TEA PARTY...Friday, February 12 at lunchtime

We will have a Mad Hatter's Tea for our Valentine Party. Children will be invited to create & wear the craziest, wackiest hat they can imagine! (Okay, maybe not too off-the-wall!) We will have a 'tea party' luncheon - mini-sandwiches, bite-sized desserts, a fondue fountain, and plenty of tea to drink!

We will need LOTS of volunteers to pull of this adventure!  Please mark your calendars - we'd love to have you in class!

ACTION PROJECT - BIRTHDAY BAGS!

With my 40th birthday approaching, I have been trying to come up with a cool way to celebrate.  Running the Colorado Marathon just proves that I'm not all together upstairs. :)  Seriously, 26.2 miles is like running halfway to Denver.  That's just nuts.

I have shared with our class my desire to do something to honor my birthday, yet do something that will make a difference.  I have decided that I'd like to model ACTION for my students by creating BIRTHDAY BAGS for homeless students in our community.  IB promotes student-initiated action - and I am hoping that my action idea will help the children realize that action does not  always have to be  about saving an endangered animal or collecting money to send to another country.  Action is needed within our own community - and we can impact those around us.

This idea is borrowed (and modified) from a project the McGraw Student Council participated in when I was a Student Council adviser.

The Coloradoan recently published a statistic that said there are nearly 700 students identified in Poudre School District that are in 'unstable' homes - meaning that they are homeless. 

My goal is to create a minimum of 40 Birthday Bags for homeless elementary school students in PSD.  Each Birthday Bag will consist of items a child would need to have a birthday celebration - a small gift, a coupon for a birthday dessert from local stores, and small 'favors' that the child can share with his/her classmates at school.

I love my birthday and I remember having fond memories of celebrating my birthday as a child.  I was born on George Washington's birthday and always thought I was pretty darn lucky to have a holiday on my birthday to celebrate.  With our current economy and this high number of homeless students in our district, my hope is that these Birthday Bags will help create a special memory for children in our community.

My hope is to have our class assist me every step of the way to achieve my goal.  I would like the children to help me make a plan and execute the various steps to create the birthday bags.  I believe this will allow the children to have a hands-on part in the project, as well as learn how to plan viable steps to reach a goal.

It will feel good to give to those in need.  :)