This month we are focused on The Eagle Way.

Lining up/Hallways: The students are spending time focusing on what it looks like to take care of self, others, and our school in the main areas of our school building. The first week we focused on walking in the hallways. Some of your kiddos have made it into the video. It has been posted on Ms. Roosma’s YouTube channel and here is the link to week one. Come back to this spot next month to see the next video.

Playing it Safe: This week we take a closer look at the playground and what it looks like to play it safe during recess. A few years ago our students helped create the buddy bench. This is a place to go if you don’t have anyone to play with. The hope is that students take advantage of this space to make new friends, but also to notice other people and take care of others while out at recess. In this video we talk about whether the Eagle Way is only a thing we do when it is school time or whether it is something we can carry with us even when it is after school. In our video we talk about how taking care of each other is a huge part of playing on the playground. If all I do is run around and do what I want, when I want….I could hurt someone in the process.

Bathrooms: This week we take a closer look at the eagle way and the bathrooms. Seems like such a simple idea right? Well you may be surprised to find out that many of our kiddos take their time and find it a place to socialize. Maybe not so much in kindergarten…but definitely more as they get older. This week we dig into the song taught by Ms. Grace “Do your business, mind your business, wash and go, wash and go.” Ask your kiddos to sing this song to you and share with you what it means. In Ms. Grace’s chat with all of the students at OV, she talked about how much soap and how much paper towels to use and how to properly wash your hands. Take a look and a listen to what the expectations are for the eagle way in the bathroom.

Lunchroom and Self Control: This month we are working on self-control and how we can apply it around our building and in our personal lives. Chat with your kiddo at home about ways they can show self control at home. The reality is, when we practice self control in various areas of our lives we become people who are able to focus in on the things that matter the most. What an awesome thing to practice and grow in!  This Monday, 10/9/23, we will have our first attribute of a changemaker assembly. You are welcome to come and see how we rock and roll in our assemblies. 

Self Control: This past Monday we got to experience our very first assembly for the year! Did you know we have a school song? If you ever want to hear it, come on over to an assembly of ours. I will tell you, it will never get old…hearing our entire school community sing and do the hand motions is a gift each and every month. We will have an all school assembly every month, we would love to see you there!  In this weeks video, Mr. Bean shows up and demonstrates how NOT to show self-control in the hallways of the school. We also get a glimpse into self control from various aspects of our school community. We learned in our assembly, that when you show self control, it allows you to begin focusing on things outside of yourself. We will get into more as the month goes on.

Self Control: We continue this month talking about self-control, redefining it for those who need that extra layer of support. This week we talked about how sometimes you have a voice on your shoulder that tells you to do the right thing and that other voice that sometimes says to do the wrong thing. When we listen to the voice that is helping us to do the right thing we are practicing self-control.  This week we also heard from two teachers who shared with us the strategy they use to practice self-control. Perhaps a way for you and your family to connect to our attribute of a changemaker is to talk about the strategy that you, (yes you!), the adult in their lives use to practice self control. I believe that when we the adults share our own experience/strategies with self-control (or any other element), it helps our kiddos see that we as adults also use strategies to support us in our journey through life. What would be really awesome is for our kiddos to practice strategies alongside their families at home!

In this week’s episode of self-control, I talk a bit about setting personal goals for self-control: Speaking up for myself and asking for help with self-control.

Oftentimes our kiddos do not have the language to ask for help; can you imagine how awesome it would be to have conversation with your family and set some personal goals for self control?  Talking with each other about what we are working on and asking for support helps us to attain our goals for self-control. This week we hear from a couple of students who share with us about what they are working on with self-control.

Can you believe that we made it to the last week of October? This was our last week of self-control and we hear from a couple of students about how they plan to continue working on self control throughout the year. I also gave a bubble challenge to the teachers…perhaps some of your kiddos got to participate in it. The bubble challenge is this: blow bubbles, let the kids run and play and pop all of them. Then talk about how this next time you want them to not move, not pop them, just watch them fall. I sat in Ms. Abercrombie’s class while she was doing it and only one student got up to pop the bubble! After they go through the second round you talk with the kiddos about how easy/hard it was to not reach out to touch the bubble. We talked about how in the hallway it can be hard/easy to give silent waves to a friend you see passing, or on the playground wanting to play a little bit longer after the bell/whistle. Perhaps you have some connections to self control that would align with home activities. Try it out, see how it goes!

This month we have moved onto a new attribute, Community. In this video we watch a clip about what community is and where we can find community all around us. It is an awesome look at how community exists all around us, including in our schools! Ms. Angie, our school nurse; and Ms. Bruecher, our PE teacher also come and share with us what community means to them in the communities they exist in.  I ask the kiddos…what communities are you a part of?  I believe that it is a powerful opportunity to acknowledge and label the communities we are a part of. To talk with each other about what those communities do for us as well as what we bring to the communities.

This past week we had our all school attribute assembly. In this assembly we had a chance to hear from our 2nd graders.  They shared about the different types of communities and our students learned the signs for class, family, and world.  Several students from Ms. Schwab’s and Ms. Murphy’s classrooms shared about the other communities that they are a part of. We do not have a video upload for this past week as the assembly was an in person moment for the students.

This is our last week talking about Community. I have issued a challenge to students in this video and I would encourage you to talk with your kiddo about this as well. How does being a part of a community help us to be changemakers? When we dive deeper into this question, it really has to do with being connected with other people. I don’t know about you, but every day that I come to OV, the kids help me to be a better person. I find myself dreaming of what I can do to make things better, to shift my conversations to better support students. Being an active part of different communities gives us so much and I encouraged the students to think about what communities they want to be a part of.  Perhaps you at home can help your kiddo think of communities where your family is already involved?

This month we shift into the attribute of Respect. We look at how we can think of Respect using the Eagle Way: I take care of myself, I take care of others and I take care of my school. If we think about respect  in the sense of I admire myself…how can I respect myself? Well I get up, brush my teeth, get ready for school. Do you get where I am going with this? Many of our students are on film this week sharing what Respect is to them. Enjoy!