March Mad About Reading

Ask your child about all the activities going on around the school in March to focus on reading. We have a Minutes to Win It Challenge going on in some classrooms,   Owls in the Family, a school wide read-a-loud, a Mad About Reading Challenge Bracket where students are voting on their favorite books, a Twitter Challenge, guest readers, book trivia and more. It will be a month full of reading joy!

Ms Linebaugh's class voting in the Book Challenge!

Minutes To Win-it Challenge

Read, Read, Read!

Some classrooms are participating in a Minutes to Win It Challenge. This is optional for teachers to have their classroom participate. Students will record the minutes they read at home. Minutes will be calculated per class and turned into the office each Friday. The class with the most minutes at at the end of March will win a Book Bash party on April 1st! 

Habit 2 Celebration

We had our monthly Celebration today. Each month we meet together as a community to celebrate models of Leadership. Today was focused on Habit 2- Begin With The End in Mind. This habit is about having a mission, setting and tracking goals and taking ownership of your efforts. We are so proud of our  students who  were recognized at today's Celebration as models of Habit 2.

We are so excited to celebrate!

Practicing being a good audience.

A Suessical Trio!

Ms Carpenter is Mad About Reading

The Leader In Me

You may have heard your child come home using seem new vocabulary in the last few weeks: proactive, reactive, carry your own weather, make a plan, goals, think win win and more. This is from our school wide pilot of the Leader In Me and the 7 Habits For Happy Kids. Today's blog post focuses on Habit 1- Be Proactive.

Through discussion, instruction and proactice we are supporting students awareness of the choices they make. Students are encourages to make positive choices that will help them be successful at school and outside of school. We stress being proactive and the choices we have in reactions to others. Choosing to be happy ,excited, joyful, satisfied etc is all in our control when we carry our own weather. The ability to focus on the things that are in our circle of control helps us reduce stress be more effective and influence others in a positive way.

Be Proactive

'These students received awards for demonstrating Habit 1 at our last Celebration.

New Newsletter Format

The Squawk has a new format. I hope you like the new format.

The Squawk

Art Center Field Trip

Hanawalt's fourth graders visited the Des Moines Art Center Wednesday morning. This was an exciting trip trip as the students are midway through a research project of various artistes, their styles and mediums.

The students showed of their leadership skills and wowed the docents with their questions. The fourth graders will continue their cooperative research by presenting a Living Museum in the future.