Mrs. Didyk's Super Kids

Welcome back to school! The summer seemed to fly by and I can’t believe that it’s already the middle of September.  The 2024/25 Super Kids are busy getting to know each other, adjusting to full days at school, learning all about recess, and starting to get into a bit of a routine in the classroom.

Our classroom video

We began our time together talking about how our classroom should be a safe place to try new things. We read “Our Class is a Family” by Shannon Olsen and “How Full Is Your Bucket?” by Tom Rath and Mary Reckmeyer . This helped us create our classroom agreement which everyone signed.  We promised in our agreement the following:

1. To be kind and friendly to others
2. To try our best
3. To include others
4. To be bucket fillers
5. To keep our hands and feet to ourselves

 

The first few days of school had the class reviewing letter sounds, writing their names in lowercase letters, learning new math games, and exploring our classroom library.

The Pigeon books by Mo Willems are always a hit with grade one students.  The class is loving reading them and even created their own pigeon art after reading the book “The Pigeon Has To Go To School” together at story time.

Scientists explore the world around them using their 5 senses.  We became scientists this past week by exploring the school grounds with special science tools…magnifying glasses. The kids had a blast looking at the fossils in our school walls as well as examining trees, rocks and bugs up close.

Exploring our sense of sight had us learning about the parts of the eye and how it works. The kids even created their own clay models of an eye and labeled it. Turning the lights off and on while looking at a partners pupils was a fun experiment that had the kids amazed.

International Dot Day is celebrated on September 15th. Since that was on the weekend we explored dots on Friday. International Dot Day was created by teachers in honor of the book “The Dot” by Peter H. Reynolds.

The book explores how every child is an artist and it can start with just a dot. The class rotated through dot centers that included connect 4, a ten frame game, a math game called tug of war, and dominoes.

We also learned about Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama and how she creates art out of dots.  The class was fascinated by her creations!

It’s been a busy and fun first 7 days of school!

Stay tuned for more of our adventures. 🙂

 

 

Just before Spring break our school had our exhibition. This is different then a normal student led conference. Each class in the school showcases their learning in a unique way.  The idea is that the process is more important than the product, but the product showcases the learning. The grade one English class took the theme”Grade One Is A Zoo!” Our class was focussed on the Arctic.  We learned about different Arctic animals, researched life in the north, create soapstone carvings, made our own research green screen videos and so much more.  The class was so excited to share their learning with their families.

 

The day after our exhibition was the last day before Spring break.  I had stayed after the exhibition to take it all down and I just knew that coming the next morning might be a bit shocking for the kids.  We had spent so much time setting everything up.  Easter was be celebrated during spring break, so I decided to set up some “bunny challenges” that they had to work through that Friday.  To say the kids were excited would be an understatement.  They walked in to bunny prints on the ground and a challenge left for them.

Challenges included an egg STEM project, math games, egg themed books, and an art project.

When all the challenges were complete…the kids got their own bunny glasses!

The solar eclipse gave us a great opportunity to learn about daily and seasonal changes, time, and space. The class create their own stop motion videos to show their understand of how the Earth orbits around the sun and how the moon orbits around Earth. We learned about the sun and the moon through non-fiction stories, videos, and lessons.

The day of the solar eclipse, the class was very excited! We watched it in the classroom on a live streaming feed.  The link to the kid’s reaction is below.  We then made our own solar eclipse art.

solar eclipse reaction video

Math centers have been a big part of our daily classroom schedule.  These activities help practice the students practice their developing number sense.

With the weather warming up, it’s fun head outside for center time and enjoy our school playground!

Art projects are a favourite in the classroom. The class enjoys exploring a variety of art media and expressing their creativity.

The past few weeks we have been reading a variety of fractured fairy tales and exploring the similarities and differences between them. Last week we read a few Jack and the beanstalk fractured fairy tales.  We planted beans, discussed the parts of a plant, learned about how plants give us food, and measured with a “bean ruler” and a giant foot.

Stay tuned for more updates…:)

 

 

The Super Kids have had a very busy February! We began the month by celebrating Lunar New Year.  Several students in the class celebrate it at home and we were excited to learn more about it.  This year was the year of the dragon so we had to make dragons and have a dragon dance.

Dragon dance class video

All the grade 1 and 2 English classes enjoyed a fun filled outdoor day at The Fort Whyte Centre. This field trip included:

• tobogganing
• a scavenger hunt
• a marshmallow roast
• outdoor Arctic games
• snowshoeing

tug of war video

seal race

sledding video 1

sledding video 2

sledding video 3

sledding video 4

Mrs. Didyk sledding

Valentine’s Day and the 100th day of school fell on the same day this year. The Super Kids rotated through each grade 1 and 2 English classroom participating in different activities celebrating “100 days of friendship”. When they completed each activity they earned a friendship bracelet.  After the activities they exchanged their Valentine cards! Math games with a Valentine theme were also explored throughout the week.

Soapstone carving is a traditional Inuit art form.  I brought in a few examples that I have at home and a few from my parents house.  My dad was in the RCMP before he retired and one of the places we were stationed when I was a kid, was Thompson Manitoba.  My parents collected some of these beautiful pieces.

The class was given a piece of ivory soap to carve their own “soapstone” carving.

The class researched polar bears and snowy owls using the pebble go website and boom cards. A polar bear art project inspired by the artist Ted Harrison, a northern lights project, and even a giant cardboard polar bear were all done to show their creativity.

Our grade 3/4 buddies are currently helping the class research an Arctic animal of our choice.

Our school celebrates Festival du Voyeur each February. What is the Festival Du Voyageur? It’s a local festival that celebrates the French culture and history in Manitoba. Our class has a special pancake breakfast and participated in a whole school French concert in the afternoon.

This year was a leap year!  We used the extra day to learn about frogs and rotate through leap day math centers with jumping frogs. My daughter Anna didn’t have school that day so she came and volunteered in the class.

jumping frog math video_

The class then sculpted their own frogs that they are painting next week, and created their own pastel frogs.  It was a fun filled froggy day. 🙂

Stay tuned for more of our learning! 🙂

 

 

 

 

Happy New Year!  It’s 2024 and I’m looking forward to welcoming the Super Kids back to the classroom in just a few days.  I hope that everyone has had a wonderful winter break full of laughter and family.  I just realized that I haven’t added a blog post from our classroom in a while.  I guess time just got away from me. 🙂 I’m adding a few highlights from November and December below to get all caught up.

December Highlights

We hope that our families enjoyed their special gift from us for the holiday season! It contained many of our art projects and a special snow globe with a their child inside!

Gingerbread theme – After reading many versions of the classic “The Gingerbread Man”. The class created their own gingerbread village with the help of our grade 3/4 buddies. The class was also challenged to create a boat to help the gingerbread man get away from the fox in a STEM challenge using recyclable materials.

STEM Challenges- We had an afternoon of challenges that included creating a jingle bell maze made out of lego.  The kids started out making their own and quickly wanted to put their mazes together to create a giant one! The second challenge was to make a parachute for Santa, just in case he needed it on his long sleigh ride.  Taking their time and realizing that the string had to be the same length took some time, but the kids were so excited when they tested their projects.

PJ day had the kids reading with flashlights, comparing their stuffed animal sizes, and reading bedtime stories.

 

December had us working on holiday themed art projects and games.  We learned about Hanukkah and learned a fun dreidel game too.  Our winter concert was early in the month and the kids loved sharing their music learning from their music class with Mrs. Styles with their families. Being in the school at night was so interesting,  They weren’t sure what to do. 🙂 One student started to put out our binders and I had to remind them that we already had school that day.

The class started to learn about coding with the help of the program Kodable.

November Highlights

Diwali is a celebrating that some students in our classroom celebrate.  We learned about this celebration with the help of one of our classmates families.

Our school had a Remembrance Day assembly where we honored the brave men and women who have defended our country in the past and do so in the present. We learned about the poppy and what it represents. The following commercial helps the class understand and began our discussion. The class created a wreath for the assembly and made their own poppy art after learning about the artist Georgia O’Keeffe. She was a famous artist best known for her close up flower paintings,  A few of her painting are of poppies and the kids created their own out of pastel that are inspired by her artwork.

Georgia O’Keeffe artwork

Reading practice and exposure to a variety of literacy activities

End of October – Halloween activities and pumpkin centers with our buddies

I’m all caught up!  New Year’s resolution… to stay more up to date with our blog. I’ll see everyone in 2 days.

It’s hard to believe that we are nearing the end of our second month together!  The Super Kids have been busy learning and growing as a class.  Since our last post we have had some events happen in Manitoba that are wonderful learning experiences for young kids.

Sept 30th is the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation in Canada. Since the day fell on a Saturday our school recognized this day on the 29th. The concept of this day is a big topic that can be challenging for young kids to understand, but important to explain.  The founder of orange shirt day was Phyllis Webstad. She has written children’s books to help children understand the importance of the day.  We read several of her books and watched the following videos.

We then spend the afternoon painting rocks and putting words and messages on them that meant something to each of the kids.  Truth, kindness, you matter, and love are some of their choices.  We then placed them in the garden in the front of the school.

On October 3rd our province held the provincial election.  This provided our class with a great opportunity to learn what an election is and what their family members were voting for.  The kids came into the classroom and were told that they had to “register” to vote.  They each printed their names on the sign in sheet.  They then were told that it was election day and their vote mattered!  They had to make a very important decision.  Which cookie is the best…chocolate chip or an oreo? As you can imagine, they were very excited.

After scanning QR codes and watching commercials for both cookies to try to sway their vote, we talked about how this is what happens in an election.  People who want your vote make commercials, send out flyers in the mail, set up signs, and even come to your house.

Next it was time to try each of the cookies before voting in our secret ballot.  Mr. Brain, our custodian, even came by to vote. We helped him with the voting process and gave him a “I Voted” sticker. We then tallied up the votes by actually making tallies on the board.  This was very exciting and you can imagine.  Chocolate Chip won in our classroom by 5 votes.  Oreo won in Ms. Goodbrandson’s class by 1 vote.  This was a great way to explain how different part of the province might vote in different people from different parties just like we did with the cookies.

The Super Kids have been learning about their 5 senses by exploring the world around them and using science tools to help.  We took magnifying glasses outside to look closely at our school grounds.  The class has used their senses to describe things they hear, smell, touch and taste.  The class is extending their understanding of the 5 senses by researching nocturnal animals and exploring their super senses.

 

Thanksgiving was a time for the kids to reflect on things that they are thankful for.  The class created their own turkey art and had their first STEM challenge.  After reading the book “The Turkey Escape” the class was challenged to make a turkey hideout where I couldn’t see the turkey inside using materials from the classroom.  Part of the challenge was to work together in a group.

Reader’s Workshop is a time during our day were students rotate through different stations that focus on their literacy skills.  One of the stations is working in small groups with me.  Some activities include magnetic word building, decodable text reading, Boom Cards with word building on the iPad, Raz Kids, and much more.

Our 3/4 learning buddies came down to our classroom to get to know us better.  Each group created their own rainbow of things that they had in common.  We look forward to working with them this year.

We created our own pumpkin patch!  Through a direct drawing lesson, students learned how to draw a pumpkin.  They used both oil and chalk pastels to create their art pieces.  They are hanging on the bulletin board and will be coming home for Halloween.

Take care and stay tuned for more highlights of our adventures together. 🙂

 

 

Welcome Back!

The Super Kids have been busy getting used to their new classroom, new routines, and making new friends. Establishing our classroom community has been my top priority.  We read “Our Class Is A Family” by Shannon Olsen to help with this process.

After reading the book we created our own classroom family promise.  We decided that our classroom needs to be a safe place where we can try our best, where it’s ok to make mistakes, and we all support each other to achieve our “yet”.  What does that mean.  Well, we all have a “yet”.  Something we are working on learning.  Something we can’t do independently yet, but we will in time.  Everyone’s “yet” is different, but we are here to help our friends grow and cheer them on.  We create our own classroom family poster with our promises and we all signed it.

• to be kind to others
• to listen and support others
• to learn from our mistakes
• to be bucket fillers

What is a bucket filler? Just ask a Super Kids!  A bucket filler is a person who does kind things for others and helps other feel good.  In turn, it helps them feel good too.  Check out the book I read to the class explaining bucket filling to the class.

 

What is a scientist?  This is the essential question that is leading our scientific inquiry into the 5 senses.  Scientists use their senses to observe and interpret the environment around them.  The Super Kids are scientists too!  We are diving in by first learning about the eye, it’s parts, and scientific tools that help us see the world more closely.

International Dot Day was on Sept. 15th. The class was excited to do dot themed activities.  “The Dot” is a book by Peter H. Reynolds that inspires kids to make their mark.  The Super Kids had a blast exploring different dot themed activities and creating a dot collaborative art project. Twister, Connect 4, dot day interactive art, and domino math are just a few of our activities.

We also learned about two artists that used dots in their art work.  We read “The Noisy Paint Box” which is a story about the artist Kandinsky.  He is known as one of the first artists to paint what is now called “abstract art”.  He painted what music felt like to him.  After looking at some of his paintings, we began creating our own dots that will be put together to create our own version.  We had to put on some classical music while we did this. 🙂

The second artist we learned about was Yayoi Kusama.  She is a modern artist that loves to create immersive environments and art pieces with dots.

Stay tuned for more adventures and we start our new year together. 🙂

 

It’s hard to believe that it’s the middle of June and we have a few more days left of the school year.  It’s amazing to me how much the kids have grown!  Yes, every year I says this, but it’s so true.

At the end of May all the grade 1-3 students in our school division head to St. Vital Park here in Winnipeg to dance together.  The division is divided into two so it actually happens over two days.  The kids practiced there folk dances during music class with Mrs. Styles.  We were lucky to have such a beautiful day.  To be honest…I have been to this event every year of my teaching career and I’ve been there in every weather situation imaginable!  The weather on our day was perfect.

 

dancing 1 video

dancing 2 video

dancing 3 video

The month of June is always a busy one, but this year the weather heated up earlier than normal.  When the weather gets hot you can feel it in the school.  The kids are ready for summer and so are the teachers.  To keep my class engaged and still learning we have been enjoying weekly themes.  These themes encompass  all subject areas and are just long enough to get excited about and just short enough that the kids don’t lose interest.  Our first week wsa a camping theme.  The class rotated through camping themed literacy and numeracy games,  had a nature scavenger hunt, read camping themed books, and was challenged to use their knowledge of 3D shapes and materials to make a tent that was waterproof.

After reading “Scaredy Squirrel Goes Camping”, the class created their own camping emergency kits.  What would they take with them on a camping trip?

 

The weekend before our camping theme began, I was driving up to my cottage when a bear with her 4 cubs crossed the road.  The mother bear stopped, turned and stared at me.  She was waiting for her last cub to cross the road.  It was amazing and I just had to share it with the class. We also had to make a bear project and learn about bears.  Norval Morrisseau also known as Cooper Thunderbird,  is a famous Canadian Indigenous artist that is well known for his animal artwork.  We learned a bit more about him and created our own bear artwork inspired by his colours and style.

We finished the week creating our own solar ovens out of materials that would attract the sun.  We used the heat to make a tasty treat! We made smores and it was a huge hit.

The second week of June was beach week.  Activities related to water, ocean animals, and sand.  The kids loved coming in to ocean waves on our projector and watching ocean animals during quiet time.  The class learned a new game called flip flop math, researched ocean animals, created their own sandcastle art projects, and were given a STEM group challenge to create a tall structure with pool noodles and toothpicks.  They then had to measure it.  We even went fishing for words during word work time. 🙂

This past week was games week.  We play games all the time in our classroom, but this week it was turned up a notch so to speak.  We enjoyed some quality time with our 3/4 buddies outside, learned a card trick to teach our families, enjoyed field day organized by our Phys. Ed teachers, and made our own spinners and kaleidoscopes.  To end the week the class was challenged to create a mini golf hole using materials borrowed fro the gym and items in our classroom.  We partnered up with Mrs. G’s class and created our own 9 hole mini golf course! It was a blast to play the course. 🙂

spinner video

kaleidoscope video

This weekend was Father’s day. The class made their dads a special gift. Gifts for our families in my classroom are always art.  After learning a bit about Jackson Pollock the class created their own “art in motion” projects. Splattering paint and rolling marbles helped the kids create their own masterpieces.

As you can see from our busy month so far, we’re always learning.  Take care.

Good morning and happy mother’s day!

The class created their own versions of “Waterlilies and Japanese Bridge” painted by Claude Monet as a gift for their moms.

After learning about Monet and his waterlily garden, the class used pastels, watercolour paints, and a bit of salt to create their own versions.  The kids created cards and decorated their bags before putting their artwork into a frame.

Our class along with the other grade 1 and 2 English classes, enjoyed going on a field trip to MTYP.  The Manitoba Theatre For Young People, was hosting a production from Australia called “ZOOOM”. Yes, it has three Os. The interactive production was inspired by the classic book called “Harold And The Purple Crayon”, but with a modern twist.  I have to be honest and say that it was my favourite production that I’ve seen at the theatre with a class and I’ve been to a lot of them!  The kids were asked to come with a piece of the dark.  We talked about what that could be in our class and decided that since we were learning about the Earth, Moon and Stars we should make a representation of that.  When the kids entered the theatre they were greeted by kind people who took their dark and gave them light in a form of a hand held light.  The production used lasers, screens, and the hand held lights to create an imaginary world.  There was even a dance party with the light switching colours!

 

Part of the grade 1 science curriculum is daily and seasonal changes.  We have been talking about these changes throughout the year as the season’s changed.  We have been examining this process a bit closer this month with the essential question, “How do patterns affect daily and seasonal changes?” Our inquiry explored how we have day and night, how the sun is the center of the solar system, how the Earth moves in an orbit, how the moon orbits the Earth, and how we have seasons.  Making connections to time was a big eye opener for the class.  A year is one orbit around the sun, a day is on rotation of the Earth etc.  The class made stop motion videos to show their understanding of this process.  The videos are on the ipads at the school and I’ll add a few to this blog post later this week.

We read the book “The Sun Is Kind Of A Big Deal” and learned that the Earth is in the perfect location in our solar system to support life.  The Sun gives us heat and light.  We also have to protect ourselves from the Sun and the class brainstormed ways we can do that.

The kids are in the middle of using the Pebble Go website to research the Sun, Moon or the Earth for a research project. They are working in partners to find information.

Earth Day was earlier this month and the class learned that we only have one Earth so we better take care of it.  The class participated in activities and stories related to the reducing, reusing, and recycling.

 

Each students made their own reusable shopping bag and recycling truck art project.

Dental hygiene was a focus in health this past month.  Why is it important to visit the dentist, brush our teeth, and eat healthy?  We found out through a variety of books, videos, and experiments.  The class even made a tooth ninja to help remind our families about the importance of dental health.

Earlier in the month we had a big down pour.  The sky opened up and it rained!  I took the opportunity to drop everything and talk about bit about why it rains and the water cycle.  We read the book “The Big Umbrella” from our school library and painted our own big umbrella art pieces.  We discussed what an umbrella had to be made off to protect us from the rain and what materials are waterproof.

Easter was a few days after spring break.  We read the book “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” by Beatrix Potter.  We looked at the way the illustrated painted to pictures and how the pictures were a muted colour.  The kids then followed a direct drawing lesson to sketch and then paint their own versions of Peter Rabbit!

I Love To Read activities also happened that week.  Dress as your favourite book character was a hit!

Math activities this month have focussed on partnered math games reinforcing addition and subtraction strategies.  The class has been learning the names and attributes of both 2D and 3D shapes.  Guided math groups have been working on fact families.  More examples and pictures of our math time will be in our next blog post.  During this time I’ve been focusing on the groups and haven’t taken that many pictures. 🙂

Until next time…

 

 

Each March our school has a special evening called Exhibition Evening.  Each classroom shares their learning in a different way.  Our school hasn’t been able to have this special evening due to Covid restrictions for the past 3 years.  When our school shut down the first time we were just 6 days away from showcasing our learning.  It was great to welcome families back into our school in this special way.  Our classroom has been diving into a fairy tale inquiry for the past few months.  With each fairy tale we made connections to ELA, math, health, social studies, math, art, and science.  As you can tell from previous posts, these connections have lead to some great learning opportunities.  Our Exhibition Evening had a variety of activities for families to rotate through.  Families were greeted by a carousel in the hallway with documentation of our learning, art project connections, and explanations of curriculum connections.  Families then entered our classroom through the drawbridge into our fairy tale classroom.  Centers included:

1. Our classroom created book based on the traditional Indigenous story of the 3 sisters.  Mme. Meg, our teacher librarian, helped us with this process and the class was so excited to share their book with their families

    

2. The Jack and the beanstalk station had our classroom created beanstalk, kid created castle made of 3D shapes, parts of a plant activity, and measuring using Jack and the Giant’s footprints as measuring tools.
3. The Three Little Pig station had the students retelling the story with a storyboard, showing their learning about maps and compass directions, and punctuation.
4. The Little Red Riding Hood station explained what a healthy meal Little Red should be bringing to her Grandma.  Students shared their learning by explaining the food groups and sorting food examples.
5. The Goldilocks station had students share their understanding of hot and cold through the use of thermometers.
6. The Humpty Dumpty station was based on the book “After The Fall” where Humpty faced his fears and turned into a bird.  Students shared their writing on what they don’t feel comfortable doing yet, their STEM activities, and what other animals Humpty could have turned into other than a bird.
7. Reader’s Theatre Videos

 

Check out the video and pictures of the exciting evening below.

 

We hope that our families enjoyed the evening as much as we did!

The set up of our classroom, castle door, and art projects were the highlight of our inquiry.  The class loved creating the environment to showcase their learning.

About a week before the exhibition our class, along with the other grade 1 and grade 2 classes, went to The Fort Whyte Centre for a field trip.  We were supposed to go in February, but the day was the coldest day of the year!  Our re-scheduled trip was a huge hit! Activities included sledding, a marshmallow roast, a scavenger hunt, outdoor games, and even snowshoeing.  Thank you to the volunteers and educational assistants that came with us and helped make it such a fun day.

sledding video1

sledding video2

outdoor games video

It was a fun filled day and many of the kids fell asleep on the way back to the school.  This tired Super Kid fell asleep on his friend.  🙂

Festival Du Voyageur was celebrated in our school at the end of February.  Festival Du Voyageur is held in the city of Winnipeg each year to acknowledge and celebrate French culture and history. We had a pancake breakfast in our classroom, made bannock with some parent volunteers, participated in whole school bingo, attending a French concert in the gym, and enjoyed stop drop and jig daily.

French concert video 1

Jig dancing video

Stop, Drop and Jig video

I hope everyone has had a wonderful spring break and I look forward to continuing on our learning journey on Monday.  Take care. 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This past week the Super Kids celebrated two big days! Valentine’s Day and the 100th day of school. The kids were so excited to celebrate their classroom friendships and making it through the first 100 days of learning together.

Valentine’s Day began with our 3/4 learning buddies from Ms. Lagimodiere’s classroom joining us for some acts of kindness bingo and reading stories that they picked from the library about friendship.

Next, the class exchanged Valentine cards with each other.  They couldn’t wait to deliver the cards to each other and open them.  If your child brought Valentine cards, thank you for sending cards in for the whole class so students didn’t feel left out.

Valentines themed centers were a highlight of the day.  The kids rotated through activities such as sight word heart bingo, coding a friend with valentine’s actions like blowing kisses and picking flowers, building a structure out of foam hearts, reading Valentine’s themed books, and themed math games.  We even had a timer set for 10 minutes per station with hearts and music. 🙂

 

The 100th day of school was on Friday and the class was told that there was going to be a mystery for them to solve.  The class was invited to wear black, sunglasses, and come ready to investigate like secret agents.  The class came in and I greeted them with an app to confirm their identify with their fingerprint.  When they were granted access to the classroom they were asked to find their secret agent badges and be ready for a top secret briefing.  To say they were excited would be an understatement!

Classroom setup 100th day video

   

All the grade 1 and 2 classes on the English side of our school and the grade 1 classes on the French side of the school rotated through activities set up in the rooms to help them earn words that when put together at the end of the day formed a sentence clue.  With this clue the class would hopefully solve the mystery of who agent 99 was and why they stole all of the zeros in our classrooms!  Activities involved fingerprint science, ninja training, a laser beam obstacle course, secret message in invisible ink, 100 cup towers, coded messages, bowling, and special glasses.  The kids were so pumped!  These activities took the whole day with some breaks for snack, recess, and lunch.  At the end of the day they all headed outside for some Phys Ed time before solving our mystery.

When arranging the words collected it formed the sentence…”The zeros were not stolen, they are just lost!”  Where do things go in our school when they are lost?  The lost and found in the office.  We took off to the office and found them!

The kids left school with smiles on their faces and a bit tired from their day being a secret agents.  It was a great day where the kids got to spend time in many classes in our school and I got to spend time with so many kids that go to school in our building.  I missed being able to do that during our Covid restrictions and I’m so glad that we have the opportunity to be a school community again in these meaningful ways.  🙂