My, oh my! How time flies! 

Are we really at the halfway point already?

The beginning of 2016 marks the mid-point of our year as a fourth grade class. I love doing the mid-year reading assessments and getting to listen to each child read, retell three stories and talk to them about how they have grown since we sat down to do assessments at the beginning of the year. Then, they were strangers to me. They were just the new students who had taken the places of the former class that I knew so well and still missed. 

Now we know one another.  We have come a long way from the beginning of the year. As the days add up to months and months build up to half of a school year, we really have formed a small, tight- knit community. Everyone's unique personality has shaped it.

 I feel lucky to have such a special and talented bunch of kids. So many wide smiles and enthusiastic learners. We were learning the word reluctant earlier this year and to illustrate, I walked into the room very slowly and nervously. One student commented, "No one walks into our classroom that way!" It was true. This class comes in with something to say, a comment for me or a friend (often both) and an excitement for what is to come. 

Your child is needed here, in the whole group, in small guided reading and math groups, in a book club, hands on science group, and in one-to-one moments with me. When they are absent, they are missed. They have someone waiting for them on the playground. Their comments, jokes, questions are noticed and heard here. 

Here are some pictures that I have been intending to post for the past month. Enjoy! 

Students wrote "Snowman Poems" for a special snowman surprise that they exchanged with each other before our Winter break.