CARES: Cooperation

This year at both schools we will be focusing on the school-wide theme of CARES.  Each letter represents an important tenant of Responsive Classroom and those we want to manifest in our classrooms. Each month we will focus on one letter and work that into our classroom conversations and morning meetings.  I will be making them a central theme for Core Curriculum. This is the schedule we'll follow:

• September: Cooperation
• October: Assertion
• November: Respect
• December: Responsibility
• January: Empathy
• February: Self-Control

During September in Core time we looked at how Bucket Filling and Cooperation work together.  In K-2 we read the bucket books, based on the premise that everyone carries an invisible bucket.  When we are happy it's full and when we're not it's empty.  We can add to our own bucket by filling the bucket of others (being kind and caring).  We need to be careful not to dip in other buckets, because that also dips in ours.  And by using our lid, we can protect our buckets. In 3-5 we consider the idea that when we are a team, we look out for the buckets of other team members.  When we work together, we are all more successful and everyone feels better.  We'll be doing some activities in all the grades around looking at how the actions of one person affect everyone on the team and that together we can make a huge difference. Murray students particularly enjoyed the team escape challenge!