Thanksgiving Surprise: Let Them Eat Cake

With all of your help, we managed to pull off our Surprise Thanksgiving Breakfast Buffet again this year. We have to say, the participation by parents was off the charts this year. Set-up and clean-up both went flawlessly.

All morning the kids were worried that something was wrong. Melissa played her part beautifully by tipping off the kids that Dr. Smith was annoyed at our team for some reason, but we didn't know what that reason was. Melissa's absence during first and second hour was noticed by the kids; they thought we must really be in trouble. Dr. Smith did her part by scaring the bejeezus out of the kiddos when she came up to class at the beginning of third hour. When the doors to the cafeteria opened, kids were confused. The cafeteria looked clean. In fact, it looked great...and their parents were there...and there were mountains of food...and cake! "Surprise," yelled the adults in the room, and finally smiles broke out over the kids' faces. An audible "Phew" floated through the group.

Lined up at the buffet.

Loads of food and loads of fun.

This is always such a fun day. It takes a lot of coordination and preparation, but the payoff is definitely worth it. We stress team-building all year long and want to make sure that kids feel like they belong. We want their school experience this year to be one that they will remember forever. We know that the kids will definitely remember their surprise Thanksgiving buffet for a long, long time. Of course, the amazing cakes that Mr. Park created for this team also lent an amazing WOW factor to the event as well. Here are some pictures of the 2014-15 Harmony Team cakes.

Cornucopia Cake - Side view

Cornucopia Cake - End view (each gourd is a cake pop)

Turkey Cake - Front

Turkey Cake - Back

Monday Memo: Holiday Family and 20% Time

We are off to a great start for our three day week. There are no after-school activities on Wednesday. Our holiday family total is fantastic so far. We have made 2/3 of our goal and it looks like we should make or exceed it.

Our holiday family wish list is here. If anyone would like to purchase one of the items on the list, that would be awesome. Please e-mail Melissa (hellwig.melissa@wgmail.org) or Don (eckert.don@wgmail.org) to let us know so that we don't have duplicates. Again, we really appreciate everything you are doing to help.

Our 20% Time projects are coming along nicely. This week we are working on our presentations for Pitch Day. The kids are both excited and anxious. We are going to have all of the kid work on public speaking with Mrs. Gado, one of the elective teachers here at Hixson who has great experience and expertise in this area.

Monday Memo: Field Trips and Family

On Wednesday, we are going to the Downtown St. Louis Public Library for the St. Louis International Film Festival. There is a chance we may have to cancel the trip if the Grand Jury decision comes down before then and there are protests downtown. We want to make sure that the kiddos are safe. In the event of a cancellation, we will e-mail home and plan an alternative here at school. We will have a great time either way.

We are still raising money for our Holiday Family and our total is up to $549.49!  We are doing a great job to make a very special Christmas for a family.  We will also be collecting items as soon as we get our holiday family's wish list if you would like to donate in that way.

Tuesday Memo: Field Trips and 20% Time

Today we went on our field trip to the Symphony. The kids really seemed to enjoy the program and their behavior was excellent. Powell Hall was packed with students from Hixson and other schools. Our kids made our school proud today.

Our Holiday Family collection is going beautifully. Our goal is to raise 1500.00 by December 15 and right now, we are at 350.00. That is awesome! The kids are stoked about raising money, partly because they feel it is a good cause and want to help, and partly because they are competitive. 

We are going on another field trip next week. We should have all permission slips in by this Friday, November 14. Our trip is to the Downtown St. Louis Public Library for the St. Louis International Film Festival.

20% Time is going really well. You can check out your kids' blogs at harmonizedlearning.blogspot.com. The student blogs are on the right side of the page. They are looking good and the ideas are really coming along.

Monday Memo: Field Trips and Holiday Family

We know that some of you have been having trouble accessing the field trip permission slip for the Film Festival trip. We have changed the permissions on the form so that everyone with the link (click here) can get it. Our trip is November 19.

Tomorrow is election day. We will have no student attendance here at Hixson.

We are beginning our fundraising for our Holiday Family service project. We spoke to the kids on Friday about this and they seemed excited to get started.

Melissa will be contacting chaperons for next week's field trip later on in the week. We appreciate your help with the field trips. It makes a big difference.

Learning While Community-Building

There is much more to school than the classes in which kids are enrolled. Sometimes, because of learning opportunities or the time of year, we can plan fun events that incorporate learning into a fun "day off" of regular classes. Today was one of those days. Being Halloween, we had our own costume contest on team. Here are a few of our favorites.

Kids voted by secret ballot and our winners were: Sam (pictured below) in third place, Carter (center) in second place, and Owen (right) first place. The kids had a lot of fun dressing up and really got into the spirit of things. After our costume contest voting, we played some Halloween Trivia. A few weeks ago, we discovered Kahoot, a game-like quiz app. We used it to introduce our Digital Citizenship program in Discovery and the kids loved it! So today, we Kahooted again!

Sam in armor

During second hour, kids collected data on all of the pumpkins that they brought in (thanks again for your pumpkin donations). They were to measure, circumference, mass, radius, weight, etc. Once the data was collected, they were ready for the Pumpkin Drop later in the day. 

Kids collecting data

In third hour, we introduced our big service project for the year, our Holiday Family. Every year our team adopts a family in need for the holidays. We raise money, purchase gifts and help out in any way we can to make this season a great one for a family that has fallen on hard times. It is extremely rewarding and the kids develop even more compassion and empathy during this time. Of course, we have a bit of a competition between Hellwig's and Eckert's classes, so that is fun too!

We did the Pumpkin Drop during fifth period. One team member would stand in the second-story classroom and hold the pumpkin out the window. Upon the release, other team members on the ground would measure the time if took for the pumpkin to fall, the depth of the "crater" in the dirt-filled kiddie pool. All of the data collected will be used in science on Monday. 

It was an eventful day full of different and fun activities. We try to honor the ebbs and flows of the school year by mixing in a variety of learning events at every opportunity. Today was a great day for that!

Please Pass the Pumpkins!

Tomorrow we are having some very fun and educational events on team. One of those activities involves pumpkins. We have about 10 and need about 40. If you have an extra pumpkin laying about and are willing to donate it, please send it in with your kiddo in the morning. Thanks in advance!