Dear Baldwin Community,
As our fall semester comes to an end, I wanted to express my gratitude to all of our students, parents and staff members for the amazing work that was accomplished during this time. We began our year with the implementation of our Social Emotional Learning initiative and the students and teachers have been using these skills regularly. There was clear evidence throughout this first semester of these new learned skills. Our established positive school climate was enhanced by this work.
We had many events and activities that took place during the fall semester that provided our students with extended learning opportunities. I would like to highlight a few of these events that I know I enjoyed tremendously and that I heard students and parents talking about for weeks.
Our annual Vocabulary Parade took place at the end of October, and once again this year, our students were creative with their words and costumes. The Gorzycki Drum Line led the parade for us down Meridian Park Blvd, around to Espina and through the back of the school. Many of you came to the parade and witnessed the amazing words and costumes our children chose to represent this year. We took all of the vocabulary words and hung them on the walls in the foyer and every day students would stop by to read the words. Thank you for encouraging your children to participate in this fun learning opportunity. I hope you and your children are already thinking about next year's vocabulary parade word, I know I am!!
In November, we held our first Multi-Cultural Fest. We sent a survey home to all of our families inquiring about their family cultures and traditions. Based on the information we received, we tried to represent as many countries and cultures by grade levels. Each grade level traveled through one continent and explored and learned about different countries that represented our Baldwin families. We had many parent volunteers throughout the grade levels that came on that day to present to our students. We learned so much from all of our presenters and from the parents that helped us prepare for the presentations. I want to thank all of our volunteers because you are what made this day very special for all of us! We look forward to next year's Multi-Cultural Fest!
In December, our technology specialist, Ms. Ashley, taught our students about coding. The students visited the computer lab and Ms. Ashley took them through a variety of lessons to learn more about coding. We had Kindergarten students learning with the robots, while the other grade levels learned through many fun lessons. You can still learn more about coding and doing some of this at home with your children by visiting the Baldwin website and following the links. Thank you Ms. Ashley for sharing this knowledge with our Bobcats!
Lastly, I want to thank all of the students and parents for the beautiful Holiday gifts and treats you gave to us! You are very kind and generous with all of us and on behalf of the Baldwin Staff, I thank you for sharing so much with us. Remember, we are now officially on Winter Break and that classes resume Monday, January 5, 2015. I look forward to a successful spring semester. I wish you and your family a Joyful and fun Holiday Season!
Roaring with Pride,