Week of 9/14 - 9/18

October 7 -8 - PTS Conferences

October 9-13 - Fall Break-No School

MAP TESTING SCHEDULE

8/31 - 9/4 Reading 

9/8 - 9/11 Language Usage

9/14 - 9/18 Math

🏙️ Welcome to Our Mini City: Growing in Community and Character!

If you have heard your child talking about "Job Applications," "Paying Taxes," or "Focusing on their Own House," they are sharing the exciting launch of our classroom management and character system: The Mini City!

While we utilize a daily classroom economy to teach roles, responsibilities, and financial choices to keep our city running smoothly, our ultimate goal is much larger. We are using the idea of our classroom as a "mini-city" with roads and six distinct buildings to help our students grow into good, moral, and highly supportive citizens.

Our classroom community blueprint is anchored in Micah 6:8: “And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Over the past two week, we have been exploring what this ancient wisdom looks like in a modern 4th-grade classroom through our six Mini City buildings:

• ⚖️ The Justice Hall (Act Justly): We learned that Fair does not mean everyone getting the exact same thing (Equal); it means everyone getting what they need to reach the shared goal (Just). We visualized this with tools like stools, wiggle seats, and umbrellas.

• ❤️ The Mercy Center (Love Mercy): This teaches us to shift our eyes from "What about me?" to caring about what our neighbors need to succeed. Our central motto here is: “Someone else's help does not hurt me”.

• 🙏 The Humility House (Walk Humbly): We discussed how we all carry "invisible backpacks" of private struggles. Since we don't always know what someone else is going through, we ask ourselves: "What might I not know?"

• 🏡 My Home (Not My Job): This is our dedicated space for personal responsibility. Our motto is “Focus on your own house!”—meaning we focus on watering our own garden of choices, words, and actions instead of policing or comparing ourselves to others.

• 🚦 The Response Center: Situated at Reflection Intersection, this hub teaches us to pause before we react to a problem and ask: "Am I helping or adding to the traffic?" We are also learning that a problem involving me, does not give me permission to cause aother problem. 

• 🚒 The Help Station: This center maps out clear boundaries for our citizens, helping them identify when to solve a problem independently and when to "Report It" to an adult for safety.