This time of year is always special as the weather begins to fluctuate, the campus takes on different colors, and events bring a different life to our school. This week alone, we hosted our annual Fall Sports Awards, the Opera on the James performed The Three Little Pigs for the entire school, we took a school-wide photo on the field in our new James River t-shirts, and we will host the Halloween Parade and Carnival. This time of year also marks when we begin to think about gratitude.
Keeping this campus humming is no small task, and a small army of faculty/staff and volunteers keeps us moving! Thank you to Mr. Jerry for helping with the setup for all of our events, our cleaning crew, who handles all of our extra messes and changing calendars, our athletic staff and coaches who recognize the importance of character and growth, Paddy Braunstein, who helped bring such a lovely cultural experience to our campus with opera, our Advancement Team who helped to coordinate our school photo, Mrs. Wright’s pre-algebra class who did all the measurements to ensure we have enough space for our community in the photo, and Betsy Rhodes and our Parents Association, especially the Kappels, who helped to coordinate all the Halloween festivities! Thank you for a lovely week!
Next week, we begin a new month, and November’s Word of the Month is EMPATHY. One of the best ways to help children develop empathy is to model gratitude and encourage children to express their thankfulness. Studies show that developing gratitude practices can help improve physical well-being and reduce anxiety and depression. (Carter, 2010) November is traditionally a season for expressing thanks, but I encourage all families to consider establishing daily gratitude practices and model this in small ways. Chapter 2 of Thrivers has great examples of how to model gratitude and talk to your children about empathy and gratitude.
Let's Fly!
Jenn