Thursday

Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today, all around, and the students got to see a very cool presentation from a real, local author and illustrator duo!
In the morning, the students worked in groups and brainstormed ideas about what makes a good board game. I was quite pleased with the ideas they generated! Here are a few:

• It has Dice.
• You move characters around the board.
• It has short cuts.
• It has traps.
• It has scooters to make you move more slowly (clearly not the Lime ones downtown...)
• It has a theme

Then, as a group, we came up with some other things that make a board game great:

• It has to be neat and organized, so you can understand where to move your piece!
• It has to make sense, and have rules that are easy to understand
• It has to be multi-player!

So, with all that said, the students started to plan out their own board games. So far, things are looking pretty good. The students are being quite creative, while still designing games that seem simple enough to play. If you could take the the time to talk at home about your child's plan for their game, that would be awesome! It definitely doesn't need to be anything fancy. I just want them to make sense. I think it would be fun to have a board games day later, where the kids can try out each other's games!

Anyway, on with the day. In the afternoon, the class went to a presentation from local author Jace Jax, and local illustrator Henry Hama. They read the class one of their original stories, and explained in detail how they wrote, illustrated, and published their book. It was great!

Tomorrow is our Pajama / Toy Day! Everyone in the class is encouraged to wear their Pajamas to school. They are also allowed to bring one toy or stuffy that they will be able to play with during our "Fun Friday" time at the end of the day. It's only about 20 minutes long but it will probably still be the highlight of the week.

Have a good night,


Zac