The Lemonade War is On!

After a week of clues to build anticipation, Horace Mann kicked off our 2nd annual One School, One Book challenge on Friday afternoon.  There was plenty of work behind the scenes in order to stage this fun "reading pep rally," so BIG thanks to the following:

Horace Mann PTA--Prizes and preparation
Lakewood Schools Technology Department
Mrs. Chanter, Mrs. Phillips, Miss Testen, Mrs. McCafferty, Mrs. Kehn, Mrs. Harkness, Mrs. Robinson, Mr. Atkins and Mrs. Johnson--Planning and skit

Each student received a packet with tickets to participate in daily prize drawings for reading one chapter each night, and each family received one copy of The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies. As the first book in a series, we hope your family will be hooked!

Here are a few pictures from the controlled chaos in our gym on Friday afternoon:

Walking Field Trips for CHAMPS Classrooms

One of the wonderful things about Lakewood is the ability to walk places--we don't always need to get in the car!  This easy access also provides great learning and entertainment opportunities for Lakewood students.

Last Friday, all six of the homerooms for students with moderate-intensive special needs (sometimes known as CHAMPS classes) braved the snowy weather to walk to the Beck Center for a "sensory-friendly" (meaning lighting, noise, etc., were adjusted to make people with sensitivities to those things more comfortable) performance of The Ugly Duckling ballet.  The students--and adults--enjoyed the performance. Notably, two Horace Mann students (Carys Crone [2nd Grade] and Milena Osborne [4th Grade]) performed in the show (pictured) and HMES student teacher Mrs. Jessica Farmer stage managed the performance.  Love those Lakewood connections!

In other walking field trip news, several CHAMPS classrooms are strolling over to The Dollar Store on Sloan Ave. with a dollar in their pocket and an item from the classroom shopping list.  This is great practice with many, many skills.  While most students go to the store with their parents, this is a whole new level of responsibility!  Kudos to Horace Mann Speech Therapist Mrs. Ellen McCafferty and her student teacher, Ms. Chelsea Girash for planning and leading the trips :-)

Amazing Air and Opinions to Share

Two different kinds of celebrations occurred at Horace Mann on Friday.  First, we marked the end of another successful quarter of being safe, respectful and responsible with a fun, yet educational, assembly.  Thank you to our PTA for sponsoring the Cleveland Museum of Natural History's Amazing Air performance.  Our visiting scientist Courtney demonstrated lots of interesting experiments using good ol' air!  Star students for the month of March had a special treat as helpers.  Below are a few pics to give you the flavor:




There was also a 1st grade writing celebration on Friday.  Students have completed their persuasive writing pieces (isn't it cool that 1st graders have persuasive writing pieces?) about books they have read.  Mrs. Harkness and Mrs. Cramer brought their classes together in the library to share their writing with friends from the other class.  It was great to watch and hear the conversations as students listened with interest and had conversations about the books, too.  Again, we have PTA to thank for making our library such an inviting, kid-friendly space!