Building Moral Intelligence: The Seven Essential Virtues that teach kids to do the right thing. By Dr. Michelle Borba, Ed.D., educational psychologist.
- Know what you stand for so your child knows. Parents with clearly identified moral convictions are more likely to raise good children. Children know what their parents stand for so they will adopt their parent’s beliefs. Make a list of your top three virtues and use them for a guide on how you want to raise your children.
- Walk your Talk. Ask yourself “If I were the only example my child had to learn moral habits from, what
would they learn today by watching me?” Children learn parent’s moral standards. - Share your moral beliefs and take stands. Speaking frequently to your child regarding values is called direct moral teaching. Parents need to stand up for your own beliefs so your children have an example to follow.
- Ask moral questions to stretch moral development. Children need to expand their ability to look at another person’s perspective and ask themselves “Is this the right thing to do?”, “How would they feel if someone treated you that way?” “If everyone acted that way (i.e. lied, cheated, stole something,), what would happen?”
- Boost Empathy. Children who stand up for other children are those that feel for others. Empathy is what motivates that feeling, halts cruel behavior and urges children to take a stand.
- Reinforce assertiveness not compliance. Children who stands up for their beliefs, reinforce assertiveness not compliance. Encourage children to share his opinions and stand up for what is right, do so at an early age.
- Teach assertive skills. Teach children assertive skills to they can take a stand when they are confronted with a moral dilemma.
11 Ways to Teach Children Honesty:
- Practice attachment parenting. Children that are more secure at home do not lie.
- Parents should model truth. Children model what they see their parents do.
- The truthful self is ok. Parents may say “I like a truthful C grade more than an untruthful A grade.”
- Don’t label the child who lies. Avoid judgements! Never say “you’re a liar, or why can’t you ever tell the truth.
- Avoid setups for lying. Parents needs to confront children who are not telling the truth.
- Teach honesty to children by expecting the truth. Children should not have any choices but to tell the truth.
- When your child lies. Always correct your child for lying. Do not let him think he can get away with lying.
- Encourage honestly. Parents need to reinforce how important telling the truth is.
- Teach a child when silence is not lying. If being honest hurts someone’s feelings, it is not wrong to stay silence.
- Get behind the eyes of your child. Children need to know the difference better pretending and telling pretend stories.
- Offer amnesty when teaching honesty to children. When parents know that their child has lied to them, you can turn the negative into a moral lesson, by using amnesty.
If parents create an atmosphere at home that honesty is the best policy and a truthful self is really the nicest person to be around, parents are building trust and avoiding dishonesty. Dr. William Sears, M.D. Pediatric medicine
March 12- Daylight Savings Begins.
Reminder Daylight Savings Begins on March 12 at 2:00 a.m. You will forward your clocks one hour. Good news-you get one more hour of daylight. Bad news- you lose an hour of sleep.
March 17- St. Patrick’s Day
St. Patrick was a Saint of Ireland. There is little known about St. Patrick’s life. He was born in Britain. At age 16, he was captured by Irish raiders and brought to Ireland where he was held for six years. During this six years, he became a Christian. He then walked 200 miles until he reached Britain and became a priest. He was then sent back to Ireland to teach Christianity. He incorporated the Irish beliefs into his teaching. This holiday became a religious feast day to observe the St. Patrick. They celebrated with parades, dancing, and special foods. The first St. Patrick’s Day was held in New York City in 1762.
March 20- The first day of Spring.
March 3-Pancake Breakfast
March 3- Progress Reports
March 10- Face Painting (Pre-K to 3rd)
March 17-24- Holiday Spring Break
March 31- Snow Cones
MARCH BOOK LIST
2nd Grade- Matilda, By Ronald Dahl
3rd-4th Grade- Island of the Blue Dolphins, By Scott O’Dell
5th-6th Grade- A Long Walk to Water, By Linda Sue Park
7th-8th Grade- Dracula, By Bram Stoker
Book Reports are due March 31.
Ms. Anu classes
Math
6th grade- Students will begin studying several units in the month of March such as: percent applications, discounts, sales tax, commission, simple interest, customary and metric units, quadrilaterals and circles. Students will also learn the surface areas and volumes of prisms, pyramids and cylinders.
7th grade- Students will be working on the functions and graphing of quadratic equations and inequalities. Students will learn how to solve quadratic equations using the quadratic formula and applications of discriminant. Students will compare linear, exponential and quadratic models, and polynomials.
8th grade- Students will be studying powers, roots and radicals. They will study roots, rational exponents and properties of rational exponents, inverse functions, graphing square root and cube root, and statistics and statistical graphs.
Mrs. Abedi classes
Reading and Writing Class
3rd-5th Grade-The class will be working on a ‘Cereal’ project where they will research and present information on a given figure. They will use close reading skills to independently collate, summarize and share key information about their person. Over the coming weeks, students will also be writing effective character descriptions, future goals and be taught about the strategies used to be an effective debater. This will allow students to enhance their speaking and listening skills.
The class is continuing with the novel ‘Private Peaceful’. They will identify new vocabulary words that they discover and continue to implement them in their writing. Furthermore, students will use the plot to discover and relate it to the context that the novel is set in. This will develop critical thinking skills about topics such as war and propaganda during World War.
Reading and Writing Class
6th-7th Grade-The month of March will be a continuation of the Non-Fiction Writing unit. Students will be writing a comparative essay based upon some of the texts they have been exposed to (travel accounts and blogs). The purpose of this will be to emphasis how layout, language and sentence structure can vary depending upon the type and purpose of the text. Students will be using persuasive writing devices to create a holiday resort island. This project will also incorporate speaking and listening activities so that students can vocally implement the strategies that they will have used in their written pieces.
Within reading, students will finish reading Act 5 of Macbeth. They will then use their knowledge of the plot, themes and language to write an analytical essay. This will be based upon their exploration of the main characters. Students will also write a condensed version of the play to reenact in front of the school.
Ms. Jaya’s Class
Math
4th and 5th grade-Students are working on Geometry, after successfully completing a lesson on Statistics, Fractions, and Data and Graphing.
6th Grade-Students worked on measurements which included converting, customary units, temperature different times zones. In the coming weeks, will be studying adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing decimals.
7th Grade- Students have completed the chapter on co-ordinate plane, which included graphing equations and inequalities. We will begin on area’s and volumes of plane figures and solids.
Ms. Jessica’s Class
Math
2nd grade- Students have just finished studying lines, angles and shapes. We are going to continue to study symmetry, transformations and solid figures. Students will also be learning/reviewing money, values, adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing.
Language Arts
2nd grade-Students have just finished our “If I was President “writing assignment. The next project will be for students to create their own stamps. They will also write about their design and why it is important to them. We have started cursive and add new letters every day. We are reviewing contractions and practicing grammar daily.
Science
2nd grade- Students have finished their resource projects. They enjoyed making items using recycled plastic and paper. We will begin the unit on water cycle and continue on with the weather and the solar system.
Language Arts
3th-4th grade- Students have finished our “America” writing assignments. The students are now writing a play with their groups. Eventually, after adequate practice the plays will be filmed. The students are very excited about their projects. We have also started cursive. We learn/review letters every day. We continue to practice grammar/spelling every day.
Ms. Laura
Lower grades
Students have been journal writing to follow through with our past information, of correct grammar usage. Past tense of “was” for singular and more than one person we use “were” for plural. Our class has been in anticipation for spring since Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and six more weeks of winter await us. To bring a little spring to our class, we painted an outdoor scene to learn our primary colors and continued by writing as essay to describe our spectacular paintings. In Math, we continue with focusing on time of day. We continue our studies on states and capitals with direction with a compass; Rose of North, South, East and West. I mentioned to all students they are North Shinning Stars. So next time your family is star gazing, point out your amazing star in your household.
Mr. Gonzalez
Science
Students have covered four chapters since January. Chapter one students covered atoms and their structure, states of matter, properties of compounds. Chapter two students covered physical properties and changes, chemical properties and changes, mixtures, suspensions, and solutions. Chapter three students covered energy which included: heat, kinetic and potential energy, magnetism and electricity, chemical and nuclear energy. Chapter four students covered sound and light which included: properties of waves, sound waves, and light waves. We have begun studying the earth and space science.