How we praise children and for what is also important. When we praise children for their effort and perseverance and not the product or score on a test, it can help to build a child's growth mindset. Having a growth mindset is believing that brains and talent are just a starting point and can be developed with hard work and dedication. Conversely, having a fixed mindset is believing that intelligence and talent are fixed traits that we do not have control over.

As we learned last year while reading Dr. Borba's book, Thrivers, we can encourage children to strengthen their character by praising the character strengths we see in them. If you didn't get a chance to read Thrivers with us last year, I highly recommend it. Below is a list of 24 Character Strengths you could use to identify some awesome character strengths within your child and find ways to praise and encourage.

Our 3rd graders have been working so hard this year! The month of November has

been busy and exciting. November is a month of giving thanks and showing our

gratitude. Our Wonders unit of study was on poetry, so we combined our curriculum with

gratitude. We first created an acrostic poem about all the things we are thankful for. We

then chose 3 of our favorite things from our poem and used a Tree Map to go more in

depth with our reasoning. The students were able to create a well organized and well written

paragraph about the top three things they are thankful for in their lives.

Another awesome tool our kiddos were able to dive into this month was the Mood

Meter. We talked about feelings and how they can affect our actions and behaviors. We

discussed the 4 quadrants of the mood meter, and color coded it. The kids then drew

themselves in the box they felt they belonged in that day. Our moods and feelings

change constantly so we discussed the importance of expressing emotions in honest

and positive ways.

All interested volunteers are asked to complete these 3 steps annually:

1. Read through the Newport El Volunteer Orientation slide deck.
2. Complete the Newport El Volunteer Agreement.
3. Complete the district's volunteer approval process.

As always, every teacher utilizes volunteers in different ways. Teachers will be communicating with the approved volunteers from their class about their need for volunteers and scheduling.