Funded Oct 24, 2018The wide eyes and squeals of excitement from my students when the new books began arriving were better able to summarize our gratitude than I ever could in this letter. However, I wanted to share with you just how much our class appreciates these wonderful new books!
We have already started reading one book each week in our classroom. This book is used all week long to explore a comprehension skill, grammar, phonics, and expand students' vocabularies. Just last week, we read one of the most beautiful books, Oskar and the Eight Blessings, a book about a young boy who must leave his family in Germany and move to America to live with his aunt in order to escape the Holocaust. He arrives during Hanukkah and must make a long journey down Broadway alone to find his aunt. Along the way, he is hungry, cold and tired. The people he meets show him that there is in fact goodness in the world as they offer eight different blessings, such as bread, mittens, a helping hand. While our class did learn about making mental images, plural nouns, and blends using this text, they actually learned a much more valuable lesson about kindness.
The power of great books is limitless. Just like Oskar, our class has experienced the goodness of people. With the gift of inspiring literature, my first graders will not only become better readers and writers, but also better people. I know that through these stories you have gifted to our class, the kiddos in our class will learn to look out for the good in our world, and also pass on this love, kindness, and care to others. Thank you!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Elstner