Week of February 20, 2012

Dear Parents:

What a wonderful bunch of "characters" we had at Town Meeting this morning! It was such fun to see and try to guess the characters from many of our favorite books and to meet new ones that we now want to read about! The children then did a great job introducing their characters in our classroom, telling us about them, and enticing us to want to read the book that their character is from. They also read their favorite parts to us! I wish you all could have been here! Pictures will soon be posted to our class Shutterfly site!

Tomorrow is Drop Everything And Read day. Please send in a towel for your child to sit or lay upon outside while we read!

On Thursday, we will pair up with Ms. O'Mullane's second grade class for buddy reading!

Reading Week ends with the Oldie Goldie Book Sale on Friday. Please continue to send in book donations until Thursday! Don’t forget to send in a dollar or two for your child to go shopping with! If you have books to donate, please do so by Thursday.

Now, a look at what else will be happening in our class this week.

Reading/Language Arts: Our phonics focus is on the soft sounds of consonants c and g. We'll also work on contractions 's, n't, and 'll and work on those troublesome words with multiple meanings.

Writing Workshop: During our Craft of Revision unit last week, we learned another strategy writers use to make their stories better. Writers reread their stories and “take away" things that don’t help their stories. Ask your child about the revision strategies we are practicing for making our stories better.

Math: This week we will introduce the centimeter in metric measure, practice measuring lines and objects to the nearest centimeter, count coins including quarters, and review "What's My Rule?" routines.

Social Studies: This week begins our study of America! In this unit, we will be learning about important people in the history of our country, our current president, historic landmarks, and symbols of America. We'll also take some time to think about what we would do if we were president!

Science: The children will be working hard all week on their planet projects!

Volunteers this week:

• Tuesday - Art – Eva D’Agostino (12:05)
• Wednesday - Math Game – Mai Nguyen (1:15)
• Thursday - Library Check-out – Kimberly Burke - 12:00
• Friday - Parent Reader – Beth Lastinger (2:15)

Other Important Reminders/Dates/Information:

Class Picture Day - February 29

Field Trip to the Science Center Planetarium - February 29

Field Day -Friday, March 9. More information will be coming soon!

Spring Break will be March 12 - 16.

Field Trip to All Children’s Hospital for the musical “What’s So Good About Feeling Bad?” - March 22

Field Trip to Dali Museum - March 30

Relay for Life - March 30

That’s all for now! Have a great week!

Susan