Week of January 7, 2013

Dear Parents:

Happy New Year! I enjoyed hearing last week about the fun adventures some of the children had over the break. I hope you all enjoyed some special time together with each other. I certainly enjoyed time with my family.  Our house was full and busy with all three of our children, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, two precious grandsons, and two crazy granddogs here! We had a ball! Then, unfortunately, three days after Christmas, we got a call that my mother-in-law had had a heart attack. So, my husband, son, and I drove to Georgia and spent the next four days at a hospital in Brunswick with her. It turns out that she did not have a heart attack, but a stroke of the arm. She had a blood clot removed and a pacemaker put in. She is doing much better, but is still in the hospital, waiting on a bed to become available at a rehabilitation center near her home. Luckily, there are a number of family members that live near her and that gives us a lot of comfort being so far away. So, as always, hold your family close to you!

Well! Buster certainly went out with a bang! Just look at the mess we walked into that last day!

Thank you, parents, for your bravery in coming to school in your pajamas for our come-as-you-are pajama party! We had so much fun! Thank you, too, for staying for the writing celebration and for making the children feel so good about their writing!  Last but not least, thank you so very much to everyone for your very generous and kind gifts to me. I truly appreciate your thoughtfulness. Because of the ordeal with my mother-in-law, I did not get the thank you notes in the mail, so I sent them home with your children last Thursday. I hope the notes made it home!

I have updated our shutterfly site with lots of pictures from November and December. Be sure to check them out! I have included just a few on this blog.

At school, we are working on getting back into our routines. In Reading Workshop, we have started a unit on the genre of nonfiction. We began last week by comparing fiction and non-fiction books. We learned that non-fiction books are filled with true facts and information that teach us about something.  Over the next several weeks, we will spend a lot of time reading non-fiction books. We'll learn that as good readers, we use non-fiction books to pursue an interest and learn all we can about a topic. We'll learn to warm up our minds before reading by thinking about what we already know about the topic and what we want to learn. We'll learn that smart readers accumulate information by reading different books on a topic and we'll learn how to keep track of new information by jotting what we learn on sticky notes. All of this will help us in our upcoming project work on the solar system. More information will come about this later.

In Writing Workshop, we'll also focus on non-fiction. During the next two weeks, we will focus on writing "how-to" books that teach how to do something. Today, we spent some time in interactive writing about how to brush our teeth and the children compiled individual lists of how-to topics they feel confident enough about to write how-to books on. They will choose topics from their lists and begin writing books to teach others how to do these things! We'll have some other fun activities to help us engage in writing how-to books, such as making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and then writing about "how to" make them!

In Math, we're working on solving number stories and learning about turn-around facts. If you know that 3+4=7, then you know that  4+3=7. We'll have lots more math fact practice with dice sums and domino math. We'll also play a new game called "Beat the Calculator" in which we pit our brains against the calculator in solving math facts!

In Science, we continue in our solar system study. Our main focus this week will be the moon.

Other important reminders: 

School is closed on Monday, January 21, for Martin Luther King Day.

Grandparents/Special Friends Day is Friday, January 25. Noon dismissal that day!

Field trip to the Science Center/Planetarium will be Tuesday, February 5. We will eat lunch at school at 11:00 before we go. Parents are welcome to join us by following the bus or meeting us at the Science Center. We will leave school at 11:30. Our tour begins at 12:00 and we will leave to return to school at 2:00.

Spring Conference Day will be Thursday, February 7. There will be no school for the children that day. A schedule will be coming home soon. If you need a specific time, please email me now!

Friday, February 15, will be a Professional Development Day for teachers. There will be no school for students that day.

School is closed on Monday, February 18, for Presidents' Day.

Volunteers this week: 

• Wednesday - Library Checkout - 2:10 - Kristen Danielson and Amber Ferrol
• Thursday - Math Game - 10:30 - David Richardson
• Friday - Art - 9:15 - Kim Gross
• Friday - Parent Reader - 2:15 - Sharon Cannella

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

Susan