Newsletter January 17 - January 20

We missed many today--seems like sicknesses are going around or extended vacations :)  We took our spelling test and math test today.  For those that were absent, I will do my best (with aide help) to make those up this week.

Here are this week's happenings:

• I will be gone again tomorrow for a training for all team leaders.  I would much rather be here than attending a meeting :)  It was nice to be back after a three day weekend.
• We will not have spelling words this week.  As I noted above, we took our spelling test today.  I noticed that some practiced these words at home, as some students spelled the words quickly and without error.  Thank you!  I know that it extra work for some of you.  
• Today was the 97th day of school--Friday is our 100th day!  I hope that you saw the notes about our 100-day "secret bottle" activity and dress up opportunity.  The dress-up day is NOT a Halloween dress up day, but rather a day to celebrate the 100th day. Please dress up according to the note.  This is all optional of course, but I will say that those that don't have their "secret bottle" feel badly, at least that is what I have observed in years past.  I have another exciting 100 day reading goal that will start next week.  I will send home information about that next Monday.  Watch for information about our 100-book challenge!!
• We took our math test today also and will start on Unit 8 tomorrow.  Unit 8 deals with two-digit addition and subtraction.  
• In reading, we have continued to work on the /or/, /ar/, and /er/ sounds as well as the "ed" (past tense marker) for verbs and the three sounds made by that spelling (/t/, /d/, and /ed/).  My kids love our "past tense marker" rap/dance :)  We will be moving into writing a descriptive paragraph about an animal for our current reader.  We have been using our five senses to write descriptive sentences about food items (today it was marshmallows and boy, this class is full of marshmallow lovers).  We will transfer that knowledge to writing descriptive sentences about a chosen animal.  I am excited about what will come from this writing as they have loved learning about the various animals in the book--we've learning about termites, snakes, Puffins, Groundhogs, and Mandrills to name a few.  
• In the second part of our reading program (listening and learning) we have moved from Early World Civilizations to Early American Civilizations.  We have heard two accounts about the Mayans.  We have learned about the proverb "The more the merrier" as it pertains to the importance of family for the Mayan people.  We have also learned about their main crop "maize" and about the beginning of chewing gum "chicle".  I love the amount of information that my littles can soak up.  
• The January Scholastic Book Order will be sent home on Thursday, when I return from my training and will be due the following Tuesday,  January 24.  
• SEP week is just around the corner (Jan. 30 - Feb. 2).  I will send home SEP notices by this Friday. I will keep the same time that you were scheduled during the Fall SEP's.  This will be a great time to hear about your child's progress in reading as we just took our Middle of the Year DIBELS test.  
• Thanks to Mary's mom for volunteering to come in once a week and keep up with our sight word soldiers program.  If you haven't been working on those, do it now, today, tonight!  I would love to see 19 necklaces loaded with beads by the end of the year and 19 little brains loaded with 100's of sight words!!

Happy Reading--please e-mail, text or call or write an "old-fashioned" note with questions or concerns.