Newsletter January 23 - January 27

Welcome to our 101st day of school on a snowy, cold, blustery day!  We had a nice 100th day on Friday.  Thanks for helping with the 100th day bottle activity.  The kids were very descriptive with their clues and we had a nice time celebrating the occasion.

Here are this week's happenings:

• Tomorrow watch for the 100-book challenge information to come home.  In a nutshell, I will challenge my kids to read 100 books by the end of the school year.  They will get incentives along the way and become better readers in the process.  This is a doable challenge if you read the take-home books nightly.  If you aren't doing that, it will be more difficult to accomplish. Please reconsider your schedule and your priorities if necessary and read those books every night with your child :)
• The January Scholastic book orders will be due tomorrow, Tuesday, January 24.  The best way to order is to use our classroom code and to order online.
• SEP notices went home last Friday.  Please sign those and return them ASAP.  Remember that SEP week is next week Jan. 30 - Feb. 3) (crazy I know).  School will dismiss everyday at 2:30 that week, including Wednesday.
• Please continue to work on sight words!  We have 33 lists that can be passed off and after that my students can work on "Fry Phrases" to earn beads for their sight word soldier necklaces.  I have Mary's mom that will come in each Friday and pass those lists off.  I have had several kids say, "I've lost my list".  I had her give lists to all of those students the first time she came in, but I am still having kids say, "I lost mine".  If your child needs a list send me an e-mail and I will send another one home.  
• Today we wrote a descriptive paragraph about an animal from our reader.  I was impressed by some of the paragraphs.  This is still a work in progress and many will still need help as we navigate paragraph writing.  I was happy to hear most of my students expressing interest in writing a paragraph on a topic of their own choosing.  After we have written paragraphs on a given topic, we will continue writing paragraphs with topics chosen by the students.
• In math today we subtracted tens (ex. 70 - 40 = ).  We again recognized the number of tens (as we did when adding tens) and then modeled subtracting the tens to get the difference.  We were speedy and I think most of my students mastered this concept rather quickly.  
• In reading, we are continuing our study of the Mayans.  We learned today about King Pakal.  We learned about his tomb, about how kings were treated and about the special buildings that were built in Mayan cities.  We then made little booklets and shared those with the class (those that wanted to share).  I was impressed with the things that my students remembered and chose to share and illustrate in their booklets.  Ask to see their little Mayan book. 
• Valentine's Day will be here before we know it.  I will send home information about decorating bags and send home a list of students so that your child can deliver Valentines to their classmates by the beginning of February.  

I'd better get home before I get snowed in here at school!  Cuddle up by the fireplace (if you have one), drink hot cocoa and read with your child.