The week ahead...

We have a full week ahead of us. Just wanted to clarify some things...

1. Many of you are following along with the blue sheet and are preparing a book report for Tuesday. I love that you are staying on top of that calendar of events. We will present 5-8 tuesday, 5-8 Wednesday and 5-8 friday. a few friends have attempted to make their reports in the different formats that are listed on the back of the blue sheets. We have seen some awesome trains, a few in a book format, a T.V., a few power-points, and some original posters. I do not have any more Butterfly sheets! Our January family project will be a little different since the 2nd grade team is working together on a related but new idea for a jan/feb project that will be presented in late February. Please do not start on the January project. We will send directions, a list of due dates and a rubric to you next week.

2. Homework will go home Monday. I'd like to try the writing portions to be submitted by email. I know many of the kids have their own email addresses, and this form of communication is very authentic. The topic/prompt for each night will be on the packet but the kids can type their response and email it to me. For those families without computer access please write it the regular way, but have it in blue folder everyday.

3. Kids have been doing very well with the 5 minute addition drills but I have noticed many of them still use their fingers to add when its not the 5 minute drill! How strange is that? parents have helped me come up with some of these games that you can play at home to help with fast addition or repeated addition: yhatzee, 21, rummy, and Sequence dice. Computer games to play at home are Fast math and ixl.com.

4. Raz-kids.com is still available for use.

5. AR- the kids should be taking an AR quiz every day, or every 2 days. They are given the opportunity to take a quiz from 7:15-7:55, and during center rotations. They may read and take a quiz on chapter books at their levels which could take a week or 2, but should also be reading 1 picture book each night so that they can take a quiz each day. This is supposed to be an independent activity, but I will begin including a print out from AR in the orange folders so you can monitor the progress.

6. No school next Monday, in honor of Martin Luther King Jr's birthday, which is actually this week the 15th of January.