Hi All,

I hope you enjoyed a lovely 3 day weekend in celebration of Abraham Lincoln. Next week, we will have a holiday recognizing all the presidents!

This week, we will begin a new genre in our reading class: biography!  The kids are excited to begin this unit, and have many favorite people they are looking forward to reading about. There will not be a presentation like they had last year, although they will have an opportunity to share some knowledge with classmates and me at the end of the unit. No additional homework will be given, although you may notice a shift in your child's at-home reading, from mystery to biography!

We are also moving into a new unit in Social Studies; we will be learning about the mission period in California, and the conditions that preceded and followed this time. The kids have a hyperdoc in the Google classroom, and will also be reading Studies Weekly and the Reflections text in order to gain more information on this period. Finally, we will be visiting one of the missions on March 1st!

This week in math we will continue learning strategies for comparing fractions with different denominators, not limited to the common denominator technique that we all learned as kids. We will be doing Lesson 13-16 in Engage NY Module 5.

This Thursday is Valentine's Day. We will not be having a giant party, but there will be time for kids to exchange Valentine cards if they want. Please make sure your child has enough Valentines for the entire class if they choose to bring cards. There are 25 kids, and I sent home an email last week with the list of names attached. Please let me know if you did not receive the email.

Lastly, we have the Math Festival coming up a week from today (February 19th.) If you would like to help, please contact Mrs. Davis. I know they are still looking for helpers, and no math expertise is required!  The parent volunteers always enjoy the experience.

Have a great week!

Carroll Mayer