Hi All,
I hope you are enjoying the second of our February holiday weekends!

Last week went very quickly, with a very busy Friday. Thanks so much to the parents who came in to help with the Valentine's Day party, especially Amy and Kristin.  They have also been busy working on our class Auction Item, as we didn't have a coordinator for this project.  Above and beyond!

As well as the party, the kids also recited their poems, which went very well.  Almost every child was well-rehearsed, and they now appear much more comfortable speaking in front of the class than the first   couple times.  They were also a very respectful, patient audience!

As many of you may have noticed, the Homework Packet sent on Friday is for 2 weeks.  Because of this, the packet contains 2 Reading Logs, as well as an additional assignment: writing sentences for each of the 20 spelling words.  Our purpose in assigning the sentences was twofold: first, to give the kids additional practice with writing strong, complete sentences; and second, to give the kids the opportunity to clearly connect the meaning of each homophone with its spelling.  This is an especially hard list for many kids because they must be clear about the meaning associated with each spelling.  In addition, please be certain to have your child fill out both Reading Logs completely; they have 2 weeks to do 8 entries.

You may also be wondering what's going on with the Famous American project. The answer: we've been working on finishing up some other writing assignments prior to fully focusing on the biographies. In the mean time, I've noticed many students continuing to read additional biographies of other interesting people, as well as a many other informational books.  This is a great way for the kids to practice their reading, and build background knowledge about the world.

I will be having a substitute several times over the next few weeks. With implementation of  the Common Core standards, many additional meetings and training sessions have been scheduled for all the teachers. Fortunately, we have some terrific subs at this school, and I'm confident the kids will be flexible and respectful.

Take care,
Carroll Mayer