It was nice meeting with you over Parent Teacher Conference.  I enjoy your children so much and it is nice to sit with you and celebrate the individuals they are and the growth they are making.

I know I mentioned the importance of reading at home at least 20 minutes daily.  We will be starting our heart chain this week, for every 10 minutes they read at home they can add a heart to our classroom chain.  We will measure how long it takes us to complete it one time around the classroom.  Remember the sight word link is available on the blog.  This is a great way to build fluency which many of us spoke about during conferences.

The International Festival was great fun.  I am certain the students shared their excitement about many of the things they saw and experienced.  We need to start working on our next home project.  This is especially important for our level 3’s.  Upper El is just around the corner and it is now we need to start preparing.  Level 3’s will be required to bring in a completed typed page to accompany all presentations.  The SAGE test requires that all essays are to be typed.  This is the time to prepare.  If your level 3 is having a hard time finding a subject of interest, we are currently focusing our cultural studies on Asia, dinosaurs, flowers, weather and invertebrates.  These are all wonderful areas to explore further outside of the classroom.

Level 1’s and 2’s are required to continue bringing in home projects.  I still want this to be your child’s work.  Please gage this according to your child and their reading level.  Remember that our goal is to make learning enjoyable and interesting to your student.  I would like to see our advance level 1 and our level 2’s bringing in a hand written paper to accompany their presentations.  For our more beginning readers, please read information with your child and have them dictate to you what they would like to say.  Then have them copy their dictations into their own handwriting on a separate paper.  All projects are presented to their classmates.  The next project is due the end of this month.

We will be exchanging valentines this Friday.  We have 23  students in our classroom.  Please remember if you choose to bring candy with your cards they need to be in sealed envelopes.