We just finished reading Matilda this past week and were able to watch the movie on Tuesday.  We thankfully didn’t have a repeat of The Polar Express disaster.

We also have some exciting news, Ms. Brec is engaged to be married!  We are all so excited and happy for her.  She will be getting married in May and will be taking a week away from the classroom at that time.

There is no school this Friday, it is professional development.  Also, the Gala is Friday the 22nd, this is always a fun night and a great opportunity to help our school.  The grade level art projects are always a hit, the kids have had lots of fun working on them, so plan on coming and having a great time.

The SAGE test is coming up soon!  Please get out your calendar and get these important dates marked.  As you know we have spring break coming up, the students are out of school from March 29th-April 6th.  Well, bright and early Monday morning, the 7th of April, our class will be testing on their essay questions.  I would ask that you make certain your child is ready to be back in the swing of things come Monday morning.  Make certain they get to bed early and have a good breakfast.  Students generally have a hard time coming back from breaks and getting right back into the swing, so I ask for your extra awareness in helping them be ready for this important day.  We then have our next testing day  Thursday April 10th, this will be their language portion.  We will finish up with math on Wednesday April 16th.

As you may be aware, I was unable to get iXL accounts for all of our third grade.  I have opted to use the SAGE formative practice questions in replacement.  This is a little more time intensive to set up, and a little limiting, but is more directly linked to what the students may see on the test.  Last week was the first time the students have logged in.  This is a learning curve do to the fact this is the baseline year.  We will be focusing hard the next few weeks on applying the knowledge they have and being able to apply it to the context of the questions they are seeing.  The test is very interactive, they draw figures, fill in graphs, write own equations, etc.   They have been doing this type of work on the their Daily Written Math for the past several months and now will be applying it onto the computer in the test format.

Our work the next few weeks will be working heavily on our opinion and informative essay questions.  If you have any further questions, please let me know.  I will be sending home log in information for SAGE shortly.

Thank you for helping your student continue to be responsible for completing home projects and reading each night.  We are continuing to hang our hearts for reading around the room.  We had some incredible home projects this past month.  We have started a new month and I look forward to projects rolling in.  I had several students who did not complete a project last month.  Please encourage your child to be working on this.  We do not have formal homework in the classroom, but this does not mean we do not have homework.  These projects are valuable and provide numerous opportunities for your child.  Please continue to have your child read every night for 20 minutes.  Students who are in reading groups are sent home with reading assignments each week night.  Please support your child in this.

I know the students enjoyed having you visit during their work cycle this past month.  The children have made great strides this year and I know they love having you in the classroom with them.

I am still looking for volunteers to help come read.  If you are available, we will welcome you with open arms!

I wanted to remind you of our parent education night this Thursday the 27th at 7:00 p.m.  The subject is about school safety for our generation.  This should be very informative.  We as school will be implementing additonal safety changes in the coming weeks.  It is very sobering to see the changes needed in our schools in order to keep our children safe.  Years ago, I would never have thought I would be practicing lock down drills with my students.  We have had the honor of having Robbie and Allissa Parker serving on our school safety committee this year.  They will be the guest speakers on Thursday night.  If you are unfamiliar, the Parker’s lost their daughter Emilie in the Sandy Hook shooting in December of 2012.  We will also have representatives from the local Fire and Police department present.  This is open to all of our community, please feel free to invite neighbors and friends.

I want to thank you for all your help to make our Valentines celebration special.  I appreciate your donations and especially want to thank all of you who came to help.  I most importantly want to thank our room mother for organizing it all.  I am certain the kids had a great time and the snacks were a hit!

I wanted to remind you if you wanted to come visit your student during work cycle, sign up is on the blog.  I also wanted to ask for help with snack for dates in March.  We are also in need of a few things.  If you happen to have a cutting board you would be willing to part with we could use a new one that would be easy for the kids to wash and maintain.  We are also in need of sponges for washing dishes, if you are willing to donate to the cause.  We are also down to two rolls of paper towels.  These come in handy when we are out of the school supplied paper towels and waiting for them to be refilled.  Thanks for your consideration in helping us with these items.

Science fair is this Wednesday.  Upper el will be presenting and an open house will be held after school for the community to come visit.

Remember to be working on home projects and reading your 20 minutes daily.  We started our reading heart chain around the room this past week.

I hope you are enjoying your long weekend and I look forward to seeing your children’s bright faces in the morning.  I miss them!

Reminder that Parent Teacher Conference is this week.  Your child is welcome to join, it is really your choice.  Please remember that we have early release on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday at 1:00 p.m.

Pizza Friday is back.  Orders need to be placed by Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. in order to have pizza for that Friday.  The cost is $1.75 and helps raise money for the sixth grade field trip.  Please pay by check to the front office or online payment on the school website, no cash is excepted.

Just a quick reminder about dress code, clothing needs to be free from holes and tears.  Please be aware and ask your children not to wear pants with the knees blown.  Also, if your child was sent home with a school provided item, could you please return them to the front office.

We will exchange valentines on the 14th, this is totally optional.  We have 23 students in our classroom.  I will send home a list of names with each student.  If you chose to give candy we ask that it is sealed in an envelope.

We had fun celebrating Chinese New Year.  The children enjoyed making paper laterns, envelopes, trying traditional foods, and experiencing treasures Ms. Brec brought back from China.

Our International Festival is this week.  Please come see the students projects on Thursday morning from 9:30 to 11:00 a.m.  Important reminder that projects are due Monday.  The children have already begun to present to each other and have a great idea of what to expect.

I look forward to visiting with you this week.

I wanted to remind you about the International Festival.  All students are required to complete this project.  Projects are due Monday the 3rd.  This gives the students a week to have them completed.  Parents are welcome to attend the festival on Thursday the 6th from 9:30-11:00 a.m.  This is such a fun event and I encourage you to come if you can.

Reminder that Parent Teacher Conference sign up is posted.  Conferences will be held February 5th, 6th, and 7th.  These are also early release days at 1:00 p.m.

February is also come to school with your student.  I will be posting a sign up soon.  You will be able to work with your child for 30 minutes during class.

We began our study of Asia this week.  Ms. Brec lived in China and was able to bring fun items to share with the students.  We will be celebrating Chinese New Year this week.

We could use some help with snack the week of February 3rd.  Please see the link for snack sign up.

Also, If you would be willing to come and read with the students, please let me know.

Sign up for Parent Teacher Conference is now available.  Please click on the link under we join in.  On the blog, this is on the right on a desktop or scroll to bottom on tablet or phone.  Remember these days are early out for your student.  I look forward to meeting with you.

It is hard to believe we are coming to the end of 2013.  We will be having our winter preview concert tomorrow at 9:30 a.m.  The children have been practicing a fun number and we would like to invite you to come watch.  School will be released at 1:00 p.m.  We will be returning to the classroom on Friday the 3rd of January.

Our international festival is coming up on the 6th of February.  Each child will be required to have a report completed on a European country.  This festival is a highlight of the year.  Families are invited to come and see all the classrooms and enjoy the wonderful work.  Please take time during the winter break to help your student begin their country report.  This is a required assignment.  Also, please remember to engage your child in 20 minutes of reading each day.  Please continue to send your weekly reading zip lock bags back.

Reminder about the importance of proper clothing.  Please send your children with inside shoes.  Wet snow boots are not a good fit for our rug works.  Students are no longer allowed to work in only socks. The kids love the snow and they need to be properly prepared.  If your child does not have snow pants you may want to send an extra pair of pants.  Socks would also be a great extra to send.

We wish you and your families a wonderful holiday break and we will see you in the New Year!

The kids are loving the snow!  I wanted to give everyone a reminder about clothing.  I like Ms. Joy’s thoughts, “There is no bad weather, only bad clothing.”  We are outside most mornings for a short time and then again at recess.  It is really important for your child to have a warm coat, gloves, hat, boots and most students really need snow pants.  They can’t help themselves and gravitate to rolling around and getting good and covered.  We are having some real issues with students not having inside shoes.  We try our best to help the children keep track of things and to stay on top of the lost and found.  It is so important that your child have inside slippers.  We cannot have stocking feet and it is becoming a big issue this week with having large wet boots on our work area.  We also have P.E. on Wednesday’s.  We are in the gym, but your child needs to bring their running shoes, again slippers don’t work nor wet slippery boots.  Thank you for your help.

While we do go out most days, if we have a bad air day the children have to stay inside for recess.  We have some items for this purpose, but If you have any old games, building sets, etc. that you may be parting with this time of year, we would be happy to put them to good use.