Friday, January 6th, 2012 (80th Day of School)

Welcome back to school! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!

In the month of January, students are learning about and showing cooperation throughout the school days to receive their "Caught You Caring" award for this month.

In math, we are starting to work on measurement. This unit has a lot of hands on activities in the classroom, but is also very easy practice at home as well. Have your son or daughter help measure out ingredients when preparing supper, or when baking. Activities like this at home will reinforce concepts learned in a fun way, and show them how this can be used in their everyday lives.

We are just finishing up our animal reports in science. Stop by the school sometime to see the research reports on display in the next few weeks!

In health, we will be learning about healthy eating habits for the months of January and February. As always, we encourage healthy snacks (and lunches!) to support this.

In Social Studies, we are currently working on community maps. We are using the directions north, south, east and west, as well as left and right turns to help map our way through communities. Use this at home as well when you are in the car, or going on a roadtrip to reinforce directions.

We will begin weekly spelling activities next week. Please ensure that your child is completing their spelling sentences at home and returning them back to school by Friday. Home reading should also be completed every night. Someone should be listening to your child read (mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, babysitter, etc.) to encourage them, help them through difficult words and discuss what was read afterwards to help with comprehension. Daily practice and book discussions afterwards are very key elements in becoming a better reader. Thank your for your support at home with this!

Just a reminder to have your child fill in the days of school after each day on their 100 chart. The chart should be filled in to 80 by now. We will have a 100th day celebration on the 100th day of school which will be sometime at the beginning of February.