Happy New Year!

I do hope that everyone had a fun and relaxing holiday season. May all your New Year's wishes come true!! We all deserved some time off and the temperatures this week will make us all feel like it's truly winter. I have to admit I am rather excited about the weather. You will want to make sure your child comes to school with either a sweatshirt or sweater and then a coat that they can wear outside at recess. Perhaps it was our snowflakes that we made prior to the holiday that brought us these temperatures! Smiles!

I had a fabulous holiday. I spent some time with my mom prior to the Christmas in Virginia and then returned to Florida for a quiet but lovely Christmas Eve and Day. For New Years my husband and I, along with friends, went to Cabbage Key for a couple of days. We rang in the New Year by dressing up to the theme of the "groovie" sixties. The boat ride back was a little chilly, but great fun was had by all. One of the highlights of my holiday season was the arrival of a new Hensler addition, the four legged kind. Mr. Hensler and I are the proud parents of an 8 week old Golden Retriever named Bennett. I have attached a picture to the blog for the children to see.

I have to say that though my holiday from school was wonderful, I did truly miss the children. As always, they will come back seeming much older. Developmentally, they are now truly third graders. Along with that comes a heightened expectation both in their working relationships with their classmates and the quality of work that they produce. Later on in the week, I will send out an outline of curriculum that we will begin. But this week, the children can expect to begin work in their social studies book and complete and add to the personal narrative writings that we have been working on. This week, I will send home a little project on magic. I am going to reveiw this activity with the children and they will have a week to complete the assignment.

Please double check their school supplies. Many of the children are in need of new pencils, especially red marking pencils with erasers. You may also want to clean out homework folders. I do have a few sets of papers that will be coming home this week that is work from prior to the holiday.

If you have any concerns about your child, please don't hesitate to contact me to schedule a conference. It will be great to see the children on Tuesday. Make sure they get a good night's sleep on Monday night. I myself need to reset the body clock.