Hold On To Your Sweaters!

This week our theme is Magic. Personally, I think that some Mr. Winter's magic is responsible for these cool temperatures lately. I have not discussed this with the children yet, but will do so tomorrow and explain all the details to them. But on Friday, I would like to take a break from the regular reading time to "Warm Up to a Good Book." It is seldom that Florida provides the appropriate atmosphere to do this, so I thought I would take advantage of it. On Friday, the children will be asked to bring a book from home to read. It must be a book that will sustain their interest for at least a period of 20 minutes. Along with their book of choice, they are not only allowed to bring a thermos of either hot chocolate or cider, but they may bring their bedroom shoes to school and wear them around the room during our reading time. I am not sure yet the exact time, but it will be some time in the morning so the thermos will remain warm. This will be great fun!!!!

We began Lesson 7 in Wordly Wise this week. We skipped Lesson 6 because the next lesson has a story entitled Abracadabra, again in keeping with our magic theme this week. The children also have their dictation sentences for the week. The two homophones that are used often in these sentences are to, too and two as well as they're, there, and their.

We began reading in our new social studies book yesterday. You may want to ask your child the importance of learning and studying our past, history.

They will have a multiplication quiz tomorrow on 0's - 6's. They can begin earning stickers on their multiplication chefs. I did tell the children that if they earn 5 stickers, they no longer have to keep taking these quizzes unless they want to .

Our new math unit has returned to place value, but into the tens and hundred thousands. I will be sending home an additional challenge this week as well.

We are also gearing up for the third grade program. Third grade is embarking on a new program entitled The American Dream. The third grade teachers are working this week on assigning parts. The children should know which characters they are and have their lines in hand by the first of next week. It will then be their responsibility to learn their lines as soon as they can. There is a great deal of singing in this program along with the speaking parts. Thus, each child is a major contributor to making this program a success.