Little Blue Bulletin: 1/7-1/11

Happy New Year!
We hope 2008 finds you and your family well rested and healthy. Please look carefully at the January calendar. We have no school on Friday, January 18th (Learning Day) and Monday, January 21st (MLK Day). We also have our big night performance of "Anansi the Spider, and the Moss-Covered Rock" on Wednesday, January 30th.

Click here for updated calendar!

Morning Procedures:
It's important that students arrive to school BEFORE 8:00 A.M. The drop off is very light between 7:45-7:50. Remember to get a head start on rainy days. We have too many students arriving after announcements start. This is very disruptive to the class, and doesn't give your child significant time to prepare for the day.

Sharing:
Week of 1/14: ONE hobby you enjoy in winter
Week of 1/21: Dr. Martin Luther King was important because...

Preparation Tips: PLEASE TRY TO COME UP WITH AN INTERESTING TOPIC SENTENCE! Try a question, a poem, or a song. Brainstorm ideas first.
1. Start with your topic sentence to tell your audience what you're going to share about. DO NOT introduce yourself or say "Hello, class".
2. Add 2 or 3 sentences to describe your topic. Use transition words such as first, next, last.
3. Stand up straight, look at your audience, and speak clearly.

Something extra: Bring a picture to show your audience!

Book Bags:
Book bags resume today. Please remember to return the bag on Thursdays. If you have any questions, please contact your family room teacher.


Language Arts:
We worked on the long U sound and /oo/ sound. Besides learning letter sounds, we are also working on how to start a sentence with an upper case letter and end with a period. When your child finishes his/her book bag journal, have him/her read it again and check for proper upper case letters and periods. Don't forget to practice your 5 spelling words each night! Many students are not scoring 5 out of 5 on Fridays.

Teammate of the Week:
We continued our expository writing program this week. Each student in our village will have a chance to be "Teammate of the Week". This is a great opportunity for students to share information about themselves with their family rooms. As students learn about the Teammate of the Week, they will be writing an expository paragraph using Step Up to Writing Program. We will be keeping the writing at school to create a book for each child. Not only is this a wonderful memory of our classmates, but a great writing portfolio too.


Math:
We finished our current strand of number sense this week. We have been practicing addition and subtraction facts, fact families, related facts, and word problems. We revisit the important strand of number sense again later this schoolyear. It is always great to practice your math facts at home each day.


Science:
We started our Weather unit this week. It's been a very exciting weather week, having partially cloudy days, strong winds, fog, and rain! Students made rain gauges so we can measure our next big storm. We are also learning how to make good observations using our senses: smell, touch, hear, and see. Students will be tracking the weather daily to keep track of clouds, percipitation, and winds.


Play Practice:
We were very impressed how many students remembered their songs, dance moves, and seating arrangements after our long break. Ask your child to sing you songs and practice his/her dance steps over the weekend. We are working on rhythm. Thanks again to our many parents who have volunteered to help out! Us teachers are very excited to see all the great costumes and backdrop in action.


Thank You's:
Thank you to the parents who chaperoned on the field trip today. We saw a great play, "Peter Rabbit and Friends", at Santa Clara University.


Have a good weekend,
Little Blue Teachers