Good Afternoon Parents, Hope all is going well in the new year. We are hard at work with only three more weeks until March Break and I simply cannot  believe how the time has flown! Let's talk about reading for a moment. When you listen to your child read, please insist that they read with adequate speed, lots of expression and attendon to the puncutation. I tell the students to do a "voice drop" at the period and a "voice up" at the exclamation point. If there is a question mark at the end of the sentence, draw attention to that and encourage your child to put that questioning voice in place. Pay attention to correct phrasing. Is your child pausing for a moment at the commas. Talk about what your child is reading. In our class, Please have your child read as much as possible. This is a skill where "Practice does make Perfect" but only if the child is reading text at their instructional level and receiving parental monitoring. If you have a concern about the books that your child is bringing, please send me a note in the agenda or give me a call.   We have been working on the trait of Organization in Writing where the focus is to have bold beginning, a mighty middle and an excellent ending. Ask them to sing you the little song about that! Next week we are going to do a bit more work on connecting words in stories (and, so, but etc.) and sequencing words that keep stories in logial order ( first, next, then, later, after that, finally etc.). Then we are moving into the trait of Word Choice where the focus will be on using the best words possible to convey the intended message. Mrs. Sturgeon and I are beginning a Writer's Share Time where some of my students will read to both classes and some of her students will then read to both classes. This past week, three students from our class read to all and the children really enjoyed having a broader audience. We are going to make this a weekly event. Ask your child about the stories that are being read.   The bases eing focused on in Spelling work in the next weeks will be "aw" as in saw, thaw, draw, "ew" as in new, threw, drew and both "oo" sequences as in moon and foot. Words sent home for spelling practice will reinforce this as well as the review words that have not yet been masstered by all.   In Math, we are working on mastery of addition and subtraction facts to 12 at this point. In class, we drill daily on +1, +2,+3, -1,-2,-3, the doubles and using the doubles to solve other facts. We are using ten rods and units to model numbers from i to 100 and continuing our counting patterns, that is, by ones, by twos, by fives and by tens from any number as in 18, 28, 38, 48, You can help out at home. Use dimes and pennies in place of ten rods and units. The children are accustomed to this as we do this in Number Corner daily. Automatic recall of facts is important and we will have a short facts quiz every Friday. You will be able to monitor your child's progress this way.   Check out the pictures from our Christmas Movie Day. It was so much fun and the children were really well behaved. I hope to make it an annual event! Hope they weren't too antsy after the cotton candy. Thank you so much parents for driving your child to and from our home. On Monday, Valentine's Day, students are going to wear red or\and pink and of course, they will be passing out their valentines in the afternoon. More fun, fun, fun! I'll take some pictures and post them so you can have a peek.   Have a great weekend and please do not hesitate to contact me if you have a question or concern.   Bye for now, Mrs. Donovan