Dear Families,

Can you believe that a quarter of the school year is over? It just flies by so quickly that I am always surprised to see the holiday season coming upon us. Of course, I am always thankful for my wonderful family. But I am also thankful that I have a career that allows me so much enjoyment. I have read the statistic that in the USA children laugh about 400 times a day. Adults laugh only about 15 times per day. I think that statistic cannot possibly hold true for teachers. I know that your children delight me many times over each day! We are having a great experience in room 13, and I am hoping that the flu season will soon be behind us so we can enjoy our adventures together.

In Social Studies, we are continuing our study of the Southwest in Chapter 2. The history, economy, and resources of the region are the main ideas of this chapter. We will be talking about the Native Americans of the region, cattle ranching, and the industries of the Southwest. Please help your child understand and retain the material by using the SQ3R method s/he has learned in class. Also, simply asking your child what s/he is learning will help clarify the information for him/her. The same method of reinforcement holds true for science as well. You may want to use the website that goes along with our textbook to foster discussion and further exploration. Click on the picture of this text book to get there

In science, we have finished the first whole unit of life science study and will have a test soon on the second chapter of the unit. We will be moving to the fourth unit in the book because it continues our study of animals. Your child is beginning to have good study habits if you are encouraging the use of SQ3R each time I assign a review of the material. We have many hands-on labs and always review previous material before adding on new material. Recently, we have built terrariums and will soon study earthworms and planaria. We will add the earthworms to our terrariums and look forward to seeing them again in the spring if our tiny ecosystems have maintained a healthy balance of oxygen (from the plants), water and sunlight. Towards the end of the year, we will use our terrariums to observe the water cycle. You can check out the website that goes along with our book by clicking on the picture of this textbook!

In Language Arts, your child should be reading at his/her independent level for a half-hour each evening or you may read to your child instead. In a few weeks, we will begin our second round of Literature Circle. Please help your child to be ready for each meeting, since it is impossible to make them up. As I explained in last month's newsletter, your child will have a different roll to play within his/her circle each time they meet. We are also continuing our lessons on writing personal narratives. More recently, we practiced zooming in on the most important part of the story to give our readers enough details. We are also practicing engaging the reader's senses with our writing. Your child will have many reading and writing experiences to continue his/her development of these skills. I have a Master's Degree in Literacy from Lesley University, so I definitely have an interest in helping your child become a lifelong reader and writer as well as a capable speaker.

Our current unit of study in math concentrates on collecting data, graphing, and interpreting data. In order to practice these skills, your child developed a survey question, collected data from two groups of people within our school system, and analyzed the data to find the answer to their question. They all did a fine job and I was so proud of the insights they had! Ask your child about this and please continue to have your child practice math facts. Being quick with these will help when we are working with more complex algorithms.

Let me know through e-mail, by phone, or a note if there is anything I can do to help make this a good year for your child. I wish you all a healthy and Happy Thanksgiving!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Malone