Dear Parents,

Happy New Year! I hope you all had wonderful holidays! We are going to be launching into a new science unit this month. We will be studying the Arctic and the Antarctic with a special emphasis on the polar bear and penguins. Our Christmas European Customs unit in December was very high interest for the children as we traveled to Spain, France, Italy and Germany. In each country we learned about their food, language, geography and customs, with a special emphasis on Christmas customs.  Many children loved learning about countries that they knew their ancestors were from; and enjoyed the language, maps and food tasting.

We are completing Unit 3 in math this week and will begin a new Unit -- Unit 4 - Pockets, Teeth and Favorite Things. We will be learning to identify and sort data by common attributes. Throughout the unit they will be organizing, representing and interpreting data.  There will be a retest in near doubles for some on Friday. Keep practicing those near doubles addition and subtraction facts. We will also be moving on to new facts: adding 10 and subtracting 10 -- easier than the near doubles. Thank you Mrs. Druding for your classroom support with math facts and high frequency words.

Our reading logs were due Jan. 4th. New reading logs are attached. Please send these in so I can log in their reading time and give out the pizza coupons. We are still in Unit 3 in our reading series and are working on the third story.  Continue reading at home and discussing  characters and setting, predicting and asking why.  This will help with inferential comprehension.

The children really enjoyed their Holiday Party. Thank you to all who helped out with the goodies. I want to also thank Mrs. Cunliffe for organizing and helping at the party, as well as Mrs. Riopel.  We couldn't have had our holiday centers without the help of Mrs. Atkins and Mrs. Young .  These centers focused on Hannakah, The Night Before Christmas poem, and the origin of  the custom of decorating the Christmas tree.

Wishing you a wonderful, healthy  2010!

Mrs. Houlne