December 14, 2009 I wish you all a wonderful holiday and I know that your days during our two week winter break will be filled with love and joyful days with your little ones. Friday will come very fast and your children will have lessons filled with fun from today until dismissal on Friday! I hope that those of you that can will join us on Thursday at 2:30pm to hear the 1st grade classes sing in the courtyard. Our class will be singing “Frosty the Snowman” and our only homework this week will be to sing the song a million times with your child so that all of the children will know the words on Friday. :+) Please help them to remember to take a breath between the verses so that they will better ‘stay together’ as they sing. If at all possible during the busy vacation days, cuddle with your child to read each and every evening. I am hoping that each will be excited to read at least ‘one chapter’ each night in the new chapter book that they will be bringing home on Friday…that they don’t yet know about. Make the reading of the chapter book easy and fun. Just quickly tell your child any word that is not known so that there will not be one bit of struggle as they dig into the story to just enjoy it. In other words, just read together to have fun as you hook them on the story. Many children tend to avoid the chapter books, not realizing that they can read them. They are now at the level to begin enjoying them. And then….we will move into our TRACK ONE BREAK. As you well know, our class will not be returning to school until January 19, 2010! This four week school vacation brings a time for the children to sleep later in the morning, read a bit longer in their pajamas after they are ready bed and to just relax with you until our day to return. I am sure that many of you might be traveling as families and a few children mentioned that they will be going to visit grandparents or other relatives for part of the break. I am not assigning homework packets for the children over this break, as it is intended to be a school vacation, and I want it to be just that. But, as unassigned homework, I do ask that you keep the children reading and writing until we all return. Please plan to take them to the public library once a week. Visit the Children’s Room in the library and ask for assistance from the Children’s Room librarian to pick out books for your child. I am suggesting the easy beginning pre-chapter books, such as the Puppy Mudge books for our struggling readers, The Henry and Mudge series…beginning chapter books for the children reading with a bit of ease now, and The Treehouse Mystery book series, Henry Huggins, or Junie B chapter books for the children who are now reading fluently. Please visit our classroom web site regularly over our Track Break. I will be posting new learning web sites for the children to visit. I will also post the sites of authors of the books that I have recommended. I will try to update the site weekly. Another request that I would like to make is that you first enlist the help of a relative to write a letter to your child. Then, help your child to write back to the relative. Just two or three sentences would be perfect! That way, you can help your child to practice both composing complete sentences and using capitals and periods when needed. Sit with them to help them to get it right the first time without a need to recopy. But, hold them to correct sentences, without any capital letters appearing in the middle of the sentences, etc. If this could happen once a week, the progress that you will see in your child’s writing will be amazing. Hopefully you can ‘hook’ them on letter writing. It will be such fun to watch their face when there is a piece of mail for them! May I thank you for all of the support and assistance that you are providing at home to support the work that I am doing with your children. I am so fortunate to be working with all of you. Again, have a wonderful holiday and Track Break. Joy Bartlett