Announcements

   Dear Parents,
Miss Polzin and I had so much fun with your children this week!  I hope you 
get a chance to check out gallery two because I posted some pictures of us 
being "one hundred years old"!  The kids went around to different stations.  
They built a tower with 100 blocks, built 100 piece puzzles, found patterns 
in 100 and even make 100 piece Fruit Loop necklaces.  It was truly a great 
day.
     In math we have worked very hard with our two and three digit addition 
with regrouping.  The children took a post test this week which will come 
home as soon as your child's math teacher finishes all of the grading for the 
unit.  I am excited to tell you we begin "Olympics" math on Monday.  We will 
be learning about measurement and will rotate among many different stations, 
learning to measure and weigh in various ways.  I think the kids will enjoy 
this.  If you have time, talk about the Olympics at home and let them see a 
little coverage on T.V. or the computer.  After next week we will begin a big 
unit on subtraction with regrouping.
     We will conintue to discuss natural resources during science next week 
and we will conduct an experiment with Saltine crackers to discover how wind 
energy can be manipulated to be used to make power.  We will blow on our 
crackers to see how the Saltine can spin.  We will also include a lesson on 
solar energy as well.  Feel free to send in newspaper articles about natural 
resources that we will share with the class.
     Our reading will focus on the comprehension strategy of "questioning".  
We need to be asking questions before, during, and after reading our books 
because that is what good readers do.  We are learning to be "thoughtful" 
readers.  Miss Polzin is beginning to work with reading groups already and is 
doing an excellent job.  I am hoping this will allow us to get in some extra 
reading.
     Poetry is something we work on every day.  We are very proud of the 
poems we are writing and we are making a beautiful "anthology" of poems to 
share with you.  We are also writing "secret admirer" letters to our 
classmates which we will announce at our Valentines party on Friday at 12:30-
1:30.  It is an ice cream party and we really wish that all of you can attend 
so please come!
     I look forward to seeing you soon!
                           Sincerely,
                         Mrs. Carneiro