Family News letter

Dear Families,
Brrr....it is cold out there!  I hope you all had a nice weekend and feel ready to come back to school again!  This is the last full week of school before our Winter Break, which starts next Monday.  We are off the entire week and have teacher in-service on the 29th.  Students come back to school again on Tuesday, March 1st.

Our Learning:
Writing: We are currently finishing up our "All About" writing pieces and the students will meet with their editing partners this week.  We will share our stories with our Reading Buddies in Ms. Davison's Kindergarten class on Wednesday.  When we return from our Winter Break, the students will start their research writing.  This year, we are studying the Rainforest and the children will research a rainforest animal.  More information will follow later.

Reading: The Iditarod (the dog sled race in Alaska), starts on March 5th.  Once again, the students on Harmony will follow a musher and read books to earn check-points along the Iditarod trail.  We will choose mushers and update our reading logs so they reflect this for when we return from break.  Traditionally, Harmony reads "along" with the Iditarod dog sled race every year.   The students will have help choosing a musher here at school.  The musher's name will be placed inside the reading log (which is inside the red homework folder).  Each night, students will still be expected to read for 10-20 minutes.  However, the reading log requires a little more writing to reflect a deeper understanding of the books.  If you want a sneak peek, the Iditarod reading log is linked on the wiki, or you can click here.  This link also contains informational letters regarding the race and our reading logs. The official web-site for the Iditarod race and our wiki link is here too.

Technology:  The students learned how to post on our KidBlog last week.  They also learned how to insert a picture into the new format.  I will share the passwords with you all via email so you can see your child's work and perhaps write back.  We love blogging and hope you will too!

News and Upcoming Events:

• We will celebrate Valentine's Day on Monday, February 15th.  Thank you for sharing sweets and treats with our class.
• We will have our annual Movie Day at ABS on Friday the 19th.  Please let us know if your child cannot participate in these movies.  Thank you!
• Winter Break starts 2/22.  Students return to school on 3/1.