Candy Grams and Valentines

A list of student names will be coming home this week for Valentines. Students can start bringing Valentines any day next week (please before Friday). We will have our Valentine Bags set up in our rooms (Day-Blue, Maiava-Red). Our Valentine celebration will be on Feb. 11th because there is no school on Feb. 14th (furlough day).

Candygrams will be sold in the lunchroom from Feb. 3-9. They cost $.25. Students can send them to anyone in the school. They are optional to buy, we have them because we aren't able to deliver Valentines from home to our friends in other grades/classes. Thanks for supporting student council.

Spelling Challenge Lists

We've had 10 weeks of spelling now and we're ready for some accelerated words for some students. From now on, we will have a pretest on the first day of the week on the new spelling words. If your child passes the test, he or she can choose a "challenge list" to work on throughout the week and be tested o those words on Friday. (On my records, they would have 100% for the regular list.) If you child is on the challenge list. I will send a little paper home with the new words on it on Monday or Tuesday. All students will do the same sentence dictation on the test day with words from the original list. (I grade for capitalization and punctuation.) Please don't put extra pressure on your child to make it to the "challenge list." It's okay to make mistakes. Many students get 100% on the test now and if someone knows the words at the first of the week, I don't think they still need to practice them all week. (I keep it very low-key about the two lists and who are on them.) I will put both lists on the blog on Monday after we have had the pretest.

Book Order

The January/February book club is available online. The winter Leo (Spanish book club) is also available. The activation code/directions for online ordering is further down on the right column of the blog. Thanks for supporting your classrooms!

¡SoLo EsPaÑoL!

It has been two weeks of wonderful effort from your children to speak only Spanish. We are not perfect at it, but I am seeing and hearing GREAT SPANISH from many of them! It has been such a great feeling listening to them as they compose sentences in Spanish. Some sentences are incomplete, BUT that is not a negative thing! Trying to speak makes it so they continue to speak! I praise and give them lots of positive reinforcement to continue doing it. Practice always makes perfect! We will continue encouraging Spanish only in my classroom. I know it will get better!

Blue Class Mitten Play

Our Blue Class Mitten Play with be at 8:45 on Friday Jan 28. Each of the students know what they should be wearing in the play. Please make sure that your student is on time. We are very excited to show you what we have been working on. The Mitten Play/Snowman Song will last between 25-30 minutes. A DVD will be available to those that can't make it to the play on Friday. Thanks!

SwItChInG CLasSeS

There were no tears, no fears and everyone was where they were supposed to be. The switch went wonderfully! The dynamics of the classes have changed a little, with energy in different spots, but the students hardly noticed the switch. We have such flexible, responsible students that make our jobs a lot easier. Thank you preparing your children and helping them through this transition. Now, Red Class has Mrs. Maiava in the morning and Blue Class has Mrs. Day in the morning and then they still switch at lunch.

Fun Website to Check Out

Holly Maddocks recommended a website that your child might enjoy. Mighty Book Jr is offering a free year subscription to their website (a $99 value) with the code: learntoread. No payment information is needed. We are not sure how long this will be available for free. I went on the website and it has many options for interactive reading books. There is also a Spanish section too. It might be fun for your students to play around with. There are some vocabulary books in Spanish too. Thanks Holly for the great find!