One Hundred Sixty-Sixth Day

We have been continuing our Being Afraid unit as well as our reading battery.

In math we have been adding fractions with like denominators and finding equivalents for basic fractions. Today we subtracted fractions from a whole.

We will mark our final day of school with a class celebration. The last day of school is a minimum day so our celebration should begin shortly after 10:00. I will be preparing for the festivities at approximately 9:30.

Forty-Eighth Day

Today we unveiled the /ng/ sound with a spelling pattern of 'short vowel-ng'.

We opened topic 8 with plane shapes.

A math page and a writing page on /ar/ is for homework.

Our winter festivities will be upon us shortly and I've had a few questions which I thought I would take a minute to address. The district allows classroom time for 2 or 3 short classroom celebrations/year. I have chosen the last afternoon before winter break, the 100th day of school, and the very last day of school for these times. I did not choose October 29th for several reasons. It was not because (as some people thought) that I did not want "sweet" treats to be shared at school. It was largely because this day is already cut short and it is still an important instructional day.

As far as what to share for our celebrations. I leave that up to the parents to decide. Some guidelines/suggestions/comments:

• Treats shared in the classroom should meet district health and safety guidelines.
• Treats which are individually wrapped are easiest to deal with (with the exception of cupcakes and cookies-those are easy too.)
• Juice boxes/pouches do not spill.
• If you decide to share 24 of something, it would be appreciated if the 24 whatevers are of the same color/flavor. Assortments make things difficult.
• Please no cakes which need to be cut.

As for February 14th, we will not have a celebration; however, we will be taking time in the afternoon of this day to exchange Valentines or whatever else we decide to send to our classmates. This is an important day for 1st graders and we can not let it pass without letting our friends know how much we care about them.

Thank you again for your understanding. I want you to know I really have appreciated your support so far this year in all of the big and little things. Some years are made much easier just because of parent understanding and cooperation.