Today we celebrate our 100th Day of School! Happy 100th Day to all of our friends and families!

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It's true I'm writing on the morning of Feb. 5 - but I'm writing about Feb. 4, so it's almost like I did this last night, right?

Well, through a series of events we have had to cancel WIN just for Monday and Tuesday of this week - but, because I hadn't really thought about having this "extra" time, I thought it was the perfect time to do an art project - YES, I said ART!!. The kids were surprised and very excited. There are no circumstances under which I would call myself qualified to teach art, but this project is fairly me-proof, so we tried it. I found a power point about M.S. Escher; a Dutch graphic artist. I'm sure some of his more famous works are familiar - 

Pretty interesting, huh? The kids were fascinated! The more you look, the more you see! Anyway, we looked at a number of his creations - and then began a project that has an interesting optical element too. It was pretty educational to watch my kids, who I have known for nearly 100 days now, engage in an activity I haven't had the opportunity to observe yet. Many kids felt like I have felt trying to do something at which I felt incompetent; they kept saying they couldn't do it and wanting to give up. We needed to make rulered lines across the large construction paper in fairly even increments. This was difficult for some, understandably, we haven't used rulers yet - when I tried to explain that it is always difficult to do something for the first time - they weren't having any; it looked easy when I showed them how and they expected to find it easy too.

Kids are SO tough on themselves - it is amazing to me! Even these kids, who are very sweet natured by the way, are kind to one another, but so tough on themselves. Anyway, more on this project later today when we try to wrap it up!

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This week we will be focusing on "being creative!" There will be a trash homework assignment due on Friday 2/8, which allows students to practice being creative!  Click here for more explanation on the homework. 

 Below is a picture from last Friday when we made masks!

High frequency words for the week will be: after, done, find, new, old, work. The spelling pattern will be long o and long u, examples: hope, nose, cute, cube. We will also be practicing when to use is and are in sentences. The reading strategy for the week is making predictions and confirming.
We are continuing our unit on place value in math. On Monday, students will take a check my progress to see how they have grasped the concepts from the first part of the chapter. Then we will continue learning more ways to use place value, such as comparing numbers to 120.

Hundreds day will be celebrated on Wednesday. The children can wear something related to 100 to school like a cereal necklace with 100 pieces of cereal, or a shirt or pants that have 100 pictures or squares, or something else creative.

We will be able to celebrate Valentine's day on Thursday, Feb. 14th. Please do not send any candy to school. We will have a healthy snack. But the children are welcome to bring valentine cards if they want to. A class list was sent home. If they want to bring valentines they need to bring one for each student. But it is fine if they don't bring valentines. It's up to you.

Second trimester parent-teacher conferences which will be held on March 7th and 12th. Please sign your name by TWO times that work for you on the sheet that went home on Friday. Please let me know if you need an alternative time or date. I look forward to meeting with you!

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This week room 19 have been learning about art and different materials that are used to make art.  We also learned about masks from our countries and why they use masks in their cultures.  We made our own masks for an art prject and they were excited to be able to discuss what they would use their masks for.

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