Good afternoon!

I was happy to be back to school today after being off with a migraine yesterday.  We started off the day today with our weekly spelling test.  The marked spelling tests will be coming home with all the students tonight.  In language today the students worked on special sounds, identifying picture words, and adding suffixes to silent 'e' words.  In our unit of inquiry today we worked on completing our final summative task.  The children took the rough copies of their energy letters and turned them into good copies to be sent to the students in Miss. Elliot's class.  I am going to be assessing these letters as the final assignment in this unit of inquiry.  I will send home the marked rubrics for this assignment shortly.  We also had a chance today to head over to Miss. Chang's class for reading buddies to practice our reading skills and forge relationships with other peers in the school.  The students also went to french class.

Homework:  Read for 15 minutes and record in the reading chart, re-write incorrect spelling words ten times each in the spelling books (including the bonus word), Letters and Sounds page 100 - 101, and cursive page 96 - 97.

Important information:  The candy sale is going to be beginning again at SJA starting Monday at first recess.  Candy can be bought for 50 cents a piece.

Please mark Feb. 11th down for the upcoming SJA Gala.  The theme is going to be 'Love Through the Ages'.  This is a fun night for all friends and families to attend!

Please see my posting from earlier this week about information regarding the Khan Academy.  This is a fun online math program that can be used to practice math skills at home.  The children earn points and badges which they seem to really enjoy!  It is also a way to help develop computer skills which is another important skill for the children to be developing at this age.

On Monday we are going to be starting our fourth IB unit for this year.  The theme of this unit is 'How We Express Ourselves'.  Every IB unit has a central idea, which acts as the objective for learning for the unit.  The central idea for our next unit is 'People Use Art Forms to Express Their Culture'.  In order to reach this central idea, 3 lines of inquiry have been developed to help direct us towards meeting the central idea.  The three lines of inquiry for this unit are (1) the art forms of local cultures both past and present (2) the art forms of various international cultures (3) how art is used for expression and communication.  I hope that this unit proves to be as interesting and exciting as I imagine it to be!

Have a great weekend,

Mrs. Nelson