Important dates to remember:

Tuesday, February 14, 2012 – Valentine’s  Party 12:30-1:30 If your child would like to participate in exchanging Valentine’s please bring in Valentines cards signed on Tuesday, February 14.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012 – Late Start school starts one hour later – 9:40 a.m.

Thursday, February 16, 2012 – 100th day of school. We will celebrate 100 Days of working hard in school.

Star of the Week - Congratulations! Malika Hearn is our new Star of the Week. Owen McGowan thank you for doing a great job as Star of the Week. Sorry, you missed the remainder of the week and we will continue with Show-n-Tell on Monday with Owen.

Book It – Congratulations to Book It participants for the month of January. Keep up the reading in February.

Reading – All students have been assessed for reading and students have been reading easier, short text to build fluency and to practice reading strategies learned in Daily Five. Students will be moving into harder books as they build their confidence in word decoding strategies. Students still receive a trip to the sticker box when they have (3) signatures from home on their emergent reader books or poetry books.

Below are New Word Strategies that we have been learning and starting this week. (Look for a reading strategy book marker to come home).

Eagle Eye – Look at the pictures for clues.

Lips the Fish - Get your lips ready. Say first sounds. Read and say it again.

Stretchy Snake – Stretch it out. Stretch word out. Put sounds together.

Chunky Monkey - Chunk the Word. Look for word chunk. Look for a word part.

Skippy the Frog – Skip It, Skip It. Skip the word. Read to the end. Hop back and read it.

Tryin Lion - Try it again. Try to reread. Try a new word.

Helpful Kangaroo - Ask for help. Ask for help after you have tried the other strategies.

Technology – We have been visiting the computer lab on Thursdays 11:00 – 11:40. Kindergartners have been enjoying working on the computer. We are building are keyboard skills and more! We have also been using the Permeathean Board ( big white board in the classroom) during Daily Five Word Choice, Free Choice, Math Centers and more. They all want to have a turn at the white board!

Listening Center - We have added a CD player with books and tapes to listen to stories during Daily Five Listen to Reading. It is a hit!

Julie Polgar