<em><span style="color: #ff0000">Important Dates:</span></em>

<em><span style="color: #ff0000">Tuesday, February 2</span></em><sup><em><span style="color: #ff0000">nd</span></em></sup><em><span style="color: #ff0000">:  Filmstrip Due (will be worked on in class)</span></em>

<em><span style="color: #ff0000">Wednesday, February 3</span></em><sup><em><span style="color: #ff0000">rd</span></em></sup><em><span style="color: #ff0000">:  Report Cards are sent home</span></em>

<em><span style="color: #ff0000">Wednesday, February 10</span></em><sup><em><span style="color: #ff0000">th</span></em></sup><em><span style="color: #ff0000">: Valentine’s Day/Chinese New Year Party</span></em>

<em><span style="color: #ff0000">Thursday, February 11</span></em><sup><em><span style="color: #ff0000">th</span></em></sup><em><span style="color: #ff0000">:  Professional Development Day (NO SCHOOL)</span></em>

<em><span style="color: #ff0000">Friday, February 12</span></em><sup><em><span style="color: #ff0000">th</span></em></sup><em><span style="color: #ff0000">:  Lincoln’s Birthday (NO SCHOOL)</span></em>

<em><span style="color: #ff0000">Monday, February 15</span></em><sup><em><span style="color: #ff0000">th</span></em></sup><em><span style="color: #ff0000">:  President’s Day (NO SCHOOL)</span></em>

<em><span style="color: #ff0000">Monday, March 1</span></em><sup><em><span style="color: #ff0000">st</span></em></sup><em><span style="color: #ff0000">:  Pulaski’s Birthday (NO SCHOOL)</span></em>

<em><span style="color: #ff0000">Thank you to all the parents that worked so hard with your child to get their biographies completed.  Each child presented her/his information.  I was very impressed!  We will take this information and create a “filmstrip” to make show understanding of our biographies.</span></em>
<p style="text-align: center"><em><span style="color: #ff0000">Instruction for the Week</span></em></p>
<em><span style="color: #ff0000">Literacy:</span></em>

<em><span style="color: #ff0000">Reading:  This week, we are reading </span></em><span style="text-decoration: underline"><em><span style="color: #ff0000">Matilda</span></em></span><em><span style="color: #ff0000"> by Roald Dahl.  During the read aloud, we have class discussions on the vocabulary, events, and make predictions and questions during the readings.  Students are thoroughly enjoying the story!  We also are working out of our ISAT Practice books and several different reading strategies such as plot, context clues, visualizing, and extended response.  Students need this practice to be prepared on how to answer these types of questions in a testing setting.</span></em>

<em><span style="color: #ff0000"> Phonics:  We will play a phonics game this week that focus on word families.</span></em>

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<em><span style="color: #ff0000">Writing:  Students will learn about improving their writing by improving their focus/ideas, word choice, and having a clear voice.  The children’s writing has really improved!</span></em>

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<em><span style="color: #ff0000">Mathematics:</span></em>

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<em><span style="color: #ff0000">You will receive your child’s Unit 5 Assessments this week.  Unit 6 focuses on Geometry.  This week students will learn about line segments, rays, and shapes.</span></em>

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<em><span style="color: #ff0000">Science:</span></em>

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<em><span style="color: #ff0000">You will receive the Science quiz this week as well.  Last week, students worked on identifying different minerals the way geologists do-by conducting a scratch test to test for hardness.  This week, students will investigate four rocks to find out if they contain calcite and look for more evidence during their investigation.</span></em>

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<em><span style="color: #ff0000">Social Studies:</span></em>

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<em><span style="color: #ff0000">Students are continuing to work on their Black History Month projects as well as working on a writing piece about Haiti.  These pieces are beautiful.  I cannot wait to share them with you during the Walk-Through at the end of the month.</span></em>

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<em><span style="color: #ff0000">Please feel free to email me any time you have questions or concerns.</span></em>