Hi Everyone!
Well, we were all hopeful that spring had sprung, but I guess we have to be patient. We stayed in today, but I'm sure we'll be able to go out and play tomorrow. Again, please make sure you have adequate clothing for your child, which means planning for 20 deg. as well as 70 deg. Please makes sure hats and mittens/gloves have your child's name. This is the time of year that it's easy to lose warmer clothing.
ISAT testing is over. The kids really enjoyed going to Bixler Playground, so that made it all worth while. We'll be back at our regular playground (Kimbark side of the school).

<span style="font-weight: bold">1. <span class="yshortcuts">Language arts</span> </span> <br /> <span style="font-weight: bold">2. Measurement
3. Chemistry<br /> </span> <span style="font-weight: bold">4.  <span class="yshortcuts">Kindergarten</span> </span> <br /> <span style="font-weight: bold">5. Ray Festival</span> <br /> <span style="font-weight: bold">6. <span class="yshortcuts">Tardiness</span> </span>

1. <span style="font-weight: bold">Language arts.</span> We finished our <span class="yshortcuts">chapter book</span> ! We read &quot;The Tale of Desperaux&quot; to the children just before naptime. I have the dvd on order so we'll get to watch it in the classroom after we get back from spring break. Some children fall asleep quickly and they did not get to follow the story very much. Many of the children heard the whole book. I hope you'll start to read <span class="yshortcuts">chapter books</span> to your child, as well as continuing to read <span class="yshortcuts">picture books</span> . Both are important.  Chapter books help your child develop their sense of story and memory. Picture books generally have more creative and challenging language, as well as beautiful artwork, so they are important for vocabulary building and building a sense of fantasy.

Just so you know, most of our students love reading information books, particularly <span class="yshortcuts">science books</span> . The best ones have photographs. Reading information books to children is also important because the style and structure of the language is consistent with what they'll be reading their whole academic lives.

We have also been practicing our handwriting using dry erase boards.

2. <span style="font-weight: bold">Measurement.</span> We have been learning about measuring this week. We started out thinking about what is longer or shorter or the same as. This week we were learning about the tools you used to measure things. Here's what we came up with:
--you can use any tool or unit to measure something, but it has to be shorter than what you are measuring;
--when you measure something, you have to line up what you are measuring with the tool you are using and make  sure both stay in the same place;
--if you measure something using one tool, and then measure the same thing using a different tool, you'll get a different measurement. The longer the tool, the lower the number for your measurement. The children measured a board using 2 inch square blocks, then 6 <span class="yshortcuts">inch unit blocks</span> , then 12 inch blocks. Then they compared the numbers for each tool on a graph. We even measured a teachers' chair using student chairs!

I hope you will help us continue this study by finding ways for your child to measure things at home.

3. <span style="font-weight: bold">Chemistry</span> . We've been doing some chemistry in our classroom. We are mixing two or three ingredients together to make something new. We made <span style="font-style: italic">ooblek</span> (<span class="yshortcuts">corn starch and water</span> ) and <span style="font-style: italic">silly putty</span> (glue and liquid starch). We're going to be mixing other kinds of ingredients together and see what happens. It is not really important for children this age to know why or how starches bond with non-starches. It is important for them to know that when you mix some things together, you get something entirely new with a whole new set of properties. Don't worry. We don't do explosives in preschool.

4. <span style="font-weight: bold"> Kindergarten.</span> You should have all received a letter in your mail boxes today from Ms. Butler, the Ray principal. Check your mailbox if you haven't received it. Ms. Butler is offering to meet with parents of preschoolers going to kindergarten next Thursday at 5:00. We should be sending home a notice about that tomorrow or Monday.

5. <span style="font-weight: bold"> Ray Festival.</span> Ray Festival is March 26 (Thursday night). Our class will be having a booth there with Room 104, Ms. Kinsella. This is an opportunity for the students and families at Ray School to spend an evening of fun and for teachers to raise money for their rooms. Please see the attached flyer. We need your help to make this a successful event.

6.  <span style="font-weight: bold">Tardiness.</span> Class starts at 9:00 am. If you are running late, need some special time with your child, whatever, please call me before 9:15 and let me know if you'll be coming in. The office expects us to take attendance by 9:30 and issue tardy slips to anyone who is late, something I really don't want to do. If you're going to be late but will definitely be in, call us and I'll mark your child present.
Remember, we need absence notes if your child is absent