Happy New Year! We welcome 2012 in Room 102! I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday time and a restful vacation.
First, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the class and the parents for making my birthday and the holidays so very special. The beautiful cards and presents that I received are greatly appreciated. You have been so very generous and kind.
January is off to a great start. We have been working in Reading and Writing to prepare for the CMT's which will be taken during the first two weeks in March. In the coming weeks we will expand our review to include specific strands in Math. Our new Literacy unit is focusing on non-fiction reading. Students will be practicing strategies for reading nonfiction and responding to questions on informational text.
On Friday January 13th we will kick off our annual Battle of the Books. Students will be coming home with book lists and story map books which they will fill in as they read. The goal is to increase our independent reading time even more while we discover new titles and authors.
Our new Science unit is Magnetism and Electricity which is always a favorite. The unit features hands-on activities which demonstrate magnetic force as well as the building of simple electrical circuits.
In Social Studies we are studying life in the original thirteen colonies. Students are learning about how climate and geography as well as culture and religion played major parts in the story of our nation's early years.