Happy New Year!

It was so good to see all the students today!  It sounds like there were many adventures and many pajama days, too.  I love teaching in January because the students are well-rested and know all of the routines.  It is a little slice of teaching heaven.

Reading:  We completed our Fairy Tale unit.   We are now finishing up our Unit in Treasures.  I will have the Unit 3 assessments to share at conferences.
Writing: We will be doing a lot of journal writing this week to get back into the habit of writing.  Then we will spend a few weeks working on some craft skills, like writing hook beginnings, using strong verbs and choosing specific adjectives.
Math:  We are working on addition strategies.  This leads into a lot of computation homework.  Keep working on xtra math at home if you aren't doing so already.
Social Studies:  We are beginning a study of America's Government.  The students took a little pretest today.  We have lots to cover and I look forward to working with this topic before and during the inauguration at the end of the month.

A few more notes:

• Conferences: Conferences are at the end of the month.  Please look for an email with conference time options. 
•  MAP testing is on Tuesday and Thursday this week.  Results will be shared at conferences.
• DIBELS testing is this week and next week.  This is the reading fluency assessment.
• Fast ForWord begins the week of January 22.