Conferences are almost here!  Please look in your child's folder today.  You will be receiving a confirmation letter about your conference time for the end of March.  Please send back the bottom copy as soon as you can.  If you have a conflict with this time, please just shoot me an email and we can figure out the best possible solution.

Our book fair is next week in our learning commons (library)!  Scholastic book fairs are similar to the book orders in that our school receives Scholastic Dollars in return for your purchase.  If you are interested in sending money with your child to purchase a book, I am hoping to recruit 4-5 parent volunteers for our library time next week Wednesday (8:50-10:00) to help.  Please email me by Monday if you are available to take a small group of students up to the library to help shop!  If you would rather shop with your child at a different time, after school is perfect to meet up and browse.  

Visit our Shutterfly account to view the 1st grade Little Mermaid video :)!  

Science!  We've experimented with water this week, asking the question...what properties does water have?  What fun it is to listen to their excitement, predictions and findings (Mrs. Miller, come HERE!  You've got to SEE this!  WATCH THIS!).  Did I tell you I love this time of year?  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!

Reading!  We are investigating different types of text features of informational texts to learn how each type can help us learn more.   We are learning how photographs/illustrations, captions and labels can tell us more details that are not written in the text.  We've also learned that it is important not to skip over these text features, as they can give us valuable information (so sorry if you are reading a Magic School Bus book at home right now... :).  We will continue on with more text features next week!

Math!  We are wrapping up chapter 5 which focuses on related facts.  We will begin working next week on bigger numbers, place value (ones/tens/hundreds) and the relationships of higher numbers to each other. 

Writing!  This week we investigated Anabel's shell collection and they each had a small tray of shells to pick a "best of show."  Not only did they have to state their opinion (This shell is the best!).  But they are learning to give reasons with lots and lots of details.  What talented writers we have.  Their opinions will be fun to read at conferences!