Today we celebrated our 100th day of school. It was an exciting day, and the kids were all smiles as we completed each activity! Pictures will be in the upcoming newsletter and on our class website.

Here are some of our activities…
1. We made the number 100 out of Twizzlers and Oreos
2. Dotted the gumball numbers 1-100
3. Made and wore 100 fruit loop necklaces
4. Designed 100 pieces of honeycomb for a bumble bee
5. Found 100 pieces of candy hidden in the classroom
6. Stayed still and silent for 100 seconds
7. Ran a race for 100 seconds
8. Counted to 100 and wrote to 100
9. Watched 101 Dalmatians
10. Tomorrow we will make journal entries about our favorite 100th day activity

Ask your child what his/her favorite activity was today. I am sure s/he will have plenty of things to tell you! If you have time, have your child journal about today’s events. First, have your child draw a picture of the activity and then have him/her write about the picture. Encourage your child to use sight words they are familiar with to form sentences. Good Luck!

Secret Word
There is a change for the Secret Word requirement....When you see the "secret word" have your child write his/her name on a piece of paper and use the secret word in a complete sentence. Help your child start their sentence with a capital letter and end with a punctuation mark. Then, bring the sentence into class. Your child will receive a treat just for bringing in the secret word. The secret word is "they." I am eager to see which kids bring in the secret word!

Valentine's Day Items

In the next few weeks, we will be using Valentine's candy during math. If you would like to donate, we specifically need Candy Hearts (as shown below). They can be in individual boxes or in one large bag. We will be classifying the candy by color and creating graphs. Of course, we will also get to eat them!!!

Run, Run, as Fast as You Can. You Can't Catch Me...

...I'm the Gingerbread Man! Today the Gingerbread Man will visit our class. Ask your child what happened! It is sure to be a day full of laughter as the Gingerbread Man escapes from our classroom, runs around the school, and even loses a few limbs. However, we will eventually catch and eat him! Pictures will be posted soon on my website under January pics.

A Great Way to End the Week!

This afternoon we explored some of our class Christmas presents from Angelina. Initially, each child received a small plastic ball. These balls were animals and dinosaurs that would expand once placed in water. They were all different colors and the kids didn't know what their colored ball would turn into until they placed them in the bucket of water. The students were so excited as they watched them expand. It was a fun way to end the school week!

Don't forget to find time this weekend to practice some of our kindergarten skills. If you look back on the blog from a few weeks ago, you will see many of the kindergarten skills listed. They are also on my website.

No school Monday, so see you Tuesday!

Union Pacific wants you to route the steam excursion!

Click on the Excursion Adventure picture to vote for the train to make its way through Dexter! We are less than 1,000 votes behind the winning route!

What's been going on?

We are back on track for our second half of the school year. The kids are busy working hard and are grasping concepts very quickly.

• Science: We have started studying life science. This means we have already learned animal and plant science. If we have time at the end of the year, we will go back and do more experiments related to plants and animals. Our final unit will be physical science, and we should begin that in a few months.
• Math: Every Monday we take time to write to 100. Many of the kids have made it to 160! If the child makes it to 100, he gets to add a sticker to his sticker chart. If he fills up both the front and back side of the handwriting paper (usually to 160), he gets two stickers on his sticker chart. When he fills up his chart, he gets a prize! Hopefully, the stickers are incentives to the kids to work hard and make it to 100! However, if your child does not write to 100 in class, she may finish it at home and return it to school the next day. Then, your child will still get a sticker on her chart. Also, if you practice at home, your child should be able to write to 100 by herself within 30-40 minutes. If she can not do that, keep practicing! She will get it!
• Reading: Keep practicing those sight words. At first quarter conference I gave each of you sight word flash cards. Please practice these as you have time. You would be amazed how much easier it is for your child to read when she knows a few extra sight words. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!