Week of February 9th

Notes/Reminders:

* Please respond to the poll if you haven't already *

* We will be celebrating Valentine's Day as a class this Friday the 13th. An email was sent to all Room 9 families with more information. You can contact Michelle Guzman if you have any questions. There is a class list on the right side of this page. Students are not required to bring Valentines, but if they do, they need to bring one for every student in the class. 

* PVUSD wants to hear from parents regarding the budget crisis! Go to the PVUSD website and take the parent survey. If you can make it, there will be a board meeting this Wednesday the 11th. 

* As a staff, we are working on improving students' mastery of multiplication. We need your help at home, too! Please practice the multiplication facts with your child every day - Just 5 minutes in the car on the way to school is all it takes. Mastery of these facts will be a huge help in many other math concepts.  

Also, please help your child learn to tie his or her shoes if that hasn't already been accomplished. We would like to be able to teach our little kindergarten reading buddies to tie their own shoes, and I was surprised to hear that several fourth-graders do not know how (or have forgotten due to always wearing slip-ons). Once they've mastered this skill, they can pass on their knowledge to their little buddies.  

* Please check your homes for Social Studies and Science textbooks! We began the year with one for every child, and we are now missing a few. We need all the textbooks in the classroom for daily use. 

* Check out the changes to the right side of the page. I have combined the Homework and Tests sections. There are also now two Links sections, one for students and one for parents. The Student Links section contains several links to sites the kids can use at home to practice their math facts, learn to type, or study for social studies or science. 

* Keep an eye out for information and a permission slip for our next fieldtrip. We'll be going to the Santa Cruz Youth Symphony performance at the Civic Auditorium on Monday, February 23rd. The fee is $4 per student. 

This week we will...

...learn about the different methods and systems of measurement. 

...have our first 5-minute multiplication test  -  this is the same timed test the class has been taking all year, just with one less minute. 

...learn more about how California became a part of the United States. We'll also be starting our next novel, By the Great Horn Spoon, by Sid Fleischman, which is a fun and adventurous tale about a boy and his butler who travel to California in search of gold. 

...continue working on the Bully Skits. We are now in the process of typing the final drafts, and rehearsing the skits that will be performed for the Kindergarten and 1st grade classes.