Last Friday Marian Moore, a dental hygienist, came to our classroom to talk about brushing teeth and to screen children’s’ teeth. If she saw things that should be checked further, she sent a letter home, and I e-mailed you.

Ms. Moore, our tooth tutor, is showing us how to brush our teeth.

Today Mrs. Allison will tell your children which Red Clover Book received the most votes for our school. The children are anxious to hear this news. Be sure to ask your child about the result of our voting.

As your child may have told you already, Ms. Hartshorn and I attended a conference for primary teachers on Monday and Tuesday this week. We met Jane Yolen, author of Owl Moon. This conference is packed with wonderful presenters that allow you to leave the conference excited with many new ideas and items to use in your classroom. I have shared a couple ideas with your children so far. Ask your child to tell you about a whisper phone. We’ll use this to listen to ourselves read to see if we read with fluency. I also began reading a great book called Andy Shane and the Very Bossy Deloris Starbuckle. The children and I are thoroughly enjoying this book. It has great humor.

Peace Garden Update: The children’s letters to invite guests in to discuss the peace garden have been edited by the groups, typed, signed by the student committees, and either mailed or hand delivered to the recipients. Now, we will hope to receive a reply from each of these individuals to see if he/she can attend one of our learning partner’s meetings so we can ask such questions as: Are there things we need to consider for you, as the person who cuts the grass at the peace garden site, while we plan this project? This Friday, we’ll use a collage technique to create pictures of what we think the peace garden might look like. I’ll keep you informed of our progress in future newsletters.

Our playground has a mixture of snow, water, and mud. Therefore, we are asking that your child continue to wear boots and snow pants. The snow pants help keep the mud off the children so they are not leaving it on chairs in the classroom or sitting in wet pants. We thank you for your support in this request.

Here are questions to ask your child this week:

Do you think you will get all of your spelling words correct when Mrs. Orr checks you tomorrow?

What is a two-voice poem? (We wrote a poem so that two groups would read the poem each taking a turn.)

What is a reader’s theater poem? (All children have on or two lines to read individually in a poem. When we put all of these lines together, we have read the whole poem! We used a poem called Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take The Garbage Out by Shel Silverstein.)

Can you tell me about the book Andy Shane and the Very Bossy Deloris Starbuckle?

Dates to Remember:

April 14^th and 15th: Gates McGinitie Test beginning at 8:15. Please make sure your child has a good breakfast and plenty of rest. You also might re-emphasize that all we want him/her to do is try his/her best and that there may be things on the test he/she doesn’t know and that is okay.

April 14^th: School Assembly at 2:15

April 21^st-April 25^th: School Vacation

April 29^th: The chicken eggs arrive in our classroom for incubation! Stay tuned for more excitement about this endeavor in future weeks!

May 6^th: I will be giving all my second graders the Vermont Developmental Reading Assessment. You’ll receive more information about this assessment in the future.

May 7^th: Four Winds lesson

May 15^th: Spring concert with Mr. Close

EVERY THURSDAY: Reading homework charts due. Your child will be given a new one each Thursday.

I think that is it for this week. Enjoy the warmer spring days!

Sincerely,

Kathi