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Dear Parents,
I'd like to give you an update on some of the work we have been doing in class. 

In reading and writing, we have been practicing writing a simple three-part summary of a story.  This is an important building block for more advanced comprehension exercises that we will address later in the year.  For now, the children need to recall the most important details from the beginning, middle, and end of a story.  This week we have been talking a lot about our families.  This is a nice connection to our Social Studies unit on communities.  One of my favorite books about families is called, A Mother for Choco.  I was very impressed with the summaries the children wrote based on this book.  They took this paper home, so I hope they took the time to tell you about the story.

In math, we are continuing our work in Unit 1:  How Many of Each?  The children have been counting many different objects, identifying strategies to check their counting for accuracy, and comparing two amounts to determine which is larger.  Next week we will apply this work to solve addition problems with a variety of strategies.  We will also practice different ways to show our solution to a problem.

On a non-academic note, we have asked the children to be careful when they pack their snack for our morning snack break.  The children have generally been bringing healthy snacks, but sometimes some of the children bring a full meal which they have trouble finishing in such a short time.  Every child is different, so Miss Nina and I don't want to tell you what your child should bring.  But it would be helpful to us if you and your child pack their snack knowing that our snack break is just 10 minutes long.  The children need to get a quick energy boost and be ready to clean up and jump back into our busy morning of learning.  Thanks so much for your help with this.

Finally, this morning I saw a young child ride his bike across the street without looking, just on the road to the school entrance.  He was nearly hit by a car that was headed out to the main road.  I was so frightened for him.  To make it worse, he wasn't wearing a helmet.  I shared this story with the class, telling them how much I care about their safety and well-being at school and always.  We talked about looking both ways before crossing any street, and the children also promised that they would wear a helmet when biking, scootering, or roller-blading.  We will talk more about general safety tips in the next couple of weeks.

As always, thank you for your continuing support.  If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to send me an email or stop by the room.  We are on the same team!