Mrs. Hardaway--Over the last month, we have been studying North American countries.  The student will be making presentations on Wednesday, December 13 and bringing a dishes to share from their countries.  If you would like to share interesting items from any part of North America, please let me know.  Please try to keep your child on a regular schedule during this holiday time.  We all know this is a time of "sensory overload," which can cause fatigue. You may want to plan for an earlier bedtime for your child.  Even though Winter Break is just around the corner,  I will still expect the same amount of academics.  In the morning as student arrive, we calculate our attendance in the form of a fraction and we practice reducing fractions.  For instance, what portion is missing (i.e., how many students are here)?  Can we reduce 12/15?  Yes, to 4/5.  What fraction is missing?  One-fifth.  How many is in 1/5?  Three.  And so on.  Please apply this to your family, cooking, or whatever else you can apply it to for practice.  Continue to talk about money (especially coins), time, nouns, verbs, and adjectives as you drive down the road or pay for items shopping.  If your child knows the information it will build his confidence; if not, it will build his skills.  As we finish this quarter, I wish all of you a safe and happy end to 2006!

Mr. Owens and Mrs. Prado--We hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving!  Please continue to practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts with your children as we are still doing the math "quizzes" each Tuesday.  If you have misplaced the papers we sent home for you to copy and practice, just let us know and we will give you another master copy.  Don't forget that the North American projects are due this month, and please do not hesitate to ask any questions you might have concerning this project.  You can either call us at the school (407-628-0019) or e-mail Mr. Owens (teachermrowens@yahoo.com).  Presentations will be made on December 13, and some of the children have chosen to bring in food from their assigned country so we can have a little feast.  Everyone is invited to join us (and we would sure appreciate the help cleaning up afterwards). Please let us know in advance if you plan to bring a dish.  If you could provide a list of the ingredients, that would be very helpful as we do have a few students with food allergies.

Mrs. Serbia--My students are motivated and interested in exploring different countries through research.  Right now they are amazing me with how involved they are with their current project, the study of North American countries.  I'm looking forward to seeing their presentations on December 13.  Thank you, parent volunteers, for contributing your time in my class listening to readers.  I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday and will be ready to return to work once the break is over!