Hello Families!Your kids were amazing during their very first student led conferences!! Congratulations to all of them. Here is the news for this week...HEADS UP: I will be attending a literacy workshop on Tuesday so I won't be in school. There will be a substitute named Jessica taking over for me.FRIDAY IS FIELD TRIP FRIDAY: This Friday, we will be having FAMILY SING first thing in the morning. Then we will be leaving at 9:50 to walk a block away to The Little Shop of Crafts on the corner of 94th and Amsterdam. The entire kindergarten is going so it will be tight! I think I can manage a few extra adults to help us out. I will put the sign up sheet outside of the classroom tomorrow. Thanks!FAMILY PACKETS: The photos/artifacts, interviews and recipe are due back to us tomorrow. If you need a little more time Wednesday morning would be ok too! Please try to avoid bringing your packet items in on Tuesday as I won't be there to receive them and I'm worried about them being misplaced. Thank you!KINDERGARTEN AND FIRST GRADE HOOTENANNY: During MSC Kids Rock on Saturday, March 21st, kindergarten and first grade kids are invited to come sing the songs they know during a hootenanny in the auditorium. I and many of the other teachers will be leading the hoot. Please join if you can! And - if you (the adult) plays an instrument other than a piano, and would like to join us in accompanying the kids, you are encouraged and welcome to do so!WHAT ELSE WE ARE UP TO:In writing we are still working on How - To's. This week we will be looking at some mentor texts to see what things other authors do to teach a how to and maybe trying those things out in our own writing.In reading we are starting a new unit called Avid Readers. We will first be looking at photos of what avid and not avid readers look like. We will learn that avid readers read a lot, find places everywhere to read, keep a stack of books in waiting to be read, and just can't stop reading! We will also be learning that avid readers react to books - they laugh, cry, share parts of books with friends. In phonics we are going to focus on the digraphs ch and th and then keep working on building our word-part power!In math we are continuing to focus on part/part/whole - looking at different combinations of numbers which is really learning the beginnings of addition and subtraction. We are going to be breaking numbers apart to see how they combine to make a whole number and recording our thinking into our math journals. Stacie is coming this week to start teaching her song Part of a Family! And we have started a beautiful project having to do with family memories that we will continue to work on this week. Plus we will start to gather our interviews and create a chart for seeing similarities and differences while we are sharing.I don't plan on having a formal discussion about Covid 19 with the kids. There are actually other things going around like a stomach bug, flu and strep throat. I have encouraged them all to use their arms to cough and sneeze in, to not pick their noses (a tall order that one!), to use tissues and try not to touch their faces. I'm sure you already are, but if you could use the same practices at home to help get them in the habit that would be so helpful.Have a great week!Love,Lynn