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The January Service Project is collecting blankets, towels, and sheets for the Dedham Animal Shelter. Help keep the animals warm during these cold winter months!

Patriots Day is this Friday, January 13th. Wear your Patriots gear to school and help cheer on the Patriots!

The January Spirit Day is Movie Day. On Wednesday, January 18th, show your school spirit by coming to school dressed as your favorite movie character.

Wow, it is already 2012! I can’t believe how quickly the time has passed this school year. I hope you all had a delightful and relaxing Holiday break and are ready to jump back into learning for the new year!

My break was quite lovely…until yesterday. On my way into school yesterday morning I was in a rather serious car accident. Thankfully I was alone in my car, wearing my seat belt, and had an airbag that safely and properly deployed. The other driver and I both walked away from the accident unharmed!  My minivan on the other hand, didn’t make it out so safely and I spent the rest of the day dealing with insurance companies and rental companies! I’ve never been so grateful to finally return from a school vacation! Please remember to always wear your seat belt!

Today I will be sending home a letter from Mrs. Evans regarding the Lexia Reading software that the children have been using for the past 6 weeks or so at school. Now that they are comfortable with using the software completely independently, I would like to open up the opportunity for them to play this game at home for addition practice. Instructions will be provided as to how to download and install the software on your home computer. Please allow your child to play the game for NO MORE THAN 15-20 minutes at a time and NO MORE THAN 2-3 times per week. We will also continue to play at school once a week.

One other bit of exciting news I want to share with you: My husband and I are excited to announce that we are expecting our third baby in May! As has been done in the past, a highly qualified long term substitute will be hired in advance of my leave to ensure the transition will be as smooth as possible for the children. And of course, Mrs. DeAngelis will also continue to be a consistent support to all of the students until the last day of school. Please feel free to contact me or Mrs. Evans with any questions you may have as the time approaches.

Edited to add: A few reminders, please remember to send healthy snacks to school. Candy can not be eaten in the classroom! Also, with the cold weather here, hats and gloves/mittens are required for safety at recess. please be sure these items come to school EVERY DAY!

I  wanted to send out a heartfelt thank you to all of the families who sent in gifts and/or contributed to my gift from the class this holiday season. Your generosity is very much appreciated by me and my family at this time of year. And I’m sure Mrs. DeAngelis is very thankful for the new pencil sharpener, one that actually works, as we seem to go though TONS of pencils every week!

I’d like to wish you all a very happy holiday season and hope that you all have a relaxing week with your families. I also hope the children rest up because the curriculum demands really seem to ramp up after the holidays as we move from adjusting to life in “big kid school” to getting ready for first grade! See you in 2012!

Some student council news:

December’s Service Project is a food drive for the Westwood Food Pantry.  Although any items would be greatly appreciated, the Westwood Food Pantry is currently in need of the following items:

• CANNED FRUIT
• CANNED ASPARAGUS AND BEETS
• SALAD DRESSING
• VEGETABLE OIL
• FLOUR
• SUGAR
• INDIVIDUALLY WRAPPED PAPER PRODUCTS
• LAUNDRY DETERGENT
• CLEANING PRODUCTS
• BOTTLED JUICES

? December’s Spirit Day is Royalty Day.  On Wednesday, December 14th, come to school dressed as royalty (King, Queen, Prince, Princess, etc.)!

? On Friday, December 23rd, dress in any holiday/winter colors to kick off winter vacation!

On another note…we are having a special visitor to our classroom tomorrow. Carol Craig O’Brien, the early childhood coordinator for the district, will be visiting our room in preparation for the NAEYC accreditation visit that will be happening either later this year or early next year. Please remind your children to be kind and welcoming to our visitor!

Yesterday we were surprised to find that one of Santa’s elves has decided to pay us a visit from the North Pole! We have yet to give him a name but apparently he is going to watch our behavior over the next few weeks and report back to Santa if we have been naughty or nice! If you are a family that doesn’t celebrate Christmas, that is okay too, because the elf will instead email mom and dad about your behavior so “you better watch out”! The kids have really had a good time discovering him and looking for him each morning!

We also are very lucky to have a MimioTeach in our classroom on loan for a few weeks until our own is ordered and installed. A MimioTeach, in conjunction with a projector and my laptop, turns our regular whiteboard into an interactive white board! We used it today during Workboard jobs and the kids really thought it was pretty cool. As I become more familiar with the software, I will be creating more and more lessons to use it with and the children will be able to also come up and manipulate objects and write on it as well. I see it becoming a valuable tool in our language arts and math curriculum.