It is almost here!  Thanksgiving is right around the corner!  I hope that you and your family are getting excited about the holiday season, and that you all have big plans of relaxations and family time.  However, we are continuing to work here at school so it is important that your child be here as much as possible.  I do understand that there is a lot of sickness going around and there will be some travel, but please keep in mind how important school is for your child.  This week and through Thanksgiving, we will be focusing on the meaning of Thanksgiving.  We will be going deeper into the story of Thanksgiving and analyzing how people were affected by the pilgrims coming to the new world.  Your child will become a “historian” and learn how to look at facts about the pilgrims and indians to form their own ideas about Thanksgiving and why we celebrate it!  I am very excited about this unit and I hope your child comes away with a lot of new knowledge about Thanksgiving.  In math, we will continue adding, but with bigger numbers.  As we continue to progress, it is important for you child to  move past using counters and fingers to counting on and knowing addition facts automatically.  We will begin working on this soon!  In reading, we are really working on how to sound out words.  At your child’s report card conference, I gave you the paper with letter combinations on them.  I can tell that some students have already started practicing them at home.  If your child is struggling to read, I can’t tell you how important this is.  Also, when your child can read better, his/her comprehension will increase because they are spending less time sounding out and more time enjoying the story.  This is when you will see your child really begin to read and grow confident!  That’s what we want!  Lastly, in writing, we have been working on writing a focused idea with details, and don’t forget about those complete sentences!  Encourage this at home when writing!  Lastly, I wanted to draw your attention one more time to the cookie dough sell.  I know I have this in my reminders, but please sell as much as possible.  The more your child sells, the more items we get to help your child in his/her education!