January 28, 2011

Dear Families,

On Monday, we will be getting another new student. Her name is Sindhuja and she will be joining our classroom. Please add her name to the Valentine cards for our party, and also welcome her family if you see them before or after school.
Here are some highlights for the week:

• Next Week’s Sharing: Something that is square
Try to be creative and find something unique to share about. Remember to prepare at least 4 complete sentences about the object or sharing (not including the introduction).

• Star of the Week: Jimin
(On our website under “Curriculum” and “Star of the Week.”)

• Letter of the Week: F
(You can see our computer center drawings in the “Classwork” section of our website.)

• Story of the Week: Firefighter Ted

• Literacy Centers: We have been acknowledging all the students who are receiving 4 stars in each category! We have a goal of every student receiving 4 stars! Every Wednesday, you will see your child’s literacy center paper. Please encourage them to finish their work, especially in dictionary center. If your child struggles to receive 4 stars in listening center, please practice answering the questions on the worksheet using a book at home. They should be able to identify the main character, setting, and express their favorite part of the story in a complete sentence beginning with, “I like when _____________________.” Reinforcement at school and at home will help your child succeed!

• Fire Station Field Trip: We are thankful for beautiful weather, especially this past Tuesday when we walked to the fire station. Thank you to our volunteers who came with us! When we arrived, we got a tour of the fire station and saw their offices, exercise room, TV room, kitchen, sleeping area, and the garage. They spent some time reviewing safety issues such as wearing a seat belt in the car, turning a pot handle to the side if it is on the stove, checking your smoke alarm, and learning how to escape if there is a fire. The firefighters also gave us homework! They asked all the kids to go home and find out what your emergency plan is at home, specifically, where the exits are in the house, and picking a family meeting spot outside of the house. If you haven’t discussed emergency plans for your family, we highly recommend starting now! Afterwards, we went into the garage to see the fire engine and they demonstrated putting on all of their gear! Fortunately, only one unit got called out for an emergency, and there was another unit to continue giving us a tour. They let us sit inside of the fire engine! We learned a lot about how to stay safe!

• Computer Lab: This week, we explored a fire safety website called www.dangerrangers.com. On this site are different games and activities to teach about fire safety. Some examples are learning important signs such as EXIT or hazard signs, or identifying which objects in the house are dangerous versus safe. You are welcome to explore this website some more at home!

• Science: We have continued reading about penguins and learning more penguin facts. On Monday, we wrote one fact about penguins in our journals and we illustrated them. We are also doing many penguin projects, especially since today was Penguin Day! We dressed up in all black and made a rockhopper penguin mask! Rockhopper penguins are very unique because they have yellow feathers sticking out of their head! Also, we made a stand-up penguin puppet with Ms. Shama. Ask your child to sing “The Penguin Song” to you too!

• Math: We started our new unit on more addition and subtraction. We are making sure to remember to use a + and = sign or – and = sign when we write our math sentences. We are also practicing telling stories in words and drawing pictures to show our math stories. Yesterday students took home a butterfly mini-book. Make sure to check their work to see if they wrote the math sentences correctly!

• Social Studies: In February, we celebrate Presidents Day. Since this week was the State of the Union Address, we talked about who our American president is, Barack Obama. Students made a portrait of President Obama and we learned a little about him. If you did not get to hear the State of the Union Address on Tuesday evening, I have attached the section he spoke about specifically on education in America. If you have a moment, I highly recommend reading it as it applies completely to your child’s generation!

If you haven’t seen the “Photos” section of our website yet, I posted photos of some of our January classroom decorations. Most of our classroom is covered in winter scenes such as snowmen, snowflakes, and mittens. We also have our New Year Resolution projects on the walls as well. Take a look and be sure to share the website with your child too! Remember there is always something new to look at every week! Have a great weekend!

------------------------

State of the Union Address – January 25, 2011 by President Obama
(only part of his speech on Education is below)

Maintaining our leadership in research and technology is crucial to America's success. But if we want to win the future - if we want innovation to produce jobs in America and not overseas - then we also have to win the race to educate our kids.

Think about it. Over the next ten years, nearly half of all new jobs will require education that goes beyond a high school degree. And yet, as many as a quarter of our students aren't even finishing high school. The quality of our math and science education lags behind many other nations. America has fallen to 9th in the proportion of young people with a college degree. And so the question is whether all of us - as citizens, and as parents - are willing to do what's necessary to give every child a chance to succeed.

That responsibility begins not in our classrooms, but in our homes and communities. It's family that first instills the love of learning in a child. Only parents can make sure the TV is turned off and homework gets done. We need to teach our kids that it's not just the winner of the Super Bowl who deserves to be celebrated, but the winner of the science fair; that success is not a function of fame or PR, but of hard work and discipline.

Our schools share this responsibility. When a child walks into a classroom, it should be a place of high expectations and high performance. But too many schools don't meet this test. That's why instead of just pouring money into a system that's not working, we launched a competition called Race to the Top. To all fifty states, we said, "If you show us the most innovative plans to improve teacher quality and student achievement, we'll show you the money."

Race to the Top is the most meaningful reform of our public schools in a generation. For less than one percent of what we spend on education each year, it has led over 40 states to raise their standards for teaching and learning. These standards were developed, not by Washington, but by Republican and Democratic governors throughout the country. And Race to the Top should be the approach we follow this year as we replace No Child Left Behind with a law that is more flexible and focused on what's best for our kids.

You see, we know what's possible for our children when reform isn't just a top-down mandate, but the work of local teachers and principals; school boards and communities.
Take a school like Bruce Randolph in Denver. Three years ago, it was rated one of the worst schools in Colorado; located on turf between two rival gangs. But last May, 97% of the seniors received their diploma. Most will be the first in their family to go to college. And after the first year of the school's transformation, the principal who made it possible wiped away tears when a student said "Thank you, Mrs. Waters, for showing... that we are smart and we can make it."

Let's also remember that after parents, the biggest impact on a child's success comes from the man or woman at the front of the classroom. In South Korea, teachers are known as "nation builders." Here in America, it's time we treated the people who educate our children with the same level of respect. We want to reward good teachers and stop making excuses for bad ones. And over the next ten years, with so many Baby Boomers retiring from our classrooms, we want to prepare 100,000 new teachers in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math.

In fact, to every young person listening tonight who's contemplating their career choice: If you want to make a difference in the life of our nation; if you want to make a difference in the life of a child - become a teacher. Your country needs you.
Of course, the education race doesn't end with a high school diploma. To compete, higher education must be within reach of every American. That's why we've ended the unwarranted taxpayer subsidies that went to banks, and used the savings to make college affordable for millions of students. And this year, I ask Congress to go further, and make permanent our tuition tax credit - worth $10,000 for four years of college.

Because people need to be able to train for new jobs and careers in today's fast-changing economy, we are also revitalizing America's community colleges. Last month, I saw the promise of these schools at Forsyth Tech in North Carolina. Many of the students there used to work in the surrounding factories that have since left town. One mother of two, a woman named Kathy Proctor, had worked in the furniture industry since she was 18 years old. And she told me she's earning her degree in biotechnology now, at 55 years old, not just because the furniture jobs are gone, but because she wants to inspire her children to pursue their dreams too. As Kathy said, "I hope it tells them to never give up."

If we take these steps - if we raise expectations for every child, and give them the best possible chance at an education, from the day they're born until the last job they take - we will reach the goal I set two years ago: by the end of the decade, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.
One last point about education. Today, there are hundreds of thousands of students excelling in our schools who are not American citizens. Some are the children of undocumented workers, who had nothing to do with the actions of their parents. They grew up as Americans and pledge allegiance to our flag, and yet live every day with the threat of deportation. Others come here from abroad to study in our colleges and universities. But as soon as they obtain advanced degrees, we send them back home to compete against us. It makes no sense.

Now, I strongly believe that we should take on, once and for all, the issue of illegal immigration. I am prepared to work with Republicans and Democrats to protect our borders, enforce our laws and address the millions of undocumented workers who are now living in the shadows. I know that debate will be difficult and take time. But tonight, let's agree to make that effort. And let's stop expelling talented, responsible young people who can staff our research labs, start new businesses, and further enrich this nation.