Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful break. And now it is back to work! To finish our study of Native Americans, we'll be having a "Native American Day" next Thursday, Jan. 15. We'll spend the morning playing Native American games, making "birdies" and cornhusk dolls, trying sandpainting and creating winter counts. The morning will go more smoothly with parent helpers (I'd love to have 3 or 4 helpers), so if you are available Thurs., Jan. 15, from 9am until lunch (or any part of that time), please let me know.

And speaking of days when I could use parent helpers...as part of our study of body systems, the class will be dissecting owl pellets (skeleton). The activity always goes more smoothly with extra helpers! I'm planning to do the activity in the morning (8:45 - 10:35) on Friday, January 30. Students will work with a partner and dissect sterilized owl pellets. They will use charts to try to identify the various bones they find. It is a great activity and a lot of fun. If you can help, please let me know.

Today is the first day of our Youth in Arts class, Mixed Media (Thank you PTA!). Students will get 1 hour of art--painting, clay, watercolor, drawing--each Friday afternoon (1:05 - 2:05) for 6 weeks. It should be great!

The cold season is definitely upon us. If you have an interest in donating to the classroom, I would love to have a few more boxes of tissues--we have emptied 2 boxes this week already! Thanks!

As of the end of 2008, I am taking a new approach with missing homework. At the beginning of the year, students who forgot their homework were benched and had to complete their homework at school. The result has been that there are some students who are not unwilling to give up a recess to do homework--not the desired effect. From now on, I will be giving students who don't turn in their homework a homework alert, which will need to be signed by a parent and returned the next day. The student will still be benched, but they will have to complete the homework at home. Students who receive more than three homework alerts in one calendar month will face greater consequences. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Happy 2009! Have a great weekend.