Estes Extras...

Whoa, we had a fabulous week! We started the week of with a great Valentine's party. A special thank you to Victor's mom and Kayly's mom who came and helped! We had such a fun time! :) Next week is going to be awesome too- it's our Winter Break! Yay- we are out all week! Enjoy your week off!

We have super exciting news!!! I posted a project on a website called http://www.donorschoose.org/. The project that I posted on the website was to get a listening center funded for the classroom. I sent an e-mail about 2 weeks ago about funding it. I asked for y'all to send a text. With the 15 texts that I received from a few parents, friends and family, we donated $225 to my project! I only had $36 dollars to go! On Wednesday, I got word that two different donors, US Cellular Associates and a couple (who I didn't know!) donated the rest! What a blessing!!  So, our listening center will arriving in the mail very soon! I screamed with joy and we all cheered and danced, when I got the e-mail that project had been completed! I buy audio books with the points from scholastic when I get parents order. That's why I send the order forms home so much. SO AWESOME!

More exciting news! My husband and I moved our TV that was in our bedroom into the classroom last night. Not only do we have a TV in the room, but I bought a cord that connects the TV to my laptop. I now can stream anything that is on the Internet/on the computer to the TV for the class to see. I showed a PowerPoint about National Monuments today. It was so awesome. The kids think it's super cool. We don't watch movies very often. And now that I can stream Internet and show PowerPoint's, I just upped the technology in the classroom! So Awesome!

Specials: Monday: Music, Tuesday: P.E., Wednesday: Spanish, Thursday: Art, Friday: P.E.

Library books went home today. They are due next Friday. We will be visiting the library the following Monday.

Please talk to your children about respecting and treating my property with care. Actually, the the school and any one's property with care too.  I had two different things get broken this week that I bought with my own money. Everything in the classroom, except for the tables/chairs/computers is mine. I have saved and overspent my paychecks to have good stuff for my babies here at school. I talk all the time about not drawing on the buckets/books/games and treating the toys as if the toys were at their own home. Everything was brand new as of this school year. I really appreciate your help with this continuing topic.

Academic Update:

Literacy Center: We have finished up our unit on Wheels! We did lots of stuff on Presidents within the literacy centers. Keep reading and working on our sigh words. Have your child write 2-3 sentences about what they just read. We are really pushing using the sight words we know, in our writing!

Math: We are still in our calendar unit. The test will be sometime next week, probably later in the week. We are also really learning about time. Practice telling time and looking at a calendar. Ask questions like "Point to Monday, How many days are there in this month?, What is the next month?, What was last month?"

Social Studies: We really talked about Presidents this week. All about Washington, Lincoln, and Obama. We learned lots of cool stuff about the national monuments around the U.S.

Don't forget about the Research Project. It is due on MONDAY! Can't wait to see them!

Have a super week. I think it's going to be great weather! Rest up and looking forward to seeing everyone in a week! :) Good Bye February and Hello March!