October 13, 2011

Dear Families,

Our two projects are coming into play as the week comes to a close. The students' two projects are: BECOMING AN AUTHOR and CREATING A STATE PROJECT.

The students have been working on the editing piece of their narrative story writing. We are learning that it takes many revisions to make a great story. We have looked at the beginning of other books for great opening lines of stories. We have listened to Mike Thaler and Mark Teague talk about being an author on a video on the Activboard. We have had the opportunity to learn our password and begin to work on the creation of our books on the www.studentpublishing.com website. Students may work on this at home also.

Our next project is just beginning. This week we have been watching videos which show various regions of the United States. We have also been working on map skills. We are going to combine these two topics in creating a STATE PROJECT. I will be sending home with your students the information about their state project on Friday. If you have any questions about the project, please let me know.

Next week, the students have the week off from school. We will be having goal setting conferences on Monday and Tuesday. I am looking forward to talking with all of the families during this time to discuss ways to make sure your child has a successful year. If you are not able to make it to your child's scheduled conference, please let me know and I will be glad to set up a different one or complete a phone conference with you.

I hope you have a wonderful week off with your family! I am looking forward to heading down to Iowa to visit with my family over the break. I will also be going to the October 19th school board meeting to hear the vote from the school board on the fate of Harambee. Thank you to the families who are actively participating in this situation to help keep our two schools (Harambee and Crosswinds) alive and thriving in our community!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Peterson