Happy Friday!

Wow!  This Missouri weather has made it super difficult to get a full week of school in.  

Yesterday, teachers were supposed to meet after school to schedule sibling conferences.  Since yesterday was a snow/ice day, this did not happen until this afternoon.  Mrs. Ross is emailing families about a conference time, and we will also be sending home a hard copy of the date/time on Monday.

There have been some situations about students becoming annoyed with peers and not using respectful tones to express their feelings.  Today, we had a class meeting of remembering the importance of being kind to all students.  Mr. Smith, our counselor at RBE, helped lead this class meeting.

Upcoming Events

• February 14 - Valentine's Day Party at 1:45
• There are few slots still open on the party SignUp Genius...so if you haven't had a chance to sign up you are in luck! Click here to sign up.
• February 15 - No School (Teacher Work Day)
• February 18 - No School (President's Day)
• February 20 - Fuzzy's RBE Eat Out 5-8
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• February 20-28 - Moss Team P/T Conference Weeks
• February 26 - Special Family & Friend's Day
• You are invited to come and visit your child during specials (1:35-2:25) for Special Family & Friend's Day! 
• Ms. Mottaz students will start in P.E. and then travel to Music.
• Mrs. Ross students will start in Art and then travel to Media. 
• The Book Fair will be open on this day.  If you would like to come early or stay late to take your kiddo this would be a great opportunity.  
• We understand that 2:25 is really close to the end of the day.  If you would like to pick up your child early we understand.  However, if someone, other than parent, will be picking up your child early, you will need to write a note giving permission.
• March 1 - No School (P/T Conference)
• March 4-8 - RBE Read Week
• March 4-8 is Read Week!  This is a week dedicated to celebrating the love of reading and sharing our love of reading with the students.  We always invite parents, grandparents, family members and family friends to come read to the students.  If you would like to bring in a snack related to your book as well, the students always love snacks.  :)  
• If you would like to read to the class there are still openings available.  Please click here to sign up for a time using SignUp Genius.    
• March 7 - Field Trip to Daniel Boone Regional Library
• On this field trip, we do not need parent chaperones.  We will depart from school at 8:00 and return by 9:45.  
• A yellow DBRL Library Card Application is in your child's Friday Folder.  If your student does not already have a library card and you would like to sign him/her up for one, please fill out the application and return to school by Friday, February 22.  If your child already has a library card or you are not interested in getting one, then you do not need to return the form
• March 7 - Kindergarten Enrollment Night
• If your family has child who will be enrolled in kindergarten next year, or if you know of another family, please come to Kindergarten Enrollment Night!
• This is 4:00-7:00 at RBE.  You can contact the school office for more information.

Lots of Learning is Happening

• Math
• We are finishing up unit 6 next week.  We have learned about different ways to collect and represent data, and being able to add 3-digit plus 3-digit numbers.  One of the strategies that we teach the students is using partial sums.  You can checkout the picture below to see the two ways we have taught partial sums.
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• Writing
• We have been working really hard on researching two topics for our Which is Better project.  Last weekend, your child should have told you what two topics s/he was researching.  This weekend, have your child share some facts that they learned about their topic.
• Next week, we will start talking about opinion writing.  Our first opinion writing will be with Hershey Kisses.  We will taste test Hershey Kisses and then write about which flavor is our favorite.  Yum! Yum!
• Fundations
• We are continuing to work on spelling words with er, ir & ur in it.  We will be testing over this unit next week.
• Reading
• This week, we finished up comparing texts.  We did this through fractured fairy tales.  The students compared characters, setting and events between the different stories.
• Next week, we are starting an author study on Steve Jenkins.  We will be finding and describing sensory details in the text.  As a reader, understanding these sensory details is important and we will talk about how to incorporate these details into our Which is Better project writing.
• Social Studies
• We are continuing to be cartographers and learning about the continents on the world map.  We have discovered where Africa, Europe and Asia are on the map and learned about a few different famous destinations on each continent.  
• Next week, we will be continuing to learn about the other four continents and adding these to our personal world map.
• Nutrition
• We started our Nutrition Class through the University of Missouri Extension.  Mrs. Zapata will be coming out for the next five Wednesdays to teach us about nutrition.  This week we learned about the importance of cleaning both food and our hands while cooking, keeping food separate, making sure to cook food to the correct temperature, and remember to chill food by putting it back in the refrigerator when finished.  We also reviewed My Plate and the importance of eating a variety of healthy food.

I hope that you have a wonderful weekend and stay warm!

Mrs. Ross