I hope your family enjoyed the day off in the middle of the week. It has definitely thrown me off from my normal routine, but getting back to school tomorrow and back to our school routine will help. Routines and structure are so important for kids to be successful. They do well when they know what is expected and routines play a big part of that. I have homework for first and second graders because I think it is important for kids to get into the habit of "nightly homework". If you can get that habit established now when your kids are young, it will save you some struggles when they get older.

Homework should not take more than 30 – 40 minutes of your evening time. This includes reading. Of course, more reading is always beneficial. If your child is struggling with reading, try to make right before bed the time that you read (not your child). You don’t want your son or daughter going to bed feeling frustrated after struggling with a story. Save the “working on reading” for a different time. Your child should spend about 10 minutes practicing spelling words each night. Don’t forget to plan some time for your child to work on IXL as well. I will be getting math fact practice ready to come home next week. Starting next week I will be asking kids to spend about 5 minutes each night working on math facts. Watch your child’s binder next week for more information on math fact practice.

Hopefully you had the opportunity to meet Flat Stanley. Your child should have brought him home on Monday. We are hoping that each family will mail Flat Stanley to a family or friend. We would like to have Flat Stanley visit many different communities and then report back about the community he visited. We would love to have pictures either mailed or emailed back to us along with a letter sharing about Flat Stanley's adventures. I did tell the kids that Flat Stanley would be welcome to join your family on any adventures you may have as well. We are hoping to track on our map all of the different adventures Flat Stanley gets to be part of. If you have any questions about Flat Stanley and this home/school project please don't hesitate to ask. I set a return date of Dec. 12th, but this is a very flexible date. In reality we won't get to looking at Flat Stanley's adventures until after the Winter Break. I just didn't want it to get lost in all of the holiday craziness.

Don't forget to order books this week! If you want to order something as a holiday gift I am happy to set it aside and arrange a hand-off with you.
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Friday, Nov. 21st - Popcorn Day
Wednesday, Nov. 26th - Early Release 11:15AM
Thursday & Friday, Nov. 27th & 28th - No School - Thanksgiving
Monday, Dec. 1st - No School - Teacher Work Day
Friday, Dec. 19th - Gingerbread House Building