Happy New Year!

Happy New Year room 208 families. I hope that your vacation was relaxing and fulfilling. Today, we started a story that was based on the book The Relatives Came written by Cynthia Rylant. We are asking everyone to go home and share their favorite family stories when relatives came to your house or you went to theirs. Have your child write it down and bring it back to school to share. Have fun telling some great tales together.

We are also sharing our New Year goals this week. Having a Junior, allowed our family to think that this 2012 will bring college choices, a scary, but exciting goal for our daughter. It is also a great opportunity to set goals with your child for 2012.

Once again, Happy New Year!
Mrs. Heinrich

The Day In The Life Of A Colonist

Read one of the following accounts of life and beliefs in the early America.

Benjamin Wadsworth, A Well-Ordered Family(Boston, 1712). About the duties of husbands and wives
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl- Harriet Jacobs- Choose two chapters to read from her account of slavery
Alexander Falconbridge's account of the slave trade
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa the African (1789)- traces his life from his capture to the Middle Passage, and his life as a slave.
Thomas Morton, Description of the Indians in New England (1637)
The Adventures of Daniel Boone
Benjamin Franklin, How I Became a Printer in Philadelphia

Write a blog or paragraph summary to share what you learned about their life.

13 Colonies Map Activity

Identify each of the 13 colonies

Spell each colony's name correctly

Write the year they were founded underneath the colony

Classify each colony as a New England, Middle, or Southern colony

Later we will explain the main economic activities of each region.

13 Colonies Unit Objectives

The guiding question for this unit is: What is our country's foundation made of?

By the time you are finished with this unit you will understand the following ideas:

1. People came to the colonies for different reasons, such as freedom from religious persecution, economic incentives, or being kidnapped and enslaved.
2. The Europeans that settled the 13 colonies dramatically altered the landscape of the territories they settled.
3. The Europeans forever changed the lives and cultures of the Native Americans.
4. The New England, Middle, and Southern colonies had many differences.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Here is our first blog question. The students can write the response on paper or comment as a user.

Write a paragraph response to the following questions to get you thinking about this unit.

1. What motivates immigrants to come to the United States (today)? Consider what they lose and what they can gain in your argument.
2. Thousands of Europeans chose to move to the British colonies. Some for economic reasons and some for freedoms. If you decided to immigrate somewhere, would you move for economic reasons or for freedom?

Math Blast

At school, I have been giving little quizzes to check to see if students are ready to move on to the next concept. We are finding that many students have not mastered addition and subtraction with regrouping. to help them...I need your help too.

Some of you may have noticed that a review activity or sheet is coming home to help your child in math. We are giving them a little blast of review to help them catch up, relearn, and practice a concept that they have not masted yet. It is very important to help spend some time to go through the activity that I sent home. It will allow them to be successful and not take valuable classtime to relearn something that has already been taught.

Thanks to all families for taking an active role in your child's learning. It really does pay off. Have a blast!

I DARE You

Tomorrow, we start the DARE program in room 208. Just like millions of school children around the world who will also benefit from D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), the highly acclaimed program that gives kids the skills they need to avoid involvement in drugs, gangs, and violence. D.A.R.E. was founded in 1983 in Los Angeles and has proven so successful that it is now being implemented in 75 percent of our nation's school districts and in more than 43 countries around the world. D.A.R.E. is a police officer-led series of classroom lessons that teaches children how to resist peer pressure and live productive drug and violence-free lives.

We are great role models for children. I DARE you to continue to be the best you can be.