January 20-22

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

Homework packets are due on Thursday!

On Thursday, we’ll have a very special assembly introducing our new buddy bench.  The buddy bench is a dream that has come true thanks to the help of our wonderful community!  Parents donated box tops, teachers supported the initiative, a high school senior built the bench, and IB students at the high school designed and painted the benches.  The buddy bench is a place where students can go if they are feeling like they need a buddy.  Then, other students can meet with them at the bench.  Be sure to ask your child about it after school on Thursday!

Remember, there is no school for students on Friday as it is records day for teachers.

This week in...

Spelling:  We are working with unit 15.  The words are good, new, write, our, and me.

ELA:  With a short week, we’ll be using our ELA block to work on homophones.  These are words that sound the same but have different meanings.  We’ve practiced many of them as spelling words.  This week we’ll focus on:  their, there, they’re, to, too, two, your, you’re, which, witch, its, it’s, right, and write.

Beginning tomorrow, students will be put into small groups of detectives.  Together, they will read a mystery book and keep track of the mystery, clues, and suspects.  It will help us practice teamwork, fluency, comprehension, and problem solving skills.  We are so excited to get our new mysteries!

Math:  This week, we’ll continue to introduce some place value skills.  Here are the skills that second graders will need to show proficiency in by the end of the year:

I can read and write three digit numbers in standard form (number form), words, and expanded form.

I can skip count by fives, tens, and hundreds within 1,000.

I can identify the digits in the ones, tens, and hundreds place.

I understand that 100 can be thought of as a bundle of 10 groups of 10 just as a bundle of 10 can be though of as 10 groups of 1.

I can compare two three-digit numbers using <, >, and =.

I can add or subtract 10 or 100 to any number within 1,000.

We’ll also spend some time practicing our math facts.  Our goal is to be able to add and subtract numbers up to 20 fluently using mental strategies.  Basically, that means we need to be able to answer the question in a snap!  We’ll practice this by using math fact cafe, IXL, worksheets, and flashcards.  I’m still working on assessing all students to see which math fact family they will need to focus on now that they have practiced all of the strategies.

I’m also going to use this week as a chance for review.  We’ll review graphing, geometry, and fractions.  We’ll practice reading bar graphs and pictographs and answering questions about the data they represent.  We’ll practice identifying shapes by their names and also identifying their attributes (angles, sides, faces).  Finally, we’ll review fractions.  We’ll practice working with halves, thirds, and fourths.  

Social Studies:  To go along with our Flat Stanley unit, we’ll continue working with geography.  Last week, we learned all about maps and globes.  This week, we’ll learn more about our special place in the world.  We’ll work on creating a poster that shows ourselves, our street, our town, our state, our country, our continent and our planet.  Here is a link to a book that we used to introduce the project:

I hope everyone has a lovely week!

January 12-16

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

Today was our first hands-on science lesson with Mrs. Letiecq and Mr. Vallaincourt.  We had a blast!  Ask your child about some of the games we played today (acting out different kinds of matter, red/light green light with matter, etc.).  

Some of the team got a little chilly during our science lesson today.  Please remember to send your child to school with the appropriate outdoor gear EVERY MONDAY!  If you do not have something for your child, please let me know and I will make sure they have what they need when they get to school.

Students should bring:

HAT

GLOVES

SNOW PANTS

COATS

This Wednesday is an early release day.  Please plan accordingly.

All homework packets are due on Thursday!  Please help your child put their packet back into their backpacks on Wednesday evenings.  Remember:  no homework = no free choice Friday!

Mrs. Thibodeau will be visiting us again on Friday.  She’ll bring her friends George and Kelso to talk more about healthy choices.

Next week is a three-day week.  There will be no school on Monday as we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  There will be no school for students on Friday since it is records day for teachers.

This week in...

Spelling:  We are working with unit 14.  The words are:  get, through, back, much, and go.

Phonics:  We are working with the following digraphs:  /th/, /sh/, /ch/, and /wh/.  Here are our focus words:  chest, chase, chill, shape, sheep, thing, think, white, while, and wheat.

Vocabulary:  Our new words are ancient, hopeful, unable, confirm, and valid.  We’ll define these words and build connections to them.  Then, we’ll read two short stories called “A Very Old Fish” and “Boy Finds Fossils” and search for our new vocabulary words.

Comprehension:  We will practicing summarizing a text.  When we summarize, we retell only the most important facts.  When we read, we’ll pay special attention to what each part of the selection is about.  Then, we can use these main ideas to create a summary for the entire selection.  We’ll practice this skill while we read Meet the Supercroc.

Grammar:  This week will focus on past-tense verbs.  Past-tense verbs describe an action that takes place in the past.  We had -ed to most verbs to tell about a past action.  For example, we’ll change cook to cooked to show that it already happened.

Writing:  This week, we’ll practice descriptive writing with a fun project.  The title of the project is “Oh, no!  What’s in my cocoa!”  The students will visualize something silly has fallen into their cup of hot cocoa.  They will have to write three descriptive sentences so the rest of the class can guess what it is.  Here is an example:

1. It has a lot of feathers.
2. It is a nocturnal animal.
3. It can turn its head almost all the way around.

Can you guess what it is?  It’s an owl!

Social Studies:  This week, we’ll finish up our maps and globes books.  We’ll also watch a few videos that highlight the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  After discussing the videos, we’ll write about dreams of our own and how we plan to make them come true.  Here are the links to some of the videos we’ll be watching:

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJTQubbS7VY

Scholastic News:  To go along with our mini study on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we’ll read an issue titled “How Can Walking Change the World?”  The article will tell us more about Martin as a child and how his dream came to be.  We’ll use what we know from the article to answer questions about the text.

Math:  This week, we’ll be doing a little bit about a lot of topics!  We’ll review money.  We’ll practice identifying coins and their values as well as adding sums up to $1.00.  We’ll also review how to tell time to the nearest five minutes.  Then, we’ll continue our practice with math facts.  This week, I’ll be assessing all students to find which math fact families they will need the most help memorizing.  We’ll play games and do different activities to help us with the math fact family that we need the most help with.  Finally, we’ll have some more practice with our place value standards.  This week, we’ll build our names using tens and ones blocks.  Then, we’ll find the value of our names.  We’ll also practice writing numbers in five different ways:  standard form, word form, expanded form, picture form, and in a place value chart.  We’ll practice building numbers and identifying the hundreds, tens, and ones place by playing a fun new game called bull’s eye.

Read Aloud:  We have started our new mystery book, Cam Jansen and the Snowy Day Mystery.  Team Howard detective’s are keeping track of the mystery, clues, and suspects in their detective notebooks while they read.  We’ll use our notebooks to help us solve the mystery of the three missing computers.

Have a great week!

January 5-9

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

This week is Healthy Choices Week!  All week long, Russell School will be learning more about making healthy choices in our day-to-day lives.  During our P.E. time, Team Howard visited three different stations:  exercise, healthy food choices, and cleanliness.  When Mrs. Thibodeau comes to visit us again, we will focus on healthy choices as well.  

To go along with healthy choices, Team Howard will be doing a healthy snack tally.  For each healthy snack our team eats during snack time, we’ll add a tally to the chart.  If we earn 50 tallies by the end of the week, we’ll earn an extra recess!

Want more information about healthy choices?  Here a few links just for you from the 5210 initiative website.  Visit letsgo.org for more information.

Suggestions for healthy snacks:  http://www.letsgo.org/wp-content/uploads/K5Tab04D03-Suggestions-for-Nutritious-Snacks.pdf

Get your portions in proportion!  http://www.letsgo.org/wp-content/uploads/K5Tab04D07-Get-Your-Portions-in-Proportion.pdf

Making sense of portion sizes:  http://www.letsgo.org/wp-content/uploads/K5Tab04D08-Making-Sense-of-Portion-Sizes-DOUBLE-SIDED.pdf

Building a healthy plate:  http://www.letsgo.org/wp-content/uploads/K5Tab04D09-Lets-Eat-A-Choose-MyPlate-Brochure-COLOR-DOUBLE-SIDED.pdf

Go, slow, and whoa foods:  http://www.letsgo.org/wp-content/uploads/K5Tab04D27-Go-Foods-Slow-Foods-Whoa-Foods-COLOR-DOUBLE-SIDED.pdf

Healthy shopping on a budget:  http://www.letsgo.org/wp-content/uploads/K5Tab04D30-Healthy-Shopping-On-A-Budget-COLOR.pdf

On Thursday, Paula Letiecq and Calvin Vallaincourt will visit the second graders!  Paula and Calvin are the district’s outdoor education gurus and we are so excited to work with them!  The second grade teachers had a phenomenal time planning our science units with them.  Paula and Calvin provided us with a ton of activities that were not only fun but got us moving as well!  Each month, Paula and Calvin will visit the second graders and lead an energetic and fun science activity.  The month of January will focus on matter.

Apologies go out to all of the friends and family members that said they would participate in our Flat Stanley project.  I thought I had sent out all of our flat kids when I sent out my personal holiday cards to friends and family a few weeks ago, but sadly I was mistaken.  With such a big stack in my hand, I didn’t even check my pile before dropping them off at the post office.  In fact, our flat kids had been sitting quite cozily at my parents’ house in New Hampshire for the past couple of weeks.  I must have left them there when I was getting all of my mail organized!  They are in the mail now and should arrive shortly to everyone.  Please be sure to thank your friends and family again for their patience and participation.

This week in...

Phonics:  We will work with the long /u/ sound with the spelling patterns “u” and “u_e”.  Here are our focus words:  mule, bugle, fuse, use, flute, June, music, duke, tune, and dune.  
Spelling:  The month of January will focus on units 13-16.  This week, we will focus on unit 13.  Here are the words:  called, just, where, most, and know.

Vocabulary:  Our new words are:  tips, obeys, attention, accident, enormous, and buddy.  We’ll define these words and build connections to them.  Then, we’ll search for them in the short story called “Safety and School” by Brian Sullivan.

Comprehension:  We will practice using the illustrations.  Using the illustrations can give us clues to better understand the story.  We’ll practice this skill while we read Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathmann.

Grammar:  We’ll work with present-tense verbs.  Present-tense verbs tell about actions that happen now.  Adding an -s or -es to a present-tense verb will tell us what one person or thing is doing.  Here are some examples that we will work with:  stop, stand, wait, say, blink, cross, or play.  If we wanted to change these verbs so they make sense for one person, we would add an -s or -es.  For example, instead of:    “The girls stand in line.”  We might say, “The girl stands in line” instead.

Writing:  This week, we’ll practice our persuasive skills again.  Here is the prompt Team Howard will be getting:

Winter has come, snow is falling, and after waking up, you see that snow is covering the roads.  Should school be closed due to inclement weather or not?  Write a letter to our principal or school board stating your opinion.

In their writing, Team Howard will be asked to:

-state their opinion
-give reasons to support their opinion
-use linking words like “because” or “also”
-provide a concluding statement
-put capitals and lowercase letters where they belong
-use correct ending punctuation
-use neat handwriting

Math:  We’ll use this week to review some of the place value games we introduced before vacation.  These games help us practice valuable skills that we will need in our next unit on place value.  In our games, we’ll practice using the hundreds chart and a number line.  We’ll review the ones, tens, and hundreds place.  We’ll also practicing adding number strings using tools like a calculator or a number line but also in our heads.  

We’ll also continue practice with money and time.  During our money goal time, students will practice identifying coins by name and value.  They will also practice adding coins up to $1.00.  During our time goal time, students will practice reading and writing time to the nearest five minutes.  We’ll also review a.m. and p.m.

Social Studies:  Since we have been out of school for an extended amount of time, we’ll review or classroom vision and our code of cooperation.  We’ll ask ourselves, “does this still fit our team?”  If it does, we’ll review and role play.  If not, we’ll work together to create a new vision and code of cooperation that fits our team now.

Soon, we’ll be receiving our flat kids back in the mail!  That means we need to practice our map skills.  This week, we’ll practice several skills.  We’ll introduce what globes and maps are.  We’ll also practice with a compass rose.  We’ll learn what a compass rose is and also the directions it represents.  We’ll learn about latitude and longitude lines.  Finally, we’ll learn about continents and oceans.

Here is a song we’ll use to help us remember the seven continents.  Check it out!

December 22nd and 23rd

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

Team Howard is bringing home the gifts they made for their family members today!  They have already been wrapped with love.  Please be sure to help your child check their backpack and make sure all of the gifts get to where they need to be.

Please remember to send your child to school with their coat, snow pants, boots, hats, and mittens.  Without these items, they are not able to play at recess.

Tomorrow is our reader's theater performance.  Students are encouraged to wear something like their character would wear, but it is not necessary.  

THIS WEEK IN…

Reader's Theater Preparations:  Today, we worked together to create the backgrounds for our plays.  We really had to think of the story and the setting to portray a true background to the play.  We also worked hard to create props that we might need to help our plays come alive!

Festive Fun:  Today, we wrapped all of the gifts we made during our elf workshop.  We did this completely independently!  It was a great experience learning how to cut the wrapping paper, how much tape to use, how to fold the paper, etc.  

We were also visited by the high school choir group.  They sang some lovely carols and even some songs from their concert.  They sounded amazing!  We had fun singing along too.

Tomorrow, we will join Mrs. Sylvester's class in the morning to watch Frozen!  Then, Mrs. Sylvester's class will perform the Nutcracker for us.  

Later in the day, we will perform our own reader's theater plays to Team Howard.  We have been working really hard on using our movie star voices and making the play come alive.  It will be a great experience to see each play put their own spin on the stories.

Even with just a two day week, we are busy, busy, busy!  I hope everyone has a lovely holiday season and enjoys some quality time with their family over winter break.

December 15-19

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

Tomorrow is a combined music and P.E. day.  Please help your child pack their sneakers tonight!

Homework packets are due on Thursday!  Please help your child put their homework packet back into their backpack on Wednesday evening.  Remember... no homework packet = no free choice Friday!

Our December spelling test will be on THURSDAY!  Please help your child to practice spelling the words correctly but also knowing how to use the word in context.  For example, what is the difference between its and it’s?

Antonio da Rocha, a storyteller and mime, will be coming to Russell School on Thursday!  He came to Russell School a few years ago and was a phenomenal storyteller.  I am so excited to see him here again.  Here is his website if you would like some more information:  http://www.storyinmotion.com/index2.htm

Elf Workshop will be on FRIDAY!  Thank you to all of you who volunteered to be master elves and help us out with the crafts.  We are still looking for a few more items to be donated.  Here is our wishlist:

large foam shapes (christmas trees, snowmen, ornaments, etc)

lots of ribbon (1 inch or wider)

festive or colorful cardstock or scrapbook paper

Mrs. Thibodeau is coming to visit us again on Friday!  She’ll be bringing her good friends George and Kelso to help us learn more about how to be better problem solvers.

This week in...

Spelling:  We will be practicing unit 12.  The words are:  long, little, very, after, and words.  We’ll practice spelling these words but also how to use them correctly in a sentence.

You are now entering into the world of Mooseltoe...

Phonics:  This week’s we will be following our Mooseltoe them and practicing the short and long /oo/ sound.  For the long /oo/ sound, we’ll be working with words like food, balloon, moon, and school.  For the short /oo/ sound, we’ll be working with words like cookies, wood, football, and hook.

Vocabulary:  We’ll listen for words like blustery, minor, bountiful, regimented, and tidings when we read Mooseltoe.  

Comprehension: After reading Mooseltoe by Margie Palatini (our theme book for the week), we’ll collect the characters, setting, problem, solution, and moral of the story.

Grammar:  With a partner, we will sort the nouns and verbs from Mooseltoe.

Writing:  In Mooseltoe, Moose tries incredibly hard to have his holiday go perfectly perfect.  However, try as he might, Moose’s holiday is not so perfect.  We’ll be writing about a time that things did not go so perfectly perfect for us and how we solved the problem.  There will be a fun moose craft to go along with our writing, too!

Fluency:  We have begun our Holiday Reader’s Theater productions!  We will be performing three different plays in our classroom.  Mooseltoe, Olive the Other Reindeer, and The Gingerbread Boy!  Students will be encouraged to read with as much expression as the can.  We’ll be using our movie star voices to help us read loud enough for the audience to hear.  This week, we will practice our lines so we can understand how to say them best.  We’ll also study what gestures and mannerisms we might use while reading our lines.  Next week, we’ll have the chance to create our very own backdrops and props to be used during our official classroom performance on Tuesday.  We are so excited to perform for our team!

Math:  We will continue to learn some place value games.  This week, we’ll play beat the calculator, close to 20, and cover up.  When we play beat the calculator, we are practicing adding number strings mentally in a snap!  We’ll have to practice a lot of our math fact skills during this game.  When we play close to 20, we are practicing adding number strings and also how to use a number line.  Using a number line is a crucial skill to learn in second grade!  When we play cover up, we are practicing how to solve missing numbers.

We’ll also review telling time to the nearest hour, half hour, and quarter hour.  We’ll be practicing a new strategy with a highlighter.  To help us figure out which hand we should read first, we will highlight the hour hand.  Once we have figured out the hour, we will will look at the unhighlighted hand (the minute hand) and count by fives to solve the minutes.

We have increased our coin adding goal to $1.00!  Students will play collect $1.00 this week using a recording sheet.  This sheet will help us practice using ¢ and $ appropriately.  

Mooseltoe Math:  This week, we’ll practice a variety of math skills with mooseltoe serving as our theme!  Here are the stations: 

Spin a Stache:  We’ll use our special mooseltoe spinners to spin various mustaches.  Then, we’ll graph our results.

Solving Mooseltoe’s Problems:  We will be solving story problems to solve some of Mooseltoe’s dilemmas.  We’ll have to use different strategies to solve the problem as well as show our thinking.

Measuring Moostaches:  Using 1 inch moose tiles, we will measure various moostaches.  Then, we’ll practice our addition skills by adding measurements together.

Missing Mooseltoe:  We’ll practice missing addends again in this fun game!  We’ll have to match the correct ornament to the correct missing addend equation.


Woo!  I think my head might be spinning with excitement from all of this merry madness.  We certainly have a lot on our to-do list this week!

Have a fabulous week!

December 8-12

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

Tonight is the Winter Concert!  The concert will be at the Middle School.  Kindergarten performs at 6:00, first grade performs at 6:30, and second grade performs at 6:45.  Hope to see you there!

Today the playdate contact list went home with your child.  If you are not on the list and would like to be added to it, please let me know.  I’ll add you to the list and send out a new copy.

This Wednesday is an early release day!  This time, we will be wearing hats to show our school spirit.  Students are dismissed at 1:00.  Please plan accordingly.

Homework packets are due on Thursday!  Please remind your child to put their homework packet in their backpack on Wednesday evening.  Remember... no homework packet = no free choice Friday!

Please remember send your child to school with their coat, snow pants, boots, hats, and mittens.  They need these things to be able to play at recess and earned time.

THIS WEEK IN...

Phonics:  We are working with the long /e/ sound with the following spelling patterns:  e, ee, ea, and y.  Here are our focus words:  eat, mean, leaf, queen, need, seek, baby, pony, he, and we.

Spelling:  This week we will work on units 10 and 11.  Here are our words:  made, over, did, down, only, way, find, use, may, and water.

Vocabulary:  Our new words are:  swung, attached, gasped, breathe, frantically, and delicious.  We will define these words and build connections to them.  Then, we will search for them in a short story called “The Story of the Giant Carrot” by Rosa Manuel.

Comprehension:  This week we will be exploring the world of cause and effect.  The effect is what happens in a story and a cause is why something happens.  When we read, we’ll be asking ourselves:  What happened?  Why did it happen?  We’ll practice this skill while we read Head, Body, Legs, a story retold by Won-Ldy Paye and Margaret H. Lippert.

Grammar:  We will work with action verbs this week.  Action verbs are words that tell what someone or something is doing.  Here are some examples:  walks, opens, sits, eats, and sleeps.

Writing:  We will begin writing a persuasive letter.  A persuasive letter is a letter that gives the writer’s opinion.  It has facts, reasons, or examples to support their opinion.  

Read Aloud:  We have begun a new adventure!  Today, we entered into the world of... The Nutcracker!  We are so excited about our classic holiday adventure.

Scholastic News:  With the temperatures we had this morning, we definitely know that winter is upon us!  This week’s issue is about the snowshoe hare, an animal who not only changes it’s habitat when the season changes but also changes itself!  When we finish reading the article, we’ll use a diagram of the inside of a chipmunk burrow to answer questions.

Science:  We will continue to work on our matter unit.  This week, we will have some more practice classifying matter as a solid, liquid, or gas.  

Math:  This week we will continue to work on time, money, and place value.  We’ll practice reading clocks with our class manipulatives and our clock buddies.  We’ll also have some practice on IXL.  To practice money, we’ll play collect 50¢.  It’s a great game that has us identifying coins and their values as well as adding them together.  We also practice trading coins of equal values.  To practice place value, we’ll introduce three new games this week that focus on place value skills and a place value tool... the hundreds chart!  

Have a wonderful week!

December 1-5

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS:

We will be going on a field trip to Memorial School TOMORROW!  If I have not received a permission slip from you already, you should see a GREEN copy of the permission in your child’s backpack today.  Please make sure you sign it and return it to school first thing in the morning.  If we do not receive permission from you, your child will not be able to join us on the field trip.

Vacation Homework Packets will be due on Thursday!  Some students chose to turn them in today and that it totally fine.  If your child did not turn it in today, they will have until Thursday to pass it in.

Mrs. Thibodeau will be visiting us again on Friday!  Her friend Kelso and George will be coming to discuss ways we can be better friends and solve the small problems we might have with our friends.

Please be sure to send your child to school with their winter coat, snow pants, snow boots, hats, and mittens.  Without these things, they will not be allowed to play in the snow.

THIS WEEK IN...

Phonics:  We are working with the long /o/ sound with the spelling patterns /o/, /oe/, /oa/, and /ow/.  Here are our focus words:  grow, mow, crow, toe, goes, toast, soap, foam, told, and most.  

Spelling:  We took our December pre-test today.  I will get them graded and sent back to you by Thursday.  This should help you know what words to focus on for homework.  The post-test will be on December 18th.  This week, we will focus on unit 9.  The words are:  its, who, now, people, and my.

Vocabulary:  Our new words are:  imaginary, uniform, practices, starting, tryouts, and coach.  We’ll define these words and build connections to them.  Then, we’ll search for them in the short story called “Brian Gets Fit on the Field” by Emily Goldman.

Comprehension:  This week we will practice making inferences again.  When you make an inference, you make a decision about the story based on what you know and what you read in the story.  We’ll practice this skill while we read There’s Nothing LIke Baseball by Angela Johnson.

Writing:  This week, students will practice writing an explanation.  An explanation includes personal feelings, lively details, and reasons that help the reader understand the writer’s opinion or experience.  Team Howard will write about something they like to do.  They will explain why you enjoy doing that activity and also add lively words to their writing.  When they are finished, they will read their explanation to a partner.

Grammar:  We will be working with plural nouns.  A plural noun names more than one person place or thing.  To change most singular nouns to plural nouns, add -s.  If a singular noun ends in s, sh, ch, or x, we will add -es to make it plural.

Math:  December will be a month for us to focus on time and money.  We will also be introducing many place value skills that will be essential in our next unit.  We’ll introduce these skills by playing lots of fun games!  Here are the goals for time and money:

Time:  I can tell and write time to the nearest five minutes, using a.m. and p.m.

Money:  I can identify the value of a penny, nickel, dime, quarter, and dollar.  I can use addition to add coins together for amounts greater than $1.00.  I can use $ and ¢ appropriately.

Science:  We just started a new science unit:  Matter, Matter, All Around!  Matter is anything that takes up space.  We can classify matter into three categories:  solids, liquids, and gases.  This week, we will be exploring different kinds of matter and deciding whether they are a solid, liquid, or gas based on their properties.  Here are some examples:

Solids:  Trees, pencils, bookshelf, sand, chairs, etc.

Liquids:  Water, soda, milk, gasoline, etc.

Gases:  Air, Helium, a big gust of wind, etc.

Scholastic News:  With the holiday season upon us, we will be reading a Scholastic News issue titled Holiday Economics.  We’ll learn how people decide what gifts to buy, who makes the gifts, and how we get the gifts to the people we love.  We’ll learn words like goods, service, and budget.  Then, we’ll become economics experts!  Using what we learned in the article, we will decide whether something is a good or a service and also if certain gifts fit the character’s budget.

Read Aloud:  We are getting closer and closer to the end of Stanley, Flat Again!  My goal is to get Team Howard’s flat kids in the mail by the end of the week.  We are definitely looking forward to learning more about the different places in the world!