make change, beat cancer! updated 3/10/11

As of March 10th our class total is $177.77! Way to go, 1C! We will be collecting change until March 21st!!!



Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Pennies for Patients Program

Over the next few weeks, your child will have the opportunity to learn first-hand, the powerful feeling that comes from helping others. Pennies for Patients and Olive Garden's Pasta for Pennies are service learning programs in which kids collect spare change to help people with blood cancer.

Funds are collected from friends and family in honor of local student survivors and current patients. In addition, many schools implement learning activities, kickoff assemblies or classroom competitions. Depending on your school's preference, there are also prizes and awards for classrooms and schools.

Please check our school news for more information about our SBS campaign. You may also wish to visit schoolandyouth.org

LET'S GO, 1C!!!!!

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Shoe Box Reminder & Red, White & Blue Day and 100th Day

The children will be needing an empty shoe box to make our Valentine's Day mailboxes. Please send in just the box. If the cover is attached please cut it off of the box. Please send in your child's shoe box by Thursday, 2/10/11

Red, White, and Blue Day is rescheduled for this Friday, 2/11. Please read the school news for a refresher regarding appropriate dress. Thank you!

The 100th Day of School is planned for Friday, 2/18!!! Please refer to the note sent home this afternoon for information regarding the First Grade Hundreds Museum!

SUPERKIDS Update- Units 7 and 8 Review

Dear Family,
Like Hot Rod, who said “Oh! What a good day to race,” your child has been racing
along on the road of reading! In Units 7 and 8 of Adventures of the Superkids, your child learned a powerful skill—how to read and spell words ending in a silent e, such as bake and smile,and how to read those words with added endings, such as baking and smiled.

The stories we read in the Reader had the common theme of helping others.
Ask your child how the Superkids helped Hot Rod win the race in “Kites” and whether Golly was actually helpful in “Golly Helps.”

As you look through the Student Book for Units 7–8, try some of these activities
with your child:

• Play a Super e game. Ask your child to read aloud the first word on page 1. Use a
black pen to add a silent e to the end of the word and have your child read the new
word aloud. Repeat with all the words on pages 1 and 2.

• Have your child read aloud the list of words on page 16 or 18 several times.
Encourage her to read the words faster and more smoothly each time.

• Turn to page 4 and ask your child to sing Hot Rod’s song. Together, make up a song
about a good day your child has had.

• Have your child read aloud the poem on page 12. Then discuss gifts that you each
think would be great, awful, or funny.

• The Superkids wrote an important message on several kites. Help your child write
messages or reminders on sticky notes to post around the house. For example, write
and post the message, “Brush your teeth.”

Can this be true?? Phil, I like your thinking!

Phil at home in his burrow at Gobbler's Knob.

This morning, people all over the U.S. waited to see if a groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil would see his shadow when he emerged from his burrow, or underground home.

Why? Legend has it that if Phil wakes up on a cloudy day, he'll stay outside his burrow for a while. That means winter will soon be over. But if the sun is shining brightly, Phil will scamper back inside, frightened by his shadow. Then he will go back to sleep for six more weeks of winter.

This February 2, winter storms clouded Pennsylvania's skies and blanketed the state in snow and ice, so Phil did not see his shadow. Does this mean there will be an early spring?

Many other groundhogs are used to predict winter's end all across the U.S. and Canada. But Phil is from Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, home to the world's largest Groundhog Day celebration.

People in Punxsutawney wear their top hats and best suits each year for a special ceremony on February 2. They knock on Phil's door, and the excitement builds: Will Phil see his shadow outside his burrow at Gobbler's Knob, where he hibernates (sleeps all winter)?

FACT VS. LEGEND

Groundhog Day began in Pennsylvania during the 1700s. Older traditions in Europe use bears or badgers to predict the weather instead.

Some historians think German immigrants brought the tradition from their homeland, where they celebrated a Christian feast called Candlemas Day on February 2. One legend says, "For as the sun shines on Candlemas Day, so far will the snow swirl in May."

To this day, many groundhog celebrations held in Pennsylvania forbid any other language from being spoken except Pennsylvania Dutch—a form of German spoken by early settlers in America. People must pay a nickel or dime for every word spoken in English.

Punxsutawney Phil has predicted long winters since 2008. Even though the National Climatic Data Center says that only 39 percent of Phil's predictions have turned out to be correct, people still check to see whether Phil will stay outside for spring or fall back into his winter sleep. This year, Phil looks ready for an early spring! Will his prediction turn out to be true?

Article from ScholasticNews.com