Yo, Ho, Ho, Matey!

I hope you all had a great Mother's Day with your children.  The Aloe plant the children brought home for you came from an aloe plant that my grandmother had.  My mother then had it her house for years.  Now I have it at my house.  Every year I get just enough shoots to bring one for each child in my class to give to their mom for Mother's Day.  So, from my grandmother, my mom and me, Happy Mother's Day.
The big reminder today is about early dismissal tomorrow at 1:30 and  the beloved dress down day.  It's the last early dismissal on Tuesday this year, so don't let the kiddos forget to dress down.
 There will not any more new lists of Word Journal vocabulary but I would not throw that notebook away.  The first grade reading program flows right into the second grade program.  I would suggest having your child read those last 12 lists of words in that notebook periodically through out the summer to you to help with a smooth transition into the second grade reading program in August.
We still have a few reading workbook pages to finish, and they will be coming home in the book bag this week.
The children can read for points in the Scholastic Reading Counts program until Friday of this week.  I am so glad to say we have all earned the ice cream party next Tuesday.  There are still points to earn for raffle tickets for awesome prizes that will be given away at the party.  So, keep reading those books nightly.
As of today we have completed the math program.  There is homework for this evening but from here on out, there will be no more math homework in the evenings.  However, addition and subtraction facts are a big deal in second grade.  So practice those math facts week over the summer.
There are some web sites out there with fun math games including subtraction and additions math facts.
The kindergarten students visited our room today.  I wish you could have seen your children "showing them the ropes" to getting through first grade.  It was delightful to hear my class explain how things really are in this room!
We are planning the Mass this week.  Many of the students have a part to read.  So be sure to check with your child and practice the parts at home tonight and tomorrow night.
Don't forget, plenty of sleep is important this time of year.  There were lots of tears today.  Mostly it was tears of frustration and anger.  I can always tell when they are tired and just worn out. 
We have a saying we are using as we count down to the end.  It changes from day to day. 
ARRG, MATEY, AND A YO HO HO, one more Monday to go!