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Hi there. Happy Sunday! We have a little snow out here so we are enjoying playing in it. And, it is gorgeous out so we are getting ready to take a walk with the dogs.

We are almost ready to have our Valentine's Day party. As you can see our Monster Bags are ready to go. Kids may fill them up at the party by placing valentines they make for each other. Remember, kids MUST bring a valentine for each person in the class. Lists were sent home last week. 

Also, we have had some treats and supplies come in already. Please have all supplies at school by Tuesday morning. Our party will start at 1:45 on Tuesday. Kids on the decoration committee will stay in at lunch and decorate the class for the party. I have had kids ask if they can bring treats even though they are not on the snack committee. My answer is thank you, but no. That committee has it all covered. 

This week is a short week. Students only have school Monday and Tuesday and a half day on Wednesday. Each and every day will be super important academically. Please have your children attend. We will be finishing up our novel studies and bookclubs. We will also be finishing up our fraction unit in math, the West region (states and capitals test will be upon our return sometime). It will take a while to finish our unit on volcanoes and our owl unit. 

Above, you will see how much the kids really are having fun learning about the layers of the earth and how we live on floating plates. The kids learned about how we went from Pangea to the split landforms we are now. There are three major ways the plates shift. We used graham crackers and frosting to discover just how mountains, volcanoes, and fault lines are created. It was fun to watch them see things in front of their own eyes! Ask your child their favorite part of this. If they can tell you, write TECTONIC in the planner for $20 bonus! 

The Read A Thon is OVER!!!! Please have envelopes signed and ready. We have done great!!!! I am proud of all of them. We have had 100% participation many days! Once again, great job Team Erickson! 

Mrs. Salazar will be visiting this week so I will ask her about our pizza party. I told the kids she will not forget us, she just has her hands full of one super cute kid! 

Alyssa was our star of the week this week. She is a pretty talented artist! She had many pictures of her family, so I can tell that is very important to her. Aaron was our star of the week last week. I know I wrote about him, but I was not able to post the pictures so here they are. :0) 

Have a fantastic weekend!!