Dear Parents,
We hope you had a relaxing winter holiday and we wish you a Happy 2012-Year of the Dragon. As you probably know, due to the luck of the calendar this year, there are three weeks before our Chinese New Year holiday, when school dismisses Friday January 20. During this time, support classes will continue to focus on both the Immigration vocabulary in our Social Studies unit, and the Feature Article writing unit. We have been working on some essential components of writing a feature article which include developing the voice, using good leads, and the key skill for students: How to use other feature articles as mentor texts to improve their own piece. Both units will conclude before the Chinese New Year holiday.
We fully understand that Chinese New Year is the most important time of the year for many families. This is a great experience for your children, in itself for cherished cross-generational family memories, but also from a teacher’s viewpoint, because it can generate some memorable moments that will make outstanding Writers’ Workshop pieces later in the year. If possible however, due to the “Use it or lose it” law of learning a language, please try to have your child read at least 45 minutes in English each day of the holiday.
Your child’s classroom teacher will soon be sending you the specifics of our grade five Chinese New Year holiday celebration on the fourth floor. We hope to see you there.
Once again, we wish you a prosperous and healthy 2012—Year of the Dragon.
Regards,
Mark S. Gurecki Virginia Blais Lynn Somers
