Good Evening, 
The most recent Newsletter went home today with a lot of important upcoming dates, and it will be added to the website shortly.
Here are a few highlights since the past update:

STEM
Each morning Tropical students line the hallways from 7:55-8:25 waiting for the door to open and the learning to begin.  I have always opened my door to my students so we can chit chat, and they can read in their own room.  Well, the past two weeks I have started something different. The students come in and unpack QUICKLY so they can get to work on a STEM task.  They have quite a few bins to choose from, and once they pick a material, they pick a task card and work on creating their masterpieces. If you have any "materials" laying around and not being used, please send them in.  I am searching garage sales for Lincoln Logs, Magnaformers, Legos, etc...anything we can build with! If you see any for a decent price anywhere, let me know! 

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Here are a few that I LOVED from this week, I still have more pics on their phones to look at!! 
Rock Stars made: The Leaning Tower of Pisa, a seesaw, a cube and they were working on a dresser!
Meet the Masters

A warm shout out to Dawn, Ryker's mother, for coordinating our first Meet the Masters Art project with the kids. They learned all about Native American art from Michelle, Ella's mom and then worked on creating their own pinch pots with Dawn, Michelle, Derrick (Landon's dad) and Laney (Spike's grandmother.) They made some neat pinch pots!  We hope you can find a function for them at home, because that's what Native American art is all about, making things you can use! 😊  Thanks so much to all of you for coming in and making memories!

Luggage Tags
Last Friday we celebrated Gabriel's birthday party, and Alicia gave your rock star the CUTEST party favor, a personalized luggage tag. We attached them to their backpacks, but you of course can take them off and put them elsewhere. They are super cute!

Thanksgiving
The past couple of days a handful of students were not present.  We did the next two Math lessons, 4.1 and 4.2, and a lot of fun stuff as well. Please clean out their folders because I sent home a lot of stuff that we did not get to for Thanksgiving. You can do it with your Rock Star or recycle it!!!  I don't want any of those papers back. 
Lastly, Happy Thanksgiving!!  I am VERY thankful that I have not only 20 amazing students, but 20 supportive families as well!  I tell the kids all the time I feel like I won the lottery this year!  Enjoy your break, I will miss the kids so much!

Happy Sunday!
A couple of reminders before I tell you about our amazing week:
Check those green folders!  Please remove papers from the Take Home side, and look in the important papers sleeve. We sent home a BEAUTIFUL magnet for your fridge from Halloween. Thank you Alicia for working with the students to put them together and for adding their pictures. They look so cute!! Those will be on your fridges for a long time!!!
White shirts- Please send in white shirts for field day. I am not sure what color we are yet, but I will be tie dyeing them that color when I find out.  This will also be a great shirt to wear on field trips. Please write your child's name on the label. 😊
Mrs. Egan is taking a day off! I am off Tuesday for my first training to become a "digital teacher."  Mrs. Franny will be their teacher, and I know they will be on their best behavior! Mrs. Franny will get explicit directions from me, and I am sure the kids will know it is business as usual. 
Homework Your child should be doing i-Ready nightly.  They should complete a minimum of three Reading lessons a week and one Math lesson. A few Rock Stars aren't doing any. I need your support at home to make this a successful year. The other first grade teachers send home a lot of projects and work packages every week, if you would prefer that, let me know. Trust me, i-Ready is less homework and headache for you.  I will also let your child stay after school or come before school to work on i-Ready, if that's something you are interested in, let me know!  
Now, our week!
We had such a fabulous and busy week!
Monday was our first Poetry Theater, Rock Stars performed the friendly letter song, you can see it here: LINK REMOVED FOR PRVACY PURPOSES, CHECK YOUR E-MAIL
Tuesday was Halloween, and the parade and centers were awesome! We had a great time. 
Wednesday we had a code red drill, and a visit from A.J.'s dad with his fire truck for Fire Safety Month. The kids really enjoyed learning what to do if they are ever in a fire, and enjoyed watching Lieutenant Pinkerton put on his gear and explain the purpose of each piece.
After specials we connected with a school in Venezuela. They even answered some questions we remembered after the call ended on our Flipgrid! LINK REMOVED FOR PRVACY PURPOSES, CHECK YOUR E-MAIL

Friday we ended the week with a pizza party and time at the park. It was a much needed afternoon to relax. 
I am looking forward to another amazing week. Have a good one. :)