We've been learning to write book reviews lately and this book comes recommended with about a million stars.  Talk to your kids about the books they read at home.  Ask them if they liked them or disliked them.  Ask them about their favorite part.  Ask them if they would change anything if they were the author.  Ask them if they would recommend the book to a friend.

Siena shared a very local article all about Mikaela Shiffrin's win this past weekend at the World Cup.  She won by 3 seconds.  A new record she broke (standing since 1968).  She's only 20 years old and from Vail.  Many of us even got to meet her.

Otis challenged us to make a bouncy ball out of granulated polymer (looks like salt).  Turns out it's super easy to make one and really fun too.  We had a lot of different ideas about what would happen, but none of us thought it would bounce!  So cool!

Last but not least, Rachel's mom came in and read a fabulous story about a dragon.  The book, Not Your Typical Dragon, is all about a young dragon who is supposed to be able to blow fire when he turns 7.  Instead he can blow just about everything else (band-aids, water, whipped cream...).  He saves the day when he puts out his dad's fire.  Turns out were' all a little special in our own way and that's a great thing to celebrate.  Thanks Kristin!

Today we previewed the Book Fair.  Be warned--it's pretty great.  We browsed through books and made wish lists.  This morning during our Independent Daily Reading we talked about picking books that INTEREST us.  What a perfect way to practice that skill.  Wish lists will come home tomorrow in Friday Folders.  We hope you can join us on family night Tuesday the 8th from 5-7.

Earlier this week we read In the Tall, Tall Grass.  We read it again today, but we still never saw the pictures.  Ah!  We've been practicing visualizing, as you know, and today we put our skills to the test.  We each had a chance to illustrate one page of the book.  We are now going to put the pages back together and read our OWN version of the book.  It's cool to see all the different styles.

It starts off with a simple message: "Tell Peter: Fly home for dinner."

But quickly turns into all sorts of craziness, like: "Tell Peter: Put your wet socks in the dryer." 

We decided to play our own round of telephone.  Miss Kylie started with the message: 
"RED JELLY BEANS ARE DELICIOUS."
But by the time the message came full circle, we had: 
"PIZZA IS PRECIOUS."  
Pretty funny right.  

Here's the moral...something that starts of funny and innocent can quickly turn crazy or even mean when we don't want it to.  We've been talking a lot about tattling, minding our own business, and being the best friends we can be.  When we take things out of context rumors get started and feelings get hurt.  What if someone says: "You have nice hair."  But by the time that message gets around the playground you hear: "You smell like a pear!"  No good!  In first grade, we're making sure we only say nice things about other people.  Everywhere and every time!