Dear Families,

Here are some highlights of the past few weeks:

Language Arts/Social Studies
We began to read books about Mexico to get a feel of the country. A book the children are enjoying is Look What Came from Mexico by Miles Harvey. The children, so far, are showing interest in the culture of Mexico both modern and ancient. They are excited about Mexican artifacts, food, music, and are looking forward to learn a bit about some ancient sites. Next week we will begin to gather facts and make illustrations.

During our reading and writing time, particularly on Monday and Wednesday mornings, the children have been enjoying choosing activities designed to help each child learn at his/her own instructional level. Several children are choosing to make books – story books, poetry books, wordless books. Some are choosing to use our small reading books to create their own versions. At this time in the school year, it is awesome to watch the children manage their learning time with skill and balance.

Science
One of the children, Brian, brought in a bag of feathers belonging to a ruffed grouse bird found in his yard. Brian told the class that the deceased bird was examined by Mr. Stone at the Wildlife Pathology Unit in Delmar. The bird died of injuries caused by flying into something. The children were fascinated with the feathers – patterns, color, and size. They learned that a female ruffed grouse is called a partridge, and they totally enjoyed looking at the report and attempting to read big words such as: “A Record of a Pathological, Toxicological, or Physiological Examination Report.” The feathers, the report, and information Brian printed from his on line research are in the Science Center.

The children built nests using material they gathered on an exciting hike through the school’s muddy trails. They shaped the “bowl” portion of the nest with dough they made from flower and cornstarch. The children enjoyed pretending that the dough was mud. And as they shaped the nests with their hands, they tried to imagine how the birds build their nests with their beaks and their claws. They also wondered how the birds can build such strong nests weaving materials without using “glue.” They discovered how challenging it was to build them even with glue.

The children have continued to learn about the human body with Emily. Particularly, they enjoyed learning how the body gets energy from food as Emily read The Magic School Bus Inside The Human Body.

Math (First Grade)
The children are having fun investigating two and three dimensional shapes. They are learning the mathematical language to describe the characteristics of three dimensional shapes, and have been building polygons and polyhedrons. The children enjoyed spending one math class outside in the gardens looking for shapes in nature (but it turned more into looking for signs of spring). It was truly a very special and fun time and the children enjoyed posing for a few “first grade group photos.”

Kindergarten Math
Using the book Grandfather Tang’s Story by Ann Tompert as a model, the children made various animals from plastic and paper tangram shapes. They ended the week using paper tangrams to make the birds they researched with Liliana. The birds are hanging in the hall above the Hudson River outside our rooms. The children also conducted surveys in the 2/3 room and compiled the results.

Sharing
Through a democratic process of discussion/votes, the children came up with a sharing schedule and what to share. We are in the process of trying it out, and are discovering that sharing more than one item at a time (a set of something is also considered one item) can take a long time. So, we think one item at a time might work best time wise and in keeping everyone’s interest and focus. Here are the suggested things to share and the schedule:

Things to Share (children’s words with some help from me)
Something special to me
Unusual clothes like a Chinese dress
Special rocks
Unusual things
Pictures
Different kind of toy (for example: Jamie’s double deck bus)
Special card
A story
Things from nature
Special coins

The schedule can be adjusted to meet everyone’s needs. If we do not have time one day (things do come up….), we will share the next available day/time. Also, the children know that they do not have to share—-it is their choice.

The children have been wonderful about keeping things in their bags until their time to share.

A Special Time
grandparents from England spent a little time in the classroom talking to the children about England, showing pictures, and performing a card trick/magic. It was a wonderful time for everyone.
Spring break is the week of the 14th. I wish everyone a happy and sunny break.

Liliana

Dear Families, 

Just a few highlights of a fun week in the K/1 classroom and our beautiful school:

Math
Our mathematicians celebrated Pi Day on Friday with the entire school. The K/1 children worked collaboratively during the week to explore a “bit of pi.” They learned about the attributes of a cylinder and measured the circumference of circles by wrapping string around each circle and cutting it to show the length of the circumference. The children stretched the “string circumference” across the diameter then cut it to discover that not matter what the size of the circle, they always got three cuts (well, almost always).

 
Science
Emily introduced the stethoscope to the children, talking about safe ways to use it, and having the children listen to their heart beats. The children had a discussion about the heart while looking at a book about the human body. As the children looked at the book, they also became interested in pictures showing how a baby grows in the womb. Because Emily is pregnant and children are naturally curious, it became a very fun and lively discussion.

The children continue to show lots of interest in their study of birds. They are fascinated with the type of materials birds choose to build their nests. The nests in our classroom show bits of string, ribbon, lint from dryers, and pieces of plastic. We decided we would help the birds build their nests by hanging similar materials (except plastic) on branches. One of the materials the children chose is felt because they thought the birds would like its soft feel. There are numerous pieces of felt hanging from branches and bushes on the school’s grounds. The children were very excited to go outside daily and check the materials and the suet treats. On one such outing a few chickadees sat on branches close to us as they sang. The children thought they were thanking them for the goodies. It’s all very exciting and so much fun for all of us! On Friday the children completed their research on birds with the help of their middle school buddies. The research and the children’s drawings will be compiled into a class book. Originally it was going to be a book about birds’ beaks, but the children wanted to add other facts about birds as well.

In a week or so we will begin our study of Mexico, but the study of birds will continue as a side theme. As spring enfolds, it will be very interesting to see where the children will go with the theme. Of course there are birds in Mexico…….I am sure the children will surprise me – they always do.

Language Arts
There is always so much going on in this area, but I will be brief. Michelle, the pre-k teacher, visited us Thursday and taught the children two songs about birds. It was fun having Michelle in our classroom. We are continuing to read daily from books in our classroom library, and lately from books the children bring to class. I always welcome books from home, particularly if they are age appropriate picture books. We don’t always have time to read every book so please let your child know that he/she might have to leave the book in the classroom for a time, or bring it back. The children continue to enjoy Pippi Longstocking, and because the book is so popular we have been trying to read about a chapter a day. We are also continuing to work on writing, letter sounds, and decoding by using books at each child’s instructional level.

Reminders:
Student-led conferences are Thursday, March 20. Your child will be your guide during this time. Please call Natalie to schedule a time if you have not already done so. Let me know if this day is not convenient for you. The children will be doing a bit of practice this week and I know they will be excited to talk with you about their work.

It’s mud season! Please send extra clothes for your child to keep at school, if you have not already done so. It is impossible to keep children out of mud and puddles during their time outside. Some of the children have been borrowing items such as socks and underwear from the pre-k room. I ran out of extra socks and underwear in the classroom and now the pre-k is running out. Boots or appropriate shoes for mud and water are recommended, and they must have shoes to change into when they come in from their outside adventures. The children go out twice per day, but in good weather they go out more. Thank you so much!

The next update will be in a couple of weeks. I will be celebrating Easter with my family next weekend. Spring is arriving this week and I wish everyone a very happy beginning of this wonderful season.
Liliana

Dear Families,

The last two weeks have been filled with fun and exciting moments both inside and outside the classroom. Here are some highlights:
 
Science
The children chose birds to study their beaks and the food they eat. Each child began to draw his/her favorite bird focusing mainly on the shape of the beak. The children will be writing about the birds’ beaks and diet. The culminating project will be a class book. The children’s drawings and favorite facts about birds are now posted on the bulletin board of our science center. About two weeks ago we hung a suet treat on a pole by the pre-k room. It took the birds a few days to find it, but now they are feasting on it. Last Friday we placed a second suet treat on a tree by the edge of the meadow. The children also had fun throwing handfuls of sunflower seeds on the grass.

Our four frogs are doing well and have officially joined the classroom community with a “name” ceremony. The children generated a list of possible names then voted on a name for each frog as follows: Spotty, Lucky, Lippy, and Tiny. The children are able to distinguish the frogs by their size and markings.

Language Arts
After naming the frogs, the children had fun generating words beginning with the same sound as the frogs’ names, focusing particularly on the beginning sound of “sp” (Spotty). The children added a new poem to their Poems and Songs binders – Once I Saw a Little Bird.

Also we read several poems on birds from various books on poetry. One of the children’s favorite is The Penguin in Disguise. Poetry has proven to be a fun way to teach vocabulary by playing with words and using metaphor. I am blown away by the children’s ability to understand metaphor in poetry, especially if reminded that they have this ability within. Renowned poet Coleman Barks strongly suggests (I’m paraphrasing) to not be afraid to read poetry to children because they have an innate ability to understand poetry even if they don’t have the language to talk about them. Also we read a beautiful book about an injured bird that was rescued and lovingly nursed back to health by a family. The book’s title is Martha by Gennady Spirin – thank you Caroline and mom for suggesting and lending us the book.

We celebrated Read Across America Day on Thursday by reading books all day, in addition to reading with our guest author and illustrator Sylvie Wickstrom also known as Sylvie Kantorovitz. Sylvie read the newest book she illustrated Go To Bed Monster! Sylvie answered children’s questions and demonstrated how she illustrates books by drawing a circus dog, as requested by the children. Thursday morning we all had a lot fun watching a performance in the library by the Ivy Vine Puppets – what a treat! Storytelling with Ken Busman was also a wonderful treat, and the parade of costumes was the exciting event talked about for weeks prior.

First Grade Math
The children have been exploring making shape designs with the shape templates. Particularly, the have been investigating ways to make combination shape designs by rotating the shapes. Also each child has created a poster showing his/her favorite way of sorting shapes, and sharing it with the class by making a presentation explaining the attributes used for sorting.

Kindergarten Math by Lynne
The kindergarten math children have been having fun with sorting activities and survey taking. We used fruits and vegetables, self portraits and foods we eat at breakfast and lunch to do sorting and graphing activities. We had several lively discussions on how to sort these items and the children were able to come up with a multitude of ways to do so. We then represented some of the sorting information in graph form.

The children had a lot of fun as they conducted surveys of each other and the afternoon pre-k children. They represented their findings in graph form and as written math equations, and we will continue doing surveys next week.

Celebration
Friday morning in honor of Jamie’s birthday, Jamie’s mom and Jamie showed the class a “real” gramophone. The children learned that a gramophone does not use electricity or batteries, but has to be wound up by hand. They were equally amazed as they watched the needle on the album move in a circular motion to make music. Thank you to Jamie and mom for this very interesting demonstration.

Reminders
Friday, March 14th there will be NO morning assembly. The school will be celebrating Pi Day with an afternoon assembly at 1:59. There will be more details in the “weekly updates” by Natalie.

Student-led conferences are scheduled for Thursday, March 20. There will be no school, but please sign up for a time at the front desk. Your child will be your guide in the classroom, talking with you about his/her work.

I know this is a lengthy update to read, but I hope you find it useful. I wish you a happy and sunny week.
 
Liliana

Dear Families,

We have not seen much sun for a while and we are all suffering a bit from cabin fever. I told the children we will be holding a sun dance ceremony next week to bring out the sun and its cozy warmth. The children all agreed and cheered with joy at the idea! This update will focus on our unit on birds.

We have begun to study birds and it is very exciting for all of us to learn about such beautiful creatures. We generated questions and learned about the general characteristics of birds. The children were especially excited to learn about song birds, and we gathered facts on the robin and the cardinal. Some facts made more of an impression than others such as the size of eggs, “a robin’s egg can fit on a quarter,” the colors of birds; the children love the bright red cardinal, and everyone loved to discover that cowbirds like to steal an egg from a cardinal’s nest and replaced it with one of their own. The children were surprised to learn that mama cardinal raises the baby cowbird as one of her own.

This fun unit is fully integrated in other areas of the curriculum. In Art class with Susie the children are making bird puppets. In Science class with Emily they are learning about different types of bird beaks and how they are used for different kinds of food. The children were excited to discover that a cardinal’s beak can crack and peel sunflower seeds.

In Language Arts the children have been writing facts about birds and enjoying making drawings of different kinds of birds. Also we took some time to “search our brains” and brainstorm what we have learned so far. The children cheered with joy to find out that they were able to remember almost everything we read and discussed about birds.

We ended the week Friday with some special guests – the tiger finches from the pre-K room. The children enjoyed learning about them from Michelle and we got to keep the beautiful finches for the morning. Also on Friday we celebrated Caroline’s birthday. Happy birthday Caroline! Monday is Brian’s birthday. Happy birthday Brian and have fun in Main!

Some of the photos I’m forwarding show the first graders working on geoboards. We began a unit on geometry -more about this in the future.

I wish everyone a peaceful week,
Liliana

Dear Families,

The past two weeks have been rich with all sorts of activities. Winter Fridays continues to be an exciting source of fun and mind enriching activities for all. The children enjoyed Shakespeare so very much. Everyone worked hard, while having fun, to prepare for Thursday night’s performance, and what a wonderful performance by the K/1 class and the entire school. We managed to have plenty of time for other activities as well. Here are some highlights:

Language Arts
There has been an explosion of writing in the classroom. The children are enjoying using sound writing and/or dictation to express themselves through poetry. They finished writing about winter and everyone shared his/her poems with joy and pride. This week the children turned their attention to the frogs and brainstormed words to describe the frogs and their activities. Then each child found a place in the classroom to quietly write poems about our frogs. The children love to hear me read their poems out loud and I derive great joy in reading them in the voice of poetry.

Science
Our science teacher Emily helped the children conduct an experiment with eggs. Each child placed an egg in a cup full of vinegar then over a period of a few days watched the chemical reaction. The children made observational drawings and writing of the process. The children were very excited to observe the egg shells dissolve in the vinegar. And because children love to use all of their senses to experience science, they were given the opportunity to remove the eggs from the vinegar and touch, feel, and smell them. You can imagine the excitement – their joyful laughter could be heard all the way down the hall. (It was worth the mess!!!) The children are now conducting their own experiments – some egg yolks were placed back in vinegar, one yolk is being observed drying on aluminum foil, and membrane peels have been carefully placed on the science table to dry. So far, the children have been able to brainstorm some of their findings using descriptive words. We are using the words in language arts for lessons in reading and writing.

First Grade Math
Our mathematicians are enjoying exploring their calendars. They look forward everyday to keeping track of days, number of days in a week, number of weeks in a month, number of weeks in a year (still working on this), and figuring out the number of school days in various ways – for example, last week they broke it down into fives and ones. This week the children enjoyed free choice math. Among the choices, several chose to create and solve addition problems challenging themselves with “big” numbers, others chose to explore multiplication.

Kindergarten Math by Lynne
The Kindergarten math group has been counting and measuring a wide variety of classroom materials. We counted 700 unifix cubes by making towers of 10 and combining the towers. We also learned that 700 unifix cubes equal 43 floor tiles and 43 rulers. The children have been filling in large masking tape shapes on the block rug with unit blocks and counting the number of shapes used. They have also measured different body parts with string and used the length to make towers of unifix cubes. We were able to see who had the longest leg, arm and other body parts. We are now comparing lengths of names and weighing objects to determine which ones are heavy or light.

Reminder – please send in a complete change of clothes for your child if needed, to be kept in your child’s box on top of his/her cubby.

I will be at a meditation retreat next weekend and will not be checking my email. The next update will be the weekend of February 9, but please feel free to contact me during the week. We will begin our unit on birds this coming week. For now I wish you well.
Liliana

Dear Families,

It’s great to be back with the children after a restful break.  We had a busy week filled with fun activities, particularly the children enjoyed our first two Winter Fridays.

Here are some highlights:
Language Arts:
We read several books and poems about winter.  We added a new poem to our “Poems and Songs” binders named Wouldn’t You?  The children drew some pretty amazing winter scenes and began writing about them.  Also each child shared his/her scene with the class, and everyone talked about their work and others’ work respectfully and enthusiastically. In Art class, Susie introduced the children to the work of Grandma Moses focusing particularly on winter scenes – a very nice way to complement our unit on winter. We are looking forward to writing poems about winter sometime next week.

Science
The frogs are back in the classroom!  The children were very excited to see them and have been observing their growth.  We have four frogs, three live in one habitat and the smallest had to be placed in a separate habitat because the other frogs were a bit too aggressive with it.  The children have expressed a desire to name the frogs which we will do next week.

First Grade Math
The children began working on a project about the calendar.  We began with the year by trying to figure out different ways to show the number 2008.  The children have been exploring the thousand, hundred, ten, and ones blocks and made different representations of 2008, including a smiley face using a thousand block for the nose, 10 hundred blocks for the smile, and 4 ones for each eye.  The children shared their work and everyone enjoyed seeing different ways to show 2008.

The Kindergarten group has been counting, counting, counting in many different ways.  Lynn will have more details in next week’s letter.

Puppies
The puppies from “Help Orphan Puppies” will be available to visit the classroom in about two weeks. I will keep you informed as soon as I know more.

Library
This week only library is scheduled for Monday at 2:00 and books should be returned at this time.

Calendars
If you have extra 2008 calendars (January – December) that you don’t plan to use, would you please donate them to the class.  I would like each child to have his/her own calendar – an effective way to learn months, days of the week, numbers, seasons, and more.  The first grade group is also using them for their calendar math project.  Thank you!

Please feel free to email me with any concerns, thoughts, and suggestions.  My hotmail address works best for me at the present time.

I wish you a peaceful week,

Liliana

Dear Families,

Just a short notice to express how much I enjoyed today – The Show of Work was a great success.  The children were very happy to receive many visitors and present their animal habitats and pop up class book.  They talked about their work with pride, joy, and expertise.  This project was accomplished over a three month period, allowing the children the gift of time.  Time to wonder, ponder, research, question, explore, take risks, reflect, and support each other in the process of learning, by sharing and practicing using language to critique their own work, and each other’s work in a positive and creative way.

The children were also able to plan a very successful fundraiser.  They drew many wonderful pictures which were framed or matted and offered in exchange for donations.  They raised $75.27 for Help Orphan Puppies.  They will have an opportunity to give the money to the president of this wonderful organization after the holidays.  We will be scheduling another time for the puppies to visit our classroom.  We were very sorry we had to cancel our original visit due to a snow storm.

I cannot thank you enough for supporting my efforts and the efforts of the children in so many ways.  Thank you for your generosity!

I wish you a new year filled with joy, and time for silence.

Peace,
Liliana

Dear Families,

Snow! And plenty of it has arrived causing much joy and excitement in the children.  Thursday while adults worried about driving in it, the children welcomed the season’s first significant snow storm with cheers and awe.  Today, during recess, they enjoyed sledding, running, and rolling in the fresh snow.

It was a short but busy and fun week.  The children put the finishing touches on their animal habitats and each child will be sharing his/her work with the class on Monday and Tuesday.

Language Arts
The children are enjoying writing and sharing their work.  Much of the writing is inspired by free play and books.  They are encouraged to write phonetically – sound out letters in words and write the sounds they hear.  This is particularly helpful with children familiar with all the letters and most of their sounds.  Phonetic spelling builds fluency in writing, confidence, and a feeling of success.  This week most children learned the sound of “ch” and brainstormed a list of words beginning with that sound.  The children are also encouraged to sign out the reading books they use in the classroom to share with you.

Science
The children have continued to explore our new habitats of tadpoles and frogs – learning new facts from their favorite “frog” books.  We have begun to investigate the new season of winter with a discussion and introduction of a Winter Word Wall.

Math
The First Grade group has been practicing counting by threes by skip counting using various math manipulatives.  Also they have begun to record their counting investigations.

The Kindergarten group has continued to explore patterns and counting by grouping.  They are enjoying these activities so much that they often choose to make counting and/or pattern books throughout the day during free times.

Social Studies
The focus this week has been on what peace means for people in the world and particularly what peace means for the children.  The children shared their thoughts at the Peace Assembly today.  When the children dictated their “peace” statements for me to write, I was very moved by their deep understanding of peace, and the compelling truth in each of their statements.

Show of Work
Reminder:  The Show of Work is Wednesday, December 19 at 10:00a.m.  The children are looking forward to sharing their animal habitats and the flip book they made in Art with Susie.  Also, I am in the process of framing or matting the children’s drawings for sale at the show of work.  Donations will go to “Help Orphan Puppies.”  The puppies’ visit will be rescheduled for after the break.
Winter break is December 20-January 2.

I wish everyone a safe and joyous break.

PEACE!  Liliana

Dear Families,

Good evening!  I meant to write earlier in the weekend but it got quite busy in a pleasant way.  I spent most of the weekend cooking and visiting with friends and family. The children spent the week enjoying a variety of activities; including extra recess time outside slay riding on a bit of snow and mostly frozen lawn.

We began the week building our animals’ habitats.  The children had fun using a variety of materials including some messy painting and got them done by the middle of the week.  Each child also enjoyed working with clay to make his/her animal to place in its habitat.  On Friday the children painted the clay animals with some support from their buddies.  They are looking forward to show them at the show of work on December 19.

Science/Language Arts
The children made the first observational drawings of our new tadpoles and frogs.  We are very happy with our separate habitats showing each developmental tadpole stage, and a habitat for fully developed young frogs.  We are enjoying immensely a book on frogs, Slippery, Slimy Baby Frogs by Sandra Markle.  The book is full of facts about baby frogs from around the world, and the children’s favorite so far is the one about the Phrynopus (fry-NOP-us) frog.  The Phrynopus female lays her eggs in a place on the ground that is nearly always damp and she stays nearby, regularly peeing on the eggs to keep them wet. I am sure you can see why this would be the most popular fact.

First Grade Math
On Thursday the first grade group performed their math play The Squirrel’s Store.  The children thoroughly enjoyed preparing for the play.  They made paper nuts, grouped them in several groups of twos, threes, fours, fives, sixes, placed them in small bags, and practice counting the groups.  They used the book The Squirrel’s Store as a guide while they wrote the play, and did a wonderful job performing it.  For pictures, check out the school’s website www.parkerschool.org and click on the “Director Meg Taylor’s Blog:  Perspective on Parker.”

Kindergarten Math with Lynne

We have continued our pattern work with the children deciding on patterns they could do with their classmates.  As a result, they lined up in patterns using hair color, shoe color, short and long sleeves, and by height (tall, short, tall, short).
They also arranged themselves from smallest to tallest.  Much discussion occurred as friends were moved around to suit the needed patterns.  We also worked on a counting book that related to the animal research they have been doing in science.  Each child had a number page and depicted that number using information they learned about their animal.  As an example, one child who picked the number seven and had studied a box turtle drew seven turtles, seven bodies of water because turtles live near water, seven flowers for turtles to eat.

Peace Assembly
On Friday the children will be making a presentation about peace.  Unless we change our minds, the children will be reciting a poem about what peace means to them.  We had a couple of discussions about it during the week and read two books on peace.

I wish everyone a wonderful week,

Liliana

Dear Families,

After the Thanksgiving break the children came back refreshed and happy to see each other.  Their teacher also felt rested, refreshed and very happy to see the children.  It has been a busy week dedicated mostly to reading lots of new books from the book fair and finishing up writing about our homes and our animals’ habitats.

While I worked with individual children on writing this week, the rest of the class worked in small groups teaching each other reading and writing.  The first graders thoroughly enjoyed learning and sharing their knowledge of reading and writing with the kindergartners.  It was very impressive to watch them use our small reading books to make up lesson plans with the kindergartners and teach with tenderness, enthusiasm, and patience.  In their eagerness to teach, the first graders helped each other figure how to read and write new words with great respect for each other’s pace and way of learning, and some assistance from their teacher.

The kindergarteners were delighted to receive so much attention and were very excited and highly motivated to learn from their friends.  At my suggestion, the first graders were also very happy to let the kindergarteners be teachers of their new found knowledge.  Overall it was an inspiring and wonderful experience for everyone. There will be more of this kind of interaction in the future.

We ended the week Friday reading with our buddies.  The children were very happy to meet with their buddies after not seeing them for two weeks.  Also Friday at our closing circle we planned how we might go about building our animals’ habitats next week, and we discussed some upcoming events.

FUTURE EVENTS

Oxfam Hunger Banquet is Thursday, December 6 from 6-8pm.  Lots of people are needed at this event to show the disparity in the distribution of a basic need –food– among our fellow human beings.  Please come and/or invite others to attend.

Visit from “Help Orphan Puppies”
On Monday, December 10 at 2:00pm, the founder of Help Orphan Puppies, Christina Francis will be visiting our class to talk about this special rescue organization dedicated entirely to puppies – www.helporphanpuppies.org.  Christina would like to bring a few puppies to show the children.  If you have any concerns about having puppies in the classroom, please let me know. I told the children that we will allow the puppies in the classroom only if it is OK with everyone.

Peace Assembly
The peace assembly will take place on Friday, December 14.  The K/1 class will be making a contribution, but we do not know exactly what that will be yet.

Show of Work

The K/1 and 2/3 classes are planning a show of work on Wednesday, December 19.  The K/1 children will be showing their work at 10:00am.  The 2/3 children are scheduled to open their presentation at 10:30.  You are all invited to come and celebrate with the class.  The children will be showing a class flip book they are making with Susie.  The book will contain drawings of the animals the children are studying, and the research they have been conducting in the classroom.  The children will also be showing the animals’ habitats they are constructing, and will be selling their cards and pictures to raise money for “Help Orphan Puppies.”

I will end now by wishing you a peaceful week.

Liliana