Dear Carl Sandburg and Discovery Families,
I have heard lots of positive response to the renderings of the new building I shared last week. If you haven't had the chance to see them, you can look at them on our website at
http://www.lwsd.org/school/sandburg/construction/Pages/default.aspx. This week, the workers are taking advantage of the beautiful weather, and getting the building closed in. Work is humming along and our new building looks more like a school every day. Enjoy this picture of a couple of our welders installing brackets to connect the academic building and the commons (gym, cafeteria, and music room).
Workers installing brackets to connect the academic building and the commons
I know that at our house, the change in routine this month with snow days, Martin Luther King Day, and half days for conferences made it harder for us to find time to read together. The following tips were useful to me as we worked time into our disrupted schedule. I hope you'll find them useful, too. (Excerpt from, "Fun Ways to Read with your Child," greatschools.org)
Make reading a priority. Whether it's 10 minutes every night before bed or an hour every Sunday morning, it helps to set aside a specific time for reading. This kind of special "together time" can go a long way toward getting your child interested in books.
Create the right atmosphere. Find a quiet comfortable place to listen to your child read. While you don't need to build a special reading nook, it helps to ensure that, even in a busy home, there's a quiet place for reading.
Make reading fun. Kids may not get excited about the idea of quiet time spent curled up on the couch. Why not make it fun by turning reading sessions into impromptu theater performances? Play around with funny voices to impersonate animals or unusual characters in stories. You'll get to release some tension, and your child will learn to think of reading as fun rather than work.
Introduce new books. Each year there is one book that seems to steal the hearts and minds of all children. While it may seem like the only book your child wants to read, it's important to remember that there are millions of books that will suit your child's interests and capture his imagination.
Make it a great week!
Mark Blomquist
Principal