READ! READ! READ!

March kicks off Victoria's Pleasure Reading month! Students are challenged to complete several tasks this month that are tied to reading. Students completing the challenges will earn prizes!

• Week 1: Students are challenged to read an additional 30 minutes at least 4 nights this week. All those successfully completing this task will earn an extra 10 minutes of recess

• Week 2: Students are challenged to write a creative story. By doing this, they can earn a "game day" during their lunch period.

• Week 3: This may prove to be the most difficult challenge for some! Student are challenged to turn off the T.V. and video games for at least 4 days this week. This will earn students a picnic lunch on the lawn and Popsicle.

• Successfully completing all 3 weeks' challenges will earn the student a free book!

• Also, if a student goes to the public library any time during Pleasure Reading Month and has their card stamped will receive a piece of candy.

Pictured above are 5 students who have read over 1 million words with our Accelerated Reader Program this year!

Gong Hey Fat Choy

Gong Hey Fat Choy or Happy Chinese New Year!!

As part of their social studies curriculum, our sixth grade students study Ancient China. They learn about Chinese dynasties, Confucius, the Great Wall, the Silk Road, and Emperor Qin's terracotta army. Additionally, the students learn about the daily lives and cultural of the Ancient Chinese - including celebrating the Chinese New Year.

Each year, Victoria's sixth grade students celebrate the Chinese New Year with a Chinese feast and a parade. They work in small groups to design brightly colored dragons for the Dragon Parade they put on for the rest of the student body. The students get very creative with materials and features - from fire-blowing dragons to those covered with paper plate scales and crepe paper streamers.

Students in other classes join in the celebration by making dragon masks or puppets of their own.

The dragon parade this year was absolutely fabulous!

Delightful Father/Daughter Dance

Last Friday night, Victoria's PTA sponsored a very special Father/Daughter Dance.

The girls wore pretty dresses and looked like little princesses, while their dads/escorts looked handsome to escort their special dates. With over 120 fathers and daughters in attendance, they "rocked the night away" at the Freddie Finn Dance Studio in Riverside.Daughters wrapped their dads around their cute little fingers as they learned a dance routine to the song "I Don't Need Anything But You" from Annie.

Other dances included the "Chicken Dance", "Macarana", "Conga Line", "YMCA", as well as popular current hits.
The dance studio was decorated beautifully for the ball with pink puffy bows, pink organza fabric drape all around, and white fairy lights everywhere. The PTA served fancy refreshments (all the girls' favorites, including rice crispy treats dipped in chocolate, goldfish, pretzels, and valentine candy) and pink lemonade and punch to whet their whistles - served in fancy champagne glasses.

Each couple left with a professional photograph (like that from a prom) in a hand-painted pink picture frame.

It was an enchantening evening and has left me smiling all weekend!