Upcoming Events/mark your calendars:
- Friday, September 22: No School, professional development for teachers
- Friday, September 29: Friendship fruit salad: please bring in a small container or bag of washed and cut fruit. This should NOT be enough for the whole class. Please see the religion section below.
What’s due?
- Hot lunch orders: don’t forget to submit any hot lunch orders!
- RSVP for the mom/son bowling event; info went home in white envelope
- Seesaw: NEW boom cards will be posted this weekend.
- House Page: Please turn the house pages in as soon as they’re finished. We’d like them all turned in by the end of next week. The ones we’ve received so far look great! 🙂
This Week:
Thanks to all the special friends that joined us at Mass on Thursday. It’s always nice to gather together in church.
We wrapped up “I am special to my family” with a visit to the holy family in church. Ask your child to show you where the holy family is in our church.
Next Week:
Next week in religion the unit is called “I am special to my friends.” On Friday, we will wrap the unit up with a friendship fruit salad. I am asking each child to bring in his/her favorite fruit. This should NOT be enough to feed the whole class. Just a little container. Fruit should be washed, cut, ready to be served. If you send it in a container, please label the container. We will see how we can come together to make one delicious, colorful friendship fruit salad! After we enjoy, we will graph our favorite fruits.
Language Arts:
- SuperKids: We will wrap up G for “Golly” and will move on to A for “Alfalfa”
- I have introduced the following word wall words: do, we, the, no, yes, a.…next week we will introduce “I, will”; we will practice with magnetic letters, mapping them, writing them in salt and more!
- We have started “write the room.” This is a center that will change throughout the year. It’s a great center because the kids have to walk around and write different things that are posted around the room. This is perfect for little bodies that are meant to move. 🙂 It’s also great for them to have a chance to write on their clipboards on the floor–great for fine motor development as it puts pressure on the hand. I was SO proud of how they did with this one this past week. We will practice “the (label)” a few more times and then eventually it will change to a full sentence: “I see the (label)”. This helps kids see how letters make up words
- Name writing: the kids are working hard on using one capital letter and the rest lower case. We’re still working on proper letter formation and using only one capital letter. We are seeing a lot of progress! Next week, they’ll write it 5x in a center and mark which one they think is the best. When your child comes home with papers like this, talk about what he/she did well. Help your child take pride in his/her work. They’re all working hard!
- Phonemic awareness: this is about 5-10 minute ORAL practice of phonics skills. For example, we practice repeating rhyming, isolating the beginning sounds in words, counting up words in a sentence, “punching out” the end sounds in words, etc. It’s a short but very important part of our day. Phonemic awareness is a big indicator of reading success.
- Journaling continues. We are working on drawing a “detailed picture” ABOVE the line with CRAYON and writing a word below with pencil.
- We will continue “shared writing”. This is where we create stories together and the children help fill in missing letters or words. The format is My name is ____. I am ___ years old. I like ______. I do not like _____. Each child will have a chance to share the pen with the teacher and create a story. We will focus on letters vs. words vs. sentences, left to right reading, high frequency words and ‘writing the sounds we hear’ for unknown words. We will do this 25x, once for each student in the class before we move on to a different shared writing format.
What can you do at home?
- Read, read, read–every night! When reading, have your child point out our current word wall words “do, we, the”
- Ask your child to practice writing his/her name using ONE capital letter and the rest lower case.
- We are working on recognizing our birthdays–the month and day. Review at home!
Math:
Chapter 2, Go Math: Comparing numbers to 5; we will wrap up chapter 2 next week!
- Tally marks: tallying numbers up 10 remembering to “make a bundle with 5” and “circle groups of ten”.
- Number formation: We will practice forming numbers 1-10 using poems. These poems were sent home this past week. We have been practicing numbers 1-4. Next week we will focus on 5 and 6. We will practice them on whiteboards, on the smartboard, in salt and more.
- Counting to 20: We are practicing counting to 20 and are being extra careful with “13, 14, 15”
- Ten frames: representing numbers 1-10 on a ten frame. We have introduced the “double ten frame” and are starting to show numbers 1-15. We are learning that numbers 11-19 are, ” 1 group of ten with ___ ones left over”
- Comparing numbers 1-15 and naming them as less than, greater than or equal to.
What can you do at home?
- Practice counting 1-30
- Practice writing 1, 2, 3, 4, looking for proper formation using our number poems. Use crayons, markers, chalk, gel pens. The writing tool doesn’t matter, just practice the formation!
- Give your child a number and ask your child to show you that number with tally marks. Start with numbers 10 and under. If your child is confident with those numbers, move on to numbers greater than 10.
- Double ten frame: Print THIS out and use any kind of small manipulative at home (m and ms, beads, etc.) to show numbers 20 and under. You can write a number, your child shows it on the double ten frame OR you can show a number on the double ten frame and your child writes it. Name the double ten frame below as “one group of ten or one filled ten frame with 4 ones left over…that’s 14!” Count all the counters to get to 14, then model how you know a filled ten frame is 10, and COUNT ON from there to get to 14. “10…11, 12, 13, 14!” 14 is a 1 and a 4 because it’s 1 group of ten with 4 ones left over!
Religion:
We will continue to review the “holy family” and who is a part of the holy famiy–Jesus, Mary and Joseph. We will begin the next unit, “I am special to my FRIENDS.” We feel God’s love through our friends!
We will continue to attend 8am Mass. You are always welcome to join us. Doors will always open at 7:45, 5 minutes early, on Tuesdays. Please try to make this your “early day” for morning arrival. The kids will empty backpacks, sign in, use the bathroom and then we will get matched up with buddies before heading to church….all by 8am :). The earlier your child arrives, the better! 🙂