Almost the end of the Quarter.....

Can you believe we are almost through the second quarter? It feels like just yesterday I was meeting all the kiddos for 'Meet the Teacher', showing them where their cubbies were going to be. They have made a lot of growth from that first day and we have been working hard to master our quarter2 goals. Language Arts In reading, we have been working on identifying the story elements (character and setting) in fiction books. You can support this goal by asking your child to identify the character and setting in their favorite story. Heck, you can even ask them to identify the characters/setting in their favorite TV show! We have also been working on phoneme segmentation (being able to break a word into basic sounds) and nonsense word fluency (sounding out and reading made-up words). Your child will be assessed on these objectives at the end of the quarter with the goal for phoneme segmentation being 20 words a min and the goal for nonsense word fluency being 17 words a minute. In Letterland this week, we introduced "ck" words. In addition, we have been using the 'roller coaster trick' (using our shoulder, elbow, and wrist) to sound out CVC (simple 3 letter words made up of a consonant letter, vowel, and consonant letter). Sight Words: come, from As you know, the amount of sight words your child can read corresponds positively to the books they can read independently. To support this goal, ask your child to name all the sight words they can identify in a toy catalogue. If they name a specific amount (you can set an achievable goal), tell them you will put in a good word with Santa/grandma/grandpa about a special toy they want....just an idea:-) In writing, our focus is on creating 'pattern books'. That is, creating books that use the same language pattern (usually consisting of sight words) on each page. This week, we created books using the pattern, "I like to...". Math In math we finished up our following unit with numbers 11-20. Specifically, -identifying and correctly writing numbers 11-20 -creating groups that represent numbers 11-20 using our tens frame For example the number 16 would be XXXXX. XXXXX XXXXX. X -decomposing numbers 11-20 into a group of ten and some extra. For example, using the tens frame above, 16 would be 10 and 6 extra make 16 or 10 and 6 are partners that make 16. Homework I will not be sending a homework packet home this Friday. I will send some math activities to help reinforce concepts and continue reading to earn a book it certificate for a free pizza. These will be due December 2nd. The Most Wonderful Volunteers I just want to take a moment and thank the wonderful moms who help our class each and every week. They do everything from pulling small groups of kids to help them master various skills, to doing the down and dirty job of organizing/preparing all of our 'paperwork' .