August 18, 2011 Newsletter

Reminders

No School for children August 19, 2011

Staff Development Day

Tardy bell rings at 7:45.  Try to get your children in the front door by that time.  It really helps to be able to start the day on time. 

Please remember to turn in all the paperwork you got on the first day.  I am still missing some of the paperwork.  The orange emergency card is very important to have. 

Back to school bash tomorrow night!

Remember to use the specials cycle calendar I laminated for you so you can keep up with the cycle days.  PE is Cycle day 3.  Put the strip up on the refrigerator and move a magnet across it to remember to wear tennis shoes. 

You may also send in the $6.00 checks made payable to Scholastic Books for the “Let’s Find Out” subscription.  Everyone should have gotten a sample issue of Parent and Child Magazine that comes as a part of the order.  They are filled with information about child development and learning.   Thank you so much to those of you who have already sent in the money. 

We have had a great start to the year.  We are working hard on learning the routine and getting to know each other.  The main issue we are having at this point is just remembering to be quiet during instruction and paying attention to directions.  Overall, they have done very well.  We had a practice fire drill Wednesday and they were very well behaved.  I was proud of their behavior.  We have started workshops and Reading groups should be in place in a week or so.  I am assessing them using the Early Literacy Survey which we will do three times a year.  As they begin reading more I will also be doing the DRA to get a reading level.  MAP assessments on the computer will start soon.  We will also complete them three times this year to track progress. 

Homework

We will begin sending homework home after Labor Day.  I wanted to give them a chance to get used to being in school all day before we started.  In the homework there will be small reading books and a reading log which belong to the school and me.  Please keep them in the folder so they are not lost.  They are to be read each night to you by your child.  This will help with concepts of print, print tracking, text memorization, fluency and sight word recognition.  Thank you in advance for your work on homework.  It should take no more than 15 minutes each night.  I will send the folders home on Monday and they are due Thursday.

Baby Pictures

Please send in a baby picture of your child.  I promise I will take care of them and send them back to you when we are finished.  We are learning about life cycles in science and “All about me” in Social Studies and in the reading series.  They are also doing a writing piece about how they have changed over time.  I really do appreciate being able to get them.  If you don’t mind, I would love for you to also write a little story with them about something they did or liked as a baby that was so sweet, unusual, funny or cute.  I want to read those to the class. 

Reading

Even though we have not started reading groups we are working on literacy skills.  We are singing and using hand signs for the phonics chants and letter sound songs.  We have begun writing instruction and are writing in our journals.  We are learning about writing the sounds we hear and are building a word wall for the classroom.  We have added the words I, a, and can.  We are also learning the front cover, back cover, spine and title page on a book as well as the title, author and illustrator.  We are learning to rhyme and learning about the punctuation marks called a period.  We have been busy.  They are great at listening to me while I read.  They really attend and remain engaged during read aloud time. 

Math

We are still waiting on our new math workbooks but we have begun learning to identify the numbers 1 through 5 as well as write them.  We are learning number writing poems to help us with formation.  We are also looking at things and deciding if they are the same or different and tell why.  We are grouping objects into categories based on attributes. 

Workshops

1.     Math- Number formation and recognition.  The children are using dry erase boards to write the numbers 1, 2 and 3.  They are reading number poems and practicing correct formation.  They will bring the book home once they complete the number 10. 

2.     Literacy -Dry erase boards.  Children are using the boards to practice writing letters and words. 

3.     Writing Workshop- The children are making fish for the classroom door and writing about themselves using the sentence stem I am ____. 

4.     Literacy- Pasta with Numbers and Letters to sort.  The children are sorting through dried pasta to find letters and numbers.  They record the letters and numbers found on a recording sheet.

5.     Science- Living and NON- living sort- The children cut pictures out of magazine of living and non living things to glue on a sorting chart.  They are learning about the basic needs of organisms and life cycles. 

Have a wonderful weekend together!!