Looking Ahead:

• September 16-25: Cookie Dough School Fundraiser
• Friday, September 27: Dollar Dress Down Day
• Friday, September 27: Scholastic Book Orders Due: Scholastic Reading Club (use class activation code: Y8WGR)
• October 1: Picture Retakes

Here’s a quick overview of new things we learned this week:

Comprehension strategy/skill: “Ask and Answer Questions” and “Characters”. We read a fable, a fantasy, and an informational text to go along with our theme “How can we get along with friends?”

Power Words: “I“, “can” “a” and “the” (please practice these)

Phonics: Sound and Spelling of Mm.

Phonemic Awareness: We work all year on rhyming words, chunking words into syllables, first and last sounds we hear in words, adding and taking away and replacing words in compound words, and blending 3 sounds to make a word (consonant-vowel-consonant or CVC words).

Math: Lesson 4 “Count, Show, and Write Numbers to 5”. We are also working in our individual math lessons in iReady, counting to 20 and reading and writing our numbers 0-10. In addition, we are identifying which number comes next when we hear any number 1-99. You can help us at home by saying a random number 1-99 and asking us which number comes next.

Science: This week, we investigated how to bring light and warmth to a cold mountain town that doesn’t see the sun throughout winter. (This lesson is actually based on the story of a real town in Norway!) Students experimented with different materials and discovered that sunlight can be redirected using reflective materials. You can encourage your child’s curiosity at home! For example, is the sidewalk hotter in the sun or in the shade? Why is it helpful to park a car in the shade during the hot summer? Encourage your child to notice the heating effects of the sun all around them!

We are sending a “Practice At Home” paper today that can be returned next Friday (Sept. 20) as an incentive for students to practice new skills at home. They can earn “super stars” when returned with a parent’s signatures which helps them earn a trip to the treasure chest!

(I just discovered a typo on the page. It says Friday, Sept. 19 but it should say Friday, Sept. 20)

We are also sending your child home with two decodable texts. We are reading decodable texts several times throughout the day: together as a class, whisper reading to ourselves, in small groups, and with a partner. I can’t stress enough the importance of decodable texts. Students feel like readers and can be successful because all the words can either be sounded out or are high frequency words (“power words”) that we’ll be learning and reviewing in class. They’ll be exposed to the power words and letter sounds many times. If they are unable to read the decodable texts, please practice the power words and letter sounds consistently. Most kids need 4-40 repetitions to learn something new, but struggling readers may need to see it 40-200 times before it becomes automatic. Please continue to read to them at home and have them start reading the decodable texts to you. I hope they’ll soon be excited to show off their new reading skills to you, grandparents, siblings, or anyone that will listen! 🙂

We are excited to begin Unit 1 in Language Arts. Here are the high frequency words, oral vocabulary words, and letters we will be mastering in the next 3 weeks. We’ve learned two additional sight words (or “power words”) to be added to this list: “I” and “can”. We will also be working on syllables, and identifying the beginning and ending sounds of words.

Dear Parents,

It’s very important that students know all their letter names and sounds by the end of October and we’d like to help motivate their efforts in doing so!  We are practicing hard at school, but for many students, they need extra practice with flashcards, etc. at home as well.  We’d like to have an ice cream party on Nov. 8 and celebrate everyone’s hard work at reaching this goal.  Here’s the plan: 

• mastery of 13 letters* and sounds = ice cream
• mastery of 18 letters* and sounds = ice cream + caramel or chocolate syrup
• mastery of all 26 letters* and sounds = ice cream + caramel or chocolate syrup + sprinkles!

*Includes both uppercase and lowercase letters

And for students who have already mastered all their letter names and sounds, we’d like to challenge them in their fluency: (Note: the goal for the middle of the year in letter naming fluency is 55 letter names per minute). I will send parents a separate email this coming week if your child is ready for the fluency challenge.

• 30-35 letter names per minute = ice cream
• 35-40 letter names per minute = ice cream + caramel or chocolate syrup
• 40+ letter names per minute = ice cream + caramel or chocolate syrup + sprinkles

Be watching for a permission form a couple weeks before our party.

(If you’ve lost your flashcards or want to make an extra set, see the printable set on our previous blog post)

If you can’t find your flashcards or want an extra set, here’s an easy set to print two-sided (the target goal is to go through BOTH sides of the flashcards in random order in a minute).

Looking Ahead:

• Friday, September 27: Dollar Dress Down Day
• Friday, September 27: Scholastic Book Orders Due: Scholastic Reading Club (use class activation code: Y8WGR)

**Thank you for the wonderful response for volunteers!

Here’s a quick overview of new things we learned this week:

New Power Word: “the” (read AND spell)

Phonics: Reviewing the letter names and sounds of the alphabet.

Phonemic Awareness: Rhyming repetition, onset fluency, blending compound words, and isolating the final sound of words.

Math: Lesson 2 “Describe and Compare Length and Height” (sorry we forgot to send the math packet home today!) We explored different ways to show a number (using objects, pictures, domino dots, 10 frames and counters, counting cubes, writing a numeral, etc.).

Science: This week we have been making observations about how sunshine heats things up. And we’ve noticed that things stay cooler if they are in the shade.

Specials: We went to the library for the first time today and loved it! Ms. Anderson always has amazing books and lessons to share! We haven’t checked out books yet. We also had our writing specials for the first time today with Mrs. Hadley.

We have a very sweet class and I’ve watched several acts of kindness between them as they start to form new friendships and enjoy being with each other and helping each other. Thanks so much for sharing them with us! Kindergarteners are the best! 🙂

Looking Ahead:

• Friday, September 27: Dollar Dress Down Day
• Friday, September 27: Scholastic Book Orders Due: Scholastic Reading Club (use class activation code: Y8WGR)

**Thank you for the wonderful response for volunteers during Center Time! We would appreciate a couple more volunteers that could work with students one-on-one with their alphabet from 8:30-9:00 Monday, Thursday or Friday mornings (starting September 9). If interested, please email me: lteichert@questac.org

Here’s a quick overview of some of the things we’ve been learning:

Practice: We’ve learned and practiced new procedures, how to correctly use the supplies in our classroom and logging into new programs on the Ipads like iReady and Lexia.

Power Words: “I“, “Can”

Phonics: Reviewing the letter names and sounds of the alphabet.

Phonemic Awareness: We started learning sounds from our sound wall. We look closely at how our mouths forms these sounds including what our tongue, teeth and lips are all doing.

Math: Lesson 1 “Describe position”. We practiced positional terms like above, below, in front of, behind, next to and beside.

Science: Completed our summer “Weather Watcher” form in preparation for our Seasons Lesson in the future.

Social Studies: The importance of rules, why we have them, and practiced following our own classroom rules. We’re also learning the names of everyone in our class and practiced writing our own name.

We’re finishing up the beginning of year testing this week, had our first fire drill, smiled for picture day, and we’re looking forward to starting our “Specials” classes on Friday: Library and Writing.

A math packet will be sent home almost each week in students’ take home folders. They don’t need to be returned, but you are welcome to use them for extra practice to reinforce skills taught in class. Plus, they give you a chance to see what concepts we are learning in math!

This is such a great class! They have done a great job learning procedures and following directions and we’re getting ready to jump into more curriculum!

We’re looking for some wonderful volunteers to help with Center Time (starting next week, Tuesday, September 3).

Center Time: 10:40-11:20 Mondays-Thursdays

During Center Time, volunteers will be monitoring and helping students while they work on lessons on their iPads, paper assignments, and quiet handwriting activities on the floor. Answering questions, helping with iPads and helping them stay on task would be your main job. Ms. Becky and Ms. Lisa will be working with small groups at the same time. We would depend on you being there, so please consider this carefully before committing.

Most volunteers enjoy coming in once a week on the same day, while some are able and want to come more than once a week. Please indicate what you prefer and the day(s) that work for you. I’ll do my best to coordinate your preferences, depending on how many volunteers I hear from. If interested, please email me: lteichert@questac.org

Thank you so much for being willing to help! Centers run that much more smoothly with the extra hands!

Picture Day is Wednesday, August 28- All students will have their pictures taken. We use these pictures for our name badges and school yearbook.

Wear school UNIFORMS, no spirit shirts (in the Spring there will be a dress down picture day)

A popular item to purchase is a class photo. The class photo is included in most of the packages. It can also be purchased individually. Please note: in the past class photos have been delivered at a later date than individual student photos.

If you choose to purchase pictures, you can pay online at: Lifetouch
Online code is: EVTRB883H