Week in Review--ABC's

Our poem this week was the ABC's. We practiced our zoo phonics motions with the poem all week and did a great job on our performance Friday!

Reading:

-Our sight word this week was the word “like”!

-The CAFÉ strategy we worked on this week was the strategy.

“GOOD FIT BOOKS”

Have you ever spoken with a doctor, auto mechanic, or computer support person that has given you advice or directions in a language that was difficult to understand? This is comparable to reading a book that is too difficult. For readers to have high success in reading, they must spend time reading material they can read with 99 ² 100 percent accuracy. We encourage students to select books that are a good fit so that they are successful and enjoy reading. Working on the strategy of reading appropriate level texts that are a good fit will help your child read smoothly, engaging in texts they can read without difficulty.

How can you help your child with this strategy at home?

1. When your child goes to read a text, have him or her use the I-Pick method. Ask your child why that specific book was chosen. Ask your child “Is that a good-fit book for you?” The I-PICK method is described below.

I--I pick a book

P--Purpose (What is my purpose for choosing this book?)

I--Interest (Am I interested in this book?)

C--Comprehend (Do I understand what I just read?)

K--Know (Do I know most of the words?)

2. Model the I-Pick method for your child. Take a book you are reading and go through I-Pick to set an example for what it looks like and sounds like to review reading selection choices.

3. Help your child recognize when a text is too difficult. They are taught to ask:

• Are there five or more words on a page that I don’t know?
• Is this book hard to understand?
• When I read it does it sound choppy and slow?

Students practicing Work on Writing!

We practiced our consonants this week and finished the week off by putting our  names up on our classroom Word Wall according to the first letter in their name.

Math:

-This week in math, we were introduced to the five main 2D shapes that we will be learning throughout the year. All week we played games, traced shapes with our math tubs and play-doh and even painted the shapes! One of our favorite games was to spy shapes around the classroom. The five main shapes we focus on in kindergarten are circle, triangle, square, rectangle and hexagon.

Writing:

-We continued to focus on correctly writing various letters in the alphabet. We are almost all the way through all 26 letters. Once we finish with the letters, we will begin to get into our normal writing time routine with introducing and practicing the Writing Workshop model.

-Before we practice writing our letters the correct way, we always watch a video for that specific letter. Below is an example of one of the letters we watched this week.

Content: -This week was all about the ABC’s! We focused mainly on our consonants and one of our favorite games we played this week was “Mrs. Brown Says”. They did such a good job; I wasn’t able to trick all of them! We also read several ABC books and finished the week off completing an activity with our first names that went along with the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. 

Other: -Something new!! We started a “Homework Club” in class and the students and I are all excited about it. Every week, I send homework home on Monday and the students have all week to complete it and turn it in on/before Friday. On Friday morning, I go through the homework basket and pass out each of the pages. The students who have all three items turned in completed, will get to keep their picture in the “homework club”. At the end of every month, the students who are still in the club will get to celebrate by having lunch in the room with me! when the next month begins, all of the students go back into the club for a chance to have lunch in the room again! Good luck and don’t forget to do your homework!

-Our fantastic P.E. teacher Mr. Z creates an exercise program for the students at our school to exercise to called PEP. We started exercising this week and love every minute of it! I pick two students every day who are considered the best "peppers" of the day and they get a classroom certificate!

PRACTICE AT HOME:

Begin practicing beginning sounds in words with your child. We are just now practicing this skill, but the extra practice at home is crucial. Say a word and have your child tell you the first sound they hear in the word. For example, if you said “dog” the first sound is “d” or “couch” the first sound is “c”. Encourage your child to say the sound and not the letter name. 

Next week:

--In writing, we will continue practicing a different letter of the alphabet each day until we are through all 26 letters!

--In math, we will continue to focus on shapes all week! We will explore how you can manipulate shapes to create pictures and other shapes.

--In reading, we will continue to practice building our stamina for Read to Self, Work on Writing and will begin a third choice WORD WORK.

--Our theme next week is “FAMILY”. Please send in a picture of your child’s family with him/her on Monday. We will be sharing them all week with our class!