Week in Review--ABC's & Names

Reading:

In reading this week, we have pretty much become experts in Read to Self. We gained and consistently kept so much reading stamina that we were able to learn our new choice called Work on Writing. We learned all of the materials needed, how to use a book from our book boxes, where the paper is found and how to use the crayon pouch and keeping our area organized while writing. I modeled how a WOW (Work on Writing) session would look and after that they took off! Their first round of building stamina, they made it to 18 MINUTES! They did not stop writing, drawing, illustrating, coloring for 18 MINUTES! They worked and worked and did not give up, all while building their writing stamina. We also started to learn how to "shop" for new books in our book boxes. Students picked through a pile of books to find a good fit book that they would want to read during Read to Self. Soon, students will be choosing books at their reading level and from our classroom library! Next week, we will discuss and focus in on print concepts and all of the parts of a book!

We have focused in on the sounds each of the letters make these first two weeks of school and I can already tell this class is going to be blending those sounds and reading in no time! We use our Zoo Phonics videos, letter cards and songs every day to practice these sounds. We also find the sounds in words we write and we love to go on a letter sound hunt to find them too!

Our new sight words: see, the

**Be sure to keep the white sight word cards from week to week and continue to practice all of them as new ones are sent home every week.

Our Poem of the Week:

Writing:

This week we continued to focus on writing specific letters in the alphabet. The letters this week were Dd, Cc, Ee, Ff, Gg. Everyday we go through an alphabet chart, sing a song all about that specific letter, trace a letter page with the uppercase and lowercase letter and complete another activity or craft that goes along with the letter. We love learning what each new letter will be everyday!

Math:

We learned numbers 9 & 10 this week and then continued to focus on a specific number each day, as well as practicing counting as high as we can (we made it to 100 as a class!!!), counting out a specific number of objects one by one and recognizing numbers 1-10 by playing Swat-It! We completed an entry of “Number of the Day” on white boards and I did mine in Book Creator on the iPad in my math journal. Students will soon be completing their own entries in their own math journals on the iPad! After just a week of working on number of the day and writing our numbers 1-10 I have seen an improvement every single day in each student! Their confidence is growing in writing numbers, drawing shapes and writing the number words!

Content:

This week was all about ABC’s and our Names!

• Monday--We counted the letters in each of our names and added them to our class word wall.
• Tuesday--We cut the letters in our names apart and put them back in the right order and then drew a self portrait doing something we love.
• Wednesday--We ripped up paper and and glued the ripped up pieces on the lines of the letters of our names. Not only is it fun to rip up paper but it’s great practice for fine motor skills and building strength in their hands.
• Thursday--We finished up ripping the paper and gluing it down and also traced our names and wrote them on our own and drew a picture!
• Friday--We read one of my favorite stories called Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. In this story all of the letters in the alphabet climb up a coconut tree and it topples over. After reading the story, we made our own coconut palm trees and took the letters of our name and had them climb up the tree!

PRACTICE AT HOME:

Have your child count as high as they can. The goal for the first nine weeks is to 25, then by the end of December 50, March 75 and May 100!

Next Week:

• In reading we will continue building stamina with reading and writing as well as learning a new choice Word Work. We will continue practicing our letter sounds and focus on print concepts.
• In writing we will continue learning a letter every day!
• In math we will continue practicing counting, focusing on numbers 1-10 and will learn about a number line.
• Our theme next week is all about FAMILIES! A note was sent home on Friday to send in a picture of your child's family. We will share these throughout the week.

Important Dates/Information:

**Go to our classroom webpage if you want to see important dates on a calendar! I will update this classroom calendar as dates and events come about.

• 9/5 Labor Day NO SCHOOL
• 9/19 School Pictures
• 9/22 Field Trip to Exploration Acres (more information to come)
• 9/29 Author Visit
• 10/14 End of 1st Nine Weeks
• Week of 10/17-10/21 Parent/Teacher Conferences