Week of 9/20-9/24

Wow, Cool, Ooo-Eee..We're So Excited We're Learning To Read!!!


Language Arts
We sang that song this morning to kick of our day, and I think it's fitting. We have been busy reading and building words this week. We have continued to work hard on the short /a/ sound and reading and spelling words with that sound. We also talked a lot about word order, and the order of words make up sentences. If the words aren't the right order, the sentence doesn't make sense. Ask your child to tell you the two very important parts of a sentence!

Our story this week was called, The Van. We read it together, to ourselves, and even with partners. We also made lots of predictions, and used pictures from the story to help us make those predictions. They are doing just great! We also learned a fun song to the tune of Do Your Ears Hang Low to help us learn about the short /a/ sounds. (See words just below)

Jazz Band

Sam can tap his drum
ratta, tatta, tatta, tum.
Jan can play a jazzy sax
and so can her cousin Max.
If you clap your hands together
you can join our happy band.
It's a grand jazz band.


We also did lots of spelling/phonics practice too . We built the words using letter tiles, we did "Magic Spelling" where we wrote our words with white crayone, painted over them, and our words appeared (see pics below), and used whiteboards to help us.


Math
In math, we began Chapter one which worked on the concept of Fewer, More, and Same. We also talked about before, after, between, and greater than (we talked about giving GREAT big hugs) and less than (little and lower are helper words to help us remember this). Anytime you can use these words at home to help reinforce would be great!! We also played a fun game that you can play at home too. It's called Greater Than You. (Basically it's like the old game called War..flip two cards, decide which one is greater and that person keeps the cards. Even better, make a set of cards (notecards would work great) with numbers up to 20 and play, so they get lots of practice with the teen numbers!)


Other
We also had MAP tests in both math and reading this week. I will let you know when those results will be available to you. It will most likely be at conference time.


We also had Mrs. Folven visit our class and she helped us learn all of the different kind of "smarts" there are, such as word smart, number smart, people smart, nature smart, etc. We read a fun stor called A Hat for Ivan about a boy who wears lots of different hats, and trying to find the one that fits him the best.


Mrs. Butzer came in for a bit and talked with us about our feelings, and how what we think effects what we do, and how what we do effects how we feel.


Next week, we will begin math groups and flex reading groups. Your child may go to a different teacher for either one of these groups. Let me know if you have any questions!


REMINDER THERE IS A 2 HOUR LATE START ON WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29TH!!!


It was a wonderful week, despite all of this rain! Have a great weekend!!

Playing "Greater Than You" in math

Magic Spelling

Whiteboard Phonics

Mrs. Folven