News from the Jungle

Many of the children in class are loving the resurgence of the Avengers, Spiderman, and other superheroes. Although these movies are fun, the children are becoming too aggressive with each other when playing make believe during the day. This is becoming a distraction during the lessons, as well as, promoting unsafe behavior and causing injury at recess times. Please speak with your children about appropriate behavior at school.

I hope you all enjoy the weekend. I am looking forward to the cooler temperatures next week and am looking forward to a lot of learning next week!

**** Please see the note in Housekeeping about headphones****

Upcoming Events

9/28 No school for Kindergarten students ONLY!!!

9/28 Haigh Movie Night

Agenda for the Week

Reading and Writing: We learned the letters B and Y and focused on the sound of each letter. The children brainstormed items that begin with each letter and completed activities which helped them find, identify, and write these letters.

The children participated in writer’s workshop and learned how to use an imaginary rubber band to help stretch out words, in order to listen to the sounds within each word. We discussed how important knowing letters sounds are because they help us to be better writers and better readers.

We also discussed the parts of a sentence. We learned that sentences begin with an uppercase letter, have spaces in between words, and end with a period. The children enjoyed watching this video in class which helped to teach these concepts:

Here is a video which promotes letter recognition of uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as, letter sounds.

Please remember to watch the How-To videos which I have made to help your child at home with name practice, letter recognition, and letter sound acquisition.

If your child already has mastered these skills, feel free to watch the sight word video or reading comprehension video to help your child continue their academic growth.

We continued practicing one rotation of Daily 5. The children reviewed that there are three ways to read a book 1) read the words 2) read the pictures 3) retell the story. The children used these strategies during our Daily 5 – Read to Self rotation to read books quietly and build stamina. We will continue practicing these strategies next week and begin learning our word work rotation, as well as work on writing.

Math: We are learning about same and different, number quantities 1-5, and that the orientation of a group of objects (whether in a row or column) does not change the number of objects represented. The children learned many vocabulary words such as sort, row, column, and quantity.

At home, please practice writing numbers 1 – 20 with your child. They should be practicing how to recognize these numbers, as well as be able to write them. Counting objects with one-to-one correspondence is another skill you can work on at home. You may do this while you are giving your child a snack. If you give them grapes for a snack, have them count the grapes one at a time, while moving the grapes from one side of the plate to the other side of the plate.

We also practiced subitizing. This is the ability to look at a quantity and tell immediately how many are there. We did this with fingers, counters, and a rekenrek. Below is a great video on subitizing that we will be using in class next week:

Here are a few math videos to promote number sense at home:

Below are 2D and 3D shape videos:

Science: This week we began discussing our 5 senses. We talked about what we use our nose, eyes, hands, ears, and tongue for and which sense they match. Next week, we will continue learning about our 5 senses and complete activities to solidify this concept for the children.

Social Studies: We continued focusing on learning the rules of the classroom and school. We are working hard at being good listeners. The children are having difficulty at lunch. Please help them be more successful at lunch by showing them at home how to clean up after they are done eating.

Housekeeping Items:

Headphones: If you have not yet sent in a pair of headphones for your child, please do so as soon as possible. We will be getting on the computers in our room each day, and I would like to set up some routines and procedures for the children to follow using their own headphones during technology time. We ask that you send in a pair of headphones because it is more sanitary for all the children and helps to decrease the occurrence of things such as lice, as well as other things.

Name Practice

If your child is struggling with writing their name and other letters, it is important that you work with them at home on this skill. We are spending time in class working on these skills, but will be moving on quickly and if your child is struggling to form letters, they will struggle to complete their work. Here is a great resource for handwriting practice: https://www.handwritingworksheets.com/flash/printdots/index.htm

Snack Time

Please be sure to put the snack in a separate place from their lunch. Please show your child where you will put their snack each day in order to foster independence for them. Sometimes, when the snack is packed inside the lunchbox, the children try to eat their whole lunch at snack time. Thank you for your assistance in separating your child’s snack and lunch.

Snacks should be healthy to provide the children with energy for their day. Please send a simple snack such as fruit, vegetables, cheese, and crackers. Please do not send candy as a snack. Juice and milk are not allowed in our classroom. Please do not send any kind of juice box or milk with your child for snack time. The children may have the juice or milk for lunch in the cafeteria.

ALLERGY ALERT: We have nut allergies in our room. Please make sure that you are not sending any snacks which contain any nuts. Our room is NUT FREE!

Folders

Please make sure to empty the folder each night! It is very difficult and time consuming to locate homework or important notes when the folder is full of papers from the day before. Please be sure to send the folder to school each day. It is a big part of our arrival and dismissal routines and the folders help the children keep all of their papers organized.

Change of clothes

Please send in a change of clothes (pants, shirt, underwear, socks) in a gallon bag with their name clearly written on the baggie. My most frequent call home is to ask for parents to bring a change of clothes to school. Even the most disciplined children have accidents at school sometimes. We have so much fun during the day that sometimes the children do not want to stop to use the bathroom when needed. Not only do bathroom accidents happen, but sometimes the playground equipment is wet or the ground is muddy. Having a change of clothes at school makes it easy for me and for you to help your child feel clean and comfortable in the quickest way possible. We will leave the baggie of clothes in their locker at school.