Newsletter Updates for the Week of September 14th

DATES TO REMEMBER:
-Tuesday, September 15—Picture Day

-Monday, September 21—Delayed Start (10:00)

We had a busy first week getting to know each other and beginning to

establish our classroom routines. It will take a few weeks to get the routines down. Friday was an especially busy day as we chased the Gingerbread Man all around the school. We

visited many places and met several important people who work at our school. We finally found our Gingerbread Man back in our classroom and we quickly gobbled him up before he could run away again. The students were very excited; I hope you had a chance to hear all about it.

PICTURES:

Our picture day is tomorrow—Tuesday, September 15th.  ALL students WILL be photographed for the yearbook and library cards. If you’d like to purchase pictures, please be sure to send in your payment and completed envelope by tomorrow morning. Don’t forget your SMILE!

SPECIALS:

This week we will begin our normal schedule for specials:

Gym—Tuesday & Wednesday

Music—Tuesday—our new teacher is Mrs. Wheeler

Library—Thursday—every other week

BOOK BOXES: 

I still have a few students who need to bring in their 5-8 books from home. We will begin reading from our own book boxes by the end of this week. We will learn 3 ways to read a book - reading by looking at the pictures, retelling a familiar story from memory, & reading the words.  Our goal is that students will begin seeing themselves as ‘readers.’

READING: 

The next three weeks we will be focusing on learning our letters by studying the letters in our names. We will introduce 1-2 letters each day and do several activities with the focus letter(s).  Once we’ve made it through the entire alphabet, we will then start an in-depth study of each letter, spending a week on each letter. This week our reading lessons will focus on the letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G, & H. We will also introduce our first sightword—I. We will spend time learning the parts of a book and practice tracking print from left to right as we read and recite familiar Nursery Rhymes.

WRITING: 

This week we will complete a couple of journals about ourselves—a self-portrait and what we like to do at school. Students will be practicing writing their names, handwriting the letters A-H, & writing simple sentences using the sightword I. When practicing writing your child’s name with them at home, please be sure to begin with an uppercase letter and use lowercase for the rest of their name. Also, when forming our letters, we always stress starting our letters at the top:)

MATH: 

We will be learning how to identify and write the numbers 0, 1, & 2. We will also practice counting items using one-to-one correspondence and work on building numbers using different manipulatives. When practicing at home, please refer to the Number Rhymes handout that you received in your ‘First Day of School’ folder:)

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES:  

This week we will continue to read many books about starting school and what it means to be a ‘good friend.’ We will continue to learn about the lifecycle of a butterfly.  We will also learn about the American Flag and learn the Pledge of Allegiance.