Newsletter Updates for the Week of September 18th

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Thurs, September 21st—NWEA Testing—Reading

-Friday, September 22nd—NWEA Testing—Reading

-Monday, September 25th—DIBELS Testing

-Thurs. September 28th—NWEA Testing—Math

-Friday, September 29th—NWEA Testing—Math

-Friday, September 29th—Progress Reports Home

STUDENT OF THE WEEK: 

Our student of the week is Sarai Paz Garcia. Sarai enjoys singing, dancing, and running. Her favorite foods include sandwiches, eggs, and hot dogs; her favorite movie is My Little Pony. One of Sarai’s goals is to ride her bike; keep practicing Sarai and you’ll get it! Congratulations to Sarai on being our Student of the Week!

READING:

This week our reading lessons will focus on the letters S, T, U, V, W, X, Y & Z. We will also review the sightwords—I & can and practice identifying rhyming words in songs and nursery rhymes. Our focus story for this week is Kindergarteners Can which we will use to practice building our listening and comprehension skills.  This week we will introduce two new beanie baby strategies: Lips the Fish who reminds us to look at the first letter of the word and get our lips ready with that sound to help us figure out the words while we are reading, and Jabber the Reteller who reminds us that good readers can build their comprehension skills by recalling and retelling key elements from the story.

MATH:

We will focus on identifying and writing the numbers 6-9. We will practice describing and sorting shapes, as well as identifying and extending patterns.

WRITING:

We will wrap up our unit on Speaking & Listening as we talk about ‘things we know and can do.’ This week students will come up with their own story idea, practice picturing it in their minds, rehearse it by telling it to a partner, and then draw and write about it.  We will be talking about the importance of including colors and details and we’ll practice this by drawing a detailed picture of Mrs. Brinks.

SCIENCE & SOCIAL STUDIES:

Last week we released our butterflies and sent them on their long journey to Mexico. We also took a walking fieldtrip to the Butterfly Garden on Thursday and did some exploring of living things. This week we will continue learning about what living things need to survive and grow and we will also begin reading and talking about Fall and all of the changes that will be occurring.

VOLUNTEERING: 

I’ve tried to make contact with all of the parents who indicated on their surveys that they would like to volunteer in the classroom. I’m working on setting up some special projects in the coming weeks, so please let me know if and when you are available to come in and help out:)