Sunday, October 30, 2011

November 2011 Calendar


November 2011 Calendar -

Newsletter for the Week of October 31 - November 4, 2011


Newsletter for October 31 - November 4_ 2011 -

Halloween Party 2011

Here is a slideshow of pictures from our Halloween Party and Parade--Friday, October 28, 2011.  I hope that you enjoy!

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Unit 2, Week 2 - Armadillo's Orange

     This week our focus story will be Armadillo's Orange by Jim Arnosky.  This story teaches us the value of neighbors through the adventures of an endearing armadillo.  He insists on using a fallen orange to mark the entrance to his burrow and ignores the other animals he meets out and about each day.  When a sudden gust of wind, moves his landmark orange and he cannot find his way home, the armadillo realizes the value of having neighbors and friends.
      Our Target Skill of the week will be identifying the setting of a story.  We will also practice making predictions and placing events in sequential order.  We will be working to identify, form, and match the letter "Ss" to its sound--/s/.

Amazing Words: armadillo, burrow, tortoise, rattlesnake, grubs, insects

High-Frequency Words:  We will continue to practice the Popcorn Words "have" and "is", as well as review the words "I", "am", "the", "little", "to", and "a".  Please continue to practice these words at home as well!

Letter: Ss


Thank you to www.abbeychristian.com for the cover image!

Monday, October 24, 2011

Newsletter for the Week of October 24 - 28, 2011


Newsletter for October 24 - 28_ 2011 -

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Unit 2, Week 1 - Life in an Ocean


     This week our focus story will be Life in an Ocean by Carol K. Lindeen.  With this book, we will explore life as it exists in the ocean habitat. We will learn about the animals that call this habitat their home and how they adapt to their surroundings for survival.
     Our Target Skill this week will be comparing and contrasting.   The skill of classifying and categorizing information will continue to be revisited and assessed this week as well.  We will be working to identify, form, and match the letter "Aa" to its sound--/a/.  We will spend two weeks on the letter "Aa" this year, as all of the vowels can make two different sounds (short and long vowel sounds).  This week we will be focusing on the short "a" sound, as can be heard at the beginning of words such as "alligator", "ant", and "astronaut".

Amazing Words:  ocean, world, crab, shell, fish, seaweed

High-Frequency Words:  have, is  (Please continue to review "I", "am", "the", "little", "to", and "a".)

Letter:  Aa


Thank you to www.amazon.com for the cover image!

"T" Week--Tie Day Picture

Friday, October 21, 2011

Newsletter for the Week of October 17 - 21, 2011


Newsletter for October 17 -21_ 2011 -

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Unit 1, Week 6 - Dig Dig Digging

     This week our focus story will be Dig Dig Digging by Margaret Mayo and Alex Ayliffe.  This book will introduce us to 11 different vehicles that perform jobs from construction to rescue, using a variety of fun adjectives and verbs along the way.
     Our Target Skill this week will be classifying and categorizing. We will also continue to practice identifying the setting in a story.  We will be working to identify, form, and match the letter "Tt" to it's sound--/t/.

Amazing Words: scooping, swooshing, squelching, gobbling, spinning, and rumbling

High-Frequency Words:  We will continue to work with "to" and "a" for another week.  Also, please continue to review the following words: I, am, the, little.

Letter: Tt


Thank you to www.glasgow.gov.uk for the cover image!

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Fun Literacy Practice for Fall Break

      Here are 10 activities that you can do with your child at home to reinforce classroom experiences over Fall Break.  As we have just studied the letter "Mm" extensively so far, several of these activities are strictly related to reiterating that particular learning.

1. Listening: In each group, which words begin with the "Mm" sound? Which word has a different sound at the beginning? What sound does it begin with?

mail, milk, book      lemon, more, magnet       music, baby, man
muscles, comb, mix       bunny, money, mother       mud, bud, made
mill, mice, bill       meat, mitten, beat       bug, map, mug
moth, bay, may       moo, boo, middle       my, make, by

2. Listening: Which words in these sentences begin with the "Mm" sound?
a. Matthew had a ride on the merry-go-round.
b. Miss Mooney saw me at the store.
c. I will miss Mickey when he moves.
d. Melissa put money in her piggy bank.
e. Maria and Mike are getting married.

3. Play a word guessing game. Your answers should begin with the "Mm" sound.
a. What is white, good to drink, and comes from a cow? _______ (milk)
b. What does a cat say? _______ (meow)
c. What animal can swing by its tail and make funny faces? _____ (monkey)
d. What do some people wear over their faces on Halloween? ______ (masks)
e. What day comes after Sunday? ________ (Monday)

4. Play a listening and thinking game. Tell what is wrong with these sentences.
a. Music makes me mad.
b. Machines make work hard for men.
c. Marge wears mittens on her feet.
d. Mom makes mudpies for dinner.
e. The moon is made of green cheese.

5. Make a list of friends, relatives and favorite storybook characters with a name that begins with the "Mm" sound.

6. Show your child how to print "Mm" this way:
M: Make 2 straight lines from top to bottom. Put a dot in between the 2 lines at the bottom. Make a sliding board from each line at the top to the dot at the bottom.
m: Make a straight line from middle to bottom, pause, trace back up and around, pause, trace up and around again.



7. Visit http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/CompactforReading/tablek.html. Here you will find a variety of downloadable and printable activities to practice basic Kindergarten literacy skills.  


8.  Play "Candyland" a new way.: We have been practicing color word recognition for the past few weeks.  Play "Candyland" with your child, but instead of using the color cards that come with the game, make your own cards out of paper or index cards and write the color words on them instead.  


9.  Restaurants/stores as places of learning.  Restaurants and stores are great places to practice letter, number, and sound recognition, as well as shape and color identification.  Have your child point out things that are a certain shape/color, or that begin with a certain sound.  They can go on a "Letter Hunt", searching to see how many places that they can find that particular letter (This works well with numbers, too!).

10. Don't forget about our "Popcorn" Words!  Don't forget to continually practice our "popcorn", or sight, words.  The words that we have studied so far are: "I", "am", "the", "little", "to", and "a".  Have your child locate these words in various types of print (newspapers, magazines, books, DVD/movie cases, signs, advertisements, etc.  You can also make flashcards--but be sure to mix up the order from time to time! 


     I hope that you and your child have a wonderful and relaxing Fall Break!  I am looking forward to seeing the kiddos again on Tuesday, October 18th!


Thank you to http://mrsjonesroom.com/letter/all.html for some of the above ideas!

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Pictures from our field trip to Jackson's Orchard

Just click the play button below to view a slideshow of pictures from our trip
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Saturday, October 1, 2011