Week of 10/26

Sight word:the

Word study: ending sounds t,n,p,f

Blue book: Week 10

Fall Festival

Our Fall Fest is on Friday! Please remember no masks, or costume weapons. Send your child's costume in a bag, we will have time to get dressed before the parade. Families are welcome to come watch our Costume Parade:

A.M. Class Parade will be inside at 10:30. Families can line up in the office area.
P.M. Class Parade will be outside at 2:30 (weather permitting, dress in layers). Families can line up along the playground fence.

**Thank you to all the families who donated books from our Book Fair to our Classroom Library!! It is greatly appreciated and the class will enjoy reading them during our read to self time! **

Book Buddy Bags

This week your child will be coming home with a book buddy bag. Inside this bag is a book that your child has been reading during our small group reading instruction time (Guided Reading). Some days there will be a book in there of their choice. Please have your child practice reading the book and return to school every day. You will also find a letter explaining the bag and strategies you can work on with your child when reading.

RAZ Kids

Last week I sent home a login code for the RAZ Kids website/app. This is another great resource for practicing reading with leveled books. Your child can read on the  RAZ kids app on a  tablet or on the computer.  If your child has read the guided reading book a few times and is looking for a different book, he/she can log on and read! 

Week of 10/19

Sight Words: it, in, at, on, a
Word Study: ENDING sounds b,m,s,r

Book Fair Family Night

Family night runs from 4:30-7:00. Listen to local author (who is also Jenkin's Dad), Eric VanRaepenbusch, read some stories and shop for books! It will be a great night!

Conference Nights

Conferences are this Thursday, October 22nd and next Thursday, October 29th. I look forward to talking with everyone!

Week of October 12

Sight Word: at
Word Study: beginning sounds y,v,z,q

Writer's Workshop

We started writer's workshop this week and everyone loved it! It is so much fun to be an author just like the authors we have read this school year! We will be focusing on writing narratives (things that have happened in our lives ex. going to baseball games, playing outside, going to school). A big focus for our writing will be stretching out words. I really encourage the kids to do their best spelling by recording the sounds they hear in words (not always correct spelling). At this point in the year, there is a wide range of spelling. Some will be recording only beginning sounds, beginning and ending, some middle sounds and dominant sounds of words and sight words. As we learn new sight words each quarter I will expect them to spell those words correctly. We will also focus on mechanics (putting spaces, between words, first letter capital and period at the end!).

Writing is a huge process. Kids have to think about a lot during writing: coming up with an idea,

forming letters, recording sounds, writing words, remembering to put in spaces. It can be frustrating for some kids. Below I posted a few examples of writing and an activity we do to help practice spelling, mechanics, and sentence structure as well as reading! I hope this will be helpful for everyone to get an idea of our writing process!

The pictures above show the process we go through to construct a sentence. First we think of what we want to say, usually one sentence at a time. Next the students say their sentence a few times out loud so that they know which words they want to write. They also count how many words they will write on their page. Sometimes I will highlight a line to represent each words they are going to write. Third they begin to write. I encourage the kids to reread their sentence many times to make sure they aren't forgetting anything. I have them reread their sentence after each word is written and again when they finish the entire sentence.

As a class and in small groups, we practice going through the process above together. First we come up with a sentence (or sometimes I give them a sentence) and we say it out loud together. Then I highlight a line for each word on a sentence strip or piece of paper. We say each word as we point to each line. Next we write it, I have the students take turns writing words or single letters on the strips. We also stretch out all the words to hear the sounds, unless it is one of our 20 sight words, then I encourage correct spelling. Later in the year, students will be expected to be spelling CVC words (consonant-vowel-consonant ex. cat, dog, bed, etc.)

Next, I cut up the sentence and mix it up. Then I have the students put it back together and read it back! Sometimes we mix it up a few times!

We use a Popsicle stick to help us remember to put spaces between our words.

This student uses some beginning, middle and ending sounds by recording the dominant sounds heard.

Here is an example of  recording only the beginning sounds.

Here is a link to a video of a student going through the writing process to help you get an idea!

Week of 10/5

Sight Word: on
Word Study: beginning sounds f,w,j,k
Blue Book: Week 6

Book Fair

This Week you will receive some information on our Book Fair! Our book fair will be the week of  October 19. Book Fair family night is on Wednesday October 21 4:30-7 . I will not be sending home our scholastic book club flyers this month because of the book fair. However, if there are some books you wanted from the monthly flyer, I can still place an order! Thanks so much!