September 17, 2010

Dear Families,

Yet another busy week and the first full week at that! The children seem tired but happy and we’re moving ahead with all areas of study.

During Fundations this week, we reviewed letter names and sounds and even more importantly…formation! We’ve been seeing some, shall we say, creative letter writing! All students are benefitting from the printing review. Both Mrs. McGuire and I have shared with the classes that in order to communicate effectively with writing, letters and words need to be read easily by others. We sky write each letter (ask your child to show you) and then use special Fundations paper with a sky line (again, ask your child to explain), plane line, grass line and worm line to help children form letters properly. They seem to enjoy the exercises!

About homework…until we begin formal reading groups, the reading homework will consist of you and your child sharing books each day. Many of you will still be reading to your child, but ask to see if your child recognizes any words they know on the page. Many children know the words “the”, “my”, “to” and other words and are excited to find those words on book pages! Beginning Monday, I’ll put a reading graph in your child’s homework folder. Each night, please read to/with your child for at least 15 minutes. Have your child color in an apple for each 15 minutes you spend with books! I’ll collect them from the folders the following Monday! If your child needs more printing practice, you’ll find paper and instructions in the homework folder on Monday as well. I usually send home the reading and spelling homework on Monday and collect it on Friday.

Math update…the class as a whole seems to love the Bridges program. Lessons early in the school year are meant to introduce daily routines and review and extend skills from kindergarten. Each day children have “number corner.” It has several calendar activities and then a short lesson. Children are learning to recognize patterns, identify coins by name and value, practice telling time to the hour, in addition to having daily lessons practicing addition and subtraction strategies.

You’ll notice that a fundraising packet came home today with your child. This year our school chose a company called Meadow Farms Fundraising. The directions are on the envelope and seem clear enough. Inside there are directions for online ordering if that seems easier for your family. As always, fundraising is a choice. If you choose to participate in the fundraising, checks are payable to Hinesburg Community School and packets are due on October 1^st. Thanks!

Thanks to Ryann for being our first Star Student of the Week! Her mom, Elisabeth, and her baby brother, Lucas, came in to share all about Ryann! We learned that Ryann likes all shades of blue, but turquoise most of all. Her first word was “shoes” and she’d like to be a horseback riding teacher when she grows up! Happy birthday, Ryann!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Classroom News September 10, 2010

It’s really hard to believe it’s already September 10th and two weeks of school have been put to bed! Your children are settling in very well! It can be challenging at times with two classes, but we’re all learning how to adapt!
We’ve begun assessing children to see what they learned and remembered over the summer. The assessments are primarily literacy based and give us a sense of where to begin reading and spelling instruction. Next week we’ll begin formal spelling and phonics instruction using the Fundations program. This week we practiced reading centers so the children get a feel for how reading group time will flow. This week the centers transitioned from art and play centers on Tuesday to more literacy-based centers on Friday. Early in the year, centers for children include listening to books, looking at “just-right” books, practicing spelling words and high frequency words using stamps and letter tiles and unifix letter cubes. As they learn to operate with more independence, I’ll be able to begin formal reading groups!
Math began on the very first day and is in full swing! Each day our math lesson begins with Number Corner. The Number Corner has a calendar component where students practice days of the week, months, and compose and de-compose equations based on the day’s number. Each day of the week has an extra special focus and name. We have Money Monday; Time, Tally, Temperature Tuesday; Wednesday Workout; Thursday Thinking; and Friday Figuring. When Number Corner is done, there’s a daily math lesson. The Bridges math program is so well designed for young children. For example, one of the Workplaces (which are number centers and there are six available daily) children count and sort bugs. At the end of that particular workplace, children are asked to inventory the bugs on ten counting mats, which each have ten spots. Then they count the bugs (by tens) to insure that all 100 bugs are present and accounted for at pick up time. Bridges has incorporated “counting by tens” in such a natural way that the children enjoy learning what can otherwise be a mundane task. I think it’s fair to say that we all enjoy math time!
This week your children continued writing during Writing Workshop. Each day during Writing Workshop we meet for ten minutes at the beginning and either myself, or Mrs. McGuire, teach them something new that they may include in their writing. So far, our lessons have focused on helping them be independent writers. Each and every child is able to write a story using pictures and then use words to tell the story. We’ll be working on getting the story on paper first and then as Fundations starts up, we’ll work on capitalization and punctuation, as well as spacing. Right now it’s most important for children to see themselves as writers…independent writers!
You should have received the school picture flyer this week in the home-school bag. If you need additional flyers, please let me know!
Have a great weekend!