The first-very short-week is done! It was a busy, busy week! In fact, I overheard one young friend tell another friend he was "exhausted" at 9:30 Friday morning! The first three days were even better than I'd hoped! Despite the heat in our room, the kids worked hard and played hard.
We've been reading lots of great books and reviewing Fundations skills. As you may remember from kindergarten, Fundations is our spelling/phonics program. For the next week or two, the lessons are a review of the skills students learned last year with an emphasis on handwriting...properly forming the letters in the lines and spacing on writing paper. Our daily work is practicing sounds and "tapping" words as well as practicing "trick words." Trick words are words that are phonetically irregular and can't be "tapped." When children learn to tap words, they are learning to tap once for each sound heard in a word. To tap a word like "bat", students tap three times: /t/ and /a/ and /p/. But students also tap three times for a word like "fish" because fish also has only three sounds: /f/ and /i/ and /sh/. Although the sound /sh/ has two letters, it makes only one sound so one tap. As the units progress, I'll send you information about the current skill being learned.
Our first math unit starts with explorations of the many fun math manipulatives that we'll use throughout the school year. This first unit uses "bugs" as the vehicle for addition and subtraction learning. Our discussions and activities are often related to beetles, ladybugs or butterflies. Our first week of Number Corner has been an introduction to the daily routines (focusing on calendar skills), but next week your child will be introduced to day of the week routines: Money Monday; Time, Temperature, Tally Tuesday; Workout Wednesday; Thursday Thinking; and Friday's Figuring. Each day the group is presented with a content specific task or game to learn. All of the activities are meant to be engaging to young learners and often students are completely unaware of the complexity of the tasks they're being asked to complete because of the fun they're having while learning! Math homework doesn't begin for a few weeks and then is sent home once a week in the form of a game or family activity. On occasion, I may send your family and "extra" game based on need, following an assessment. These extra games are meant to help your child master a skill and I hope you'll find time to play at home!
And speaking of homework...the most important thing that you can do at home with your child is READ! I know days can be short and before you know it, it's almost time for bed. Please try to find time each day to spend with books. It's equally important for you to read to your child as it is for your child to practice reading to him/herself. We've already begun the reading assessments which will help me determine the best place to begin reading instruction for your child. Reading involves two very important steps: reading the words (decoding) and understanding what those words mean (comprehension). Many early readers learn to read many words but don't have a deep understanding of what is read. It's very important for both processes to be well developed! We'll be working on both this year!
I'm very excited to get back to school on Tuesday! I hope you and your children have a restful and fun weekend!
Stay dry!
Michelle
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