Friday, November 14, 2014

Almost halfway through the second quarter....

Can you believe we are almost halfway through the second quarter? It feels like just yesterday, the kiddos were coming in for the first day of school! We have been working hard all quarter to master our 2nd quarter goals and I hope you have seen evidence of all of their learning at home:-)

Language Arts
Reading
This week in reading, we have been focusing on
-sight word identification
A, and, can, is, I, it, see, the, this, like, to play
The kiddos know that the more sight words they know, the more books they will be able to read. Encourage your little guy or gal to see how many sight words they can identify in a day. See if they can identify 5 sight words and reward them when they do. Ask your child to show you the gestures for the sight words. The gestures are important,as "muscle memory" is vital to sight word mastery. 
-identifying all the sounds in CVC words (consonant, vowel, consonant words such as cat, log, pig, etc...) 
Challenge your kiddo to see how many CVC words they can write! 
We continue to work on:
-asking and answering questions about fiction and nonfiction text
After reading a fiction story at home (you can use the book sent home with their homework), Ask,your child to tell you about it. Who was in the story? Where did it happen? What happened? 
If you are reading non-fiction, ask your child to share with you 2 interesting facts,they learned from the story. 
-identifying the number of syllables, or parts in words
Have your child show you the 2 ways we can identify the number of syllables in a word (clapping or robot method)

Writing
We continue to work on the genre of pattern books. Today, we had an author's celebration, where the kiddos got to share the pattern books they created this week with their friends. They were really excited that they were able to take their books home and share with YOU!

Math
In math this week, we introduced:
-identifying and writing numbers in the teens
Ask your child what all numbers in the teens have (they all start with 1). Then ask them how to figure out what number comes next. For example, the number sixteen. It has the word teen, so it starts with a 1, then there is the number 6 in the word sixteen. So, the number sixteen must be written as 16. Lastly, ask your kiddo about the tricky teen numbers like eleven and twelve
-using a tens frame to represent numbers in the teens. For example, the number 16 would be represented as follows:
XXXXX
XXXXX        XXXXXX
   10                 6
We continue to work on:
-counting by ones to 40 and counting by tens to 40.

Just an FYI about end of the quarter expectations:
We have about a month until the end of the quarter. To be considered on grade level in reading, your child should be able to...
-read a level B book
That is, read a book with an AB pattern. For example, I like grapes. They are sweet. I like pizza. It is cheesy. 
-Identify ALL of the sight words on the homework sheet
The sight words in the level B books correlate to the list you have been given for homework.
-Demonstrate at least 5 out of the 6 reading behaviors listed in your child's homework
-Be able to identify identify all the sounds in 20 words in a minute (phoneme segmentation). Practice for this can also be found in your child's homework.
Please know we are working everyday with your child on these objectives to make sure they are on grade level. Any support and/or practice you can do at home is very much appreciated. 
NOTE: The end of the quarter reading assessment will NOT be completed by your child's teacher. Instead, it will be completed by a first grade teacher. Until then, I will be providing opportunities for your child to get to know the teacher who will be completing their assessment so they will feel comfortable when this person is assessing them. 
Please feel free to email me with any concerns and/or questions. 







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