Hi everyone!
Wow is the time flying! I have thought of a hundred things that I have wanted to tell in on the blog but have not taken the time to do so and of coarse I will not be able to remember them all now:? Yikes!
I should tell you that your children are amazing and I am enjoying them. I hope that they are enjoying school. The first part of the year is always tricky trying to establish our routines, rules and boundaries. I always worry about the children the first few times I have to have someone pull a card or we move desks or my voice is stained or slightly raised due to the over use of my voice. I hope that I have been telling them enough why things happen and that I think they are all amazing!!!! I want them to know that because I believe it! What a fun class we have :)
We are off to a good start in our reading groups but are still moving children around and learning what we do in groups so thank you for your patience with the process. PLEASE continue to read each and every night even if your child is already reading. Even more importantly PLEASE send the books that I send home back each and every day because they are usually the books I use in our guided reading groups. Also We need the homework folders returned each and every day as well. This helps create a habit that will help the students be prepare for school for the rest of their school years and helps me in our daily routines.
The students are doing a good job learning the "popcorn" word and spelling words but still need practice understanding that our spelling words have "chunks that make new words as we change the beginning sound. I know the words seem easy now but these chunks are the foundation for good readers and good spellers. Many of the children are struggling because taking a test is a new experience and they have to work on their own. They are not use to listening to the sounds to spell the word and it is stressful. They are also working on remembering the vowel sounds so practicing a few min. each night will truly be helpful. Especially as we ramp up our daily writing.
We will be writing daily which is new to some of the students. We do a lot of shared writing, writing together but as we get closer to our off track and the first student led conference, we should be doing independent writing everyday!
We have also gotten a good start on our math program but have a lot to learn before we are ready for our first district math test called the benchmark.
As always, thanks for your support in all of the things we are doing!
-Mrs. Newman
