November

Hi Everyone!
It was nice to spend some time talking about your children with you at parent conferences.  Hopefully you got a picture of where they are academically and socially and where we are headed next.

We have been working on nonfiction this month in reading workshop.  We are reading lots of nonfiction books and talking about the text features. Your child knows that a nonfiction book gives facts or "true information" and usually teaches us  something new. We have talked about the use of photographs, bold print, labels and captions. We have also noticed the table of contents and the glossary.  If you have an opportunity, read some nonfiction books at home and talk about the features and vocabulary.   Ask your child to share something they learned with you.

In writing workshop we started our unit on "Writing the Words".  We are talking about sound spelling, labeling pictures and writing  sentences to go with our pictures.  When your child is writing at home encourage them to write words independently.  Remind them to use the letter mat that I sent home to help them with the sounds and what the letters look like. Remember we want them to become independent writers and the great thing about sound spelling is that they only have to write what THEY hear. The more confident they feel the more risks they will take.  If you have topic ideas write them in a note or an email and we can refer to list as needed.  In December, we will start a unit on Personal narrative and continue our drawing and sound spelling work while working on sequencing our stories and including details.

We have started introducing sight words!  If  your child can read and write these words from memory, reading and writing will be easier from the start.  So far we have introduced the following words:
a, and, go, I, like, me, the, to, you.
When we get a few more words under our belt I will send home cards for you to practice each night.

In math we are finishing up Unit 3 which is showing counting and writing numbers 6-9. Chapter 4 will focus on representing and comparing numbers to 10.

Dont miss Turkey K-Time on Friday at 9am!