September 9-13

Book Baskets
Each student in our classroom has his/her own basket of books.  We use these baskets to do an activity called "Read to Self".  For this activity, each child finds a quiet spot in the classroom with their book basket to read the books inside.  Each child has several books in the basket.  Some of the books are chosen by the student according to his/her interest (princess, baseball, animal, Clifford, etc.)  The other books are on their reading level.  If your child would like to bring a book from home to put in his/her basket, we encourage it!  This is the introduction to one of our Daily 5 literacy centers.

The students were taught that there are 3 ways to read a book.  The first way is to read the pictures.  We modeled for the students how to use the pictures to read the book to themselves.  The second way is to read the words in the story.  The third way is to retell a story that they have heard before.  Some students may have a book in their basket that they have read before such as Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.  Now, the student can retell the story as he/she reads the pages.

Also, in the coming weeks, each student will receive a "book in a bag".  This book will also be on your child's reading level.  Please read this story with your child or have your child read it to you and then send it back to school so that your child can choose a new one.

Important Notes:

• Wednesday is September 11 so wear red, white and blue!
• We do not need to wear our bus tags anymore.  Thank you for always remembering to send it to school each day!
• HOMEWORK--Have you played a rhyming game with your child?  Practice rhyming by asking your child if two words rhyme.  (Do cake and rake rhyme?) Also, try asking your child to think of a word that rhymes with a word you say.  (Can you think of a word that rhymes with sun?)

Language Arts
This week our stories will be about our five senses.  We will be reading both fiction and non-fiction books.  We will be experiencing all of the senses, except tasting, during our activities this week.

We will continue our practice of phonemic awareness with our "blue book" activities.  We will focus on rhyming.

Handwriting:  We will continue with Frog Jump Capitals ( F, E, D, P, B, R, N, M)

Math
We are working on saying the number before and after any given number from 0-30.  What number comes before 18?  What number comes after 12?

Science:  5 senses