Friday, September 4, 2015

September 7-11

Browsing Boxes
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 browsing boxes 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.

Mindset
The staff at Aurora City Schools have read a book called Mindset by Carol Dweck.  In this book, we learned about the importance of building a growth mindset in our students.  People with a growth mindset believe that basic abilities (intelligence for example) can be developed through dedication and hard work.  This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.  In a fixed mindset, people believe that intelligence and talent are fixed traits.  They believe that talent alone creates success without effort.

This year, we will be focused on encouraging a growth mindset because it creates motivation and productivity.  It teaches children to welcome challenges, to persevere and accomplish things they may never have believed they could do!  We are teaching them that mistakes are ok, because we learn from them!  We are teaching them that they may not be good at something YET, but they will be, with hard work and effort!

Please contact us if you have any questions or are interested in learning more about Mindset.  We are even willing to loan you our book!  It is a great read!  We love it as teachers and as parents.

Note: We will add the various Mindset messages to our blog each week if you are interested in talking with your child about it at home.
Important Notes:
  • No school on Monday, September 7!
  • Friday 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?)
  • Mrs. Haughey's class has a student teacher!  Amy Rankin will be teaching with Mrs. Haughey until December.  She currently attends Kent State University.
  • Please check the calendar daily to see the good news about your child's behavior!
  • Mrs. Haughey's Class ONLY--Please remember to send in a picture of your child if you have not done so already!  Thank you!
  • Please return the Lake Farmpark permission slips to school as soon as possible!
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.

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? We 

Science:  5 senses


Pictures from this week...
Sorry, only 2 this week! 

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