September 30-October 4 and October 7-11

Picture day is on Thursday, October 3!

Important News

• This week a reminder will be coming home regarding your conference date and time. Please confirm by signing the form and sending it back to school with your child.
• Remember to send your picture envelopes to school on Thursday!
• Thank you to the parent volunteers who attended the Farm field trip with us! 

Language Arts

We will begin a unit on apples that will last two weeks.  We will be reading several stories, fiction and non-fiction, about animals and the seasons.  This works perfectly with our Lake Farmpark field trip.  During the field trip, the children learned how to make apple cider from the apples at the farm.  They even had an opportunity to taste apple cider!  We will continue practicing fluency with the Apple, Apple on the Tree poem in our poetry folder.

Phonemic Awareness skills:  letter names, letter sounds, ending sounds, syllables

Practice sight words!  We would like the children to know 5 sight words by the end of October.

Math

We will continue our unit on counting.  We have learned some strategies for careful counting.  Ask your child to share these strategies with you.  Also, we are practicing counting from any given number.  We have been practicing counting by 10s to 100.  We are also working hard to learn what number comes next when crossing over a decade.  What number comes after 29, 39, 49...

September 16-20 & 23-27

Lake Farmpark Information

We are all set for our field trip to Lake Farmpark on Tuesday, September 24.  Please make sure your child is dressed for the weather!  We will be outside even if it is rainy.  Also, please make sure your child brings a packed lunch.  Please pack in a disposable bag so that we can throw all items away after lunch.  Thank you!  We are looking forward to our trip!

Reminders

• Please put all notes to the teacher or office on a large sheet of paper.  Small notes (like post-its) tend to get lost.  Thank you!

Homework

• Review letters and sounds with your child daily.  How quickly can your child name the letters? 
• If your child knows his/her letters and sounds, practice the sight words.  Start with only a few words at a time. 
• Ask your child to name the characters and/or setting in a story you read together. 

Books in a Bag

• Your child should be bringing home a book in a ziploc bag.  Read this book with your child and return it as soon as you are finished.   Your child will then choose a new book to take home.  They might bring back the same book if they really like it!

Language Arts
We have been learning about the farm.  We are reading several stories about the farm and farm animals.  We will be using these stories to learn about characters, setting, cause and effect and sequencing.

The focus for the next 2 weeks includes:

• rhyming
• letters and sounds
• final sounds
• syllables
• Left to right directionality

Sight words--the, a, in, and, is, on

Math

In math, we are learning addition and subtraction to five with materials.  Also, we practice counting from any given number to 100 forward and backward.

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