Weekly News: November 1

The Book Fair is this week!! If you can volunteer in any way, please let us know! 

Thank you SOOO much to all the parents who helped out with our Copy/Staple Party and our Halloween centers! We had such a great day on Friday! 

The October ESGI report will be sent home on Monday. Please continue to work with your child on ALL skills. This month, in order to assess what all students have RETAINED, I will be moving over EVERYTHING to the incorrect column and randomizing the order. A correct answer is one that is answered in three seconds or less - this ensures that the student has truly mastered this skill and ensures that students will apply this to their reading to read fluently. These ESGI reports will be reviewed at parent conferences. 

100% CLUB!!!: Our goal for all kindergarten students by the end of the first trimester is a 100% retained accuracy in letter ID, letter sounds, sight words, and letter teams. We will be honoring these students on this fantastic accomplishment.

Report cards and parent conferences are coming up! Over the next two weeks, I will be assessing each student during our center time. At this time, students will meet for reading group but A-Z reading books brought home in book bags may be a first-read for your child. Please take this into account when reading for homework and provide extra support as needed.

A look ahead: There is no school next Thursday and Friday, November 11-12th. The following week (November 15-19) will be parent conference week. I will be posting a parent conference schedule on the door Monday morning so that you can begin thinking of a good time that suits your schedule. Thank you!

What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: IN, ON, GO, SO, DO.

Letter Team: We are learning that Mr. ER has two crazy cousins that make the same sounds! IR and UR (like in GIRL and CURL).

Word Family: This week we will be making words with the word families -IN (BIN, FIN, TIN).  Please help your child with word families of the week by asking them to create different words with the word families.

Leadership Theme: Our new leadership theme this month is SELF-CONTROL. We are learning that self control is thinking before we act and doing what is right even when we do not want to.

Reading: This week, we will focus on a new strategy, "Look for two vowels go a-walking". We will learn that when there are two vowels together, the first vowel will say it's name and the second will not say anything. The vowels that are "best buddies" and go together are usually AI, EA, OA. This week, we will read books about having self-control, books about turkeys and Thanksgiving, and read our special poem of the week, "Gobble, Gobble".

Writing: This week we will write a poster about self-control. We will also write a big book about our geometric shapes. This big book will be written using the sight words we have learned so far. We will continue learning to put spaces between each word, use an uppercase at the beginning of each sentence with lowercase letters throughout the rest of the sentence, and use a period at the end. We are also learning to use our sight words in our sentences and to listen for the sounds in all unknown words using our sound chart. 

Math: We are starting simple addition this week. We are also learning ALL of our geometic shapes (cube, sphere, cone, cylinder).  We will continue counting money and telling time to the hour, learning how to identify, order, and count numbers to 30 and write numbers to 10, learning the days of the week, months of the year, shapes, how to read and extend patterns, and identify what number comes next.