Welcome to Ms. Jue-Leong's Class

Room 7

Friday’s Message:
September 7, 2007

Open Court Reading Decodables
Thank you Caroline and Jean, Aria’s and Gemma’s moms, for helping put decodable books together. All students will be bringing these booklets home to read. This week they brought home A Table and The Egg. They will be bringing a whole collection of these booklets. (There are over 100 decodables). I suggest keeping them together (a shoe box works well) for easy reference and practice.
We started the series by “reading” / telling about the pictures. After reading the pictures (develops oral language and draws attention to the detail in the pictures), students point to the words as they read. We read the decodable together, then they read with a partner. Sometimes we play “find the word.” Initially the decodables focus on high frequency words. I might have the students find a word, then spell it.
When they bring their booklets home, please have your child read to you. Ask questions.

Help Needed
I need parents to help prep materials. Some of the prep can be done at home and/or at school. Some of the activities are:
-assembling decodable booklets
-mounting students’ work on paper
-prepping science materials
-recording students’ reading their “mystery student” homework
on a tape recorder
-labeling books
Please let me know if you can help. Thank you.

Starting a Garden
I have a new planter box. I need dirt to fill it with soil so we can start a garden and do a variety of lessons with it. It will take about 2 cubic yards or 30 bags of soil to fill it. I'm hoping we can start planting by the end of the month. Bags of soil will be greatly appreciated.

Book Orders
Attached are book order forms. If you are interested in purchasing books, please have your child return the order form by next Friday, September 14. Make your check payable to Scholastic Book Club.

Back To School Night
Wednesday, September 19, is our school’s “Back to School” Night. At that time I will be giving parents an overview of our first grade curriculum and explain our classroom program. The 1st grade presentation will be from 6:30-7:15. Hope to see you then.

Play dough
We made play dough this week. Students read the recipe, measured the ingredients, and made observation as the ingredients changed in texture and consistency.
The class enjoyed this reading, math, and science lesson.
We will be using the play dough to form the kinds of lines that make up the letters of their name. Attention is given to size and position of the letters. After making their name, they get to make anything they want with the play dough.
Attached is the recipe we used to make our play dough.

READING
Continue to read to your child daily and record the title of the books in your child’s Reading Log. I will be initialing your last entry. You can also include the books your child reads to you (but please don’t include Open Court Reading decodables in their Reading Log)
Please return the Reading Log each week with your child’s homework packet. Insert your child’s work in the Reading Log; this helps keep their papers together.

WRITING
Have your child write three ways s/he is like a bear. Then write three ways they are different.
We did this orally in class. Each student said a different statement. I suggest having your child write one sentence a day or do one part of the lesson at a time. Have your child tell you first, then write.
Encourage your child to spell phonetically. (For some students I enunciate the word slowly so they can write the sound they hear. ) Please underwrite words with the correct spelling. Underwriting is meant to show students how many letters/sounds they got!
(At “Back to School” night I will give a better explanation of the the symbols and process
I use for underwriting.)

MATH
Using first names, we made a chart and sorted our names by the number of syllables/claps in it. Then we made observations about the groupings.
The next day each student wrote his/ her name in gridded paper (like the one provided for homework). Then we looked to see who had “a”s, “e”s, “i”s, “o”s, and “u”s and counted how many letters in their name are vowels. Again, they made observations. Students noted the number of vowels in names and/or what vowel. They noted similarities and differences. They noticed lengths of names, placement of certain letters. kinds of letters, etc.
Have your child write the names of your family members. You can use the grid paper provided to help your child separate and/or keep track the letters.
Have your child make at least two statements about their observation. (A parent can record the statements) You can extend this activity by including more names and/or making another observation.
We also made tally marks to see how many of each vowel. If your child understands the concept of tally marks, encourage him/her to include this information; we will be working more with this concept.

MORE ABOUT ME
In class students wrote about two things they can do, then something they can not do. You’re child will do a similar activity at home. Write and illustrate (**see notation below) two things you like, and then one thing you do not like.
I’ve attached one “sentence starter frame” like the one we used in class. Parents need to provide additional sheets of paper.

** Instead of an illustration, your child can also use a photograph of her/himself doing/showing what s/he likes, and/or cut out pictures from magazines/newspaper.

Posted by jueleong at September 12, 2007 01:39 PM