Room 7
September 21, 2007
Friday’s Message:
Back to School Night
It was great seeing so many of you at “Back to School” night. I’m sorry we ran out of time.... I hope I was able to provide you with an idea of how our classroom operates. I have posted the sign-ups outside our classroom for the parents that could not make it Wednesday night and/or had to get to their older child’s classroom.
The times for skill groups are:
Mon., Tues., and Thurs. 1:50- 2:50
Fri. 12:40- 1:40 (except first Friday of each month. )
The times for 1-1 reading are:
Tues., Thurs., and Fri. 9-10
I’ve assessed students’ reading levels, but need more time to set up the materials. We will start the 1-1 reading in October.
(You’re welcome to come in at 8:30 when school starts, but I usually start and/or review activities the first half hour. I have projects you can help prep and other endless “jobs” if you would like to help and/or come in and observe/ take photographs)
Share Your Expertise and/or Interest
Because I ran out of time, I wasn’t able to ask parents to sign up to do an activity or presentation with the kids. I welcome parents to come share their expertise or interests. I’m hoping to get at least one parent/s (you can do this together) per month. Please share your interests or talents with us! Your child will love having you be the teacher of the class! We’ll make time for YOU!
Art, music, dance, cooking, reading aloud, sewing, holiday celebrations are just suggestions. Please sign up! See me if you have questions
October Field Trips
We will be going to Smith Family Farm in mid-October. I haven’t been able to get through to set our date. It will be an all day outing.
On Tuesday, October 30th, we will be going to see / hear the Michael Morgan Symphony in downtown Oakland. We are scheduled for the 10:45 performance.
We will need parent drivers for these field trips. More information will be forthcoming.
READING
Read and record in your Reading Log.
WRITING
This week we worked on your child’s last name. Have your child write her/his last name on the paper provided. Remind your child to start letters from the top, follow the direction of the arrows, and have letters touch the lines. Let your child work independently, but watch a couple of times to make sure s/he is forming letters correctly.
Then have your child circle her/his best writing.
MATH
We will be working on measurement. Last week the students used a balance scale. We used a nonstandard measure (plastic bears) to find the weight of small objects. Next month they will be using 1 and 5 pound weights.
At home, have your child find things that weigh 1 and 5 pounds. (The kitchen is a great place to start. Have your child record their findings under each category by drawing a picture and labeling/ writing the word for each item. Find at least five items for each weight.
When the students have listed at least five items for each weight, ask them why these things weigh the same, yet are different sizes. Record their response.
The kitchen may be the easiest place to find these weights because of labels, but I’ve encouraged the students to try and find some different things (perhaps in their bedroom or outside, anywhere) that weigh one or five pounds. No exercise weights, please.
The students will be sharing their findings with the class.
A - Z ANIMALS
We’ve been playing the “apple” game. For this activity there are cut out apples that have a letter on each one. Apples are in a pile, letter side down. As an apple is turned over, students say the name of the letter, the sound, and give a word that starts with the letter. (If a child says “cat” for “k”, it’s acceptable because s/he gave a word that begins with the sound of “k”.
Your child wrote the letters as I modeled each stroke. In each box have your child write at least one animal that begins with the letter sound. If your child would like to write more than one animal, please encourage him/her. If s/he can’t think of any animal, s/he can leave it blank. (FYI, they played the apple game giving names of animals several times. I’ve been using books where they identify the animals. I even told them that they would be doing this for homework)
Please underwrite the word for your child. (I explained that the purpose of “underwriting” is to show your child how many phonemes s/he got. It also shows them the correct spelling of the word. )