Room 7
October 5, 2007
Friday’s Message:
“Book Bag”
Your child is bringing home their “book bag.” The book I chose for your child is at his/her independent reading level. As your child reads to you, initial the “bookmark.” Do not record the “book bag” reader in your child’s Reading Log.
The note inside the bag tells you how this book was chosen for your child. Next week parent volunteers will start reading with your child on a 1-1 basis.
Please have your child read daily from this book, a few pages or a story. The book bag is a read at home reader. Hopefully parent volunteers will be able to listen to your child read once or twice a week. Parents write notes so I can keep track of students’ progress.
Open Court Phonics Workbook
At “Back to School” night I explained my reading program. We use a Story Workbook in class to reinforce concepts. I am sending home the Open Court Phonics Skills workbook for you to do with your child. The lessons correspond to the blending lessons sent home. The directions are on the inside margin of each page.
The blending lessons and decodable readers correspond to the phonemes introduced. We have covered the letter sounds of s, m, a, t, h,p, i, n, l (ll, all), d,
and o. We are on Unit 2, Lesson 7. This workbook is for you to keep and use at home. Work with your child as needed.
Smith Family Farm
Thank you parents. We have 8 drivers and a couple parents who also noted that if we didn’t have enough drivers, they would drive if needed. The parents driving for this trip are Aria’s, Gemma’s, Jacky’s, Jordan K.’s, Jordan R.’s, Keziah’s, Reese’s, and Sam’s. As mentioned (at Back to School night), I will assume you are driving unless you notify me of a change. (When I get more drivers than needed, sometimes I pair parent drivers together to help chaperone a group of kids, but please be prepared to drive.)
Parents driving on field trips need to fill out “proof of insurance” forms before each field trip. The form will be sent home with your child next week and/or it will be available to fill out the day of our trip.
If your child needs a car seat, please label it and leave it in the hallway under our bulletin board.
Ready to Plant
Thank you to the parents that brought a bag of soil for our planter box. After a few weeks and only 3 bags of soil, Sam’s mom, Dolly, offered to write a letter to American Soil to ask for a donation. In the meantime, one of my parents from last year, Wendy Pattillos, Diana’s mom, donated, picked up the soil, and filled our planter box. The students wrote a thank you note to Mrs. Pattillos, but if you see her, it would be great if you also
thanked her.
Bringing in Weights
Your child shared their homework of one and five pound weights. Now they need to bring one 1 pound weight and one 5 pound weight to school. We will be using these weights for various math activities. The weights will remain at school for several weeks. The weights should not rot or be breakable. No “exercise” weights, please.
Students can bring items that were listed on their homework or they can bring other items. Please have your child label their items with their name. Items will be returned.
READING
Read and record in your Reading Log. Please turn in the Reading Log with the other components of the homework.
WRITING
We’ve been making rhyming words. We read Down By the Bay this week. (The song is attached.) After reading it students came up with other rhyming words phrases to go with the animals in the book. Then they came up with an animal that was NOT in the book and a rhyming phrase for that animal.
Your child’s homework is to write and illustrate for two more different animals. (Do not use the animals in the song/book.) When writing, start with the phrase: Did you ever see..........(I’ve attached pages for your child to use)
MATH
Your child finally got to wear his/her macaroni necklace home. They recorded their pattern and did some counting with it. Using toothpicks, this week they are making a fence pattern and identifying the unit.
Patterns are all around us. Find at least six patterns. Draw the object to show the pattern. Write what the object is.
Then using some kind of coloring “tool,” (markers, crayons, colored pencil, paints, oil pastels, chalk, etc. ) have your child fill on 81/2 by 11 inch size piece of paper with a colorful pattern. Have him/her write the pattern unit on the back of the paper. If your child would like to do more than one pattern picture, they are welcome to do so.
WORD FAMILIES
We’ve been working with rhyming sounds and making words by changing the beginning sound/letter. It is called a word family because they have the same middle and ending letters. Have your child make real words for the following word families
in ip ot op ad all
To help students think of words I sometimes give clues like “something you wash the floor with (for mop) / the opposite of good” (for bad). Try to come up with at least six words for each word family. (They did a lot more in class.)
Posted by jueleong at October 5, 2007 09:21 AM