Weekly Overview - Aug.22-26

HERE'S WHAT'S HAPPENING IN ROOM 14....August 22-26

Dear Parents:

Please take the time to read this overview each week since I will be sharing with you what we are doing in class. Thank you for attending the Back to School Night. I look forward to getting to know you better. Please be patient as I begin to match children with parents. It takes awhile!

Once again I would like to request that you please look over your child’s homework for completeness and accuracy each night. Beginning this week I will start our homework point system-3 points given for each day of homework that is on time and complete. Homework points will be deducted for any late or incomplete homewok.

PRINTING:  We will work on the correct lowercase letter formation of the following letters: i,j,k,l,m,n,p,r,t,v,w,x,y, and z.  Homework will include practice of the correct formation of the uppercase letters. Please try to make sure that your child is following through with correct letter formation at home.  I am also trying to stress proper pencil position.  Some students have developed improper habits. These habits will only be more difficult to correct as time goes on.

READING/WRITING:  We will finish our review of the consonants and will take a test on beginning consonant sounds.  We will review the short vowel sounds for a and e.  A new concept -long vowel sounds- will be introduced.  Words that get the long a and long e sounds will be introduced and read.  The children will learn how to recognize and mark words that have long vowel sounds.  This marking of the vowels will be a visual aid for the children as they learn to read the words. A copy of the vowel markings was included with your Back-to-School Night reference information. Please note the following rules that I will be teaching the children.  Please reinforce them at home.

1. When a vowel is saying its long sound, it is saying its own name.  (The one

    exception is u, which has two long sounds, "u" and "oo".)

2. When there is one vowel in a word, it usually says its short sound. 

    e.g.   bat     bed     kick     pot     sun

3. When there are two vowels in a word, usually the first vowel says its long sound

    and the second vowel is silent. 

    e.g.   soap     feet     OR     bike     taste

We will work on some visual discrimination activities to help us with our foundation for spelling.

MATH: This week we will finish up Topic 1 (Numbers to 12) by working on spatial patterns for numbers to 12. The goal is for students to recognize patterned arrangements of numbers without counting (such as the dot patterns on a die). We will talk about comparing numbers (greater and less). The students will have a test on this topic on Friday.

SOCIAL STUDIES:  We will be talking about how rules and laws help us to get along with others (such as “The Golden Rule”). We will also talk about making choices, both at school and as citizens (voting). 

SCIENCE: We will continue our work with recognizing plant parts (root, stem, leaf, flower, fruit, seed) and their functions.

P.E.: Please make sure that your child wears good running shoes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Those are the days that we usually have PE.

LIBRARY: Unfortunately, our wonderful librarian, Mrs. Grometer, is no longer with us due to budget cuts and restructuring. We will have a library aide, Mrs. Toni Lancaster, who will meet with us 20 minutes a week to check-in and check-out books. We will start book check-out next week. Books are always due on Wednesday, and one book is allowed to be brought home.

    *************************** SPECIAL NOTES************************

Thank you to the many parents who have already donated supplies, etc. from the Wish List! You are awesome!

Please support our school by joining the PTA- Help us meet our 100% goal! J

Please turn in all of the school/classroom forms as soon as possible, particularly the mandatory district volunteer forms-a separate form set must be filled out for each parent that is volunteering. Parents helping out in any lab situation will need to have a current TB test on file in the office, as well.  Thank you for the wonderful response to our computer and science lab needs! Our schedulers have been determined and a complete science and computer schedule will be coming soon! Please note that due to many parent responses, you will most likely not be scheduled for all the times that you indicated that you were available.

If you are not getting emails from the school, please make sure that they are not getting routed to your SPAM or JUNK file. If necessary, go to the school website and re-subscribe.

Please remember that there will be a substitute on Thursday and Friday of this week as I will be taking my son to college.

Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns. Have a great week!

Sincerely,

 Mrs. Pierce