Being back with the kids is the best! We have had such a great week together! I am amazed at how well they transitioned back to school, remembered routines and procedures and didn't miss a beat! It's like they had never left since the last time we were in-seat! I truly am lucky to have this amazing group of kids this year!
A look at our learning:
Fundations: in your child's take home folder are two Fundations packets. One was meant to go home last Friday when I was absent. Now that we are back in seat I will start sending home the parent informational packets every Friday. These are great resources for you to see what your child learned that week in Fundations and how to reinforce the skills at home. I encourage you to use them.
Word Wall Words: our new words of the week were can & we. We practiced these words through songs, books and our literacy workstations each day. As mentioned in a previous email this week, the new words of the week will come home every Monday in your child's take home folder. Please practice the words nightly. Every Friday we will have a "Spell Check" that is 10 words long. The first two words on the test will always be our new words of the week. The other eight words will be randomly chosen from our word wall. Every Friday, your child will bring home their most up-to-date word wall list. Please keep this at home to practice from.
Next weeks word wall words will be:
you & me
In the picture below, they are at one of their literacy workstations.
Here they are working on finding and highlighting word wall words in a shared reading text. They also learned how to read this book by themselves.
Math: this week we focused on shapes, sorting and learning about graphs. We learned that graphs help us collect information. We learned that graphs should have a title and learned what axis means for a graph. We collected information and graphed our favorite color and graphed different kinds of insects. You can see the insect one in Seesaw.
On Friday, we explored and learned about calculators. This day is always a hit!
Friday Craft: Snowmen
Social Skills:
We have been focusing on the following skills this week.
These are things you can also practice at home to help support them in the classroom.
1) Using the restroom properly: flushing the toilet, looking to see if they accidentally got urine on the seat and cleaning it up with toilet paper if so, then flushing that paper. While it may be easier to clean up for them or flush for them at home, having them go back and do it themselves will help them be independent in the classroom.
2) Proper handwashing to keep us healthy. Many students are much too quick. Please practice the following at home: 1) wet your hands 2) scrub your hands with soap (out of the water) while slowly singing the ABC song 3) rinse with water 4) dry with a paper towel. The better we wash our hands, the healthier we all stay
3) Not crashing words. This means that when someone is talking, we wait our turn and don't interrupt. When your child does this at home, use it as a teaching moment and ask them not to crash your words and let you finish speaking. Many times they will want to walk away and not worry about saying what they wanted. Please don't allow them to do this. Have them wait for you while you finish your conversation and then let them speak. This will help them understand this better.
4) Buttoning and zipping our own coats. It is our goal for every child to be able to do this independently before going to first grade. While I will always help them, I tell them that I must see them try first. I know at home, when you are in a rush, it's easier to just do it for them. Please don't do this as they will never learn this way. Start allowing a few extra minutes before you leave so they can zip their own coats, put on their own gloves, hat, etc.
Allowing your child to build their independence not only helps us in the classroom, but builds their confidence! They are so proud of themselves when they realize that they CAN do it on their own. Sometimes they get in a fixed mindset that they can't do something because an adult has always done it for them. They may not be able to YET, but they will be able to soon if we allow them. Thanks for your support with these things.
January Citizen of the Month: Logan
Logan was chosen, by his peers, as our January Citizen of the Month! We enjoyed celebrating him as a class with Mr. Woods and his parents on Zoom! Way to go Logan!
