Friday, September 29

  
Friday, September 29

Phonics: Letter a & Irregular Word "the" Review 

Handwriting: Upper and Lowercase U Turn Review

Mrs. Weninger will be here this morning to do more activities with the story,
 Have You Filled a Bucket Today? The kids will decorate a raindrop to show how they can be bucket fillers to be displayed in the hall.

Music Today

Computer Class with Mr. Brown today.
Project: Make a Rake
The kids will cut and assemble parts for a rake and dictate "I like to ______ in the leaves."

~Fire station permission forms are due next Friday.

Enjoy the weekend everyone!

Thursday, September 28

  
Thursday, September 28

Phonics: Letter a (Day 2)

Concept review from day 1: Letter a (short vowel sound)
Word Work: none

 Irregular Words: the
An irregular word is one that cannot be readily decoded because either
1) It includes grapheme-phoneme correspondences that are unique to that
word or a few words (permanently irregular words), or
2) The student has not yet learned all the grapheme-phoneme
correspondences in the word (temporarily irregular words). 

Connected Text: none

Handwriting: Learning the Parts of the House Writing Paper
Please read the photo that explains the language we use to write the School Way.

 KinderLiteracy

We will review the vocabulary words (bare, cozy, bud, collect, chilly) that are in the story, A Tree for All Seasons. 

KinderMath: Finding Matches

 The kids will do a variety of activities that help the children notice items that are same/different according to their attributes.

 

   Phy Ed today

~We enjoyed celebrating Harlyn on her special day!

Wednesday, September 27

  
Wednesday, September 27
         Happy Birthday Harlyn! 

Today we begin explicit and systematic phonics instruction. Each 30 minute lesson is covered over two days by the following guide:
DAY ONE
Step 1: Phonemic Awareness    
Step 2: Visual Drill

Step 3: Auditory Drill
Step 4: Blending Drill

Step 5: New Concept

DAY TWO
Step 5: Review New Concept From Previous Day
Step 6: Word Work

Step 7: Irregular Words
Step 8: Connected Text
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Today's Lesson...

 Phonemic Awareness: Blend: /a/  /t/   (at)  Segment: at   (/a/ /t/)

 Visual Drill: none today

Auditory Drill: none today
Blending Drill: none today

 New Concept: Letter A (short vowel sound)

 KinderLiteracy     
I will reread parts of A Tree for All Seasons so the children can answer text-dependent questions like the ones below:
~Explain how a tree looks in the winter.
~What does the author tell us about trees providing for us?
~What can we infer about the animals we see on page 3?

 Our library time is from 9:50-10:20 today.

KinderMath: Noticing Differences
As we did yesterday, the kids will look at another picture on the SmartBoard and use their 'math talk' to tell what differences they see. Next, I will call pairs of students to stand so that we can see what is different about them. (One is a boy, one is a girl; one has brown hair, one has blonde hair, etc.)

Music Today

~Again, if you have a spare yellow apple at home, we could use some for an activity next week.
~There still a few open volunteer spots available for the Book Fair. Thank you!
~How to pronounce the 44 phonemes.

Tuesday, September 26

 
Tuesday, September 26

Phonics: Sound Wall Review
The children have been introduced to A LOT of consonant and vowel sounds and where/how the sounds are made. Today, we will review all of them with particular focus on producing them in the correct place and manner of articulation.
**We will also practice making letters with slanted and straight lines: Y, Z

Handwriting: ez Across Review
We will review the three ez Across starting points on the handwriting lines.
~ Z and 7 start on the "top line"
~ z on the "middle line"
~ e on the "middle of the downstairs"
 KinderLiteracy
Again, using the story, A Tree for All Seasons, the kids will answer simple recall questions such as: What is the job of an author/illustrator? Is this a fiction or nonfiction book? What is a fact we learned about the seasons? We will clarify the vocabulary words within the story (bare, cozy, bud, collect, chilly).

KinderMath: Unit 2 Sort and Classify

Today's Lesson: Alike and Different 

The kids will work with matching numbers to dots on a cube. They will then work on the math term 'alike' by playing Copy Cat with objects. I will place objects (snap cubes, bears) in a certain arrangement and the kids will copy my arrangement with their objects. Last, the kids will look at a picture on the SmartBoard and tell what they see that is alike or different among the objects.

   Phy Ed today

Bicycle Safety
~The kids will learn about bicycle safety with follow up questions for discussion. 

 I encourage you to view this short video again with your child! 

Bicycle Safety

~If you have a spare yellow apple at home, we could use some for an activity next week.
~Tomorrow is library day. Please have your child return their book if they haven't done so already.
~We are in need of volunteers for the book fair! Sign up here if you can help. Thank you!
How to pronounce the 44 phonemes.
~This will explain how it is done at school and for practice at home. Your child should practice these everyday until all the phonemes are pronounced automatically. Dialect across the nation can affect the way some phonemes are pronounced. The phoneme /r/ presented in this video should be skipped over and modeled by you. Toward the end of the video, the Schwa sound is explained.

Monday, September 25

 
Monday, September 25

Phonics: Introduction to Schwa, R-Controlled Vowels, & Diphthongs
Diphthongs: These sounds change from one mouth position to another: /ow/, /oi/
R-Controlled: These sounds combine with a /r/ sound: /ar/, /er/, /or/
Schwa: A relaxed vowel sound that is unstressed: again-pronounced 'uh'gain
**The kids will also practice making letters with slanted lines: V, W, X

Handwriting: ez Across
A horizontal line starting on the left.
(We did not get to this on Friday.)

 KinderLiteracy: Seasons
A Tree for All Seasons by: Robin Benard

Today, the children will hear the story for enjoyment and build an interest in the topic and expand their prior knowledge by telling me what they already know about the seasons. 
(Comprehension Strategy: Connections & Inferring)

KinderMath: Read and Write 0-5

The kids have been working so hard in this unit! We must never take for granted the importance of these strategies and concepts learned as they lay the foundation for true number sense. The kids are learning how to write the numbers 2, 3, 4, 5 correctly and will continue to practice those as we move forward. 
Today, the children will roll a dot cube, count the dots and write the number. If time allows, we will act out the story Five Little Ducks.

Music Today

Pedestrian Safety
~The kids will learn about pedestrian safety with follow up questions for discussion. 

 I encourage you to view this short video again with your child!

https://youtu.be/PzghGxEqBMQ

How to pronounce the 44 phonemes.
~This will explain how it is done at school and for practice at home. Your child should practice these everyday until all the phonemes are pronounced automatically. Dialect across the nation can affect the way some phonemes are pronounced. The phoneme /r/ presented in this video should be skipped over and modeled by you. Toward the end of the video, the Schwa sound is explained.

Friday, September 22

  
Friday, September 22

Phonics: The Vowel Valley
The mouth position when producing vowel sounds goes from a small opening to a large opening then back to a small opening. This is referred to as a Vowel Valley. Vowel sounds where the tongue is high and at the front of the mouth move to the vowels where the tongue is low in the middle, and finally to the vowels where the tongue is high and at the back. This picture shows our classroom Vowel Valley sound wall.

Long vowel sounds are made from mouth muscles that are more tense and tight. Short vowel sounds are made from mouth muscles that are more relaxed and loose.
**We will also practice making letters with straight and slanted lines:
K, M, N

Handwriting: ez Across
A horizontal line starting on the left.

Mrs. Weninger will be here this morning to read Have You Filled a Bucket Today? This book helps children see how our actions and words can be helpful or hurtful.

: 

KinderMath: 

 Understand Quantities 0-5

This lesson focuses on being able to state a quantity regardless of the arrangement or position of items. For instance, a group of 5 blocks (lined up, placed in a circle, stacked) is still 5.

The kids will not have Phy Ed today. We are going to the pepfest in the high school during this time...It's going to be exciting, loud, and fun!
Bus Safety 
~Stay out of the Danger Zone~
Project: The kids will make a school bus to hang in our hallway.

Computer Class with Mr. Brown today.

~No extra news for today.

Have a great weekend everyone!