This week we began our 2nd author study. The students were introduced to Leo Lionni. We visited his website (see link to the left) and read several of his books. We talked about his love of nature and how he always has a "lesson" in his stories. During the next several weeks we will read lots of his books and see what life lessons we can learn from him. We will also see if we notice any similarities between his style of writing/illustrating and Eric Carle's. It will be fun exploring his books. Maybe you have some at home you can read? Or check them out of the library...Leo's books make a super before bed read! We also worked on ryhming this week. Rhyming is an important skill that we want all K students to master. In the Great Links for Learning section on our blog (bottom left) there are some rhyming games....you may want your child to practice rhyming at home this weekend.
Next week we will begin to talk about the letter P. It will be fun to talk about pumpkins as Halloween gets closer! During the week we will read both fiction and nonfiction stories about pumpkins. The students will learn about the life cycle of a pumpkin, brainstorm adjectives to describe a pumpkin, make a pumpkin out of shapes, and make predictions about stories that have pumpkins in them.There are other great things that start with the letter P as well...like pizza and popcorn..and we may read about them too. As always, students will learn the correct formation for the letter p and practice writing words that start with our letter.
During the week we will finish our final set of jolly phonics sounds too. At this time, your child should be getting pretty good at using the sounds to read and write simple words. It is important to practice these skills at home so that your child becomes confident about their abilities. We will continue to work with our sounds and motions throughout the next few weeks as we blend and read words in the classroom.
Our school Halloween parade and party is on Monday, Oct. 31st. Please read the guidelines that were sent home to you carefully. It is important that each child follow the costume rules and you will want to know about the parade and party. If your child can not have the treat that wil be provided, please notify us ASAP!
As you know, it has been getting colder and jackets have started to come to school. It is very important for you to put your child's name in their coat. Sometimes the kids take their coats off in the lunchroom or at recess. Without names in the coats, it can be difficult to get them back to their owner. When you come for conferences, there will be a lost and found table in the hall by the office. You may want to check that out if you have been missing items already. One thing that is very helpful to me is for you to work on teaching your child how to put on their coats (pull their sleeves back the right way) and how to zip them. It is SO difficult, not to mention time consuming, to have to help each child 3 times a day when we go out for recess and get ready for home.
Thank you for your cooperation and support! Have a great weekend! Hope you have time for some fun fall activities! There is a link to an event I think sounds very cool in the upper right hand corner of the blog. I would be attending if my husband wasn't on crutches! :) Check it out! (click on fun fall event)
