Week #4 Update - September 25

Fun for Book Character Day!  

This week was a busy one!  We had our first Mustang Motto day and trip to the Horseshoe Hooray store.  The kids had a great time dressing up for the Book Character Day, too.  Mr. LoCoco enjoyed getting to know the class while I was observing Yom Kippur on Wednesday.  As a reminder, my first district training will be on Tuesday, September 29th.  I will remind the students on Monday of my expectations for them with the substitute. 

---We have started our Million Minute Challenge.  The students will be working to log a million minutes of reading over the next few months.  We had a special assembly to kick off this endeavor this afternoon.  A yellow handout came home today showing how to log your child's minutes each week.  Help our school get to 1 MILLION by reading to/with your child!

---Picture forms are coming home today!

---If you have not signed up for a time to be our Mystery Reader, your child to be Star of the Week and a Parent/Teacher Conference time, please do so via SignUpGenius this weekend.  I will assign Star of the Week and Conference times early next week to those who have not selected one.  

---Next week we will start the Passport Reading Program.  Each child has been assessed and placed in a skill based group to work on a specific phonetic skill.  They will work with one of the seven teachers on the "team" for four weeks.  At the end of the four weeks, each child will be assessed again to determine the progress they made and appropriate level for the next grouping.  If you have any questions about this program, please contact me.  

Here's what we worked on this week:
Language Arts:
-We worked on breaking compound words into syllables, substituting words and identifying the last sounds in words.
-We started our journals with simple prompts (A _____ is red.) We are working on using spaces between words, sounding out our own words and drawing detailed illustrations. 
Math:
-We worked on identifying the four basic shapes (circle, square, triangle, and rectangle).
-We played games with partners practicing counting numbers on dice and adding two dice together.
-We finished our delicious shape pizzas! YUMMOS!
Handwriting:
-We practiced holding our pencils and crayons correctly.
-We worked with scissors and holding them safely.
Things to work on at home:
-identifying uppercase and lowercase letters
-reading 20 minutes a day and logging minutes via Biblionasium (see yellow handout and e-mail).