03 Oct Classroom Update

Welcome to October!

There are a lot of things happening – here’s the latest:

We are switching from a Back-to-School theme to a Creepy Crawlers theme in Room 211!  New vocabulary will include tree, spider, bee, web, leaf, ladybug, ant, and more.

In Literacy, we have started two separate curricula: Heggerty (focusing on phonological and phonemic awareness) and Really Great Reading (focusing on phonics instruction).  With Heggerty, we are focusing on various phonological awareness skills in quick teaching sessions that we will call listening games.  We are learning hand motions for activities to make more of a whole-body, sensory-integrated learning experience.  Rhyming words have the same middle and ending sound.  Try saying these rhyming words with your child to strengthen their rhyme recognition: hop/mop, ran/fan, wet/jet, and mouse/house

As we start Really Great Reading, we are learning to describe and compare using similarities and differences.  Students have been learning what categories are and how to sort items based on categories such as Plants vs. Animals and Things We Eat vs. Things We Wear.  Try sorting these items that you can find in your home: shoe, cracker, hat, apple, apron, carrot, and candy.  We have been identifying words that rhyme with the use of visuals (different approach from Heggerty).

We are just about finished with our first cycle of the alphabet where we targeted the letters found in student names.  Students will be introduced to a workbook that will have a page for each letter as we get set for our second cycle.  These workbooks will stay at school until each letter has been covered.

Our latest Nursery Rhyme was Hickory Dickory Dock – this has been a huge hit with every student in class.  We have been working on sequencing the song with corrdinating stuffed animals as well as counting out the number of tick-tocks on a xylophone each time the clock strikes a new number.  Check out this song on YouTube: https://youtu.be/HGgsklW-mtg?si=FY1Aw-29iKf7fxCQ

In Math, we continue to focus on describing positions.  We have learned in front of, behind, and between.  Check out this catchy YouTube song: https://youtu.be/xERTESWbqhU?si=QBOGeKYKM0eD5aWc to help reinforce learning.  We are currently learning above and below using different objects in class.  Check out this YouTube song: https://youtu.be/THJ6c9nrxh8?si=XJnInnPTiOl6Nrmr to help solidify the math vocabulary.

This week in Motor Language Group, we made pumpkin playdough from scratch with Ms. Burd and Ms. Danielle!  The classroom smelled so good and we had plenty of opportunities to take turns, pass, and wait!  Hopefully everyone’s playdough made it home safely in backpacks and could be enjoyed a second time around at home.

Upcoming Dates:

Oct 6^th – Popcorn Friday

Oct 9^th – Family Engagement Series starts

Oct 13^th – PTA sponsored GLOW PARTY!

Oct 23^rd – NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS

Oct 26^th – Coffee with Kessler

Oct 31^st – Spirit Day: Dress as your favorite book character

Please continue to stay in touch and feel free to share successes you’re seeing with your amazing child!  😊

Wishing every family a fantastic fall season ahead.

Take care,

Jaime