November 13, 2009

Dear Parents:

It was a wonderful week. On Monday, the PM class welcomed a new friend, Charlize Lowrie. We are so happy to have her join our afternoon fun. We all worked very hard with the letter “i.” We found it in the beginning of words as well as in the middle. We played some games with the 2 vowels that we know (a & i) changing the vowel in pat to pit, tan to tin, fan to fin, etc. The more letters we learn, the more words we can blend for ourselves (in, Min, dim, etc). Reading is fun! We learned the word “said” and worked with patterns.

Next week, we will be working on the letter “T”. They will need to bring a Beach towel (or something that size) and a placemat or paper napkin for MONDAY!!! We will be using them during snack time. Our new word next week will be “we.” We will also begin a new math unit – numbers 0-5. We will be working on creating sets and writing these numbers. Please help us with correct letter formation.

On Thursday, November 19 you will have a chance to come into our classroom and see what we do for part of our day. I will be teaching a “normal lesson” so that you can see what we do in our classroom on a daily basis. There will be some grown-up chairs in the room by the windows. Please come in and take a seat. We do ask that you do your best to arrive quietly as this is to be a “normal” setting for us (as normal as it can be with our moms and/or dads watching us do our thing). The children and I will try to ignore the fact that you are there until the end of our lesson when there will be a chance for you to help your child at his/her desk before you leave. Please note that we ask that you to make other arrangements for your pre-schoolers while you are visiting our classroom.

•  AM parents are invited to come between 9:35 and 10:55. The AM class will be in Library from

           9:35 – 10:00 and then will eat snack from 10:00 – 10:15. I plan to do a lesson on

          Tangrams from 10:15 – 10:55.

•  PM parents are invited to come between 1:05 and 2:25. The PM class will be in Gym from

          1:05 – 1:45 and then will eat snack from 1:45 – 2:00. I plan to do a lesson on

          Tangrams from 2:00 – 2:25.

A big thank to Mrs. Mc Hugh for the wonderful “Sounds In Motion” workshop that she presented on Tuesday evening. For those of you who were able to attend, I hope you enjoyed yourselves. It is a fun way to learn letter sounds. Keep practicing and if you need any help, just ask your child.

One of the questions that came up at the workshop was about blending the sounds together. We USE to slide the sounds on our arm. We are now using the attache d Tap Mat. We use this when we are segmenting and blending a word. We use the mat like so: When working on the word “cat” – touch the green circle and say the /k/ sound; touch the yellow circle and say the /a/ sound; touch the red circle and say the /t/ sound. Slide your finger on the arrow from left to right and blend the sounds back together. You can place this into a plastic paper shield and use a dry erase marker to actually write the letter.

It was wonderful to be able to talk with each of you last week on your child’s progress. They work very hard and I throw a lot of difficult but fun things at them daily. I am very proud of each of them.

Have a T remendous weekend!     

Mary Lee Plate