YEAH!!!  It was truly a wonderful first month in room 103!  We have all been working to learn many of our classroom/school routines and getting to know our new friends.  Your All-Stars have put much effort into each day this month and have most likely arrived home very tired. If there are some tears in the afternoon or evening that is not uncommon, the kids are exhausted by the end of the day and we will see them begin to build some stamina over the next few weeks as we all settle into this year’s schedule.

Here is an overview of what we have accomplished this month.

Morning Meeting: We are using different greetings to enhance social skills and are learning the parts of Morning Meeting: greeting, share, calendar routines, pledge, announcements, songs and listening games (phonemic awareness.) We have focused on the theme of Respect during our Character Strong activities as we strive to be good citizens.

 

Writing: During this review and foundational time, we have learned how to hold a pencil (pinch, pinch, push)! We use our helping hand to hold our papers, sit with proper posture and correctly form our letters to do our best writing. We have practiced writing our names and letters on our white boards and our Fundations tile boards to practice identifying our alphabet letters and letters we have learned so far. We used pictures and letters to tell and write about a special event in our lives. We will soon start to write information Label Books about favorite topics!

Reading: We learned the procedures for the three parts of reading workshop (minilesson, reading to ourselves, and reading to a partner). We have filled our book bins with easy letter books, just-right books on our level and look books. We are learning about fiction and nonfiction books and how to point to pictures and words to understand our stories, and we are identifying the beginning, middle and end of stories.

Math: We spent the last few weeks counting, writing numbers, sorting objects and identifying shapes as a foundation for our upcoming math lessons this year. We are using our new EnVisions workbooks, manipulatives, songs, raps and games to learn in math as we focused on writing and counting to 5 and comparing and creating sets of 1 to 5. 

Social Studies & Science: We spent the first few weeks learning about how unique we each are through books, drawing, sharing and games. We have focused on our roles as class citizens and the importance of rules within our school environment as we strive to learn, have fun and stay safe. We observed sunflowers in the courtyard, learned about their parts and life cycle, and acted out the life cycle of a sunflower. We will soon welcome fall by celebrating pumpkins, apples and scarecrows.