Week 12

I am not sure we are going to know what to do with a full week of school. I am excited. Maybe we can return to a routine and stop feeling so rushed to get everything crammed in. In the past I have slowed down during the weeks of conferences and Fall Break, but this group seems to be quite capable of going on and still learning what they need to. We didn't get to spend as much time on vocabulary practice as we usually do. You might go to the page before each story in the blue book and review all the vocabulary words with your child. This is our last week in this reader. Next week will be a new book and you will start to see a change in the reading difficulty. When we hit the story "Tomas Rivera," you will notice a definite leap. It just keeps getting harder from there on.

The story this week is a non fiction story called "Fun with Fish." The phonics sound is the digraph /sh/. The kids really enjoy this story. They like the different kinds of fish the story talks about. The vocabulary words are"

away

food

funny

hide

how

many

some

their

We are going to be working on increasing reading fluency and blending whole words in phonetically correct words and nonsense words. Our winter testing will happen the first week of December so I would like to have them comfortable with the skills they will be asked to do.

We are studying all kinds of graphs in math. This week we will do picture graphs, bar graphs and tally marks. These are usually pretty easy for most kids. Sometimes tally marks can be tricky. Especially the one that goes across. They usually get it for 5 but then it is hard to remember the one for 10.

Spelling has taken on a new dimension. The kids are having to learn to navigate the program and to type carefully. I think this may make them better at keyboarding and maybe spelling also. We are slow starting but speed will pick up with familiarity of the program. I also have a couple of old, cranky computers that on any given day may choose not to be cooperative. We are going to do the best we can with what we have. . .we have no choice.

Last week was interesting. The kids were quite helpful on the days that I had no or limited voice use. They were quiet and good listeners. I am so grateful for that. It made things much more pleasant for all of us.

Thanks for the outpouring of goodies for our Halloween party. Everyone seemed to have a good time and certainly get enough to eat. Also thanks to those of you who sent things for our soldier. He is going to be well supplied by Room 136.

Have a great week.