Week 4

* Send in baby pictures and scrapbook pages!

* You received a Trash to Cash bag a couple of weeks ago, to collect Box Tops and other items for our school.  These are due October 1st.  Send them in anytime!  There will also be a few other collection dates throughout the year.

* I am looking for a volunteer or two to come in any day - except Wednesday - next week (Sept 30 - Oct 4) and help our class with a reading project on the iPad.  You would work one-on-one with a student doing some echo reading and recording it with an app called ShowMe.  I will train you in using the app.  Please email, call, write a note, or click on the VolunteerSpot button here on the blog if you are interested in this special opportunity!

Spirit Week

Monday- Pajama Day

Same pajamas!

 Wednesday - College Logo/Jersey Day and 

Wellness Wednesday

 Friday - Irish Spirit Day

Reading

We continued to practice Read to Self.  Our stamina increased A LOT this week, and we got to have another dance party when we reached our goal of 5 minutes.  In fact, we exceeded that goal by quite a bit - eventually reading quietly as a class for a full 9 minutes.  Wow!

Our Stamina Graph

Our reading series has three-week-long units.  On every third week, we do a Reader's Theater - meaning the students get to read out loud and "act" out the book together.

We read With My Family many times this week.  Ask your child about getting colored marker on his/her hand, and what it meant!  This picture collage might help your child remember:

We had the privilege of a sibling (and friend) coming in to read to us this week.  Thanks 5th graders!

We have also been working on reading by searching for letters and words in our Welcome Message.  Here we searched for "a's" and found 8 of them.

Math

Counting and sorting continue to be the skills we are focusing on.  We often use centers to practice math, and students repeat some of the same centers from day to day.  Their math skills increase as they practice.  Some new centers introduced this week:

iPads!!!!  We are using an app called Splash Math Kindergarten.  Each student has his/her own account (identified by first name only, and tied to my teacher account).  This app was created using the Common Core Math Standards and teaches/tests the very same concepts as our math curriculum.  It also emails me about each student's progress!  Click here to learn more about this app.

 Attribute Block Sort.  We practiced together on the Smart Board first.  Students sorted the blocks by color, shape, and thickness.

It's been a great week!