Hello Families, 
 
We had a short week with the Labor Day holiday, but it was busy and full nonetheless! The reading classes are doing a wonderful job with their independent reading. They read silently from their free choice books, work on their language sheet, write letters to me, check out new books, update their reading lists, and continue to look for interesting words to add to our vocabulary. While all this independent work is going on, I have the opportunity to work with small groups. Some groups work on decoding skills where they learn strategies to figure out the pronunciation of new words. Other lessons work on how to make sense of what is being read. I have posted on the blog two handouts which explain the letter writing and letter assessment. 
It is so important to talk to the children about what they are reading. A great family activity is to read a book along with them or aloud to them. It makes for great conversation to talk about the characters, events and to make predictions and connections together.  
The students have taken off with their vocabulary. Between the two classes, they have found over 80 new vocabulary words! The students write the word on a card, look up the definition, and write the sentence from their book which uses the word.  
Students completed their self portrait poems this week and they have been put up in the hall for all to enjoy. From here, we will work on personal narrative writing. I will be asking the students to come up with a list of special memories. From here, they will choose a few to write about in detail. More on this later... 
Well, like I said, the week was busy and quite productive. Your children are like sponges. They are eager to learn and work so hard to please. I think we have fun too! They keep me entertained! 
Progress reports will go home on Monday.  
 
Have a great weekend! 
Until next time, 
Karen