Kindergarten has just finished learning all their letters and sounds.  We are reading books and practicing new strategies we have learned: use the picture, use a pointing finger to word match, get your mouth ready for the initial sound of an unknown word.  Parents can practice these strategies at home when reading picture books with their children.

Grade One has been working hard on their flashcards.  Please continue to practice these at home.  The quicker the better!!!  We are beginning to learn about basewords and suffixes for Fundations.  Look for some information that will be coming home about how to help your child.  We continue to work on reading strategies:  get your mouth ready, look for something you know in a tricky word, using pointer finger.  Please reinforce these strategies at home when reading with your child and continue to ask for a retelling after your child has read to you!

Grade Two and Three - In phonics instruction, Grade two is working on decoding multisyllabic words. Grade three is working on digraph blends. Both grade two and grade three are working on the Grade Level Expectation (GLE), "Responding to Literature".  Students are reading a story and then responding to a specific question - a "Focus Question".  These responses are called "Constructed Responses". There are GLE's that are taught to our students under the teacher's guidance and the expectation is that these students will be able to write a constructed response that will meet grade level standards.  An upcoming workshop, designed for grades two, three, and four, will be presented on January 22!  Look for more info soon!

Our students in Grade Four are working on “Hamburger Paragraphs.”  These paragraphs help students construct a response to a "Focus Question" and help students to organize their thoughts for writing.  We will continue to work on paragraphs and parents should look for more information on our workshop on January 22^nd to learn more about this!  Mark your calendars

 

Grade Level Expectations (GLE’s):  Reading Habits

Read, Read and Read Still More! "Reading habits” are as important as reading skills.  Beginning in kindergarten, students need to read a lot – independently and with assistance – from fiction, nonfiction, poetry and prose genres.  In the standards, "a lot" is quantified in these terms:

& Kindergarten: Read or reread – independently or with another student or adult – two to four familiar books each day. Listen to one or two books read aloud each day at school and at home.

& First Grade: Read – independently or with assistance – four or more books a day. Hear two to four books or other texts read aloud each day.

& Second Grade: Read one or two short books or long chapters every day. Listen to and discuss every day one text that is longer and more difficult than what can be read independently.

& Third – Fifth Grade: Read 25 chapter books a year. Listen to and discuss at least one chapter read aloud or silently every day.