Learning Sight Words Pays Off!

Here's a fun idea we have tried in the past for students who do not enjoy learning sight words:  pay them to learn them (well sort of).  :)  Provide students with a wallet, it can be a real wallet or a wallet made from construction paper.  Cut green construction paper into dollar size pieces (you can even print sight word money from some websites).  Write the sight word where the president would be on a real dollar.  Practice sight words with the money; students get paid every sight word dollar that they know how to read.  They can store it in their wallet and practice each night.  Remember to periodically review the "money" in their wallet to be sure they do not forget the words they already learned to read.  At the end of each nine weeks, students should have added 25 sight word dollars.  By the end of the year we hope that each student has 100 sight word dollars.  How many "dollars" can your child earn tonight? 


For a list of sight words already covered, check the 1st nine weeks sight word chart in their homework folder.  At this point, you may want to begin looking ahead to add the 2nd nine weeks words as well. 

Websites to explore

We have a few websites available to students through our school that require a password.  I will be sending passwords for these websites home with students.  Until I get those sent home, your child may want to explore these sites.  They are student favorites.  Tumblebooks can be accessed through our school website; books are read aloud to students.  Games for reading and math can be found at:
www.starfall.com
www.abcya.com
In addition to these websites, YouTube has a great selection of videos that review letters, sight words, and math skills.  There are also several great videos of books being read aloud, sometimes even being read by the author.  I caution you to preview all videos first to screen their appropriateness; not all videos are quality resources even though they are tagged as educational. 
Another great resource can be author's websites.  Many authors have activities that correspond to their books.  For instance, you could read a book by Jan Brett, then visit her website to print characters from the book.  These characters could be turned into puppets to use for retelling the story.  She provides a recipe to make her gingerbread characters.  You could make real gingerbread babies to use for retelling.  She also has interactive games and many other links on her website.  Her website is one of many great websites by children's authors.  Mem Fox frequently responds to students who contact her.  Her conact information is available on her website.  Google a favorite author to see what they may have available online.  

Week 7

Upcoming Events:
September 30th Boosterthon kick-off

What we are learning this week:
Sight words: an, is, look
Letters & sounds: q, x, y, z
Reading Strategy:  We use our "owl eyes" to look at picture clues to figure out unfamiliar words.
Writing:  We will continue using the sentence frame to write about community helpers.  The purpose of the sentence frame is to remind students to begin with a capital letter and end with a punctuation mark. 
Math:  We will continue working on numbers 0-10.  This week we will be using a number line to count and find missing numbers.
Social Studies: We will finish our unit on community helpers.

How can you help at home this week?
Review anything missed on the interim or weekly assessment.
Review sight words.  Students love being sight word detectives!  Give them a magnifying glass, a simple book, a notebook, and a pencil.  Have them search for sight words within the book and write them in the notebook.  After they finish their list, have them read their list of words.
Review letters and sounds.  One way we practice in class is by playing a matching game with uppercase and lowercase letters.  An easy way to prepare this at home would be to write an uppercase letter and matching lowercase letter on an index card, cut the card in half, mix up a few at a time, then have your child match the letters together again.  Say the letter name and sound each time they make a match. 
Writing:  Practice writing letters correctly.
Math:  Write the numbers 0-10 on a number line (or you could use a ruler for a number line to 12).  Have your child close their eyes, cover up a number on the number line, then have your child guess the missing number.  If this is too easy, try covering multiple numbers.

Week 6

Upcoming events:

Monday, September 21:  dress like a pirate day

               & sign and return interims if you forgot to return on Friday

Friday, September 25:  school spirit day

What we are learning this week:

Sight words:  like, you, at, cat

Letters and sounds:  Vv, Ii, Ww, Kk

Reading:  Comparing/contrasting fiction and non-fiction using community helper books.  How can you determine what type of book you are reading?

Writing:  Sentences begin with a capital letter and have ending punctuation.  We will be using a sentence frame to remember this concept.  Our sentence frame looks similar to this /\________.  The "mountain" reminds you to start with a capital and the period is at the end.  We will be writing a community helper book using this frame.  

Social studies:  There are many different community helpers.  Some community helpers help us and keep us safe.  

Math:  Review numbers 1-10, special emphasis on 6-10.  Writing the number, counting objects, making sets.

How can you help at home this week?  

Review anything missed on the interim or weekly assessment.  I will recheck those skills before report cards are issued to give students another chance at mastery.  Remember to sign and return interims if you forgot on Friday.

Reading:  Read 100 Book Challenge each night.  Remember to log your books.  Practice sight words, letters and their sounds.  Read a variety of books this week including 100 Book Challenge books, decide if they are fiction or non-fiction.  How do you know?

Writing:  Practice writing simple sentences with a capital letter and ending punctuation such as: The dog ran fast.  The cat is gray.  My name is Jack.

Social studies:  Discuss family member's jobs.  Is someone at your house considered a community helper, such as a police officer, mailman, grocer, etc.?  How do they help the community?

Math:  Practice counting objects in groups and writing the corresponding number.  For example, count six buttons and write 6, count 9 pieces of cereal and write 9.  Then try it in reverse, the parent writes the number 8, the child makes a set of 8 crayons.

100 Book Challenge time

     We have been busy learning the final pieces of 100 Book Challenge this week as we begin taking books home.  Here we are choosing good, quiet spots for reading time.  We will change spots throughout the year.  This week we focused on how to choose a spot far away from others so we are not distracted.  We used quiet corners, empty tables, and areas not close to others.  

     Remember to send books, logs, and folders back each day.  One line equals 15 minutes of reading; it may include reading, sight word work, letter and sound practice, or other reading skills.  Your child should log 2 books in class and one to two more at home.  Students should not log more than four at night, one hour of reading is a lot for most students.  Remember to log on the next blank line, not the line I have already signed.  We want to fill this log book up by the end of the year; students who log where I have already signed are cheating themselves out of steps.  We will add additional log sheets for students as they need them throughout the year.  

     Look for special notes in their reading folder; occasionally I will send a note about their reading strengths and one area to work on before next month.  I will read with them at least twice a month but will typically s nod the note at the last conference of the month to give students a month to correct their skill.  Thanks for your help in making this a smooth start for our program! 

 

Wonder Room

We visited the Wonder Room to sort items from the past and the present.  You cannot tell from the pictures but we had several tables of items from the past and present including an iron and an old cast iron, games from 100 years ago and today, cooking utensils, cleaning methods, clothing, methods of writing, toys, transportation, communication, etc.  We enjoyed sorting through the items to figure out if they were from a long time ago or something we may use today.