December

Newsletter – Issue 3

News! News! News!Thank you for all of your help to make the Thanksgiving feast a success! I am very thankful for all of you and your wonderful children!

On Friday I sent home information about report cards and I hope you were able to access your child’s report card on Power School.

This month I’ll be sending home a family tradition page for you to fill out with your child and return to school. During the last week before break your child will get to share it with the class (if you finish before you are welcome to return it – I may spread the sharing out over a few weeks – but I want to give you time to fill it out). Please have your child practice so he/she knows what to say.

Check the volunteer calendar on my webiste and make sure I have you on there correctly.

We will have a new Computer Teacher starting this week. Her name is Miss Christy and she’ll be a great addition to our Eagle Elementary staff.

Book Orders – I do all Book Orders online– the code will be the same each month. I also have this on my website.

Next Book Order is due Monday, December 5 th . What Will We Learn In December?

Reading Instruction: We will continue to work on Phonological Awareness skills (rhyming, segmenting words, syllables, changing beginning, middle and end of words). We are going to focus on how every word is broken up into syllables and each of the syllables has a vowel. This will help the children focus on hearing more sounds in each word. We will also continue to work on letter and sound fluency and sight words. As your child masters these skills he/she will be working on reading short vowel words in small groups (all children will get a

chance to learn to read short vowel words when we work on this during whole group instruction). As we enjoy classroom stories we will also be focusing on retelling them, comparing and contrasting characters, naming characters and setting, and answering questions about the story.

Writing Instruction: We will continue to work on segmenting words, learning where to put spaces, working on writing letters on lines and correct capitalization and puncuation. We are also going to start opinion writing. The children will be given a graphic organizer to fill in their opinion and after we practice this a few times we’ll do one and make a final copy with complete sentences. We will work on opinion writing throughout the year.

Math Instruction: We will be working on Unit 2 during math instruction. We will begin focusing on addition and subtraction using contextual story problems. They will be using manipulatives and drawings to help them focus on this skill. I will begin introducing the number line and number bonds to give them some addition and subtraction models to use. We will be working on counting to 50 this month (with the ultimate goal being 100) and working on writing to 20 and identifying the teens (number recognition and place value).

Our themes for the month are: Needs and Wants, Family Traditions (through the writing project I’m sending home), Gingerbread Men

Upcoming EventsHomework is due – please return it this week and your child will receive a Pizza Hut coupon. A December homework packet is on the website – I also e-mailed it to you and see which way works better for you to print.

Book Order – Due Monday, December 5 in order to receive the books before Christmas vacation

Saturday, December 10 our PTO will be hosting Breakfast with Santa which will start at 9 am. The details should have come home about a week ago.

Holiday Party (and December birthday celebration) – December 16th – it will also be pajama day and we’ll be making gingerbread cookies

Christmas Break is Monday, December 19 through Monday, January 2 so there will be NO SCHOOL during these two weeks. School will resume on Tuesday, January 3.

How Can I Help My Child?I’ve started something called Secret Stories. The stories that we’ve used the most are the vowels (short and lazy – a, e, i, o, u as well as the long and strong)

th, sh, ch, (soon we’ll meet mama e and sneaky y). Many of the children are continuing to work on naming letters and sounds (and working on fluency). However, using Secret Stories allows your children to begin learning some of the more challenging words/sounds earlier because they are taught through a story they can relate to. It also helps them as they write more challenging words. As you read together it’s great to ask your child if he/she sees any secrets in the words your child is reading or you are reading to your child – this is very new to your child right now but he/she will pick up on more of the secrets as the year goes on.

When your child is reading books that are coming home in the reading bag have your child glide his/her finger under the sentence and not just point to each word. This helps your child become more fluent and less choppy when reading a sentence.

We are going to begin to build on our knowledge of syllables. We will be learning that every syllable has at least one vowel and we will break apart the syllables and stretch (or chop out on our arms) each part out to see if we can find the vowel. This will be very directed as a whole group for awhile and as we practice there will be improvement in your child’s independent writing as well. You can help at home by saying a word to your child that has more than one syllable, having him/her clap it out then write it on a piece of paper focusing on the sounds in each syllable and checking for the vowel. We are not looking for perfect spelling in harder words – just hearing many of the sounds.

Practice rhyming with your child – give a word an have your child name a word (or more) that rhymes with it.

Have your child count to 50 and beyond this month.

As we learn more about solving story problems I’ll be giving you ideas on how to help your child at home use strategies and models that we practice at school to solve them.

Thank you for all of your support!

Mrs. Westcott