September 11th Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

This week will be exciting as we learn some of the literacy centers we'll be using to practice what we learn in other parts of our day.  We'll learn the big book center, the writing center, the poetry center, the art center, and the independent reading center.  

As young children learn to read, it is important that they read many, many texts.  This is because of the opportunity that reading a large number of books affords them to decode challenging words, to learn what kinds of books and styles of writing they enjoy, and to practice the words that appear most frequently in text, which is extremely supportive of young readers.  Our centers are designed to help our students explore many texts, and read many of them on their own.  Only a few centers involve working with words in isolation, because we want children reading words in the context of sentences which makes reading more fun and motivating!  Think of it like riding a bike.  Just holding the handlebars isn't much fun.  The fun part is riding the bike, which demands holding the handlebars, balancing, steering, and peddling!  Ask your son or daughter about the centers they learned about today!

In math, we will be learning about naming numbers before and after a given number and how to use a number line.  We will also be working on our daily math routines and learning a few new math centers.  There will not be any math homework this week.  

In social studies, we are working on our school unit.  This week we will learn bus safety and continue learning about school rules and how to be a "Positive Jaguar".

Friendly Reminders

• Picture day is this Wednesday, September 13th!  If you would like to purchase photos, please return the order form that you got at the beginning of the school year.
• Please empty your child's red folder each night.  Many children are returning their red folders still filled with the previous day's items.  Please look over your child's work with them and return necessary items back to school.
• If you have not sent an old sock to school for our dry erase boards, please send one or more to school with your child soon.  I greatly appreciate it!