Tuesday Update

Today we reviewed the letter sounds of 'a, s, t, p, i, n, c, k,' and introduced 'e'.  Review these sounds at home as well.  They should be able to tell you the letters and sounds.  If not, practice these often so your child doesn't fall behind.  We will move quickly past letter review and into vowels, blends, etc.

I hope you are having fun with the book bags.  Thank you for noting in the agendas items that are damaged or need replacing.  I appreciate the good care taken with the bags.  After Thanksgiving we will begin our actual Home Reading Program.

Printing - we are focusing on a few key printing skills and you can help reinforce this at home.

1.  Pencil grip - old habits are hard to break but the correct pencil/crayon grip is:  pencil pinched between the tips of the thumb and first finger with the other fingers underneath supporting the pencil.  Please correct your child's grip if they are 'finger wrapping' (not holding the pencil with the tips of the finger). 
2.  Letters start at the top!  We will begin really focusing on the correct formation of letters in your child's name so....... time to break the old habits!  ALL letters start at the top!   The only exception is lowercase 'e'.  We teach this letter by:  start in the middle, bat the ball out straight, run around the bases almost back to home.  Get your child to show you!

Apple Words
I was very pleased to see that all the Apple words were out of the agendas!  I assume this means they made it home.  Remember to practice for 5-10 minutes each night this week.  The children were very excited to tell me how many words they knew!

School Supplies
If you haven't sent them - please do!  We go through pencils and crayons quickly!  Also, please send extra clothes and a paint shirt.

I am really enjoying the students!  They are very eager to learn and quite cooperative.  We have had some minor incidents between some of the boys.  I don't always hear of things that happen on the playground so please remember your child to make sure to tell ME about incident they are involved in (but not tattling on others).  I can't really address issues that happen last week if I don't know about them and, days later, the students don't even remember what happened.  I try to deal with minor incidents at school but I will contact you if I think it's necessary.
Finally, if you have any questions, give me an email and I usually can get back to you right away in the morning.