Day two

Today was even better than Day 1. The children were hugely improved when it came to walking in the hall and other routines- plus, morning walk and talk went great! We had two (lost) backpack casualties, but both book bags made it to our classroom by 9:00 :) The kindergarteners fell right in with the big kids and had a great time visiting with friends before school. The only slight change we had is that our class lines up (and can set backpacks) at the WHITE number 3 that is written on the pavement. It was switched from the blue number 3 for logistic reasons.  Even lunch went more smoothly. 

Lunchtime is going by very quickly.  Please remind your child that they need to start eating immediately when they sit down. Thanks for your help in that :)

Also, don't forget to send in a family picture for our Friends and Family board!

We started our first phonemic awareness skill. Phonemic awareness is about sounds in spoken words. Later we connect the sounds to letters. Research has shown that children who have strong phonemic awareness tend to be more successful in reading. To begin, we are working on hearing beginning sounds and sorting objects into groups by their beginning sounds. It's great if they know which letter makes that sound, but I really want then to understand the difference between a letter and a sound. Ex.- "this is the letter Aa. It makes the sound /a/" "What sound do you hear at the beginning of cat?" "/c/"

We worked more on writing as we started learning about how to write phonetically (that means writing words the way they sound). For children who know their letters and sounds, this is the next step. Look for a posting in the next week or two that explains the developmental writing stages. It will also tell you more about how to identify where your child is, and what activities might benefit them at their level.

Happy Wednesday! Here are a few random pictures of the children during their free time. See you tomorrow! :)

Kyle working hard on his Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree!