Language

 

This week the By Heart Word will be "little". In order to help the children find and write these words, I use some of the words in the morning/afternoon message, but leave a blank where the word fits. Then the STAR for the day chooses a child to find the word on the wall, bring the word to the easel and write the word. This has proven to be very successfully in reinforcing the reading and writing of these words.

 

In Jolly Phonics we will be starting over with the sounds in order to reinforce the sound and action for each of these sounds. I will not be sending home a copy of the sounds since everyone already has these at home. However, I may send home the vowel ones, since many of these were skipped because I felt the children were not ready for them at that time. The sound for this week is the "s", and children will be encouraged to offer words with the "s" sound.

 

We will be working on "ell" family. Some of the words include:  bell, cell, dell, fell, sell, tell well, yell. When I taught grade one I found the children were ready to learn the blends at this time. Therefore, I feel the children are not ready for this skill at this time, so I will leave this for the children to learn in grade one.

 

This week many of the books that I will read aloud to the children will be related to Valentines Day. Many of these stories are connected to friendship and caring about others. The children will be asked to orally communicate about the problem that occurred in the story and the solution. The children will also be challenged to discuss how they would solve the problem. Perhaps at home parents can ask their children about the problem in the story. Problem and solution will be the focus for the rest of  February.