Week of January 4th Happy New Year! *Exciting news! The Marvel Universe Live Show Crew will be in our classroom on Wednesday at noon to make shields, hand out prizes, and give out tickets to the show that weekend. Show Me St. Louis will also be in our classroom to promote the show and our superhero students. Students should send in a purple Grow Strong shirt, if they have one. I will provide pizza for the kids that day since we will be busy TV stars during the lunch hour:) You will receive vouchers for the show for your family. Just take those to the ticket booth at Scottrade Center for any of the performances and they will give you tickets. Let me know if you have any questions. *Despite our best efforts, I am not receiving messages on my phone. If you need to get in touch with me, the best way is to email [email protected], and I will call you as soon as possible. If it is an urgent matter, please leave a message with the secretary and they will let me know. *We have 2 math groups. Group 1 is working on a language based math program that has a story and manipulatives that go with each week. We work on basic number concepts, making patterns, comparing numbers, ordering numbers, and measurement. Students are also using the calendar to state which date is two days from now, 3 weeks from now, 4 days ago, etc. Good things to practice at home, especially if there is a fun activity they are looking forward to! This week we are reading Ribbit, Ribbit, Hop and counting frogs. Math group 2 is using the Envisions program (the Affton curriculum), just at a lower level. Students are working on addition and subtraction skills, different ways to make and write a number, word problems, and number sense. Our focus this week is counting mixed coins and telling time to the hour and half hour. *All of the students have tablets and we will be using a program called Clicker to assist us with our reading, vocabulary, writing, and grammar skills. Students have access to a keyboard, but can also simply touch the screen to access the programs. Yahoo! This week we will use the Clicker program to write retell our story What Snowmen Do At Night. *Reading instruction will have many parts--sight words, phonics, using context clues, and comprehension. We will use a variety of materials at your child's level and several software programs as well. As I introduce these programs in my classroom, I will send home the passwords for you to use at home. Students are reviewing the consonant, short vowel sounds, and digraphs in the Wilson program. We have introduced several new welded sounds-ang, ank, ing, and ink with more to follow this week--ong, onk, ung, unk. Students participating in the "Letter of the Week activity" are working on the letter 'r.' We are reading Ollie the Stomper. *I am lucky to have Mrs. Vogt (Speech Pathologist) teaming with me for social skills instruction. The program we are using is called Social Thinking which focuses on the problem solving students have to do to be appropriate communicators and effective members of a group. We will have a daily lesson, followed by a few extra minutes of language instruction. During this time, students will have a lot of opportunities to role play and practice the skills they are learning in the small group setting. We will also work with our Gotsch Ambassadors throughout the year to assist us in generalizing those skills to a larger group setting. This week the students will review Superflex the Superhero and his foes associated with the Superflex program. Superflex teaches us strategies that we can adapt to any situation. * To go along with our Affton Strong/Superhero theme, students start each class period "Ready to Fly (Learn)" on our clip chart. As they make good choices and participate in class, they can move up the chart to "Soaring," "Sidekick," and "Superhero Status." They earn Cougar Cash for each of these levels. If the students make it to Superhero Status, they get to wear the coveted cape, mask, and earn extra money. Students spend their money at the Superhero store every other Friday. Students may also move down the chart. The "Danger Zone" reminds them to use a strategy. "Teacher's Choice" may result in a a loss of recess, extra homework, an extra job to complete in the classroom, or a call home. The final level is "Kryptonite" which results in an office referral. Students will mark their behavior calendars in their Superhero Stats folders each day. *New this year--we will have a daily sheet in the homework folder letting you know how the day went. There is also a place to write the name of a book they read that night, and a parent signature. Please complete this form, sign, and return in the purple Superhero folder each day. *Please make sure your child is well rested, has a good breakfast, is on time, and ready to learn each day. *Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns. I can be reached at 842-1238, or through email at: [email protected]