November 2, 2008

Dear Families:
WOW...I want to thank you for all the very generous goodies and decorations that you sent in with you children for our Pajama Party on Friday. We received and ate wonderful homemade brownies, the most gorgeous white and chocolate covered pretzels I have ever seen, great homemade cookies...the list goes on and on. Thank you. We had so much fun - reading spooky stories, playing chess, listening and dancing to The Monster Mash and making smores in the microwave. I hope the children did not get sick from eating all these delicacies.

The children are really working hard. We are working on our partnership reading and learning to be good partners. The children sit knee-to-knee and read their star books to each other. Half the children are apples and the other half are oranges. So if you hear the children telling you that they are an apple during reading, they are telling you the truth. One day the apple reads and the next day the orange reads. I always get a kick out of it when the kids come up to me to ask if "apples will be reading or will oranges?"

A parent brought to my attention her concerns regarding the private Back-to-Back reading because of the small lice issue we are experiencing in our class. I take these concerns very seriously and have changed my policy on this procedure. The children will be sitting at least 12 inches away from their reading partner during the private reading times. Thank you for letting me know your concerns.

During Shared Reading, the children are reading the weekly poem. Right now, it is the Alphabet Poems. We look at these poems very carefully - picking out the rhyming words and their word wall words. By the end of the week, the children know how to read these poems and are very proud that they can “read.” Every child wants a turn to recite it during Shared Reading. I am very proud of them. You should be too.

During the week, I conference with several children a day both in reading and writing. It is amazing how they are progressing. For writing, we are continuing with our three-finger stories - learning to stretch out words. They are getting better everyday.

For Math, we are working on problem solving and working on number sentences. We are looking at patterns all around and measurement. The children love math and working on math problems. We are well into our “Beautiful Stuff” Social Studies Unit. The children are having fun looking through the "stuff" and showing it to their friends. We are sorting, measuring, and looking very closely at all the items. We are going to be working on a collage with the materials we have.

This week, we were fortunate to have Dylan's grandmother come to visit and work with the children on an art activity. Dylan's grandmother, Abby, is a retired Art Teacher and she worked with the children on making paper collage figures. The figures came out amazing and soon will be hung inside our classroom. I love them. You will too.

Below this posting, I have included a slide show of some of the many things we are doing in Class K-207. The pictures include reading our published pieces to Mrs. Concannon's First Grade Class, playing chess, working on the art activity with Dylan's grandmother and our wonderful Pajama Party. I hope you enjoy the show.

To give you a head's up. On Friday, for Parent's as Enrichment Partners, the children of K-207 will have a little surprise presentation for you. I hope that you will be able to join us. On Monday, November 10, we will be going to the Prospect Park Zoo. For those of you who have not returned the permission slip, please do so. Thank you.

Have a wonderful week.
Ms. Graham