Tuesday, December 11, 2017

Today we took some time to reflect on why we are fortunate.  We discussed how material things are not as important as health or relationships.  In our writing, we learned a trick to help us remember how to spell the word "because."  The memory trick is: big elephants can always use some exercise.

In science, we are continuing our investigation into the five senses.  This Thursday we will be testing our sense of smell.  Students are encouraged to bring a container with a scent inside.  The container should be covered in paper so we can poke holes in it that day.

In math, we are becoming increasingly confident representing numbers to 100 using base ten blocks.  We have spent time learning that the tens digit represent groups of ten.

The next stage in our phonological awareness development is manipulating onsets and rimes.  Today we learned that the rime (not to be confused with rhyme) is the vowel and and any following consonant sounds in a syllable.  For example, in the work "yes, " the rime is "es."  In the word "backyard," the rime in the first syllable is "ack" and the rime in the second syllable is "ard."  To practice this, we orally blended onsets and rimes together and then determined if they created real or nonsense words.  You can practice this at home by giving your child one onset from the chart below, and one rime.  Ask them to blend the sounds together and determine if they have made a real or nonsense word.

Onset         Rime

h                   amp

bl                  et

th                  ole

gr                  een

Reminders:

• Library books due back this Friday.
• December 19 and 20: Popcorn days ($2/bag)
• December 20: Pajama Day
• December 20: Class performance at 1:30
• December 21: Last day of classes (early dismissal)