SHOW AND TELL
Bring something old
Topic: Pioneers
We’ll learn about life 200 years ago in America.
The value we’ll be studying is self-reliaance, which is believing you can do it and using good judgment in what you do.
For cooking we’ll make a lot of different things with apples.
Outside, we’ll be weaving and playing hide-and-seek.
The songs we’ll be singing are Clementine, Oh, What a Beautiful Morning, Oh, Susanna, She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain, Skip to My Lou, and Michael Finnegan.
For creative dramatics, we’ll play Grandmother’s Trunk.
Our art activities will be junk sculptures, covered wagons, and apple prints.
For motor development, we’ll be working on balance. In body movement, we’ll be working on postural response with ball passes, balance bean obstacles, and kicking a balloon.
HOW PHONICS WORK
Our brains have no inherent knowledge of the alphabet. The beauty of phonics is that children can learn the parts of reading and writing before they put it all together. But like tennis, you can practice your backhand, forehand, and serve, but you don’t really know how to play the game until you use these skills in a match. So phonics is the word-decoding skills. The joyful, hands-on experience of reading great literature or for knowledge is provided by whole language.
Whole language seems to “click” for children who are visual or tactile learners. Visual learners can easily recall words they see repeatedly. Tactile learners benefit from writing because using their hands helps them understand and remember things. Phonics seems better to meet the needs of auditory and analytical learners. Auditory learners hear and remember sounds easily. Analytical learners enjoy taking words apart, following rules, and finding out how words are spelled and how to pronounce them. The logic of phonics makes sense to these children, and they find it more satisfying than the guessing techniques that are often used in whole language. What can you do? Try these suggestions:
- Read aloud and often, stopping occasionally to talk about what you’ve read or to ask questions like “What could happen next?” Leaving out an obvious word in a story or rhyme helps your child learn to decode it based on context. Leaving out an obvious beginning or ending sound in a word (The popcorn went “-op!”) spurs letter/sound awareness.
- Play the name game. A child’s name is a great place to start teaching the alphabet. See, say, and write each letter together. Explore other letters by naming things around the house and the neighborhood.
- Show that reading is useful. Read labels at the market, billboards, and a recipe when you’re cooking. A child is more motivated when reading has a purpose and meaning.
- Have fun with words. Call out, “I spy something that starts with “m”. (Say the sound, not the letter. If you want a guide for which sound goes with letters, ask your teacher for our flyer.) Draw letters on each other’s back. The more playful and involved you are in these games, the more the child will learn.
- Publish your young author. Invite your little reader to talk about, and then write about, a drawing she’s made. Don’t correct spelling or grammar at this stage. The more important goal now is to get ideas down and enjoy writing and reading. Share these books with grandparents or neighbors where you can brag in front of your child.
General
Proprioception – This is one of the sensory integration exercises we incorporate into our daily routine. Proprioception is the sense of where our body is in space. Some of the things you can do at home are: (1) encourage your child to do heavy things, like carry a gallon of milk, (2) play “backpacking” with several heavy-ish things like a bag of beans or rice in the backpack, and (3) do a “hug sandwich” with your child between two people.
Classroom News
While outside students are taught to appreciate nature we don’t destroy flowers and we do not kill bugs or other creatures found on the playground. It was a warm day and a lot was going happening on the playground; Alexis and Sae played on the swings, Michael and Jack played catch with the big green ball while Anderson and Rhone played soccer and kicked the ball across the playground. When the teacher said “look at the lizard” everyone stopped what they were doing and gathered to watch the brown lizard turn green as it climbed up and across the outside wall of the school. They were encouraged to keep a safe distance from the lizard so they could observe it and not scare it. The children had to be reminded not to touch the lizard with much restraint they held out as long as they could until one child could not resist and caused the lizard to retreat to a hiding place. Consider on ways you can observe nature at you home.
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