Dear Parents,
This week has been very cohesive. The children are present, working more or less as a group, and bringing great joy to their learning. I still work to hold them together, but can do it with much more laughter, and bringing much more academic content.
And as promised, I’ve added more photos of the snow boulders on our shutterfly page.
UPCOMING EVENTS
- Payne Lecture and Workshop, Sat and Sun, March 12 and 13. Come for one or both. Events are almost sold-out, so get tickets soon.
- NO SCHOOL, Monday March 14. The faculty will be spending the day receiving social inclusion training from Kim John Payne.
- Parent-Teacher Conferences, Thurs, March 24 and Friday the 25th. There is no school Friday, March 25.
- Class Trip, April 15. The class will be taking a day trip in the Chicagoland area. This is the last day of school before spring break. Please hold off on any vacation plans.
- Office Hours, every Tuesday, 3:30-5:00pm. I’m in the classroom and have my phone handy. Feel free to schedule a time, drop-in, or call as needed. This is time I’m setting aside for you. Of course, you may also call or email any time with anything.
WEEK 21 HIGHLIGHTS
The little letters keep rolling in. This week we learned m, c, r, d, f, k, and n. As we receive these new letters, we also are reviewing the capitals and how they sound. The class has retained quite a lot of knowledge from their first long letter block in the fall. We put the letters to rest during our numbers block. That time for digestion and sleep has clearly been beneficial. Also in this block is the introduction of some common consonant blends. We’re touching on this briefly this block, focusing mainly on the ‘th’ and ‘sh’ sounds.
We’re in what we call a Language Arts Block. While in our Numbers Block, we played a lot of flute, did a lot of singing, and experienced many rhythms. Language Arts Blocks, while still including some flute and song, are more focused on speech. Tongue twisters, poetry, riddles, rhyme. A favorite from this block is the accumulative poem ‘The House that Jack Built.’ On the whole, this group has more of an affinity for music than poetry. Poetry is harder for them to get into and to learn. I fit into that category as well. We’re slowly cultivating an appreciation for it, though. I can see they already are enjoying it more than they did at the beginning of the year.
AT HOME
Some of you have asked what you can do at home to augment our work at school.
- Lots of chores!
- Keep helping them with their pencil grip (tripod grip)
- Counting for fun
- Leave time for play and imagination. The academic connections start to be made with proper time and space. Their work at home should be movement (chores!). Let their minds be ‘bored’ and the content from school will be allowed to deepen.