It's a short week!

Wow! What a whirlwind this first track time has been! I can't believe we have been in school for nearly 8 weeks.

So far, here are the sight words we have learned:
a, and, for, go, here, have, I, is, like, my, play, see, said, to, the

You child should be able to read the sight words on command, without having to think about it for very long. That's why we call them sight words, so they can read them "on sight."

This week is a short week. Remember WEDNESDAY is early-day and we have no school on Thursday or Friday.

I have noticed a vast improvement in the excitement of our students since I last wrote about changing some things in class. We have been reviewing the rules each day and have started working on some new activities that the class seems to really enjoy.

I do want you to be aware that parent-teacher conferences will be coming up shortly after we return from our off-track time. I will be working with the students at school to learn about what we call our "data notebook" so that they will be able to lead our conferences when the time comes. It is important for our children to see the progress they are making in order to encourage them to continue to work hard. If you hear about this at home and have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Thank you all for all of your support of your child's learning!

Love,
Mrs. Newman

The BIG Three

I can't believe I missed getting a post up this week. Wow! It's been busy!!

We have had all kinds of stuff going on. We completed our 1st Literacy Benchmark this week in addition to our first Math benchmark. We had lots of testing going on and things may not have felt like a typical week at school. I am looking forward to getting things all back in order next week, as I'm sure the kids will be too.

I am sure many of you are aware of Oquirrh Elementary's "Big Three," but just in case you aren't, I wanted to share them with you.

1. Be Safe
2. Be Respectful
3. Be Responsible

Today, we had a class "Pow-wow" to discuss how we thought we were doing in these three areas. Many of the students mentioned being "distracted" at school by too much talking going on around them. We discussed being "responsible" for our own choices, and taking care of ourselves by keeping our voices off during work time. Please follow-up on this discussion at home with your child.

I still need some extra hands during our power-hour time. If you are able to come in once a week from 8:45-9:45 and help students practice sight words, letters, writing, etc., please let me know ASAP!

We are going to start our sight words testing next week. Each Friday, I will have the students read the sight words from the week to me. PLEASE, remember to practice with them at home.

We have watched "The Letter Factory" in parts over the past few weeks to learn our letters and sounds. We are nearing the end of the alphabet introduction, and will have learned the entire alphabet by the end of next week. You can watch part of the movie here to see how we have been learning and practicing at school. Have your child show you the actions that go with each letter of the alphabet!