September 17th-21st

A big thank you to all the of the parents who came to Durham for the Jog-a-thon today! The kiddos had a great time and were definitely tired out when we were done! It's wonderful to have so many families involved in special activities like that. 

Reading and Writing

We  started our Fast Track Phonics Program this week and covered the the sounds /m/ and /a/ and  /s/. Starting next week, we will also have a letter of the week that we will focus on, but our phonics program introduces several sounds each week so that the children can learn the sounds and letters at a faster pace. The phonics program incorporates some video elements which both classes loved. Our letter of the week activities will review the letters that we have already done in Fast Track Phonics and will involve other skills and projects.

Each sound card has a picture that incorporates the formation of the letter. There is an "animated alphabet" video clip where we see that picture in action. This is meant to help the children connect the image on the cards (which are posted in the classroom) and the sound that the letter makes. So far this week we have done the /m/ card for which we say The man marches on mountains and the /a/ card for which we say Alphie asks for apples.

Alphie the Alligator is a puppet that is used with the program and the kids learned some "games" that we play with Alphie to help them become readers. We Say It Fast (Alphie uses his special Alphie Talk to say each individual sound in a word and the children say the word fast) and we also Break It Down (I say a word and the children say each sound in the word). Both of these skills are very important for reading and spelling/writing. Another aspect of the Fast Track Phonics (FTP) program is learning how to write the letters. Some students are tracing letters and others are writing them independently. As I monitor progress, I am looking at how each child is holding his/her pencil, whether or not the can write their name, and how much support they need to write letters.

I introduced a new app called "Letter School" this morning that was a HUGE hit. The kiddos did not get a chance to do it themselves because we were busy with the jog-a-thon, but they will get a chance to try it out next week. The app helps children practice letter and number writing with cues for where to start and how to correctly form the letter.

ELD Time:
Some children receive ELD instruction for 30 minutes outside the classroom each day. Children who participate in this are children who speak a language besides English at home. During this time, children who do not participate stay in the classroom and we will do a rotation of activities throughout the week. Our activity rotation will be...

Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday: Small group work rotation including iPad time, math tile games, and literacy activities. 

Thursday: sound sort which involves identifying which pictures show words that begin with each sound, sorting the pictures, then gluing them on a large sheet. 

Friday: chapter book read aloud (Our first book is called The Magician's Boy by Susan Cooper)

Activities/Special Events:

This Thursday every child at Durham took the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) reading assessment. This is a screening measure to help the Kindergarten teachers and our Literacy Specialist know which students may need additional support in reading. Students in Kindergarten did Letter Naming Fluency and Initial Sound Fluency portions of this assessment. They also did a short math exercise as well. These assessments give us information that helps us know where kiddos are in their skills so that we can plan instruction accordingly.

Next Thursday is Picture Day!