The MItten

Hello Families,

Last week we read the book "The Mitten" by Jan Brett.  We did quite a bit of writing with it and some projects.

We made a class book, wrote about what we would do if we only had one mitten and wrote about what animals would fit in our mitten!

We are really starting to focus on writing.  That includes a capital letter at the beginning, 2-finger spaces in between words, ending punctuation and sound spelling.  They are doing fantastic with it!

On Friday we made a sequencing activity using a paper bag and pictures of the animals.  Your student enjoyed making it and being able to put the animals in the glove in the same order as the book!

We also visited the computer lab for the first time! It was a big stressful as they were all trying to log in.  However, we will keep practicing in our classroom and at the computer lab.  We will be going every other Friday at the end of the day!

There aren't a lot of pictures because I was doing a million things at once this week! I will try to take more next week!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!!

Mrs. Leopold

Learning Dynamics

Happy Tuesday!

As you know, our school is piloting a program for our district called Learning Dynamics.  I am so excited for this program because it was created by teachers over a 17 year period.  It is age appropriate and the students LOVE it! :)  There are quite a few parts with it and I wanted to take time to let you know what all the pieces are and what is expected of students and families.

This program relies quite a deal on family help.  :)

If your student is have a little trouble remembering letter names and sounds then they will be bringing home this sheet:

One they have mastered all the letter names and sounds then they will be bringing home books.  The amazing thing about this program is that the students get to keep the books! They will end up with a whole set of books by the end of the year!!! :) The books look like this:

With the book they will be bringing home a sheet that looks like this:

They are to read the book 1 time a night as part of their homework.  Every time they read a book they get to color 1 picture in.  When all the pictures are colored in (they read the book 5 times) they can return it to me for a special prize. 

I will meet with them once a week (I am still figuring out my times) and I will read the previous book with them.  If they pass the book, they will get a new book.  If they struggled with the words or blending in the book they will get a new sheet and work on the same book for another week.

On top of all this, they will also be bringing home a CD! The students LOVE the songs and will beg you play the songs.  Please play it as often as you can! This will help them remember the sounds the letters make! I will apologize ahead of time because these songs WILL GET STUCK IN YOUR HEAD! I know! :) But, the kids truly love them! The CD looks like this:

Let me know if you have any questions! I am so excited to see how the programs helps our students.  It once again does rely an awful lot on parent/family involvement.  Please take 2 minutes to read the book with your student each night! It will make a HUGE difference!

Have a fantastic evening,

Mrs. Leopold

Catching up....

Hello families!!!

I must once again apologize for the space between all my posts!!! December was crazy but it was a lot of fun! Here are some pictures of the fun we had.... 

We used our Gingerbread Men to show a way to make 5!

We had some parent volunteers come in and help us make Reindeer Cupcakes!!! 

 

The Grinch Day was a success! They thoroughly enjoyed all the green grinchy things we did!

I hope you guys were able to enjoy the break with you kiddos! I am sure you were plenty busy, but I truly hope you able to spend some quality time with your family and friends!

I had a blast on my break! Here are some of my pictures...  

       

I got to feed a giraffe!!! I was so excited!

 

        

My friend Adrienne (a teacher in Yuma)  came and spent the holidays with me and my husband.

                 

I climbed a mountain! It was quite amazing!

 

I am going try and post once a week again! Hopefully with the crazy holiday season over life won't be so hectic! 

Have a great week,

Mrs. Leopold