It's Friday!

Yep, it's Friday already! I'm not sure where this week has gone, but I will say this, it has been a pawsitively awesome week of learning in our room!
Thank you to everyone who left comments on our "Where do you like to read" question. The kiddos and I really enjoyed reading them.

This week we continued to work on building stamina for reading. I am happy to report that we have gone from 3 minutes of sustained reading last week to 18 minutes on Thursday! WOW!!!! We started working on a new piece of our Daily 5, Listen to Reading and will be starting to practice that station independently tomorrow. The kids seem to be pretty excited about this area. It always tends to be a favorite at the beginning of the year and is a great way for children to hear fluency and expressive reading.

In math, we are continuing to review concepts such as days of the week, months of the year, tally marks, and counting one more/less in addition to setting up routines associated with working with partners and small groups.

We've started our writer's workshop time this week as well by talking about what good writer's write about (letters, cards, stories, grocery lists, etc) Talk with your child about ways you use writing everyday. We will be working next week to stretch sounds out like bubblegum (always a fun mini lesson and tasty too...shhhh... don't tell your child though... it's a teacher secret). We'll also be talking about how good writer's write about things they know a lot about.

All of that said, I've also managed to do quite a bit of assessing this week and am excited about what I am seeing from your child. I will be using the information that I am collecting to help guide my instruction and to try and tailor learning specifically to your child's needs. Next week I will be checking reading skills (decoding and comprehension) to help determine which reading level will be most appropriate for your child.

Whew! That's lots of info and no pictures to go with it. Looking forward to another great week next week!! Have a fantastic weekend with your families and don't forget to tell your child how proud of them you are! They have certainly been working hard and deserve a pat on the back!