The End of September

     Two months of school are gone!!  Time is flying by!  I am excited to say that I see progress with most of my students and have begun new skills with almost all of my groups.  I can tell which students put forth effort in both my room and their homeroom classrooms, and those that do not.  Please remind your student how important it is to pay attention and to TRY!!  The key to understanding is to participate- to be involved in the learning!  I want to have each student actively engaged in the learning process.  We have to work together to do that!

     Kindergarten students are practicing identifying the letters of the alphabet, especially the letters in their names. They are counting animal manipulatives and learning to identify the numerals (0-10) that match the number counted.
     In first grade, the students are reviewing letters and their sounds, as well as identifying the characters, setting, and main events in a story.  readingeggs.com is a great site to help practice letters and sounds and begin reading!  I have accounts set up for students who see me for Reading.  In Math, students are practicing addition using the strategies counting on and make a ten!  www.abcya.com and www.xtramath.org are fantastic sites to help practice basic math skills!
     In fourth grade, we are working on individual skills to increase students' fluency in Reading and Math.  We have utilized www.spellingcity.com, www.studyisland.com, www.xtramath.org, www.arcademicskillbuilders.com, and www.internet4classrooms.com.

     In fifth grade, we are reviewing basic Math facts and working with word problems. We are working on finding key words in word problems that tell us which operation to use to solve the problem. In Reading, they are working to increase their fluency, summarizing short chapters they have read, locating information, using context clues, and identifying narrative elements using the 5 W questions- Who, What, When, Where, and Why. We are also working to boost our vocabulary!