September 14^th to 19^th

 

We have had such an exciting week!  The children have learned the routines of centers and transitions.  They are doing well with how we communicate effectively with our friends and how to cooperate to achieve a common goal. 

 

Reading

This week we have focused on reviewing our letters S, T, A, P and have started learning I, M, N, D.  The children are growing in confidence to apply their knowledge of letters to blend sounds together using a decoding strategy called the “Stretchy Snake”.

It is amazing to watch your child realize they can READ!  We have played lots of games which allow them to practice their reading skills.  One of their favorite games is “Whack a Mole.”  Where they get to use a hammer (made from a pool noodle) to whack the letters that spell a word.  We have learned two sight words, ‘the’ and ‘to’, and the children are noticing when these words appear in their reading books.

 

 

Math

In math, we have been learning the numbers 1-10; how to correctly write them, count them, and build them.  The children enjoy playing games to show their understanding of these numbers such as, making apples on an apple tree, matching games, playdough and many more.  We have also started to look at all the different ways we can combine numbers to make new numbers.  We have focused on the number 5 and all the ways we can break that number into parts, e.g. 1 and 4, 2 and 3, 0 and 5.

 

Handwriting

Handwriting is very important at this stage of development and using a multi-sensory learning approach is key.  We have been learning to formally write our numbers 1-10 and our letters for S, T, A, P, I, M, D. We have practiced writing and building our letters and numbers by using sand, shaving foam, sand paper, playdough, and wooden blocks.  We also learned how to start our letters in the correct place (at the top not the bottom) on our beginner writing paper.

 

We look forward to next week, where we will have even more fun with new challenges!