Week of February 1st - February 5th

Kindergarten

The letters for this week are o, g, d, and s. Students will practice keyword sounds: o-octopus-/o/, g-game-/g/, d-dog-/d/, & s-snake-/s/. They will use magnetic letters to match letters to their sounds. They will use dry-erase boards to practice writing this weeks letters as well as the letters learned thus far. Students will also continue to learn the elements of a sentence: capitals at the beginning, periods at the end, and space between each word. Students will practice one-to-one matching by using their fingers to point under each word in a sentence. On Friday, students will listen to a story and watch the story be performed to help them visualize and recall what happened in the story.

1st Grade

Students will begin Unit 8. They will learn the difference between a blend and a digraph. A digraph has two letters that make one sound such as -sh and a blend has two letters that make their own sounds such as -s & -l /sl/. The trick words for this week are some, could, and want. Students will also read a story and will identify blends, digraphs, and trick words within the story.

2nd Grade

Students will continue to explore fiction stories and work on developing creative ideas for their own fiction stories. They will work together to contribute to a shared story and will write their own endings to stories. They will also practice spelling words by syllables instead of individual sounds. For example, forest can be sounded out by spelling /for/ then /est/. This is a more efficient way for students who learned basic phonics to approximate the spelling of longer words.

Week of January 25th - January 29th

Kindergarten

Students will focus on letters -c, -a, -i, & r. They will learn proper letter formation and letter identification. Students will follow verbal directions while "Sky Writing." An example of "Sky Writing" for the letter -c is as follows: "point to the plane line, start to fly backwards, and go down to the grass line." Students will practice sounds while associating letters to keywords: c-cat-/c/, a-apple-/a/, i-itch-/i/, r-rat-/r/. They will also practice retelling important events in stories during storytime on Friday.

1st Grade

Students will review glued sounds that end with -ng and will learn new glued sounds that end with -nk, such as -ank, -ink, -onk, -unk. This week's vocabulary words are junk, pink, and thank.

The trick words are -two, -about, and -into.

2nd Grade

This week students will begin Unit 3 of Being a Writer. During this four-week unit, students will explore fiction writing and draft, revise, and publish their own stories. The first two weeks of this unit will focus on immersing the students in the genre and having them draft several fiction stories. They will write about different characters, including people, animals that talk, and toys that come to life. Since fiction writing is an act of the imagination, these two weeks will focus on stimulating the students' creativity and developing their abilities for invention and experimentation. The last two weeks will focus on taking the students through the writing process.

Week of January 19th - January 22nd

Kindergarten

This week students will identify and learn proper letter formation for letters -n & -m. They will also review letters from last week: -t, -b, & -f. Students will associate the letters to keywords and sounds. Ex. n-nut-/n/, m-man-/m/. They will also listen to a story and practice retelling it. The following questions will be asked in class and can be asked at home as well after reading stories together: Who was in the story? Where did it take place? What was the character's problem? What did the character do about it? What happened in the end?

1st Grade

Students are starting Unit 7 of Wilson this week. They will be introduced to four new glued sounds ending with -ng (ang, ing, ong, ung) and four ending with -nk (ank, ink, onk, unk). The trick words for this week are -out, -so, and -are.

2nd Grade

Students did a great job last week writing about pets and creating silly characters. This week students will listen to a story by Judith Viorst. Students will discuss how a professional author tells more and will use that as an inspiration to add more to their stories. They will write about a character and something interesting that happens to their character. Students will also use their partner's feedback to tell more. In addition to writing, students will be engaged in "Guided Reading" to practice various reading skills and strategies.

Week of January 11th-January 15th

Kindergarten
This week the students will begin a program called Wilson Fundations. It is a systematic program that builds a foundation for reading and writing. The first unit will last about 12 weeks. Throughout this unit students will learn the following skills: properly form letters a-z, identify letter names and sounds for short vowels and consonants, word awareness, print awareness, story re-telling, and fluency with echo reading.

1st Grade
Students are continuing Unit 6. The trick words for this week are -there, -what, and -she. The words of the day for this week are -walls, -socks, and -ships. Students will continue identifying and reading words with basewords and the -s suffix. They will also practice spelling words by listening to individual sounds. They will read a story titled, Jack's Bags, practicing fluency and comprehension skills.

2nd Grade
Students are beginning Unit 2: Telling More within the Being a Writer program. This week students will think and talk about stories before they write. They will write about a pet and a character of their own choosing. They will be inspired by listening to the following stories, "Let's Get a Pup!" Said Kate by Bob Graham and Sheila Ray, the Brave by Kevin Henkes. They will also reread their writing and tell more, using their partner's feedback to help. Students will help

one another improve their writing.

Week of January 4th - January 8th

This week the RtI team and I will be administering the AimsWeb Winter benchmark tests. The timed tests will assess letter & sound knowledge as well as Reading fluency. AimsWeb will be administered to all students in grades K-2 and is a requirement of the Response to Intervention program.