Week of February 21st

Happy President's Day!

Enjoy your day off of school and we'll see you on Tuesday.

Week Review:  In reading groups this week, we will focus our attention on building words or reading strategies.  Level E will continue to work on middle sounds.  This week we will be addressing the "when two vowels come together, the first one says its name and the second one is silent."  For example, treat, or boat.   Level F will be chunking parts of the word into sounds or blends that they already know.  Students will be expected to know and practice blends such as st, bl, tr, sh, th.  Level G will be building words in a pattern or sequence as found in Patricia Cunningham's book Making Words, 1st Grade and continuing to practice their expression and fluency.  Level H will be making predictions before we read, and during our reading.  We will be using a graphic organizer to help guide our group discussions.  Levels I and above will also make predictions, but they will be discussing how their predictions are made.  What sort of resources are at our disposal to make a GOOD prediction?  The title, the picture on the front cover, the Table of Contents (if applicable), and the summary in the back of the book (if applicable). 


Book/Author Suggestion:   If I Ran for President* by Catherine Stier and illustrated by Lynne Avril.
This story is described as a multicultural cast of children imagining what it would be like to run for president.  It is also wonderfully jam-packed with facts, procedures, campaign humor, and constitutional rules.  The story is so sweet that I forgot I was learning a lot while I was reading :)  It concludes by saying, "And what I would do when I became president?  Well, that's another story."  Which leads me to the Parent Tip... 

* indicates if it can be found in the Sappington Library. 

Parent Tip:  Have you ever asked your child what they would do if they were president?  My 4 year-olds' preschool teacher asked their class and the answers were awesome!  Some said they would have people help clean their house or sort the laundry!  Others said they would have people help clean up our world.  It is amazing what ideas and plans our children pick up from our example.  Take the time this week to ask your children to dream, to imagine, what they might do or change if they were president.  Better yet, ask them to write it.  "If I were President I would..."  and then save it.  This is one that you will enjoy looking back on later in their life :)