Curriculum Updates

   First, I want to apologize for not updating the blog more often. I was doing well the first couple of weeks, but I have been focused on a field trip and an upcoming unit of study. I will make it my intention to update this blog at least once a week if not more often.

   I want to take this opportunity to give all of you parents an overview of some of the curricular structures I have been working to put in place over the last month. These structures make it easier for me to individualize instruction for all children and maximize instructional time.

Daily 5 Literacy:

   The Daily Five is a literacy structure that teaches independence and gives children the skills needed to create a lifetime love of reading and writing. It consists of five tasks that are introduced individually. When introduced to each task, the children discuss what it looks like, sounds like, and feels like to engage in the task independently. Then, the children work on building their stamina until they are successful at being independent while doing that task.

The five tasks include:

1. Read to self

2. Read to someone

3. Listen to reading

4. Work on writing

5. Word work

   Once all five tasks have been introduced and the children are fully engaged in reading and writing activities, I am able to work with small groups

and to confer with children one on one. This structure is effective, the results are amazing, and the children really look forward to Daily Five time. Ask your child about Daily Five and see what he/she has to say. I anticipate your child will tell you about the class stamina, how we are working towards independence, and maybe you will even hear about some of the fantastic things your child has written, read, or listened to during our structured reading time.

Writers’ Workshop
   Writer’s Workshop is the framework for writing instruction and practice in the classroom. It allows students to determine the topics they will write about and work at their own writing stage and pace. The teacher serves as the facilitator and conducts daily mini lessons and conferencing with individuals and small groups. Students always love this time of day and I am excited to watch your child grow into a confident, developing writer!

Letterland

   I’m sure many of you having been hearing about Letterland.  This is an imaginary and secret place where all the letters live. We have finished fast tracking all the Letterlanders and their sounds! We will now begin teaching each Letterlander for mastery, introducing capital letters and working on correct letter formation.

What exactly is Letterland??
Letterland is a unique, phonics-based approach to teaching reading, writing and spelling to 3-8 year olds. The Letterland characters transform plain black letter shapes into child-friendly pictograms and they all live in an imaginary place called Letterland.
Simple stories about the Letterland characters, explain the full range of dry phonics facts so that children are motivated to listen, to think and to learn. These stories explain letter sounds & shapes, allowing children to progress quickly to word building, reading and writing.

Letterland fast tracking sounds:

a – Annie Apple	i – Impy Ink
b – Bouncy Ben	j – Jumping Jim
c – Clever Cat	k – Kicking King
d – Dippy Duck	l – Lucy Lamp Light
e – Eddy Elephant	m – Munching Mike
f – Firefighter Fred	n – Noisy Nick
g – Golden Girl	o – Oscar Orange
h – Harry Hat Man	p – Peter Puppy
q- Quarrelsome Queen	r- Red Robot
s- Sammy Snake	t- Talking Tess
u- Uppy Umbrella	v- Vicky Violet
w- Walter Walrus	x- Fix-it Max
y- Yellow Yo-yo Man	z- Zig Zag Zebra

Math Centers

   If you look at our Daily Schedule, you will see that the morning is packed with literacy activities. Then, the children are off to Specials and Spanish in the middle of the day. When they return it is time for math. Unfortunately, the children are fighting mental fatigue at that point in the day. However, I try to help the children focus by making math a more hands-on, fun experience than math probably was for you when you were in school.

   Each day the children have at least one small group math activity or game to play. Mrs. Dawes and I are actually doing a lot of direct instruction during that time, but the children may not even realize it. During the past several weeks the children have been working on counting, numeral recognition (0-10), one-to-one correspondence, the concepts of “more” and “less” in relation to amounts, how to conserve (remember) an amount and count on, sorting, graphing, and subitizing (the ability to quickly recognize a grouping of objects as a set amount, like knowing the patterns of dots on dominoes and dice as numbers). I work very hard to make math as engaging, productive, and fun as possible.

   I will keep you posted on new math updates for the second quarter in the coming weeks. These children are laying the groundwork for future success as problem-solvers and mathematicians.