CLICK ON THE 'PHOTOS/DOCS' LINK ABOVE TO SEE PHOTOS OF OUR HALLOWEEN DAY IN
ROOM 74!
November 3, 2009
Dear Families,
Thank you so very much for all that you did to make our Halloween party such
fun for the children. A special thank you to the parents who were able to
come to help! Without them, we could not have had such a fun Halloween
party.
We are moving ahead quickly in reading. The children are bringing home their
Vowel Booklets today (Tuesday). They have worked very hard on learning and
applying the vowel sound rules. They should be watching for:
CVC words In these words, the vowel letters are usually short.
The children will tell you that the vowel is ‘squished’ between 2 consonants…
making it say the ‘short’ sound. (cat, run, hop, hit, wet)
CVCE words In these words, the 1st vowel sounds are usually
long, because the ‘silent e’ helps the ‘squished vowel’ by letting it say its
OWN name (which means, the actual name of the letter) (cape…the ‘a’ is
long/hope…the ‘o’ is long/cute…the ‘u’ is long)
CVVC words In these words, the 1st vowel appearing in the word
is usually long, because it is the ‘1st vowel walking in the word. (team…
the ‘e’ is long & the ‘a’ is silent/coat…the ‘o’ is long & the ‘a’ is
silent/sail…the ‘a’ is long & the ‘i’ is silent.
See how the children can read these words and change the vowel sounds for
you. Try this list with your child…
CVC to CVCE CVC to CVVC
cap cape rod road
kit kite met meat
hop hope ran rain
pet Pete
cut cute
Your child deserves lots of praise for the completion of the vowel booklet.
It looks like an easy fun project, but there was much learning involved in
the making of this book. The coloring and pasting was fun and easy…but the
lessons before each of these pages involving the auditory differentiation of,
for instance, the short vowel ‘i’ and a short vowel ‘e’ presented difficulty
for even the best of our readers. During group lessons we used the rules to
read some very difficult words. Learning and then applying these new
linguistic rules took good listening on the part of each and every student.
I’d say they deserve 6 extra hugs!
This week we will be expanding upon the understanding of the traditions
accompanying our national holidays. The history and geography skills that
will be taught during the month of November will revisit the study of our
continents and oceans studied during our discussion of Columbus Day. Once
again, your students will bring home booklets with illustrations of the text
in the booklets. Look at your child’s drawings to see if they have included
details that tell you that they understood that ships of long ago had sails,
not engines…or that England had small factories and our new land had only log
buildings and forests in which the Pilgrims hunted. The concept of past,
present and future should become clear as we discuss the history of
Thanksgiving.
