Our First Mystery Reader!

Today, we had our first Mystery Reader - Mrs. Leynes!! The children were so excited to see her and her furry friends that she brought with her. She brought in a butterfly carrier that had two caterpillars and chrysalises. The students could hardly wait to see inside the carrier and there were many "Ooooh's" and "Ahhh's"! Mrs. Leynes then read a wonderful non-fiction text about the life cycle of the butterfly. After she read, we made adorable butterflies with construction paper and pipe cleaners. The children could hardly hold in their excitement as Mrs. Leynes brought around the carrier and showed them the chrysalises and caterpillars with a flashlight. She is bringing them in next week once they have transformed into butterflies - we can't wait! We had a great kick-off to Mystery Reader, and I hope that you can come in, as well, and be a part of the fun! Have a wonderful weekend!

Reading Focus for the Week of September 8th

Every week, I will post the skills we will be working on Reading. We begin our first Theme next week, and these are the areas in which we will be focusing.

Phonics: Letters m, s, c, t and short "a" words
Comprehension Skill: Sequence
Words to know: go, on, the, cat, sat

Zooming into a Great School Year!

What a great first two weeks! I have truly enjoying getting to know your children, and we are already on the "racetrack" to learning.

Last Friday, we had our first science experiment. We added 7 Mentos to a 2-liter of Diet Coke, and if you don't know what happens, I highly recommend this experiment for you and your family!! The Diet Coke sprayed about 15 feet in the air - the kids LOVED it! We practiced observing by writing down the things that we heard and saw. We definitely have a group of excited scientists on our hands who love to preform experiments!

In class, we have been setting up our classroom's rituals and routines. These are things that we do every day, and they include everything from our writer's workshop songs to moving our attendance clips in the morning. We are practicing these routines daily, and they are doing a great job.

To continue to enforce these rituals and routines, we need our help, as well. Please remember to sign your child's planner daily and return your child's planner and Home-to-School folder daily. As stated in the newsletter sent home on Friday, I will be recording your child's behavior using colored smiley, squiggly, or sad faces. The colors are based off of the color of the cards that we use school-wide. Here is a guide to help you with our school's card colors.

Green Smiley Face: Great day!
White Squiggly Face: One Card Flip
Red Sad Face: Two Card Flips
Yellow Sad Face: Three Card Flips
Blue Sad Face: Four Card Flips

Your child's card will start on green everyday, so every day is a new chance to be successful and have a great day at school.

I hope each of you are having a great three-day weekend, and I will see you all on Tuesday!