Short but Busy Week!

My, my my! What a busy week we have had. It may have been short, but we have been making the most of it.

This week we have started to explore with numbers, letters and words! We are almost established with classroom procedures and everyone has started learning names. My heart nearly melted today when I saw (for the first time) friends from our class shouting to say hi to other friends from our class out of car windows and across other carpool stations. We are finally becoming a family! We have been working really hard to learn names! The Higgity Biggity book that was sent home last week will hopefully be a great reference the next couple weeks while we are still learning.

Hot lunch started this week and was a bit confusing at first but we are now pros! You may want to send an extra "side item" on the days hot lunch is provided just incase the main course is not enough. And of course, don't forget to always pack a snack! Learning makes us very hungry!

Math:

We officially started "real" math stations this week and the kids were awesome! We continued counting collections and also added playdough numbers, stamping numbers and played a few math games. Some groups even started making up their own addition and subtraction problems for their friends to solve. Today we learned about "more", "less" and "equal to." We played a really neat game with unifix cubes and our game board. I told each child to go home and make up some "more, less and equal to" math problems for you guys. We will see how many remembered! ;) We also began discussing how math can be used out of the classroom and also in literacy. I saw several light bulbs going off as they began to tell me how they use math outside of school.

Literacy:

We officially started "real" literacy stations this week as well. We practiced letters and words on white boards today. That was a hit! We also used stamps, foam letters, magnetic letters and playdough letters to practice sounds and words. We read Mary Wore Her Red Dress and then sang the song plugging in our classmates and their outfits. Next week we will make our own class book. Too fun! We also focussed on Baa Baa Black Sheep this week as our main literature source. We "remixed" the original nursery rhyme and started plugging in new colors. Example: "Baa baa orange sheep have you any wool?...." I have never heard so many giggles! They loved it. We made another mini book today with Baa Baa Black Sheep as well. They love that they can "read it." Add this mini book to their collection! We should make our book boxes tomorrow so that you guys will have a place to store all of these! If we don't get to it tomorrow, we will decorate their boxes on Monday.

Standing O: We started Standing O this week. This is a school wide tradition at CSD. I had tears in my eyes as I listened to the compliments being given. Each day a name is pulled out of the hat. That person gets to come to the front of the class and every student gives that person a compliment. Even this early on in the school year, these compliments are deep and meaningful. It has been a great tool for growing our class together! Mrs. Skaggs and I also get to give compliments. It is slowly becoming my favorite part in our day.

Don't forget, you have my email and phone number! Let me know if you need anything! Enjoy your weekend!

Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz