Another Friday

This coming week will be a full week (Mon.-Fri.). The next week (Oct. 4-8) we don't have kindergarten on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday because of SEP conferences. We will have school on Oct. 7 (Thurs.), and Oct. 8 (Fri.).

I appreciate people really trying to get their kids to school in plenty of time so they can be seated and ready to go when school begins. We have SO much crammed into 3 hours that we have to start right on time. The morning class has the first bell at 9:00 and the second at 9:05. I don't count them tardy unless they get in the room after the second bell rings but by that time we've already done the flag salute and passing out folders and important papers. The afternoon class begins right at 12:20 because reading starts at 12:25. We do the flag salute right at 12:20 when class begins. Any children coming into the room after 12:20 are counted as tardy. I know Fridays are harder because of the change in schedule times, especially for the afternoon kids, but it makes it really difficult when a large number of children are late.

Next week in phonics we will continue with "t" and then go on to "p" (which we already have learned in ERI reading so it should be pretty easy). Next week (SEP conference week), we will finish up "p." The week after that (UEA week) we work on "a."

In ERI reading we are currently working on "c" and then go onto "t." As you can see, the letters we are learning in our programs are beginning to overlap.

A lot of children are having trouble with rhyming. This would be a good thing to practice with your child.

Another thing many children are having trouble with is knowing the first sound in a word. You can play a game to practice this skill by saying, "I see a lamp. What is the first sound in lamp?" The child answers and then gets to say, "I see a .... What is the first sound in ..."

A skill they also need to know is how to segment three-letter words into their sounds such as "pig" the child needs to know to say, "/p/ /i/ /g/."

Our vocabulary words this week are timid, frantic, glance, reluctant, and intimidated.

We will be working on the numbers 6-10 starting next week. We are also still looking for how things are the same and how they are different.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!