Yes!  Thanks to Bobby in our technical department, I finally now have complete and total control of our class website!  Well, there is really a lot going on, as always.  I often catch myself talking about how "this time of year" is so busy, but when I think about it, there really aren't any times of year that are not super busy!

We are into chapter four of our math book, which is working with composing and decomposing numbers up to 10.  As always, we would love to have more parents in during math stations (Mon-Thu the last 1/2 hour of the day) to work with us!  We are also working on our counting, both forward and backwards.  Forward from 0-50, backward from 20-0.

As you can see from the section about letter names and sounds, we are well into our word families.  We practice those several times a week.  We are also working on understanding and hearing syllables in our phonemic awareness work.  Spelling is going full steam, with new lists on Mondays and quizzes on Fridays.  Feel free to come in and assist with our literacy centers (Mon Tues Thurs Fri the first hour), the more help we have, the better!

We are working during writing time on actually writing down our stories now.  We are working on making full sentences and writing the same way we talk.  Penmanship is going strong as well, and I have noticed an improvement lately (Gg, Jj, Pp, Qq) over penmanship quality of the past.  Great job!

We are as always really focusing on reading.  This is an essential life skill.  We read together during the week, sometimes as a practice, sometimes as an assessment, and the kids are improving steadily.  Please keep up on reading daily with your child - this is truly vital.  At least 20 minutes a day reading!

We have expanded our song repertoire now to include several holiday/winter songs.  Sometimes we break out the egg shakers, and really get down!

Our current IB unit focuses on families.  How families, work, what roles we have in our families, and how those roles differ from family to family.  It's always interesting an fun to learn about the families of the students!

Thank you for letting your children come to our class.  It is truly a joy to see them and listen to them and share time with them every day.  Each one of them is amazing and precious and truly loved.

Mr. Matt