February is Here!

Hard to believe that February is here!  I am so glad that January (our month of assessments) is FINALLY over.  The kids were wonderful and so patient as we worked to complete all of our MClass testing.  Report cards as well as your child’s MClass reading results will go home on Monday, February 3.  Please review that information, and feel free to e-mail me at sbruner@wcpss.net with any questions. 

As I’m sure you heard from your child, I was missing for several days this month.  I took a quick trip to NYC with my sister over the Martin Luther King, Jr., weekend, and I wound up getting stuck in a blizzard.  They had 12 inches of snow!  

The kids were fabulous for Mrs. Camel during my absence.  While I was gone, they read the story Miss Nelson is Missing.  Then, they wrote about where they thought I was during my absence.  Some of their responses were hilarious.  Who knew I was so adventurous with sharks?  And, some proved that they know me a little too well (i.e. my shopping addiction and my love for my dogs).  

We have been busy, busy, busy in reading!  We have been working hard on applying decoding and comprehension strategies.  This week in your child’s green folder, you will receive some handouts to support your child as they read at home.  These handouts are posted on my Web site as well at sarahbruner.weebly.com.  The only way your child is going to grow as a reader is to actually engage them in reading!  They should be discussing text with you and reading books on their level.  I can’t emphasis that point enough!!!  If you do one thing each night with your child, it needs to be READING!!

In math, we have been working on comparing shapes as well as positional words, and we are about to begin learning various strategies for solving addition and subtraction problems.  We have begun our big weather unit in science as well.  So far, we have learned about wind and made wind socks.  Currently, we are learning about thermometers and temperature. 

As always, thank you so much for all you do to support your child’s learning at home.  And, remember – READ, READ, READ!!!

Educationally yours,

Ms. Bruner

P.S. Thought you all might enjoy watching your children learn a new dance during one of our Wiggle Breaks!

New Year & Loads to Do!!!

Wow, can you believe that 2014 has already arrived?  Like many of you, I always start off the New Year by making several resolutions both personal and professional.  One of my professional resolutions is to update this blog at least once a month.  Here’s hoping that this is one resolution that I can keep! 

Before the holiday break, we had such a fun day celebrating!  We read and watched The Polar Express, had pajama day, made shortbread cookies and also created reindeer ornaments.  The kids had an absolute blast!  They were smiling from ear to ear all day long!  Thank you to all the parents who made our celebration possible!  Thank you for volunteering your time, energy and also for donating the supplies.  I have truly been blessed this year with an amazing group of kids and parents!  I am certainly one lucky teacher! 

Two days back, and we are already back to work in our classroom!  In reading, we will continue to work on segmenting and blending CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words, asking and answering questions about fancy words; and, also identifying the characters, setting, and major events in a story.  In writing, we will begin working on crafting our own how to pieces.  At this point in the year, your child should be using upper and lowercase letters correctly in their work, making sure to use finger spaces between words, spelling common sight words correctly; and, writing the dominant sounds of words.  In math, we have begun studying both 2D and 3D shapes, and we will begin studying weather in science.  Like always, we are busy, busy, busy!   

Over the next several weeks, your child will be participating in mclass assessments in both reading and math.  And, at the end of the month, you will receive their second quarter report card as well as the results from the mclass assessments.  Also, I urge you to continue to practice your child’s sight words at home each night!  Sight words are so important for your child’s reading development and success.  I truly can’t emphasize that point enough!  Also, I am happy to provide you with more sight words, if you feel your child has already mastered the yearlong list sent home by the kindergarten team.    

Educationally yours,

Ms. Bruner