Monday October 11, 2010

Happy Orange Day!

What a busy morning! We talked about friends around the world. We learned that friends in other countries do some of the same things together as friends in the United States do, such as jump rope, ride bikes, build snow sculptures, etc. We also were reminded of the fact that it is ok to be friends with people who are different than us (different ages, boys or girls, different color skin, people who live in different states, etc.)

We learned a new sight word: "a". Right now, it is a little tricky for the students to say the word and not the sound that the letter a makes. With repeated practice reading, this will come. The letter sound we are focusing on this week is /p/. Thank you to Blake and his mom for sending in mini pumpkins for the kids--it fit in with our curriculum very well--/p/ as well as being orange!

We did a science investigation with color mixing. We mixed yellow and red. We recorded our results (orange) in our science notebooks. The students enjoyed creating their hypothesis and testing it! We will continue mixing primary colors throughout the week.

In handwriting, we learned about proper posture when writing and how to hold our pencil. We looked through our handwriting workbooks, playing an I-Spy game to find different concepts in it (colored lines for writing, arrows that tell us how to make the letter, green dots to show us where to start, and stop and check signs.

During small groups, the students worked hard to identify initial sounds of words (/s/, /p/, and /m/). We also read the book, We Can Share.

Every Monday morning after the Pledge of Allegiance, we recite the "Horizon Promise". The students wanted me to give you a copy of the promise so that they could practice it at home. Here it is:

As citizens of Horizon Elementary we will be the kind of friends that can be trusted. We will be honest . We will be respectful of the people and places around us. We will participate in the activities of our school and always do our personal best.

I will also send home a copy of the promise in your child's folder later this week.

Reminders:
•Book orders are due tomorrow. You may order books online or send your order form and money to school. Thank you!
•Tomorrow is green day!
•This Friday we have a Healthy School Award Assembly!