October 3, 2007

Today we worked on "hunking" and "chunking" words as well as other spelling strategies. If you have the opportunity, ask your child to spell a word. Make sure it has at least 3 syllables. Ask them to clap the syllables. Then stretch the syllables listening for sounds they hear. Then ask them to write the sounds they hear in each syllable. We've practiced this for a few days now and most are getting pretty good at it. Another big help is to ask them to write their upper and lower case alphabet and then go through the alphabet saying each letter sound as quickly as they can. They try to beat their previous time with as few errors as possible. We began working on addition and subtraction math facts using dominoes. Tonight's home work will be more reinforcement of what we are working on in class. I am sending home your child's language arts workbook. Please make sure that it comes back to school tomorrow. I will be sending it home 2-3 times per week. It will really help to protect it if it is kept in the homework folder. I don't have any extra workbooks if they lose it or it is torn up. Finally, please remember that all PTA Spirit Walk Envelope's are due tomorrow.

Mr.Smith