Last week we had a fantastic first full week of school! We are becoming solidified in our routines and know what to expect at school. The kids have all done a wonderful job making friends, following our schedule, and learning about the different parts of the day. We focused on feelings, and what makes us feel scared, sad, and happy. We are also talking about what to do if we feel sad, scared, or angry at school. All feelings are OK, but the tricky part is figuring out what to do when you have a negative feeling.
This upcoming week we will begin talking about rules for our school and classroom. We will develop a list of rules together, that we agree are important to follow at school. We will also begin some academic learning this week. These first couple of weeks have been all focused on learning routines, schedule, and being a good friend. This week, we will do some more reading and math readiness games. We've also begun drawing and writing in our journals. Each week, kids are asked to draw a picture in their journal, write their name, and write a word about what they made. These journals will come home at the end of the year, and you can see their progress throughout the year! It's not uncommon at this age for their writing to look like scribbles. That's OK! That's the first step in this process. The next step is to begin writing letters to represent words. They might tell me they made a house and wrote house, but the letters say STF. That's great! When they do this, they are showing us they know that letters make words! They will ultimately learn to begin sounding out words, but this step by step process takes time. You can encourage writing at home too, and accept their writing as is for what they tell you it says. You can also model, by saying, "This is how I write school." We are just beginning their learning journey. This is an exciting time!
Friday is our first SIP day. Please note that we do have school that day! It will be a half day. We will dismiss at 11:50AM, and lunch will not be served. We will serve breakfast and a snack though. Then we will go into the long Labor Day weekend, with no school on Monday.
Thank you for sharing your wonderful children with me! I am looking forward to another great week!