PSE Weekly Howl
Week of September 20th!
Wolf Wellness Week!
Thank YOU to Stephanie Heatherington for all of your work behind the scenes for Wolf Walk. Thank you to the entire PSE community for your generous donations this week.
Due to a family emergency, prizes will be delayed until Monday. I sincerely apologize for the delay.
Book Fair is coming to PSE next week, September 21st and 22nd!
Your child will have the opportunity to shop the fair in-person either Tuesday or Wednesday during school. We will once again be using the eWallet as a form of payment. Please note, the eWallet acts like a gift card where money is loaded onto the site and any remaining funds can be used online at scholastic.com after the fair. Grandparents, friends, etc can load money as well!! (Checks can also be accepted - please make out to Prairie Star PTO).
To set up eWallet, go to our Book Fair homepage https://www.scholastic.com/bf/prairiestarelementaryschool1, scroll down to the eWallet section and click on GET STARTED. If you have questions, please contact Chelsea Anderson lynnbirds@aol.com or Lindsay Osterhaus osterhaus10@gmail.com.
PSE PTO Chiptole Night-September 22nd
PSE Yearbook
Order your 2021-2022 YEARBOOK! It’s an 80-page, hardcover book that makes a fantastic keepsake for your child to remember their time at Prairie Star! Ordering is easy and all online this year from the PTO Website!
https://prairiestarpto.membershiptoolkit.com/home
We Need Your Pictures! This year's book will include pictures submitted by both teachers and families because of our yearbook team's limited access to the building. We want to see your child and his/her friends so please continue to send us pictures! Currently, we are asking for pictures from Sneak-a-Peek, Back to School, Justice Grove Picnic, Wolf Walk as well as any team sports and extra curricular activities in which your kids participate. You can submit pictures using either of these two easy ways:
- Use the Balfour app called “Image Share” to download and upload pictures right from your phone. It’s called ImageShare Balfour, and our project this year is 227759. Problem solving tips: Please make sure your project number is correct (227759). If you have difficulty, uninstall and reinstall the ImageShare App.
- Email them to us at full size (you can do this right off your phone!) at prairiestaryearbook@gmail.com
If you have any questions please send to Sally Groesbeck and Abbie Moles at prairiestaryearbook@gmail.com!
Because of the Rabbit
Mrs. Hammes reading pages 48-65
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YCbX4XF-TrlmWI2WaQ7vWF9Z5xtonIsB/view?usp=sharing
Important Dates:
SEPTEMBER
21/22-Book Fair
22- Chiptole Night
29/30-Parent-Teacher Conferences
October
1-No School
7-PTO Board Meeting- 8:30 am
15-Professional Learning Day/Grade Prep
29-Fall Harvest Parties
Literacy Update:
Teaching High-frequency Words
Previously referred to as sight words, high-frequency words are explicitly taught in structured literacy. The words we teach are not different; it is the approach. In structured literacy, we focus on teaching students the skills and knowledge to read and spell words. This differs from previous approaches that focused more on using memory, pictures or surrounding words on the page to solve a challenging word. This is an effective instructional approach because our English language is more patterned and regular than we might think. Structured literacy equips students with skill and knowledge empowering them to decode words, even when the text has no pictures. So, as students are taught high-frequency words, they identify the part or parts of the word that are decodable. For example, the high-frequency word with. The sounds made by the w and the short i are as expected. The word, with, becomes completely decodable once a student has learned that th is a digraph representing 1 phoneme or sound. Many high-frequency words become completely decodable once a student has learned all of the vowel patterns in English.
Some high-frequency words are irregular, either partially or completely. These words are known as heart words. This is to signal students that they will need to learn part of the word ‘by heart’. Teaching students to identify the parts of the word that are decodable reduces the demand for them to rely on memorization. More information about high frequency words and heart words is shared in this short video<https://docs.google.com/file/d/1idKlpqvs1fyUQ4krCEthnEfE9qQbmzP4/preview>. It also explains the true definition of a sight word.
Spelling Words
In structured literacy students will learn to decode (read) words and encode (spell) words within the same lessons. This approach is beneficial because, “Spelling and reading build and rely on the same mental representation of a word. Knowing the spelling of a word makes the representation of it sturdy and accessible for fluent reading.” (Snow, et al, 2005) Spelling is foundational for reading, but essential for written communication too. Utilizing our new resources, our teachers will teach spelling to students through letter-sound correspondence, patterns within our language, syllable types and morphology, the meaning layer of our language throughout their elementary years. Teaching in this approach will enable teachers to know how students are progressing in both reading and spelling words daily. This eliminates the need for rote memorization for weekly spelling tests which does not yield long term learning. Through teacher communications, families will know what sounds, patterns, syllable types or units of meaning their students are learning at a particular time as well as how their individual student is progressing.
The shift to teaching reading utilizing the structured literacy approach is supported by the body of research known as the science of reading. As our teachers embrace this new approach, they are working hard to implement it and utilize their new instructional resources. If you have questions about your child’s literacy learning, please contact their teacher.