Mrs. Thomas' Newsletter
February 2014
Important Information:
Reading Tip of the Month- When your child is stuck on a word, ask him or her to try these three strategies: 1) spot the vowel, 2) chunk the word, 3) cover the suffix (ending) and try to solve the base word first.
- Students came up with new group names. Please ask your child what his or her group name is so that you can scroll below to find out what we worked on this past month. If your child cannot remember his or her group name, please email me and I'll let you know.
- We are working really hard on Learning Target #2- I can use these Super 6 comprehension strategies: predict and infer, connect, monitor and clarify, question, summarize, and schema.
- A Scholastic book order form went home last Thursday. This catalog has guided reading leveling so that students can choose appropriate books that are "just-right" for them. I am submitting the order on March 28th for those that would like to order.
Kit-Kats- Kindergarten
We began reading books this month, which was very exciting. Many of the books we read were sight word readers that focused on some of the sight words we are learning. We also continued to work on some letters sounds (q, e, g, w) until we reached mastery of them at the end of the month. We also worked really hard to master quarter one sight words, and then practiced new sight words from quarters two and three. During the month we played various sight word games, practiced writing letter sounds, and learned how to make predictions and activate schema before reading books. We also worked on matching rhyming words, reading from left to right across one line of print, and using crisp pointing under each word on one line of text.
Dinosaurs & Snakes- Kindergarten
Both groups continued to read a variety of fiction and nonfiction books this month. Some of our learning goals were: learn to say, listen for, identify, and match rhyming words, notice and use information in the pictures, read left to right across one line of print and return to the left to read the next line, read with voice-print match across two lines of text, use crisp pointing under each word on two lines of text, locate an easy high-frequency word within continuous print, say words slowly and identify the initial consonant sound, notice upper and lowercase letters, start a sentence with an uppercase letter, follow several episodes of a simple story with a beginning and an ending, infer why the tree in the story broke, notice the sequence of a story, clap a word to hear the syllables, notice the surprise at the end of the story, recognize letters by their distinctive features, notice spacing between words in writing, notice the way the boy tells about making soup, notice the result at the end of the story, and think about and discuss the idea of members of a family
Kittens- 1st Grade
We read Level C books this month. The goal at this time is to be at Level F. Our learning goals this month were to: notice and use patterns in words, notice simple endings on words, for example (-s, -ed, -t), say a word slowly to notice the sounds and write letters in sequence, use meaning, language structure, and visual information to self-monitor, self-correct, and solve new words, write with good spacing, punctuation, and with a capital letter at the beginning, reread writing to know what to write next, follow a simple story line, understand simple cause and effect, notice and use punctuation to guide reading, understand the concept that imagination can be used to think what cloud formations look like, understand the connection between the particular animals and their homes, understand the concept that connects a category of information (things in the sky), and compose two or three sentences about a topic.
American Flags- 1st Grade
*This is a new group.* We read Level D books this month. The goal at this time is to be at Level F. Our learning goals this month were to: understand and identify patterns in words that end in silent e, recognize and use consonant clusters, recognize high-frequency words quickly and automatically, use meaning, language structure, and visual information to self-monitor, self-correct, and solve new words, change letters in a known word to make new words, bring background knowledge of a traditional story to the reading of a new version, understand that there are several different ways to solve words, compose two or three sentences about a topic, write with end punctuation and a capital letter at the beginning of a sentence, follow the events in a simple story and understand the conclusion, bring background knowledge of a traditional story to the reading of a new version, self-monitor and self-correct consistently, identify a simple story problem and its solution, review and summarize knowledge of the five vowels and their long and short sounds in order to use this information as a tool in reading and writing, say words slowly to identify sounds and write letters in sequence, write with good spacing, notice the -ile pattern in words, and segment onsets and rimes using letter clusters and phonogram patterns,
Sharks- 2nd Grade
We read Level F books this month. The goal at this time is to be at Level J. Our learning goals this month were: recognize and use consonant blends, use meaning, language structure, and visual information to self-monitor, self-correct, and solve words while reading, read and write high-frequency words quickly, read and understand directional words such as under and behind, follow a series of events in a simple story and understand the ending, predict the solution to a simple mystery, recognize and use action words that end in -ing, self-correct consistently while reading, write with good spacing and an uppercase letter at the beginning of the sentence, make inferences about characters' actions, recognize and use consonant clusters (blends) at the beginning of words, and recognize the problem in a story and how it was solved.
Dolphins- 2nd Grade
We read Level H books this month. The goal at this time is to be at Level J. Our learning goals this month were: recognize and use base words and verb endings to solve words while reading, understand compound words, understand that adding -ed to a word shows that something was done and makes the sentence sound right, use appropriate word stress while reading, use meaning, language structure, and visual information to self-monitor, self-correct, and solve words while reading, recognize and bring background knowledge to the reading of a new version of a traditional take, recognize and use consonant digraphs to read and write words, follow events and understand causes for behavior, understand that it helps to read a new word by thinking of another word like it, make predictions before and during reading to solve a simple mystery, understand the cause of the problem in a story, understand what makes the ending humorous, understand contractions, recognize and use consonant digraphs at the end of a word, and understand the central idea of a book,
KC Chiefs- 3rd Grade
We read Level K books this month. The goal at this time is to be at Level N. Our learning goals this month were: understand that there are silent consonants in words, take apart longer multisyllable words while reading for meaning, self-monitor and self-correct consistently, recognize a book in a nonfiction series and have expectations about the content, search for and remember important information from a nonfiction text, distinguish information new to the reader from what is already known, recognize that the text is organized into sections with headings and understand that each section has a category of information, notice and use the sounds of consonant digraphs at the end of a word, notice base words and endings while keeping the meaning in mind, connect an animal fantasy book to others that have been read, understand the role of compare and contrast in telling the story, understand the lesson in a story, understand that some consonant letters represent more than one sound, recognize and use -ly endings on base words, read and understand some technical vocabulary, clap words to hear syllables, actively search for and use information from the pictures and the body of the text, understand the role of a glossary in a nonfiction book, understand that -y sounds like /e/ on the end of some words (happy, funny) and like /i/ in words like my and sky, and read high-frequency words automatically.
The Four Mustacheers- 4th Grade
We read Level O books this month. The goal at this time is to be at Level Q. Some of the new vocabulary words we worked on were: climate, currents, drought, locusts, magnetic, migration, monarch, navigate, predators, spawn, wildebeests. Our learning objectives this month were to: use the reading strategy of asking and answering questions, identify the cause and effect of events, recognize and understand the use of bold print, and identify the suffix -ion in text. We also worked on answering literal and inferential questions after reading in order to improve our reading comprehension. Students worked really hard on using text evidence to support their answers.
Rocket Readers- 4th Grade
We read Level M books this month. The goal at this time is to be at Level Q. During the first part of the month we continued to use the Fountas and Pinnell Leveled Literacy Intervention program. Some of the skills we worked on were: read words and identify the syllables, read with intonation, appropriate word stress, phrasing, and pausing, take words apart flexibly while keeping attention on the meaning, compose and write sentences to describe a character, recognize a story of realistic fiction and make connections to their own experiences, bring background knowledge (schema) to the understanding of a fiction text, predict the coincidence in the ending of the story, and infer characters' feelings and note how they change at the end of the story, understand the problem of the story and the events in sequence.
We transitioned into using the Reading A-Z program toward the end of the month. Some of our goals were to: use the reading strategy of visualizing to understand text, analyze characters, identify the r-controlled /ur/ sound, understand the use of quotation marks, recognize and name antonyms. Some of the key vocabulary words we worked on were: admitted, Aesop, fable, flatter, gracefully, humble, luxury, moral, nightingale, pasture, reflection, and shepherd.
Mrs. Thomas- Reading Interventionist
Email: Stephanie.Thomas@raypec.org
Website: mrsthomaswebsite.weebly.com
Location: 201 E 3rd St, Peculiar, MO, United States
Phone: 816-892-1650