Mon Jan 9th- places people live

The class started with name practice- first and last and then went into play time. I had wooden blocks, food and magnets out for play and then I pulled each child aside to work on the letter O and the sight word of the week- Sam- a character from our books. I stamped Sam on their hands to be reminded visually of our sight word. Cole was my star and helped me with new star duties- I have started the kids practicing with flash cards of all the letters that we have learned so far this year and their sounds. As we are getting into reading, I want to make sure that these letters are always fresh and new to the kids. Hopefully they will remember them better. Plus they know their colors and shapes so there is no need to continue practicing those daily- maybe just once a week. At calendar time, we cover many areas- we practice the date, counting up to twenty opening and shutting our hands, and then blast off counting. All the students help me with weather time, but the star gets the best part- telling us the weather and dressing our weather friend. On to letter time which I introduced the letter of the week O and our letter friend Ollie Otter who works in an office. We talked about how many of our parents work in an office and at least one parent of each child’s works in an office. I talked about vowels and how O is one of them so he has two sounds for us. I read many words that all start with the letter O and we even found one in our names and in things around our classroom. We practiced our sounds and the sign and also practiced our Poem of the month. I created a new area on our bulletin board for the sight word of the week- this week we studied Sam and see. As you can see, I had your child trace the sight word “see” in their folder. This is another area that you can help them- review these words in their folders so they can remember them as we add more to it throughout the rest of the school year. After wiggle time, we had our snacks (everything orange) and book time. For the lesson, I read a poem about many kinds of homes. We talked about our homes and they stand alone- not connected to others. We learned about apartments, duplexes, mobile homes, cabins, and stand alone homes. We discussed our bedrooms and who has to share and who has their own. We also discussed what kinds of things and what belongs in a bedroom-a bed, dresser with clothes, toys, a light and a closet. We also talked about other rooms in our homes- kitchens, family rooms and bathrooms. For our kitchens, we all knew that is where we eat but we also discussed what appliances are in the kitchen that are helpful for us- one that they couldn’t think of was the dishwasher- I am sure when they are older they will appreciate this one a lot! We also talked about safety in the kitchen and we don’t play with stove/oven or things are hot or sharp kitchen tools because we could get very hurt. For our family rooms, we listed what is in this room and then I asked them some questions of activities they like to do best there. Bathrooms were a simple in what is in them and how they help us. For O time, we practiced our sounds again for the letter O and also practiced our sight words- see and Sam. The students also colored the octopus in the ocean page that we had completed earlier. Each child got a O stamp and that was the end of our awesome day!