Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!

Please send in those family photos!  They love to see their family when they may be missing you as well as make them feel like we are a part of a school family!  Thanks


We started the week off by reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.  It was a fun intro into letters!  We then started with a project of writing our names and stamping 4 letters onto a chicka tree.  We are going to put those together in a class book to work on reading letters as well as have something fun they made in our reading center.

We then got to watch the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Movie! It was a fun catchy tune and kids seemed to like it!

Wednesday, we read the book Chica Chicka 1,2,3.  We cut apart our name and saw if Chicka Chicka 1,2,3 our names fit up the tree!  We made our trees from ripped up paper to help with our direction following as well as our fine motor skills.  It also helped us to start one to one counting (only count for each touch you do and everything gets one touch).

We then got to watch the Chicka Chicka 1,2,3 movie.  Again, we really enjoyed the fun catchy tune!

We have been working a lot on name writing.  It is important that your child can write their name because it is the foundation of a lot of their writing skills, the beginning of their letter recognition, strengthens and refines their fine motor skills, and it is important to be on all papers so we know whose it is!  Please work on name writing at home. Sheets are in our writing center to help them at school.

We also made a thank you card for the Calument County Sheriffs Office (my neighbor is an officer there) for Thank a  Police Officer Day (Sep 19).  Student cut out a shield, glued on a label (working on one circle of the glue stick is enough), wrote/traced thank you, wrote/traced Love, and then wrote their name.  My neighbor's wife dropped them off earlier this week and they absolutely loved them! 

With all this Chicka Chicka talk it was only right we started our letter of the week!

The letter of the week was Ll. We learned the sign language for a letter, the literacy link sound symbols, the letter sound, and looking at and writing it in both capital letters and lower case letters.  Click here to view the many ways we learn the letter of the week!

Each week we watch letter videos from "Have Fun Teaching" and the students are really picking up the names of letters, formations, and the sounds of letters.  Check out these videos with you child!  Click HERE.

The Tuesday project of letter of the week is to decorate a letter with something that starts with the letter. This week we decorated the letter L with Lego's dipped in paint.  On Thursday, our letter of the week project was to read a page from our alphabet book, L is for Lion.

Students also do a maze of the letter helping get from one object to another starting with that letter, find and color all of the letter, color a page of something that starts with that letter, and make a crown at the end of the week to be the Kings and Queens of the letter!


We also do a handwriting sheet.  This is important because writing the letters correctly helps with efficency as well as learning cursive down the line.  We ALWAYS START AT THE TOP.  Please encourage students to write the letter correctly!

Important Notes:

• As a part of our room decorations and to make every one feel at home, we have a "family and friends" board in our room.  Students will feel more at home and have a school family if they have their home family with them.  (The same as you putting a family picture on your desk).    Please feel free to send in a family photo that will be stapled up on our wall for the duration of the school year. Send in those family photos!
• Field Trip is quickly approaching.  If you are interested in going on the field trip, you must have all the background checks submitted as soon as possible.  We are going on Tuesday September 29 to Hofacker Orchard.
• Background checks. When it comes to these, we assume you are good unless we get a note otherwise, but we are counting on it not being processed (and will not make that assumption that it was run and you are good) until 2 WEEKS AFTER TURNING THE FORMS IN.
• Homework Some parents have asked about homework and keep home stuff.  Homework would be the only blank stuff sent home.  We have a homework stamp page in the back of you child's every day folder.  When you do homework with your child and send it back, we stamp the homework, stamp the homework page, and then send it back. Anything with a stamp on it or a project that is already done is yours to keep.  The homework page in the back of the folder explains more about homework. Homework TYPICALLY comes home on Thursdays and it is some reinforcing of letters at home (same sheet different letters so they also become independent).
• Folders. Please be checking your child's daily folder each night.  We put notes on the notebook pages in their folders as well as any notes we may have for you.  Artwork is also sent home this way. As we start letter of the week, we will also start sending home homework to help reinforce the letter concept and identification.  Please work on this with you child to help the students make the connection between home and school. 
• Also, Please check the student's Wednesday Folders.  Please try to take info out and return the folder and any forms/info/payments in those folders a day or two after receiving. 
• Literacy Bags come home every three weeks.  Students will have a week to complete the project inside and can then return the bag with completed sheets in it on TUESDAYS.
• Library Books come every week.  We go to library on Monday and student have the opportunity to check out a book and keep it for a week. It can be kept in their back packs or at home, but please remember to bring it on Mondays. 
• Book Order due September 25th.  Please click on the link for scholastic at the top of this page.  When you buy books for your child, it helps buy books and supplies for our classrooms. 

Next Week:
Theme: Apples
Letter of the Week: Tt
AM Snack: Whitney
PM Snack : Wagner
***Thanks to a parent suggestion, here is a healthy snack list site that can help with some ideas!***
Snack List

Some pictures of our playing this week!