More Work

 We are learning how important letter and sounds are.  They help us to read and write.  We have a letter that we focus on each week, but we try to learn all the letters and sounds as quickly as possible. 

 In language arts, we are learning about nouns.  Nouns are words that name people, places, and things. 

 In our lesson yesterday, they had to draw an example of each type of noun and label it. 

 Rylee drew a turtle and labeled it with a "T".

 Today, they took 1 of their ideas and drew a picture that showed a story about the idea.  Then I asked them to label as many things in the picture as they could. So Rylee took her turtle idea and drew a fantastic picture and labeled several things.  I encouraged them to write as many sounds as they could hear.  She did a great job of writing the sounds she heard in the word "clouds".  You can see it in the upper right hand corner.  She also put an "I" and an "L" together because she wanted to say "I like turtles".

I hope this example helps you to evaluate the work your child brings home and gives you ideas about how you can talk to your child about their writing.  Remember, don't correct their attempts at writing words right now.  You may be tempted to show them the "right" way to spell a word but I'm looking for confidence and an ability to take risks when they face a challenge.  Correct spelling will come soon enough.

Here's an example of something else you will see every week.  We have one letter that we focus on each week.  This week it is "O".  All week long we talk about words that begin with that letter.  This helps with vocabulary building because some of these words are unfamiliar to most 5 year olds.  At the end of the week, they decorate the letter and glue pictures of things that start with that letter.  At home, you can point to the pictures and have your child tell you what it is.  You can also talk about the sound the letter makes and how to write the letter.

Thanks for all your help at home.  Next week, we will start learning sight words and I will need your help at home.  I'll let you know more about that next week.