Language Arts

August 19-23: Spelling started this week and the words are listed on the "Homework" page. This week's words focus on short vowels. (review)

We are also working on identifying complete sentences in Language.

Reading assessment is still going on for new students and a few students that needed further testing after Assessment Days. The focus in reading assignments this week is identifying characters, setting, and plot events which is also review.


Writing 

August 19-23: We will be working on assessing your child's writing level and begin learning and practicing procedures for writing groups. Every group will have a different focus they will be working on but from what I can see so far almost everyone will be working on complete sentences - capital at the beginning, spaces between words, end mark at the end, a naming part of the sentence and a telling part. A few children are ready to begin writing with a specific audience in mind such as persuation  writing.

Math

August 19-23: We will begin our first math unit on Place Value. This is an extremely difficult concept for most children grasp and then apply when they are doing math but it is CRITICAL to future success in all areas of mathematics, even enjoying math. Try to find connections at home, while you're out and about or from work you do to share and discuss with your child. You just mentioning you know they are working on Place Value this week will go a long way to reinforcing how import a skill it is for them to learn. Look for additional resources and activities to come home on next week's homework.

Unit of Study (aka. Science or Social Studies)

August 19-23: We have been working on The Scientific Process which is five steps. 1. Ask a Question. 2. Form a Hypothesis. 3. Plan an Experiment. 4. Do the Experiment. 5. Analyze the data you gathered from the experiment. We have been planning experiments with bubbles, eggs and candles. Which bubble solution works better, homemade or store bought? What happens to an egg when its soaked in water, soda, lemonade or vinegar? How long will it take for a candle to burn out beneath a glass jar? These are all designed to be fun and encourage your child to think like a scientist. 

Character Education - which I would rather call Capturing Kids Hearts(TM)

The first week we completed our classroom social contract, signed it and posted it in our room. These are the four questions I asked the kids (in this order) to create it, CKH recommends families make and post a social contract in their homes.

1. How do you want to be treated by me? (The Teacher) (Mom and Dad)

2. How do you want to be treated by each other? (Classmates) (Siblings)

3. How do you think I want to be treated by you? (The Students) (The Children)

4. What do you want to happen when there is conflict?

Write the adjectives down, using the words the kids pick. No adult/parent editing allowed. Clarification is :-)

When there is a violation of the social contract there are two different sets of questions to ask. The first set is for a violation of the agreed upon contract.

1. What are you doing?

2. What are you supposed to be doing?

3. Are you doing it?

4. What do you need to do about it?

If a child does not answer my questions appropriately, I re-ask the questions. After the second or third time, I say with the child's name at the beginning, "__________, you're choosing a consequence. Are you sure you want to choose a consequence or would you like to answer my question." (This has gone either way for me but most of the time they answer me)

The next set of questions deals with a child who is choosing to be disrespectful.

1. Who am I? (The Teacher) (The Parent)

2. How did we agree we were going to treat each other? (Respectfully - it always ends up on a social contract or is very well defined on it)

3. Are you treating me respectfully? (Or whatever word your family picked that means it)

4. What are you going to do about it?

I use the same technique of re-asking when needed.

I can't tell you how well this works! I stay calm. The kids think and situations are taken care of efficiently so the business of the day can resume. My favorite part of this system is how much it reinforces the value of the adult/child relationship.

Let me know if you have any further questions about how CKH works. :-)