Joseph Berroa

CIED 1003-906
21 July 2015

my chime to signal clean up should begin. They begin

cleaning up on their own. This is an example of how
children thrive on structure and routine.
We have begun to utilize Odyssey Learning in our
literacy and math stations. This program is tied to each
childs results on NWEA. They begin at the skill level
they need. This is an example of differentiated learning.
Each child getting what they need at the level they need.

Weekly Newsletter

Thanks to all the families who came to conferences. I

Weekly Newsletter

enjoy conference time. I love meeting each of you and

getting to know your child through your eyes. Even

Proper Procedures
When the weather is frightful and school is delayed,
please be patient with our arrival procedures. Also, if you
are sending your child with someone not familiar with
arrival procedures, please let them know that we do not:
- Double row drop off
- Drive around cones
- Drop off at street points
Thanks for your patience and awareness and know that
we care about the safety of our students, you, and our
staff on duty.
On 2 hour delays we do not serve breakfast or have
recess. We have 30 minute lunch periods, 35 minute
specials, and a 90 minute literacy block. It's important for
parents to know that we don't miss a beat in the
classroom and focus on learning. Please drive safely and
dress your children for the weather.
Update for the Semester
We are now in a daily rhythm! Your children are doing an
excellent job of following the flow of our day. They
arrive in the morning, unpack according to our arrival
procedure, get their spiral notebooks and begin. When
the tardy bell rings, they immediately get up and switch
to their writing journals without a word being uttered by
me! They have grown so much! I set a clock to remind us
all of when our stations are to end. There are times when
Im working with a small group and the timer goes off.
When that happens, the children dont wait for me to ring

though we may not have met or even if we did, you may

request a conference with me at any time. We will all
meet formally during a week in January. That is a long
time away. So in the meantime if you have any questions
or concerns, please give me a call or email. I will do the
same for you. We continually monitor the learning of the
children to make sure they are on target or to catch any
challenges early rather than late.
Our first target skill is for your children to recognize 54
letters. Your childs hard work and your hard work at
home has produced some exciting results! Ninety percent
of our class is now ahead of schedule. They are at the
middle of year goal for letter identification. More than
50% of your children can associate a letter symbol with
its sound. This is very exciting news as that means that
most of the class is prepared to begin guided reading. In
fact, we started a few groups this week. Guided Reading
is a small group time during station time when your child
and up to 4 more children will meet with me to begin
individualized reading instruction. We will focus on
reading star words, decoding strategies, comprehension
strategies, and writing skills.

Lots of Learning

Here are some highlights from this week:

Learning all about ten frames

Starting a Word Wall (sight words). We have added
the words a, the and like to our Word Wall
Adding new Literacy Stations. We have a Listening
Station, Poetry Station and now a Classroom Library.
Learning to recognize, and write numbers.
Working on Problem Solving (story problems)

Learning Nursery Rhymes (rhythm, rhyming words,

sight words)
Things to work on at home:
Read to your child everyday!
Please be sure that your child is able to write his/her
name correctlywith one uppercase letter at the
beginning.
Watch for the words a, the, my, like and color words
as you read together.
Does your child know their lunch number?