Welcome back to everyone. Who could have imagined the snow that sent us home early on Dec. 18 would still be hanging around? The Middle School had a ball sliding down a small hill on a metal tray and we had the perfect view. It was almost like having a movie with our lunch!
We began today with a lengthy discussion about now being in a new year and month. I did what I thought to be a thorough explanation but it turned out their only concern was who was the leader. I wasn't sure this morning but after checking my records I see I haven't yet sent out a leader calendar. While this doesn't soothe the concerns of the class it does tell me I haven't totally lost my mind and forgotten what I did. Calendars will come home tomorrow.
We had a new letter today and a little explanation is needed. I usually introduce all the consonants before the vowels but as this year has progressed, several children in the class are now ready to play with word families and become emergent readers. I decided to begin the new year with a new strategy that uses vowels peppered in the consonants so we can make words.
Today I introduced the letter A with both of its sounds. Since T has already been introduced we put "at" together. Yes, it is a word on its own and a word family so we got double the bang for our buck here. We then went through the alphabet and tried each letter with -at to see which ones made real words. They discovered bat, cat, fat hat, mat, Nat, pat, rat, sat and vat. While tat is a word (a verb meaning to make lace) it is not commonly used so we decided to throw it off our list. I spoke three sentences and was able to use all 10 of our words. It was suggested that making a story with the words would be much more interesting (children can be humbling) so guess what we'll work on next; an -at story.
At recess it looked like more indoor play. Several brave teachers ventured outside so I gave our class the option of outdoor play. You know the drill. It takes 10 minutes to don the outdoor gear and 20 minutes to tire of the cold. For the few who went outside, they happily came back in with the bell 20 minutes later.
Tomorrow is supposed to be at least three degrees warmer and I have outside recess duty. We'll see if I'm as brave as today's polar bears. Just in case, please send boots with your child.
Before rest time I read my all-time favorite childhood story "The Little Engine That Could" by Watty Piper. I even had a record (a 45 rpm) with the story on it as a child
and memorized parts of the story. It has long been my mantra to utter "I think I can. I think I can." and often tell children I think they can. Today they learned the source of my confidence in them. It is a lesson worth repeating so ask your child about the little blue engine that helped the train of toys and good food.
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