Weekly Update: September 18, 2026

 

I sure love these goofballs!

Peek at the Week: 

We had a great 2nd week of school! We continue to practice the rules and routines of our classroom and school while we start specific curriculum lessons.  Please remember to send a snack with your child each day and return the Take Home Folder every Monday. Thanks for all your help and support at home! I know the transition back to school can be hard for everyone! 🙂

Literacy:

We worked to build our classroom reading community by listening to and discussing the story This is the Way We Go To School and the poem “New Friends.”   The students learned about IDR time (Independent Daily Reading Time) and worked to build their reading stamina. The students learned about the importance of working independently and practiced this skill throughout the week. Finally, the students took a one-on-one reading assessment with a teacher from the district screening team. We will use this information to help guide our instruction.

Phonics:

Our phonics curriculum is through Magnetic Reading Foundations. The components of each lesson include: Phonological awareness, phonics, high-frequency words and fluency. This week we worked on:

• Phonological Awareness: rhyming and phoneme skills work
• Phonics: Vowel: short a; Consonants m, t, b, c, n, s, p, r, h, d  
• Super Words (high frequency words): and, see, the, to 
• Fluency: At Bat and Can I Help?

A paper copy of the book Can I Help? will be in your child’s Take Home Folder as soon as they arrive from our district print center. It is a great way to have them practice reading at home!

Math: 

Students were introduced to “What is Math?”  They discussed math in their daily lives, worked on counting objects to 20, writing numbers correctly, and they played a few games to practice their numbers sense. We learned about math tools and how they are different than toys, and explored pattern blocks, unifix cubes, dice, and whiteboards.

Writing:

Based on the story This is the Way We Go To School, the students created a class book. Each child wrote a silly sentence about how they would get to school.  In addition, the students wrote an acrostic ABC poem and created a bus craft. Finally, they practiced writing sentences using this week's Super Words and phonics sounds (short a).

Social Studies:  

We read and discussed the Scholastic News “Friends Have Feelings Too.” Students also learned about Constitution Day (September 17th) and continued to build our classroom community!

    

Things to Know:

Math Homework:  

For homework this year, we are sending home this  Reveal Math Student Practice Book! Please keep this book in a safe place at home, as we will be using it throughout the entire school year. Here is what you need to know about using this book at home:

• Staying Informed: Our weekly emails will outline the math lessons planned for the upcoming week and keep you updated on what pages your child should complete. 

• It’s completely optional: Your child does not need to return completed pages to school. These pages are simply a tool to show you what we are learning and to offer extra skill practice.  However, any time you can spend on them makes a significant impact on learning retention, so please try if you can!

Next Week:

Upcoming Events/Reminders: 

September 24 - The first day of Library!

September 24th - aMath Assessments: We will use this information to learn more about your child’s skills.

Sept. 28 - Dodge Field Trip -  11:45 - 1:30 

Oct. 8 - 13 - Book Fair!

October 8 & 13 - Conferences - More information about signing up coming soon!

Picture Time!

As part of community building we read the story, Chrysanthemum, and crumpled up a paper heart every time the main character's feelings were hurt by others' actions. At the end, we tried to smooth out all of the wrinkles in the paper. We learned that - no matter how hard we tried - we could still see wrinkles. Then we read the following poem: 

We discussed how, even though we can't take back hurtful actions or words, we can try to repair damage by kind actions and words. To represent these kind actions, students decorated a bandaid and placed in on wrinkled and torn pieces of the heart. 

As one student mentioned, "If we can fix our class' heart, we can help fix a friend's, too!" 😍

Here is a bonus of Mr. Brignac and my daughter, Josephine (2), getting ready to cheer on the Vikes. SKOL! :-)

Have a fabulous weekend, everyone!