What happens during Morning Meeting? Morning meeting takes place every day at 9am. During this time, we start off by greeting our friends. We may greet them using a different language to say hello, or tossing a ball to our friends. This helps us to learn everyone’s names, and to say hello by looking at a person. Then each child has the opportunity to tell the class some “special news.” This news can be a story about something they did at home, or an event coming up. The children especially like that part of meeting. Then we say the Pledge of Allegiance, count students, count days of school, write the weather, and calendar. We fill in a morning message daily. The message usually says: “Good morning. We have __ students here, __ are not. The weather is _____. Today is Tuesday, September ___.” At the end of meeting, children fill in a question of the day, and we share “Star of the Day.” Morning meeting is a very critical part of our day. It helps to establish our sense of community within the classroom.

Bonjour! Last week the children began French class with Miss Sarah. Class is every Wednesday and Thursday afternoon. We also began Music class with Miss Kara on Monday afternoons and Computer class in the DDC on Tuesdays. The students really look forward to their afternoon specials. Gym class with Miss Bridget will begin in November (after she returns from her honeymoon!).

In construction area, the children have been building very elaborate roads, ramps, and tunnels. To add literacy to this center, we took photos of their creations and made it into a class book to keep at this center.

Literacy Work Stations: We have introduced several new stations this week, such as Big Book Work Station, Book on Tape, and Writing center. A new favorite is “Read and Write the Room.” The children walk around the room with clipboards, marker, and paper. They write down words they can find in the classroom. This week, to enrich our farm unit, we hid farm words around the room. The children have a great time locating the words and writing them. This would be a great extension for home. Have your child go on a “Word Hunt” in to house. See how many words they can write.

Handwriting: We began using our handwriting workbooks. We have started by practicing the letters “F” and “E” and “D.” Encourage your child to start their letters at the top and move from left to right. During small groups, we have been using wooden pieces to build both upper and lower case letters.

Have a great week!!