Total Language
November 14, 2009
Continue to have your child sound and blend their reading words. The packet of papers that usually go home on Monday, will let you know what we have taken the previous week. The papers are good for drill and review especially for the child needing more drill on sounding and blending. We are presently learning the sounds and spellings of the long and short vowels. The general rule is: "When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking." However, as you know, there are many words in the English language that does not follow this rule. The word "does" is an example. The children simply must memorize these sight words.
I will be presenting short creative writing exercises for the children. They will also learn how to use a spelling dictionary for words they may not know how to spell. However, the children will be encouraged to use "inventive" spelling. This is simply writing the sounds they hear not worrying if they are spelling the word correctly. Once the children are comfortable in knowing that they can be a writer, spelling will come naturally.
The children will also learn how to answer written comprehension questions for the stories they read.
Spelling Reviews will be introduced the week of November 16. The children will put their spelling review paper in their spelling plastic sleeve in their binder. After studying the words and sentences, please return the spelling review paper to the plastic sleeve. Usually the spelling review will be given on a Thursday. The first spelling review will be given after Thanksgiving vacation. This will be a new procedure for the children so it may take some of the children several weeks to get use to the new lesson.
Continue to have your child keep track of the reading they do each day. Keeping a written record gives the child a feeling of accomplishment and responsibility. Thank you for helping to make this happen.
