At the beginning of the year, my newsletter introduced you to Ms. Fenton (the gym teacher), Ms. Greenwood (the music teacher) and Mr. Hodan (the librarian) and in past posts here, you may also have caught glimpses of me and Ms. Fish.
We also have a weekly volunteer in the classroom named Jeff, who is a parent at the school. He plays guitar and leads some songs for the students. I rode home today singing the Tomato song (mostly) under my breath, so I'm sure that you've heard snippets of this one too. I will also admit to a having moment today listening to them all sing "You Are My Sunshine". It was very sweet.
In addition to that, we've started working with Reading Buddies. In the afternoon, we've partnered with Ms. Oseghale's Gr. 4 class. The morning was more challenging to arrange, due to scheduling, so a smaller number of students are coming in to visit us during their recess. What I love about Buddy programs like these is that students get that precious one on one time and both sides seem to love the interactions. The older students are very sweet and protective of their buddies and, well, you can see the engagement in learning.
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| Students read together in the cubby area |
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| The quiet centre is transformed into the pillow centre. |
I also wanted to touch on the reading program I sent home today. I know this is another thing to remember, but I've tried to keep it simple by making the switch every Monday. You received a poem that we'll practice reading in class and I encourage you to read it at home with your child as well. Each week, you should receive a different poem, based on the concepts we're looking at in class.
If you are an SK family, you also received a short book to practice and read aloud together. These books are very basic levelled texts, so you may notice a fair bit of repetition. This is good! Students learn through practice and will hopefully build some sight words as you gradually release the reading of the books over to them.
Yours in learning,
Ms. Goegan
