Making Numbers

Today we launched Topic 2: Making Numbers 6, 7, 8, 9.

Each Envisions Topic is introduced to the students with an interactive story and a game.

We played: Making Numbers today!  This game focuses on joining two numbers to find a sum.  It gives students practice with: counting, counting on, adding, and recognizing combinations.  Incidentally, when students play a game they are also learning social and cooperative skills.  

Here are a few photos of our kiddos at work (and play). They used dice and cubes to play this game.  You will see them building towers with two colors of cubes.  Then they join the towers and count to find a sum.

Ali and Alexandra

Alex, Evan, and Cody

Owen and James

Chase

Enjoy our smiles from our first few days of school! :)We've had a lot of fun getting to know each other.  I look forward to meeting you tonight at Open House! 6:30-8:30p at McKean!

Letter Fun In First Grade

Hello families!

We've had some very fun first days of first grade. Hopefully you're all settling back into the routines of the school year. I thought I'd make our first blog post about one of the student's favorite activities throughout our first week.

We've been working on handwriting. 

 At the same time we are reviewing letters and letter sounds. I thought I could share a couple of the resources that we are using in case you want to use them at home too! The kiddos seem to love them and are interested in trying it at home. I assured them that I would get the information to you!

YouTube:
On YouTube we've been using The Alphabet Videos by Have Fun Teaching. I have imbedded one of the videos below. In order to find them on your own, go to: www.youtube.com. Search for: 'letter b song' or 'letter c song' etc.

App Store: 
The real hit is an App called LetterSchool. This is a $2.99 App that allows students to practice proper letter formation. It is important to note that handwriting and proper letter formation is important for more reasons than one.  Yes, we like to teach children how to make letters that are neat and legible.  More importantly, though, proper letter formation allows for fluent composition.  When reading, we teach children fluent decoding skills so that they will establish good reading comprehension.  Similarly, when writing, fluent handwriting is important so students can easily get their thoughts onto paper.

When using this App have your child focus on lowercase letters.  Lowercase letters are used most often and they are more readily formed incorrectly!
 Definitely worth the $2.99 (especially if you also have pre-schoolers at home)!

For more information about the App check out this link.  Letter School


"If your child has to think about how to form individual letters, at school, when writing in his journal and in completing other written exercises, he won’t be able to keep up with peers who have automatic recall and efficient fine-motor skills. Speed of printing will slow down because of it." -http://www.kindergarten-tips-and-skill-lessons.com


Happy learning. :)

~ Mrs. Monaco