Sunday, September 7, 2014

Reading Assessments Begins Wednesday, September 10th and ends Wednesday, September 17th

PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR CHILD GETS PLENTY OF SLEEP THIS WEEK........
It's Assessment Week for Emergent Readers!



  1. Arches Academy finds students' instructional levels by assessing their reading skills with developmentally appropriate texts while recording reading behavior. Benchmark Passages are short text selections that are one part of a three-part process to help place students at their instructional levels for leveled reading sessions and to assess their readiness to progress to the next level.  This assessment is computer based and done through A-Z Reading.


Along with the Raz-Kids assessments I will be meeting with each student and will do the following paper based assessments:
 Word Family Recognition
Sight Word Recognition
Reading Nonsense Words - Phonics
 Reading Nonsense Words - CVC and VC - Phonics
Reading Nonsense Words - Short Vowels and Long Vowels
Manipulating Sounds - Phonological Awareness
Identifying Rime 1 & 2- Phonological Awareness
 Blending Onset and Rime - Phonological Awareness
Segmenting Onset and Rime - Phonological Awareness
Manipulating Onset and Rime - Phonological Awareness
Identifying Rhyming Words - Phonological Awareness

What is the difference between PHONICS (or Phonemic Awareness and PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS?

Phonological Awareness- Phonological awareness is a general appreciation of how spoken language can be divided into its components.  For example, we speak in sentences.  Sentences can be broken down into words and words into syllables.  Breaking words into onset-rime and an appreciation of rhyme and alliteration fall under the category of phonological awareness.


Phonemic Awareness- The word “phoneme” means sound.  When a word is broken down into its smallest unit, a sound (or phoneme), the term “phonemic awareness” is used.  Phonemic awareness is a sub skill of the broad category of phonological awareness.  Phoneme isolation, blending, and segmenting are several skills that fall under this category.


Phonics and phonemic awareness are not the same.  Phonics involves how speech sounds correspond to the written letter or letter combinations.  Phonemic awareness is only about hearing and manipulating the individual speech sounds in words.  The best way to remember the difference between these two terms is to know that any phonemic awareness skills can be “done in the dark”.





SPELLING WORDS ARE NOW ON THE CLASSROOM BLOG

SPELLING WORDS 

Please reference our classroom blog for your student's 
SPELLING WORDS
SIGHT WORDS
BONUS WORDS

Feel free to visit the following website for all sight words used in First Grade:
http://www.mrsperkins.com/dolch.htm
Mrs. Perkins' Dolch Words.

Dolch Pre-Primer Sight Words
and
away
big
blue
can
come
down
find
for
funny
go
help
here
I
in
is
it
jump
little
look
make
me
my
not
one
play
red
run
said
see
the
three
to
two
up
we
where
yellow
you

Dolch Primer Sight Words:
all
am
are
at
ate
be
black
brown
but
came
did
do
eat
four
get
good
have
he
into
like
must
new
no
now
on
our
out
please
pretty
ran
ride
saw
say
she
so
soon
that
there
they
this
too
under
want
was
well
went
what
white
who
will
with
yes

Dolch First Grade Sight Words:

after
again
an
any
ask
as
by
could
every
fly
from
give
going
had
has
her
him
his
how
just
know
let
live
may
of
old
once
open
over
put
round
some
stop
take
thank
them
then
think
walk
were
when

We will be using the Spelling Connections Manuel to generate our First Grade Spelling List.
These Spelling Lists are aligned with our Phonics Lessons.


We will start out with Pre-primer and Primer Sight Words as a review and then move on to First and Second Grade Sight Words.
Mrs. Perkins' Dolch Words.

Our Bonus Words will be generated from a list of 95 COMMON NOUNS and the THIRD GRADE SIGHT WORD LISTS on the above website.
Mrs. Perkins' Dolch Words.

Dolch Word List - 95 Nouns
apple 
baby 
back 
ball 
bear 
bed 
bell 
bird 
birthday 
boat 
box 
boy 
bread 
brother 
cake 
car 
cat 
chair 
chicken 
children 
Christmas 
coat 
corn 
cow 
day 
dog 
doll 
door 
duck 
egg 
eye 
farm 
farmer 
father 
feet 
fire 
fish 
floor 
flower 
game 
garden 
girl 
good-bye 
grass 
ground 
hand 
head 
hill 
home 
horse 
house 
kitty 
leg 
letter 
man 
men 
milk 
money 
morning 
mother 
name 
nest 
night 
paper 
party 
picture 
pig 
rabbit 
rain 
ring 
robin 
Santa Claus 
school 
seed 
sheep 
shoe 
sister 
snow 
song 
squirrel 
stick 
street 
sun 
table 
thing 
time 
top 
toy 
tree 
watch 
water 
way 
wind 
window 
wood 

Dolch Third Grade Sight Words

about
better
bring
carry
clean
cut
done
draw
drink
eight
fall
far
full
got
grow
hold
hot
hurt
if
keep
kind
laugh
light
long
much
myself
never
only
own
pick

Thursday, September 4, 2014

When does Homework begin?


Nightly Homework Starts, Monday 9/8

Homework will be assigned MONDAY - THURSDAY:

Use your child's FLUENCY FOLDER along with the book, poem(s), or reading passage sent home in your child's Take Home Folder Nightly.
Your reading need not exceed 15 minutes.

Your child will begin to use their SCHOOL PLANNERS on Monday, 9/8.
Students will write their weekly spelling words in their SCHOOL PLANNERS.
Students will need to do the following with their SPELLING WORDS:
MONDAY:  Pre-test Words
TUESDAY:  Write MISSED WORD(S) ONLY with crayons
WEDNESDAY:  Spell MISSED WORDS ONLY out loud using a funny voice (be silly with it)
THURSDAY:  Play Hangman with MISSED WORDS ONLY

Please begin to use XtraMath at home on Monday, 9/8.
Students will need to do ONE ROUND of XtraMath nightly.

I am a firm believer that family time is valuable.  The lessons learned at home are as important (if not more important) than those learned at school.  As a result, my goal is to allow as much family time as possible after your child returns home from a day at school.  To this end, I would like all of my students to spend no more than 30 minutes a day on homework.
PROJECTS WILL CONSUME MORE TIME and will only be assigned on a monthly basis.