Dear Families,

 Happy New Year!  I hope all of you had a restful break!  We welcomed Ms. Sherry back this week!  Yay! ****Please be sure to enroll your student for the 2020-2021 school year at Spark!.  This can be done online.  All returning students need to be enrolled for next year.*****Thank you for your attention to this.  Please reach out with any questions. We are continuing our Pets STEM unit.  We have been practicing making patterns with pet manipulatives.  Students are learning to “read” his/her pattern.  This helps students to learn to identify patterns as well as extend them.  For example:  a student might make a blue and red pattern and then “read” it to me, “blue, red, blue, red, blue, red” .  I might say, “What color would come next?” For our question before break I made a pattern with the manipulatives and asked students:  “Is this a pattern?”  “Yes.”  “No.”  This past week I set out manipulatives that were not in a pattern and asked the same question, “Is this a pattern?”  I will continue this question this week. We have also been feeding the cat or dog math counters.  Students have been practicing identifying numerals and counting out counters to match the number. Please practice counting groups of objects with your student at home.  It might be easy to do this with a snack (such as goldfish) or while cleaning up objects.   We read ABC Pets, I Want a Dog and an emergent reader that is the pattern “I see a dog.”  “I see a cat.”  etc.  Students are beginning to recognize the difference between fiction and non-fiction texts.  We are continuing with our Fundations curriculum.  This semester we will begin to practice writing the letters while reviewing the letter/sound/word. The students are getting great at rhyming!  We have been putting together rhyming puzzles in small groups while students wait for each other at the bathroom.  We also have some rhyming transitions we use such as “hips” “lips.” Ask your student to name some rhyming word pairs for you!  Ask your student if 2 words rhyme.  For example, “Do play and blue rhyme?”  “Do cat and hat rhyme?” This week students will individually spend time looking at the pictures of non-fiction texts.  We will also read some of the books in order to learn facts. We will be investigating habitats of pets such as fish, hamsters, geckos, guinea pigs, turtles, frogs.  We will have conferences at the beginning of February 3rd, 5th and 6th. We are in need of 5 ounce cups for snack.  Students are getting great at pouring the water independently into his/her cup.  It is also great to see all of the language during snack time as students ask each other for help and advocate for his/her needs! Thank you for your continued partnership!   With our best,Mary Stivisonand Ms. Sherry