The students and I have been creating videos that hopefully accomplish two goals: help them learn and be entertaining for you. (Filming the students has given me a chance to use my new iPad camera plus we love to watch them right away to decide if we need more practice. Generally, we do!) 

Take a look at our latest endeavors. First grade students are learning all of the 18 Jolly Phonics digraphs and they practiced some of the toughest ones for the videos.

Parents, empower your child with reading...

I often rack my brain trying to think of ways to make parents realize how important it is that a child can read on grade level by the end of second grade. If your child isn't reading at grade level by second grade, chances are astronomical that he won't catch up.

You have the POWER to change the odds! All you have to do is make sure your child reads for 20-30 minutes every day. All you need is a book.

A grammar rule to sing about...

Second grade students discover that grammar rules are easier to remember when you sing about them.

I haven't been  hibernating but I have been very busy.  However busy I get,  I'm always looking  for cool websites for teachers, parents and for kids. I think I scored on these two. Parents, if you're looking for some engaging, educational things to do with your kids on the internet click on these links:  MY OATMEAL KISSES and 10 FREE WEBSITES FOR KIDS.

We keep busy writing every day. The program we use is called Write Tools and one of the skills we learn is Summary Writing.  After reading a book, we decide what the "Big Picture" of our book is and then back it up with the details and write or draw them as "jot dots."

We also write "picture-painting" sentences. The idea is to create an explanatory sentence about a drawing or picture using words that paint a picture in our minds.

Another skill we want to learn is editing. First graders sing "My Sentence Needs a Check," as outlined in the Write Tools program. Here it is performed for you by Alex, J'onna, Martial and Cole.

Fall Conferences

October 25 and 30 from 4 to 7 p.m. are Corse conference days. Am looking forward to meeting parents so we can share information about your child's reading. Parents, your support and encouragement is key  to helping your child become proficient in reading.

If your student comes home talking about the math game with an avatar where they learn addition and subtraction or multiplication click on this link called BigBrainz and you can find out how to download it at home. It's free. Contact me for the password.

Mensa for Kids has some games your math enthusiast might like to try like Minus Mission, Alien Addition, Demolition Division or Meteor Multiplication. Click on Mensa for the link. Try the "Games and Activities" icon.