Room 215 Classroom Newsletter

October 6, 2014

Mrs. Shaffer
Mrs. Tilley
Ms. Bowlin

News

Contents
News

Important Dates

Reading

Math

Social Studies

Other classroom activities

Communication

Following Directions

FIELD TRIPS - Our first field trip

will be to Disney on Ice on
December 15th. Permission slips
came home last week. Money
and permission slips are due this
Friday, October 10th. If you
would like to mark your calendars
in advance, we will also be going
to Hill Ridge Farms on May 14th.
If the cost of any field trip is ever
a financial burden for your
family, please let me know and
we can discuss other payment
options.

let me know what works best

for you for a conference time.
I will be calling or talking to
you this week to schedule a
time.
Student Teacher This year
our classroom is lucky to have
a student teacher , Ms. Lindsey
Bowlin. Ms. Bowlin is a student
at ECU. She will be with us on
Fridays for the first semester,
and then, January-May, she
will be here every day.

Parent/teacher conferences are

being scheduled now. I can do
conferences most school days
beginning at 3:30 until 6. Please

Important Dates
Thursday, October 16th early release day (12:45)
Friday, October 17th teacher work day no school for students
Tuesday, November 4th late arrival day
Tuesday, November 11th no school (Veterans Day)
Tuesday, November 18th PTO Spirit Night at Buffalo Brothers
Monday, November 24th PTO Thanksgiving Play 6:30
Wednesday, November 26 th Friday, November 28th no school
Wednesday, December 3rd early release day (12:45)
Monday, December 15th Disney on Ice field trip

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Room 215 Classroom Newsletter

Reading
Reading skills we have been
practicing include listening skills
during story time, orienting to
the correct location in a book to
follow along with the story,
name identification, and
identifying words/pictures in
print and matching to the same
words/pictures(with schedule

icons).
We have completed our first
classroom book Who Do You
See at School? Hopefully you
enjoyed reading it together at
home. We are now working on
making a new book called
Who Am I?

Math
During our math time each day,
we watch a short math video
about our topic for the day. We
also practice math skills during
calendar time by counting the
days and singing counting songs.

Math topics so far have focused

on counting to ten and
recognizing a sequence of events
and passage of time (with our
daily schedules and with
practicing first/then.

Social Studies
Our social studies lessons so far have focused on school, family,
school/classroom rules, and needs (air, water, food, and shelter).

Other Classroom Activities

We do a daily exercise and
movement time. So far we have
been doing yoga for kids during
that time.
During our afternoon center
time, students rotate through the

following centers: computer,

book center, play center,
housekeeping center,
independent work center, and
work with teacher.

Room 215 Classroom Newsletter

Page 3 of 3

Communication
Communication is one of the top
priorities for every student, so this will be
a strong focus throughout the year. I have
set up the classroom so that many of the
students most highly preferred items are
out of reach but within sight to provide
numerous opportunities to practice with
requesting throughout the day. We will
focus on appropriate requesting by
politely asking for things, whether by
using a single sound, a word, a gesture
(point, taking someones hand to an item,
etc.), a picture, or a communication
device. My philosophy is that we should

make very clear the distinction between

appropriate and inappropriate requesting. My
strategy for teaching this is that if a student
asks politely, using their own most precise
form of communication, we will be very
likely to say yes (within reason, of course),
but if they do not, or if they use
inappropriate means (such as yelling), to ask,
we will not honor that request. This also
means that we need to be frequently
modeling and prompting students to use more
precise and appropriate means to
communicate.
.

Following Directions
Following directions related to
basic educational situations ( ex :
sit down, stand up, take it, put it
here, etc.) is another important
skill which greatly impacts a
students progress through all
areas of the curriculum. We will be
practicing a variety of basic
directions throughout the day. You
can practice this at home by first
making sure you have your childs
attention, say the direction, wait
2-3 seconds, then if your child has

not responded, provide gentle

prompting/guidance to complete
the direction. Prompt as little as
needed (point or tap them on the
arm) and if that does not work,
progress up to full prompting if
needed (ex: hand over hand
guiding them to take an item). If
your child responds correctly and
independently, throw a party! If
you needed to prompt them, still
provide praise but to a lesser
degree.