Finally Halloween is here and the children love it. We practiced our chants for the Halloween show and did some Halloween related activities. In Phonics we learned the letter "Dd" and finished up with the letter Ll. We also reviewed letter Ff. We practiced throwing and catching a ball, and practiced bouncing a ball to a friend. We also did some team building activities where students have to work together to solve a problem that they can't do alone.

August Leetrue and Jason usually forget to wash their hands after they go to the washroom. Please remind them when they are at home too. I will teach them how to wash their hands again next week and remind them about why they should always keep their hands clean.

Ryan doesn't seem as happy at school as he was when he first started. I'm not sure what the reason is. I feel you should know. If you find out why, please let me know. If I ever ask him something serious like that, he doesn't reply.

The Christine and Jae had a great time dressing up and fighting over who could be Ryan's princess.

One small problem with Christine, Jae and Theresa is that because they are so competitive with each other, they get into the habit of speaking out of turn in the class. It's great that they are paying attention and know the answer, but it makes the class environment very noisy.

This week we make some cool bats out of our own hand prints. The children are very excited about Halloween and ask me every day if Halloween is today or tomorrow.

We made a little pocket reading book and I teamed up some of the weaker students with some of the stronger ones and they tried to read the whole story book together without help from me. Each team was able to do it and I was very happy to see them try so hard. They were very proud that they could read a book they have never seen before.

In phonics we started to learn about the letter Ll. At least it is easy to write, but it is a very difficult letter to pronounce for non native English speakers. For example the "l" at the end of the word Beautiful. If you want to practice at home tell your child to bit the very tip of their tongue softly and push up while making a noise.

August needs to work on his pronunciation. Sometimes he is difficult to understand and he leaves out or slurs words when he speaks too fast. One of the problems think is that when other children are repeating the words I say, he isn't. His listening will improve when he does this, but his speaking will suffer.

It is difficult for me to explain to Leetrue that the tone he uses to talk sounds like whining or complaining. Even when he is not complaining, it sounds like he is. I have not heard him speak Chinese so, I'm not sure if this is only a problem he has in English, or if it is just his personality.

Ryan was better behaved this week. When we sang a song I noticed him singing along with us and he seems more eager to join in other activities.

Christine did very good in the reading activity this week. She worked well with her partner. She is a good team player.

Theresa loves telling stories in class about the things she likes to do or things she has done. The students listen to her stories and it makes them also tell interesting stories about themselves.

Jae's writing and cutting skills are excellent. She always writes the letters on the correct line and she takes her time to make sure she does it properly the first time. This is an excellent habit.

Get well soon Jason!

This week I had a hard time with the boys in the class. They are all having trouble getting along with each other. It's not anyone's fault in particular, it's all of them as a group. They have been taunting each other and trying to get the other in trouble. None of the boys will get all their stamps as long as they keep up this behavior. If this continues next week, I will start taking away their playtime as well. The boys need to learn to be good friends to each other and how to take responsibility for their behavior.

In phonics class, we learned Gg. The small G is very hard for the children to write and the big one usually ends up looking more like a 6 than a G. They also get the sound G makes confused with the sound J makes. But I might have to spend more time on G than I expected.

In math class we learned to count from 10-17. Most of the students forget the number 15, I guess because it doesn't sound like 5.

In reading we continued to review the words we learned and learned a few more from the book, "I Like To Hop".

Jae did very well this week. She knew 26 of the sight words on the wall. I have no complaints about her behavior. I had a talk with the class about taking a shower, brushing your teeth and helping around the house. I told the class that they should do these things before their parents ask them to. And that you should not be scared or angry at your parents for making them do these things. They make you do it because they love you. I hope it helped Jae at home. Let me know if this problem happens again. Keep up the good work Jae.

I'm glad to see Theresa is back. On Friday morning she was very upset, but we couldn't figure out why. Her Mom said she was good at home but she still seemed to be acting strangely and was crying a lot. She did stop crying in time for class and was fine for the rest of the day. I'm not sure if it is because of what has happened at home, or if it because she might be scared to get in trouble at school for being naughty in the morning even if she is not.

Christine had an odd incident at school today. August was moving in his chair and he accidentally put it on her foot without her knowing. Christine just said that August hurt her and I didn't understand how she was hurt. I went over to her to check, and realized that his chair was still on her foot and he didn't know. I found it very strange that she didn't tell him to get off. I checked her foot and it was okay.

Leetrue's and August's sensitivity them into trouble. They other boys know that they can easily upset them by saying pretty much anything. For example,"My pencil is longer than yours".

Jason and Ryan know that what they are saying should not make the others upset. But they also know that it does and they say silly innocent things to them on purpose to make them angry. It's not what they are saying that is wrong, it is the purpose they say it.

I will let you know next week if the situation with the boys improves.

This week in Phonics we continued with the letter Ff. The children learned many new words that start with Ff.

In reading class we used our sight words to make scentences, and I introduced a new game where the children say a word and the other team needs to find it. I also started getting the children to make a scentence with a word. They loved to make silly sentences like; The pig is on my head.

In Math class we reviewed both patterns and charts. The children have little problem with charts, but patterns remain a challenge.

For arts and crafts we made a ghost out of glue and googly eyes.

This months theme is integrity and I told the children the story of the boy who cried wolf. We did a funny role play with the puppets in class and the children were able to improvise what the charecters would say without me telling them. You can ask them to tell you the story to see how much detail they can remember.

Leetrue had a good week with his behavior. He aslo did quite well in the reading games we played. He had so much fun making the ghost.

Christine also was well behaved this week. Her work was very neat. When she was making the ghost she had some problems following instructions and she did some steps too quickly and had to redo it.

Jason had a few problems this week. A couple times he hurt his friends' feelings. But he did try very hard in his class work and he is improving in other areas like phonics and math.

August is having a hard time with his phonics. He has trouble remembering the begining sounds and had only memorized a one or two words for each letter.

Jae was very well behaved this week. She always gets ready after playtime very qucikly. She gets her chair and her water bottle ready without asking. She is excelling in each subject.

Theresa is also doing well in every subject. She did a beautiful job with her ghost and I can't wait to see what it will end up looking like.

This week was a difficult one for the class. I had to crack down on the students often for speaking out of turn, making random outbursts and not paying attention during lessons. They have extreme difficulty controling themselves when they are excited, (which is understandable for their age) but they need to learn consideration for others. If you notice your child shouting your name over and over to get your attention, or inturrupting you while talking to someone else without saying excuse me, please explain to them that it is rude and that you would never do that to them.

In phonics class this week we practiced writing the letter Jj which is the first letter we have learned which goes below the line. Teacher Jason also introduced the letter Ff for the children on Friday in my absence, and teacher Angel did some arts and crafts with the students in the morning I am sure they must have enjoyed.

In Math class we learned about patterns. It was difficult for the children to catch on at first but all of them can to the easy ones now. They made their own pattern on the wall in the class room.
And example of a pattern they are learning...

A B C B A B C B A ?

The reading book we are doing now is a little harder than the others. It's less repetitious and I have to take it slowly. It will take them a little while longer to memorize the sight of the new words in the book. But I am convinced all of the students can now recognize at least a few words including eachothers names and some of the other words from the other books. You can practice at home and see if they recognize any of these words: I, see, red, blue, yellow, a, bike, tire, rock, cat, pig, duck, look, tap, and, can, nap, on, my, bed, pillow, no, see

In science we are learning about the seasons but it is hard for them to relate to the 4 seasons since they have never seen the changes in the seasons and therefore difficult for them to understand that flowers blossom in the spring, and what winter is.

Happy birthday Leetrue!