Happy Thanksgiving! This week we have a delicious Thanksgiving feast and the children loved it. It was exciting to see the children try and eat new foods and all of the badgers liked it very much.

In Phonics we started on the letter Ww. They love using the computers to help them learn how to write the letters and it seems to help them remember the right way.

In Math class, we did an exercise that challenged their attention span and common sense. The children are getting better at writing the numbers now. We are past the hard part. the last numbers except for eight should be easy for them now.

In science we are still doing the states of matter. This week we learned about liquid. And what better way then with water balloons!

We got some new sight words in reading class this week. The words are starting to get longer now, and students are realizing that one word can have more than one syllable. "Butterfly" is now the biggest word on the wall replacing "yellow".

I am determined to guide my class down a path away from tattling. The students are beginning to understand that they are getting rewarded for solving their differences on their own. It is a big step for them to take and they have a long way to go, but they are starting to see the right path.

Jae
Everyone always wants to sit next to Jae, just this week I noticed that it is starting to go to her head, and she is beginning to pick and choose who can sit beside her. So I have given the students permanent seating. I also noticed just today that when it was time to wash her hands before snack that she just quickly rinsed her hands. I will keep an eye on this and make sure she keeps up good hygiene habits.

Leetrue also almost always forgets to wash his hands, but he knows I am watching him. It is funny because now all I have to do is look at him and he knows that he forgot to wash them and he goes back and does it properly.

Christine has been sticking her fingers in her mouth again. And she doesn't pull up her chair and sit on it properly. She usually has her chair too far back with one foot on the floor and one knee on the chair. I also often have to tell the other students to sit properly but I am especially concerned with her posture.

August
For the Christmas show, all the students have to say what they want for Christmas. August knows what he wants for Christmas and has no problem saying the word "airplane" in normal conversation, but when it comes time for him to say his lines, for some reason he seems to struggle with it and each syllable comes out very slowly. "For Christ-mas - I - want - an - air - plane."I think it's because when we he said it by himself the first time he said ""a" airplane", but we needed to correct it to ""an" airplane". This threw him off a bit. Maybe he could practice a bit at home.

Jason is still struggling to follow along with his finger when reading along with us. I don't expect him to be able to read right now, the first step for him is to recognize the divisions between words so he can follow with his finger. It would be good for him if when you were reading with him at home, if you could ask him to follow with his finger while someone else reads the words. Then he could try to repeat it and point.

Ryan has changed from the young new boy who could hardly hold a pencil, to one who can write many letters and numbers correctly. He is also now able to follow complex instructions and execute independently. Don't worry about him I believe he just has lots of energy, and a huge imagination.

Theresa has been quite grumpy after nap time recently. It takes her a long time to get into gear and ready for class time. And if she is urged to move faster, she just takes even longer. I realize that all she wants is some attention and a hug, and I will try and make her understand that she will be able to get more positive attention from me if she gets ready for class more quickly, then she will have some more time for a hug. I just don't want to give her what she wants when she exhibits grumpiness.

Christmas is coming fast and this week we started practicing our song and dance. The students love singing and dancing and they will put on a great show. In phonics class we reviewed letters Ll, Nn and Dd. The children are having trouble writing the small "d" so I will spend more time on it with them. Math class these days has been more a focus on writing numbers. The hardest one for them is number 5 so far, but number 2 and 3 are also difficult.
They are really starting to love reading. I have been treating reading for them as a sort of play time and it is really working well. And they are actually proud to show how good they are to their friends and I.

Christine is really developing a great sense of humor. She loves to change the words to songs to make them funny.

Jae is getting good at figuring out rhyming words. She has no problem rhyming words with cat. I noticed that Jae is getting good at indirect learning. She listens closely when I am talking to other students and applies what I have told them to herself.

Theresa bought a top this week with her money. She is having trouble getting it to spin. It will be good practice for her hand eye coordination.

Ryan is still having trouble sleeping in class. His imagination runs wild during nap time and he still can't stay still enough to fall asleep. Next week we will take him out of the classroom so he doesn't disturb the others. I don't want to get angry at him, I just want him to understand that he has to keep quiet so the others can sleep and if he can't he must leave the class. I hope he doesn't like having to leave the room and after a week, when he is again able to rejoin the class, that he improves.

Leetrue is really beginning to accelerate his his learning pace. His speech and grammar is getting better and so are his manners and behavior.

Jason was well behaved for the most part this week. His attention span has improved a great deal since I joined. If he continues to improve this way, he'll begin to better understand the more difficult lessons in class.

I am sorry I left out August's comments.

I have been reviewing some of the past letters recently and have noticed that he is memorizing the words that go with each letter instead of listening for the letter. Just today I asked what word started with Ll and he said "tiger". It is obvious to me that he is getting tiger confused with lion because they look alike not because they sound alike.

This week I really noticed how much the children lie to each other and to me. It is becoming very difficult to tell who is telling the truth and who is lying. I have been thinking about how to solve this problem and have decided that I am going to start punishing the whole class by taking away play time until one of them tells the truth. I want the children to know that lying is wrong and it hurts everyone when a lie is told.

Jae has been chatting more often during class at inappropriate times. She is also getting into the habit of not sitting properly in her chair, but I am reminding her to pull in her chair and sit with her back on the backrest.

I have not noticed Christine putting her fingers in her mouth this week. If i see it again I will remind her. I have a feeling that once she stops putting her fingers in her mouth she might start a new habit, like what happened when she stopped putting her hair in her mouth.

Theresa's allergies have been bothering her, but once I put some eucalyptus gel on under her nostrils she seemed to feel a bit better.

Jason was caught lying to me in class. I am glad that he admitted that he lied. He drank water out of Theresa's water bottle and then told me that he didn't . I asked him again a few times and he finally admitted that he did and I made him wash it.

August was acting a bit greedy during playtime this week. He was playing with someone else's toy for a very long time and not sharing it with others. He was very upset when he was forced to share the toy with his friend.

Ryan has a difficult time with forgiveness. Sometimes if a friend accidentally hurts him and says sorry to him, he will say that it's not okay. He has no problem saying that it is okay if it doesn't hurt so badly, but if it really hurts he has a more difficult time forgiving his friend.

Leetrue is one of the ones that is very good at getting away with things. I have yet to catch him in a lie, but I think that he sometimes does. If someone says that Leetrue hurt them he will never admit to it, and for some reason other students never seem to see it happen and neither do I.

This week we said goodbye to Halloween and hello to Thanksgiving. I told the class a story about Squanto, but I'll have to do it again a couple times for the meaning of it to sink in. In Math class we starting learning about ordinal numbers. 1st, 2nd and 3rd aren't a problem but the rest of them are hard to pronounce. We will practice the "th" sound, and I am introducing a new lineup chant for them so they can practice these numbers.

Leetrue has been eating his lunch very slowly lately. We are pushing him to eat more quickly so he has more time to sleep and so he doesn't disrupt the class when he comes to bed late.

Ryan is still having trouble sleeping, but he does not go to the bathroom over and over again like he used to. It's a step in the right direction.

August had a good week and everyone was so happy that he brought a train to school on Friday. He was very proud of his train.

Jason is also having trouble sleeping during nap time. If this continues he will loose more privileges until he is able to at least lie quietly in class without disturbing others.

Christine's cutting with scissors is very surprising. She is able to follow any line or pattern almost perfectly with her scissors.

Jae is so excited that we are making turkey for Thanksgiving and is always asking me when we can continue working on our turkey.

Theresa was a great leader this Friday and was able to lead her class in the new line-up chant. I'm very happy with her maturity level.