All of us here at 

Hooksett Early Learning Program

wish you and your family a very 

Merry Christmas 

and a 

Happy and Healthy New Year!

The Month of December!

Oh my! Where did this month go?  We have been so busy in the classroom learning some new "games" and creating holiday decorations!

Here is our Gingerbread House!

We played a gingerbread man fishing game.   Some of us matched our letters, while others practiced writing our letters!

We added the correct amount of decorations to Christmas Trees!

(Practicing numeral recognition and 1:1 correspondence.) 

Here we are measuring a gingerbread man!  We then measured ourselves to see which was bigger!  The gingerbread man or us!

But our favorite was going on a gingerbread man hunt!  Everyone had their own clipboard with a picture of a gingerbread man with either letters or pictures on it.  We then looked all over the school for gingerbread men.  When we found one we would say the letter and find it on our paper.  If we had pictures we would say the sound the letter made and find the picture that began with the same sound!  The children did a great job!

And lastly, thank you so much for the yummy gingerbread cookies Mrs. Godbout!  We loved decorating them, and of course, eating them!

We have been working on:

• Identifying rhyming words
• Reviewing letter shapes Aa through Mm
• Associating  the names of letters with their shapes
• Introduction to the new sight word: in

Understanding and producing rhyme is an important phonological awareness skill.  Research indicates that there is a correlation between phonological awareness skills and reading.  Throughout this school year we will be working on developing this very important skill!  Here are some ideas for you to try at home:

• Read rhyming books to your child
• Teach your child nursery rhymes
• Read books over again!  Repetition is great and an important part in the learning process!
• Once you have read a rhyming book several times, begin to pause before you say the rhyming word to see if they can fill in the word that rhymes
• Play rhyming games 

It is important to remember that rhyming is a developmental skill that will emerge over time.   Be patient with your child, if he/she has difficulty with this skill he/she just may not be ready.  Continue to read and expose them to rhyme and before you know it they will be rhyming!

Always remember that learning is fun!  

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

We have been working on:

•  Identifying words that have been removed from a group
• Demonstrating knowledge of the concept of a letter
• Associating the names of letters with their shapes
• Learning the chants for the letter sounds
• Reading the pre-decodable Friends with our new sight word: and

What you can do at home:

You can play a game in the car like we do here at school!  Tell your child you are going to say three words and that they need to listen carefully so they can remember what you said.  Say, cup, spoon and pot.  Have your child repeat the words.  Have them listen again but only say two of the words, cup, spoon.  Ask them to tell you the word that is missing.  You can do this for a few different sets of words!   Have fun!

Practice the pre-decodables!  This one seems pretty challenging, so be sure to read it to your child. Have them point to the words as you read.  Maybe ask them to point to certain words to be sure they know what it looks like.  And don't forget to ask them questions about the pictures!

Keep up the good work and always remember to make it fun!

Lisa

We had so much fun last week!  We loved hearing the story of The Three Little Pigs!  And we loved acting it out!  

                                      

Another favorite story was 

Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons

To go along with this story I found a great subtraction game!  The children needed to count out 10 buttons for their shirt, they took turns rolling the dice and removing the correct amount of buttons.  The person with no more buttons wins!  We had a lot of fun with this one!

What have we been up to?

The children have been:

• Naming and describing the function of common classroom objects.
• Analyzing sentence pairs to determine which has more words and which has fewer words.
• Identifying the capital letter that begins their name and matching it to the Alphabet Sound Wall Cards.
• Identifying small letters and capital letters.
• Reading Pre-Decodable 3 The Picnic.

What can you do at home?

Help your child understand and learn concepts of print.  The most obvious way to help children build knowledge about print is to read together.  Here are some suggestions for when you are reading with your child:

• Find a quiet, comfortable place to read together
• Spend about ten to fifteen minutes a day reading together
• Read stories expressively
• Encourage your child to ask questions and comment on what interests them
• Ask questions that encourage children to think about the story.  For example, ask  "what do you think will happen next?"
• Talk about the pictures.  Ask "What do you see?  What are the characters doing? What do you think will happen next?"
• After reading the story share your favorite parts
• Reread stories as often as children request them
• Read different types of books

Young children are full of questions about how things work or why things happen.  Read books that spark their curiosity and encourage more questions.  Don't feel limited to reading only books. Functional reading is a wonderful way to support reading at home - following directions for a recipe or putting together a toy, reading the newspaper, reading ads, finding coupons to use when shopping and pointing out signs are all great ways to read with your child!

Happy Reading!!