Friday, September 25, 2009

Hello Tree House Parents,

This week we covered:

Phonics

We worked on s and o vowel sounds while learning to differentiate between how to pronounce -ad, -at phonograms.

Reading

.We read "Fish Dish" and "The Path on the Map" with the included reading comprehension. This taught the students how useful maps can be while practicing more complex phonetic sounds like sh, and th.

English Second Language Book/ Song

We continued talking about growth and how we need to grow in maturity along with the obvious physical growth. Which got us talking about more responsibilities and how we can really start to help others! This also brought us to our song which was Micheal Jackson's "Man in the Mirror." I thought it was fitting since he illustrates that we have to start working on ourselves in order to make the world around us better and more fulfilling.

Student Comments


Irene really enjoyed this week's song, "Man In the Mirror" by Michael Jackson. This is something she and I both really enjoyed, since it was the first time she stepped into the spotlight and spoke clearly.

Gwen is constantly improving her speaking in class. She did great with her understanding of the vocabulary!

Andrew's did well with his writing this week but needs to work on pronouncing the sh and th sound.

Yo-Yo is continuing to do better, he is staying consistent with his work and I can see that he feels a lot more proud as a student!

Devon is following along better with his reading, he is making sure to follow along with his finger and was answering a few of the questions in class, good improvement Devon!

Julia's English speaking is unfolding very quickly now, and its great to see that she is taking it on her own initiative to ask when she doesn't understand something.

Hanna's verbal skills are improving, she was able to sing almost all of this week's song. She also was the first to point out what some of the song meant, which was pleasantly surprising.

Timmy did great, he hopped back from being sick with little difficulty and did well with this week's lessons. He is learning to speak out more and is starting to feel comfortable inside the classroom.

Tony's reading and phonics are really picking up! He is starting to break up sounds on his own when he doesn't know the word, which tells me he is starting to really grasp phonetics.

I hope you all enjoy Open House this evening,
-Teacher Jason

Friday, September 18, 2009

Hello Tree House Parents,

This week we covered:

Phonics

We focused on the T and L sound. We also spent a lot of time on words that are used quite often. (I.E. He, She, On,Like, and It)

Reading

We read "Reading Jig and Tap" and "What does Pig do?" These stories allowed the students to focus on short i sounds and continued repetition of the short a. The stories also emphasized calendars and why they are useful. For example we use them to remember what we did and what we are going to do in the future.

English Second Language Book

We covered the chapter on growing and changing. Which told us about the different parts of us that get bigger and taller as we get older. And also the different abilities we learn thanks to these growth spurts.


Student Comments


Irene is steadily increasing with her phonics ability. I would like for her to put more effort though in participating with our discussions.

Gwen loved the finger paint activity and shined when we were going over our vocabulary.

Andrew did well this week and was a great help illustrating how growth works. I want him to make sure to keep it up and work a bit on speaking out of turn, since at times he can distract others.

Yo-Yo had a fantastic week, I believe this is the first week where he really took control of his focus and he did great. He finished all his writing and contributed a lot to the verbal parts of my class. He and I will both be sure to continue his improvement in and outside the class.

Devon improved a lot with his writing speed, lets hope he keeps it up!

Julia's English speaking is unfolding very quickly now, and its great to see that she is taking it on her own initiative to ask when she doesn't understand something.

Hanna is continuing to work hard on her vocabulary comprehension! She just needs to keep working on not talking out of turn.

Timmy was sick this week, I hope you feel better soon and hope to see you in class next week.

Tony is doing great with the vocabulary and I love that he enjoys reading and answering questions in class. He still needs to work on how many outside comments he makes in class since at times it can distract other students.

well, hope everyone enjoys their weekend! Next week is Open House!!


T. Jason

Friday, September 11, 2009

Hello Tree House Parents,

Its the second week of school, and jaguar class is starting to get used to the schedule and emphasis on their reading and phonics. As we get deeper into the year, I am sure that the class will feel a lot more confident in both their reading and writing abilities.

This week:

Phonics: We worked on the short A sound, the letter M.

Reading: We read the poem, "The Sack" and the story "Quack". Both helped the kids emphasize the short a and ck sound.

English Accelerated Learning: We continued working on families with the focus being on what each family member's responsibilities.

Song- We learned the song "Is this love" by Bob Marley.


Individual comments

Irene did great with her family drawing and with the new song we learned. She just needs to make sure towork at her vocabulary more.

Gwen-is doing great with all the work in class, just needs to learn not to speak without raising her hand!

Andrew- This week, did well with writing but needs to work on lowering the amount of side comments he makes in class.

Yo-Yo is working harder on his writing significantly, and is doing great with the phonics.

Devon loves to draw and did great when we were working on Families. But can improve on paying attention in class.

Julia contributed a lot more in class discussion this week, hope she keeps it up!

Hanna has been great, she works hard on her vocabulary and loves to contribute in the class.

Timmy showed great improvement with his written work this week, not just with understanding but speed too! We loved learning the song,"Bob Marley- Is this love" and really got the other kids excited with his enthusiasm.

At first I was worried about Tony since he is a bit younger than the rest of the class, but those fears never amounted considering he is at the top of our reading comprehension.

Well, hope everyone has a good weekend!

T. Jason

Friday, September 4, 2009

The start of a fantastic New School Year!

Hello Tree House Parents,

My name is Teacher Jason and this week has been a great pleasure thanks to my new Jaguars class. My goal is for my students to know they have the confidence to read and that I will notice all the effort that is taking place in and out of the classroom.I am already really excited cant wait for all the experiences we will have together throughout this year.

This week, we started our reading book which emphasized the short a sound and got familiar with all the basic sounds of the alphabet. We also worked on the concept on family and talked about how important and how we contribute to our everyday family life.

Individual comments

Irene has a very warm personality and seems excited to learn! In class she can be a bit quiet and I can tell she feels self conscious when speaking out loud. But I am positive this will change as she feels more comfortable with the other students and as we push on through the year.

Gwen is great! I rarely have to remind her to stay on task and she loves to put in her two cents into any discussion we have. I love her bubbly nature!

Andrew is incredibly hard working and is always one of the first ones done. I have to say that i am really glad that Andrew is in my class since I had spent a great deal with him over the summer. During that time I witnessed how hard he always pushes himself to learn which is truly rewarding for me.

Yo-Yo is much more talkative this year which really is great since this has made my communication with him a lot easier! Like I have said before, he reminds me when I was younger since the fact that he and I both were easily distracted students. I know that the needs that come with this, and will be working on showing Yo-Yo how to increase his focus.

Devon's humor and all around happiness is spreading through the class like a virus which definitely makes him a great addition to the class. He has a bit of a hard time focusing but moving him to the front of the class has already shown to help with the situation.

Julia is very similar with Irene. At first she was very hesitant to speak even to me but she is already gaining confidence in and outside of the classroom which is already allowing me to teach her individually. She is very artistic and I am glad that she is already starting to warm up to me!

Hanna is one of the quickest learners in the class! I am really happy to she that even at a young age, she picks up some of the more difficult content matter up with no difficulty. I cant wait to see how much she grows over this year!

Timmy- Behaviorally is the best in the class. He is always sitting up straight and has no problems inside the classroom in this sense. He also understand the verbal material well but I will be focusing on his speed of his writing, since he tends to drift off.

Well, hope everyone has a good weekend!

T. Jason