Make a mark! We celebrated International Dot Day!

Peter Reynolds wrote a great inspirational book for children.

It is all about how one should not be afraid to 'make a mark.'

Watch the video to hear the story.

For many years, teachers have been celebrating 'International Dot Day'

as close to September 15th as possible.  It gives our students a chance to

see that they too can do great things if they try.

It is important that my 'littles' know that they can do hard things.

Using paper squares in the colours of their choosing, and a pair of

scissors, they cut circles, without drawing or tracing first!

They layered the circles and signed their work (another important lesson,

which is 'be proud of what you do...)

I am super proud of their efforts and more importantly, they are too!

We worked on the alphabet after listening to, and then finger pointing

as the story was read again and again, the Bill Martin Jr. book

"Chicka Chicka Boom Boom"

The students were given alphabet stickers and were

asked to put them in order onto their 'coconut' trees.

It was easy to tell which children still need to work on

 knowing how the letters in the alphabet go.

We worked on a number of 'dot' activities during the week.

Each of the activities were fun for the students, but they gave me

a chance to watch and see who can listen, follow directions, is independent,

and who needs support.  These are activities that allow me to

do some assessment that will guide my teaching over the next few 

weeks.  Even 'fun' is learning!

The students made three books this week that focused on some

of the sight words that they will be spelling on Friday.

They are being encouraged to point under a word as they track

from left to right, developing the early reading skills that are

needed.

Colour is a great assistant and so the students used three colours 

and three different ways to identify the three words on these

pages that were part of their sight words to learn this week.

Next Monday is the beginning of the season of Autumn.

Using the 'dot' idea and some fall-is colours, each student created

a bright and colourful tree.