Most days in our class children have an opportunity to read to themselves.  We began this routine by talking about three ways to read a book- read the pictures, read the words, or retell a familiar book. While most children in the class can't yet read words, we can all look at the pictures and use them to make sense of the story.  We have a large collection of wordless picture books in the class which are great for practicing this skill.  Some favorites seem to be Chalk by Bill Thomson, Rainstorm by Barbara Lehman, and The Chicken Theif by Beatrice Rodreguez.  Right now we are reading to ourselves for about 7 minutes, gradually increasing our time as we learn all parts of this routine.  Last week I introduced children to their reading bags which will become an essential part of this routine as well.  Right now they have two books in their bags, one is a book of nursery rhymes, and the other is a class book about us, a copy of which I have sent home as well.   For now these books are a great way for us to learn each other's names, but we will use them over and over throughout the year as we practice different reading skills.  The copy that came home is for you to keep.

We also read the book Sometimes I'm Bombaloo by Rachel Vail.  Ask your child to tell you what it means to be bombaloo.  We talked about that fact that everyone feels bombaloo sometimes (even adults) and discussed strategies for calming down when we are feeling bombaloo.  Some of the ideas were taking deep breaths, counting, drawing, finding a space alone, looking at a book, and looking at a drip toy (these have proven to be very popular in our room).

Our monarch caterpillars are changing rapidly.  When we arrived this morning we had three chrysalids, two caterpillars hanging, ready to become chrysalids, and one caterpillar still munching and growing.  During choice time we were lucky enough to see one of the hanging caterpillars shed its skin and wiggle its way into a chrysalis!

A couple of you have asked about our specials schedule.  We have gym and music on Mondays, library and French on Tuesdays, no specials on Wednesday, gym on Thursday, and art and technology on Friday.  Sneakers are best for gym on Mondays and Thursdays.