What is a syllable?

There are so many words in the English language. One of the unique things about words is that they all have syllables. Some words like "cat" only have one syllable. But some words like "imagination" have five syllables.

Well.... what specifically is a syllable anyway?

• A syllable is the sound of a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) that is created when pronouncing a word.


• The letter 'y' can be counted as a vowel, only if it creates the sound of a vowel (a, e, i, o, u).
• For example: fry, try, cry, & dry

• Some words have two (or more) vowels next to each other. Other words have vowels that are silent.


• The number of times that you hear the sound of a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) is equal to the number of syllables the word has.

Check out this great YouTube video to help you!

Read for the Record

October 21st, 2014 is national Read for the Record Day!

Jumpstart’s premiere national campaign, Read for the Record, mobilizes millions of children and adults to celebrate literacy by participating in the largest shared reading experience. 

On October 21, 2014, people across the country will unite to read the children’s book Bunny Cakes, a comical story of sibling bonding and birthday shenanigans, by bestselling author and illustrator Rosemary Wells, in support of Jumpstart’s mission: to work toward the day every child in America enters kindergarten prepared to succeed. 

Find out more information here:


http://www.jstart.org/campaigns/read-for-the-record

Hope you enjoy the book!

Book It! Reading Begins!

Pizza Hut's Book It! Reading Program Starts Today! Students can pick up their monthly calender in the LMC. We are setting a goal for students to read 200 minutes in the month of October. At the end of the month, students may bring their book log back signed, to receive their Pizza Hut Coupon! We can do it Wildcats!!!!

Pizza Hut and Book It!

Starting October 1st, students will have the opportunity to make monthly reading goals for free pizza from Pizza Hut.  The Book It! Program runs from October-March. Students can earn a coupon each month for meeting monthly reading goals that will be set for them!

Check it out here!

http://www.bookitprogram.com/ourstory/ourprogram.asp

Love to Read

Scholastic is a wonderful resource that offers things to parents and teachers when it comes to reading. Scholastic's latest mission is to start a campaign to foster a love of reading!

Check it out here!:

http://www.scholastic.com/worldofpossible/?cid=PNL/e/20140910///Newsletter/conversationOWP/sle//Elementary/1541639/&ym_MID=1541639&ym_rid=1861718

Measure of Academic Progress (MAP)

This week our Randall Wildcats start taking the NWEA Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) Assessment. The MAP Assessment is designed for us to get an idea of exactly where a student is performing, and what some areas of weaknesses are to improve!


Here are some tips for your students to be successful! It is from How to Help Your Child Prepare for Tests," by Alan Edwards in Tips to Parents, published by Livonia Public Schools, Livonia , Mich.

The Four R's: Parents' Tool for Test Taking

Adapted from "How to Help Your Child Prepare for Tests," by Alan Edwards in Tips to Parents, published by Livonia Public Schools, Livonia , Mich.

From their earliest days in school, kids quickly discover that test taking is part of the educational landscape, whether it's a weekly quiz, a reading proficiency test or a major national or state exam. A few kids are "naturals" at testing and sail through most situations without much stress. For many children, test taking - especially the national and state standardized tests - is a time of high frustration and anxiety. Here are 4 "R's" to help your child feel confident about tests throughout their school years.

Receptive

Attitude is everything. Help your student have a receptive attitude toward school in general and test taking in particular by emphasizing that it's just one part of the learning experience. Remind them that a test is simply a measuring stick to see "how much they have learned - not how much they have not learned."

Relaxed

Don't let your child get hung up about how hard a certain test might be, the negative consequences of doing poorly or other fears. Reduce the anxiety level by reminding your child about the satisfaction of trying their best when preparing for and taking tests. Make sure that your child knows that you think that he/she will do well on the test and let them know that your approval of him/her as a person is not dependent on their score. Remember that anxiety can block the best-prepared student from doing well on a test.

Ready

Become knowledgeable about the tests your child takes. Tests assess a child's knowledge at a particular point in time. Be sure that your child has completed the day-by-day schoolwork upon which tests are based. Be informed about the testing at each grade level and pay particular attention to those grades where the children take standardized state and national tests. For state and national tests find out how the school prepares the students and what help parents can provide. Ask your school for parent information packets on these tests, or find out if the PTA would organize a program on this subject and even let parents try taking a sample test.

Rested

Whenever a test will be given, make sure that your child gets plenty of sleep the night before the test; has a good breakfast - and - goes to school that day!

--Principle Communicator, January 2002, published by the National School Public Relations Association, 15948 Derwoord Rd., Rockville, MD, 20855

First Week of School

I am excited to start a new chapter in my life as the Reading Specialist at Randall Consolidated School.  I am excited to use my knowledge of RTI to help plan appropriate and effective interventions for students. Stay tuned for new and exciting things!!!!!!

Summer is Here

I cannot believe we are at the end of another school year here at Jefferson! Jefferson is a great place to be with many great students and a wonderful staff! I will miss each student dearly that I have worked with this year, however I ask ONE favor of all the Jefferson Bears.........

That is to READ, READ, READ, and READ over the summer! It is so important to keep practicing strategies and skills that you have worked on all year and keep your reading level when you come back to school in the fall!

And Don't forget to log your minutes for the Scholastic Reading Challenge!!!!!!!



Have a great summer Jefferson Bears!!!

Love,

Mrs. H

Summer Reading Challenge

The Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge is ON!!!!!

Students can log their reading minutes on the free app (Scholastic Reading Timer) or on the internet at www.scholastic.com/summer.




Jefferson Bears can be #1!!

The Summer Reading Challenge runs from May 5th-September 5th.
If Jefferson School is number one, we receive a visit from a popular children's book author, and will be featured in the Scholastic Book of World Records!!
This years them is Under the Stars.

Also, the top 3 students in each grade who log the most minutes over the Challenge will win prizes!!!!!



Keep those brains active and keep on reading!!!!!

Box Tops

April was an exciting month at Jefferson School!

Most people are familiar with General Mills and there Box Top program that raises money for individual schools or districts.
General Mills also offers a Sweepstakes that you can enter to get extra funds for the school. Most of the time, at least for me, I am so unlucky that I never win drawings, or sweepstakes. A 4K student at our school entered the sweepstakes for General Mills and we won an additional 150,000 box tops for our school. Each box top is worth 10 cents, so our school got an additional $15,000!

That money will be going to a new playground for our students!

We are so excited!!!!

I would like to congratulate a few students who have been released from Title One Services and are ready to go back to the classroom and independently use their strategies in guided reading.

Congratulations to:

Yuvia S.
Ja'Kora D.
Matthew W
Camren M



Awesome Job! Keep up the good work!

Spot-N-Dot

There is a strategy you can use to help readers decode longer, multisyllabic words. It is called spot and dot.
Here is some information on how to use the strategy from http://littlelearnersinc.blogspot.com/2011/04/reading-strategy-spot-and-dot.html


We can use Spot and Dot to decode longer words. To Spot and Dot, we find the vowels and put a dot over each vowel or each group of vowels. Since every syllable has a a vowel, we look for the syllables around the vowels.

*If the syllable ends with a vowel, usually the vowel says its long sound.
*If the syllable ends with a consonant, we know the vowel makes its short vowel sound.
*If the vowel ends with a consonant, we know the vowel makes its short vowel sound.
*We also know, "When two vowels go walking, the first vowel does the talking."

Writing it out would look something like this:

I would like to congratulate a few students for being released from Title One Services! They have worked so hard on their reading skills and are ready to independently use them in the classroom!

Congrats to:
Ortheis H.
Lukas R.
Caden R.L.
Scott B.



Keep up the good work!

Common Core Learning Targets

The students come to reading everyday with a learning target in mind. This is for them to apply strategies to become a better reader. Recently, I redesigned my bulletin board with specific learning targets that are based off the Common Core State Standards. All these targets are kid friendly, use kid friendly language, and are a little easier for the students to explain. (Sometimes the state standards get a little wordy for the student to understand). Take a look at some of the learning targets for the 1st graders!!!

Word Study

Something beneficial for children to do is study the nature of the English language. We have so many words that come from different origins and roots, but many words have also changed over time. Reading may come easier for students if they use etymology to understand the origins of words.

Etymology is the study of the origin of words and the way in which their meanings have changed throughout history.

Something fun you can do at home is go to the online etymology dictionary and look up the origins of words.

http://www.etymonline.com/

What a way for students to study root words, and look at prefixes and suffixes!

For example: You can type in the word instruction, the dictionary pulls up this definition:

instruction (n.) 

c.1400, instruccioun, "action or process of teaching," from Old French instruccion (14c.), from Latin instructionem (nominative instructio) "building, arrangement, teaching," from past participle stem of instruere"arrange, inform, teach," from in- "on" (see in- (2)) + struere "to pile, build" (see structure (n.)). Meaning "an authoritative direction telling someone what to do; a document giving such directions," is early 15c. Related: Instructions.

Grammar

Often students get confused when we tell students to "sound the word out." Often words are set up in complex ways that we are unable to just go sound by sound to get the pronunciation.

The following website offers some helpful hints with grammar to remember if the letter see should sound like /K/; like in the word /cat/ or if it should sound like /s/; like in the word /city/.

http://speakspeak.com/resources/pronunciation/when-to-pronounce-the-letter-c-as-s-or-k

When to pronounce the letter ‘c’ as /s/ or /k/

In English the letter ‘c’ is mostly pronounced as a /k/ sound.

We can also pronounce it as an /s/ sound.

Listen to the difference:

/k/ car	car
/s/ city	city

The rule

• When ’c‘ comes directly before the letters ‘e‘, ‘i‘ or ‘y‘ we use the /s/ sound
• in other cases we use a /k/ sound.

Words containing the letter ‘c’ pronounced as /k/

word	pronunciation	why?
car	car	because it is not followed directly by ‘e’, ‘i’ or ‘y’
cut	cut	because it is not followed directly by ‘e’, ‘i’ or ‘y’
cool	cool	because it is not followed directly by ‘e’, ‘i’ or ‘y’
curtain	curtain	because it is not followed directly by ‘e’, ‘i’ or ‘y’
carpet	carpet	because it is not followed directly by ‘e’, ‘i’ or ‘y’
confuse	confuse	because it is not followed directly by ‘e’, ‘i’ or ‘y’
caught	caught	because it is not followed directly by ‘e’, ‘i’ or ‘y’

Words containing the ‘c’ pronounced as /s/

word	pronunciation	why?
city	city	because it comes directly before ‘i’
cent	cent	because it comes directly before ‘e’
dancing	dancing	because it comes directly before ‘i’
ice	ice	because it comes directly before ‘e’
certain	certain	because it comes before directly ’e’
face	face	because it comes directly before ‘e’
receive	receive	because it comes directly before ‘e’

Exceptions

One notable exception is the word soccer (we pronounce the first and second ‘c’ as a /k/ sound: /sokə/).

Another exception is muscle /mʌsəl/.

New Students

All the Jefferson Bears have been working hard on advancing to higher reading levels. Students have set goals for their reading level at this time of year according to the Fountas & Pinnell Reading Level Expectations. We would like to see students at these levels by the beginning of February.
1st grade- Level H
2nd grade- Level L
3rd Grade- Level O



I have a few new students I'd like to welcome also!
1st grade
Jakora D.


2nd grade
Ayla S.
Crystal R.

Keep up the great work Jefferson Bears!