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Welcome to Miss Butler's Room
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This is the week of fancy Valentines. The children are all excited by Valentines mailboxes and little cards to mail. The idea of eating ice cream at the party is pretty exciting also.
This week we start working on long vowels. Here are some tips for those of you who have been out of first grade for a long time. This way you will know some of the language we use to talk about the vowels.
First of all, long vowels are when the vowels "say their own names" in a word. For instance, a says "aaay" in the word same. I tell the children that the short vowels are the ones they learned in kindergarten. For instance a as in apple.
The first long vowel spellings we learn are two letter combinations. This week we work on "oa" as in boat and "ow" as in snow. Soon we will go on to "ee" as in seed and "ea" as in seat. There are others. These combinations are all spelled with two letters adjoining.
The next step will be learning long vowels spelled with a silent e at the end. This would be long o as in cone. In this case the letter o and the silent e are not adjoining so it is a little harder skill for some children. The language I use says that the e is "silent" and "it makes no sound at all" but it reaches over the letter beside it and pokes the vowel. This makes the vowel "say its own name". In the case of the letter u, sometimes it says its own name as "you" as in the words use or cute. Other times it sounds more like "ooo" as in tune or tube.
So there is our long vowel language. We will be working on all these skills over a period of a few months.
As always, feel free to contact me with questions or comments. Keep in mind that time sensitive issues, such as a change in dismissal plans for that day, should probably come in by "backpack express." I am not really able to check my e-mail while the children are in the room needing my attention.
Miss Butler
Miss Butler's Web Site
Scituate, Massachusetts
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