​As you know, learning to read is fundamental to your child's success in school and in life. But becoming a strong reader is challenging: it takes patience and perseverance- both by the parent and the young reader. And practicing reading sight words will help. Sight words are high-frequency words that are often difficult to sound out or illustrate so its important for emerging readers to master them "on sight". Being able to read these words automatically is the first step to reading fluently. It allows young readers to focus on more challenging words and understanding the text. 
Try these things as you read books together:

• Run your finger under the text as you read to help your child follow along. Then read the story again, but stop your finger on sight words we have been learning in class and help your child read those words aloud. 
• Have your child read the story to you. Don't jump in if he or she gets stuck. Help your child figure out the challenging word using the pictures and context clues from the rest of the sentence. Ask, "Does that make sense? Does that look right? Does it sound right?".
• Play 'I Spy Sight Words' while reading other books. Look for common words while reading other texts to your child and let them read those words aloud. 

Reading the same books over and over again will help young readers improve their skills and grow more confident as readers. Soon they will be on their way to not only reading more books, but loving to read!

​Young children are inherent measurers and this is reflected strongly in everyday language when they compare, order and match – I can swim right across the pool now; it’s too big for me to lift; it won’t fit in the box; my hand is bigger than your hand. Personal experiences, such as playing with toys, interactions with other children and conversations with parents all reinforce children’s early development of the concept of attributes that can be measured. Students need experiences that lead to an understanding of why measurement is necessary and helpful. They need to work with non-standard units and to create their own measuring instruments, and to discover for themselves the necessity of having standard units and the efficiency of having measuring instruments to count the units. Team Awesome has been exploring length through hands-on activities with these objectives in mind and will also play with the concepts of weight, area and capacity. What fun!

​As part of our health and nutrition unit, we learned about brushing our teeth as a way to take care of ourselves this past week. Of course, this is a subject that Team Awesome is familiar with and they had a lot to contribute on the subject. We read some books, learned about bacteria in our mouth and plaque and did two experiments to bring home how important brushing and flossing our teeth regularly really is. Oh- and we listened to this song a number of times, but beware, it gets stuck in your head and will pop up at the most inopportune times and you just can't help but sing the chorus out loud. Crawford The Cat gave us a few pointers and we learned how toothpaste and tooth brushes are made as well. We hope that seeing why brushing is so important will help lessen the nightly arguments over taking care of our teeth. 

​As of last week we are 100 days smarter! And boy were we busy learning so we can be 200 days smarter. We made crowns, we played games and puzzles, we tried to write 100 words and we are working on adding 100 fish to a giant fishbowl. We did 100 seconds at stations in the gym and played with 100 Lego pieces. We read 'Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten' and some other books about 100 and made plenty of connections. It was a great 100th day of Kindergarten!

Thanks to a sponsorship by New Gold, BEST was the recipient of a visit from the Earth Rangers team whose mission is to create a generation of conservationists. We participated in games, saw and learned about some live animals and learned how to become an Earth Ranger and make a difference. We hope many BEST students not only decide to become an Earth Ranger, but to change the world for the good of all creatures who inhabit the Earth. Become an Earth Ranger here.
From their website: Earth Rangers is the charity that transforms children’s concerns about the environment into positive action. When a child becomes an Earth Ranger, they become an animal saving hero, developing confidence that they can make a difference and optimism about the future. Through a variety of programs and content, we empower kids to become environmental leaders at home, in school and in their communities. From organizing shoreline clean-ups, to creating backyard animal habitats, to reducing food waste and energy consumption at home, our members are committed to leaving the world better than they found it – and having a whole lot of fun doing it.