BOLTS Behavior

We do BOLTS behavior      

This means Murphy students will BE:    
Organized
Leaders
  Trustworthy 
 Successful

Our classroom needs to be a safe, trusting environment & I need you help to ensure that this happens.  Speak with your child about the importance of asking for help, following directions & listening to the teacher.  Many young children are so used to being told what to do that they don't know that they are allowed to ask.  I will do my best to help them learn that same lesson.

 The calendar might say Spring but that doesn't mean Mother Nature is paying attention.  Watch the weather report & send your student dressed for playing outside.  The students go outside each day unless it's raining.  Be sure to send your child in footwear designed for running/jumping/climbing~~the students do that & more!

Parent Links:  
As a parent, I am always on the lookout for articles that will help me parent better~~I always wonder what else I can do to help my children be successful, happy & productive.  
Here are a few links that I've found helpful. 

Connection based Discipline:  Helping your child "get it" when disciplining
Connection Based Discipline

Do you want to raise a reader?  This was a great article 
How to Get Kids to Read

**As we are moving through the school year, please keep in mind that students who are the most successful are those students who read with their parents on a daily basis.  
There are volumes of research that support this method for ensuring your child's success but I've found (yearly) that my highest performing students are those children whose parents simply sit down to read with them.  Keep reading, listening & discussing the topics that are interesting to your child.  It will help them far more than you know.  

http://reading-with-kids.com/

As parents, we all want to know how to "teach" our children to be their best. The following link is a short article about helping children learn "how to"....enjoy.

In Focus: Fluency

Reading fluency — a child's ability to read a text correctly, quickly, and with expression — is the all-important bridge between decoding words and understanding what has been read. Watch our PBS show,Fluent Reading, check out the teaching tips and strategies below, then browse our complete library of Fluency Resources. 

Speaking of home practice, not all children are in LOVE with writing. 

1. listen for letter sounds in each word (phonemes)
2. pick the right letter/letter combination that matches each sound (phonics)
3. remember what the letter(s) looks like (visualize)
4. form each letter correctly (handwriting)
5. remember the exact order in which the letters come to spell some words conventionally (spelling)
6. then remember what message they were trying to portray in the first place; so they can start the whole process all over again to spell the next word in his sentence {whew!}

No wonder it may take them ten minutes just to write three words!  

...and of course, we all want our children to be independent & self sufficient....
 
4 Steps to Raising Self Sufficient Kids


As always....Keep reading to (& with) your child~~It is the single most important thing you can do to help your student's success.  

  If you have not signed up for an electronic version of our newsletter, please contact me at  [email protected] and I will be happy to add you to my newsletter list.