Title I Newsletter
March 2016
3-1-16
Dear Title I Parents and Guardians,
We hope you ready for spring! March is already upon us, and there are many
important dates to know for the month of March:
-March 2: Pre K Night 6:30-7:30 at SL/AC (for families with children who will be
attending Kindergarten next year).
-March 2-March 4: Dr. Seuss/Read Across America Week
-March 7: Parent/Teacher Conferences (No School)
-March 11: Kindergarten Registration (for 2016-2017 school year)
-March 13: Daylight Savings Time
March 17: Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
March 24-28: Spring Break/No School!
During Title I Reading, we have been busy working on many skills with our students. At
each grade level, we have some new students in many of our small groups and would
like to welcome those parents/guardians to the Title I program! Please take a look at
the table on the back of this newsletter to see the specific skills/strategies students are
focusing on during Title I Reading at each grade level. Please don’t forget to continue
to check out our teacher pages on the district website (www.hannasd.org) under
“Schools  Sara Lindemuth/Anna Carter Primary  Teacher Pages” and selecting the
teacher’s name (Cara Klinger, Jennifer Mariano, or Brittany Foor).
Thank you,
Title I Reading Specialists
Mrs. Cara Klinger
Mrs. Jennifer Mariano
Mrs. Brittany (Foor) Pendelton
What have we been working on during Title I Reading?
Kindergarten
First Grade
Second
Grade
Kindergarten has been working on identifying and securing the names of all capital and
lowercase letters, attaching sounds to the letters, building strong phonological awareness
skills by recognizing/producing/categorizing/manipulating the SOUNDS of our spoken
language (rhyming, syllables, initial sounds, etc.), and focusing on basic print concepts
(difference between a sentence, word, and letter; uppercase v. lowercase letters,
punctuation marks, reading left-to-right and top-to-bottom, etc.).
First grade has been working on producing and recognizing the correct sounds for the
letters of the alphabet, blending letter-sounds to read words with simple short-vowel
patterns, building strong phonological awareness skills, focusing on concepts about print,
and reading books at a slightly higher level (where there is a slight change in the
repetition pattern of the book). During reading, the First Graders have been focusing on
pointing under the words when reading (1:1 matching), looking for familiar parts of words
to figure them out (using “visual” strategies), self-monitoring using what “looks right, sounds
right, and makes sense,” and discussing what happened in the book (before, during, and
after reading).
Second Graders have been focusing on reading with fluency by making their oral reading
sound smooth, by reading in long, meaningful phrases, and reading with expression. We
are continuing to work on self-monitoring strategies, which is making sure everything
“looks right, sounds right, and makes sense” during reading. We are also working on using
higher level comprehension strategies that go beyond the words in the text (the “why”
and “how” behind the author’s words) and using features of text to help us to better
understand what we’re reading (especially important with Nonfiction text). During both
classroom interventions and Title I instruction, the students have been focusing on the
various syllable patterns which will help them recognize and correctly read the different
vowel sounds in longer words (words with multiple syllables).
Sight Words are commonly used words and are often (not always) difficult to break
apart or “sound out” because they do NOT follow the many “rules” of our language
(meaning they are NOT spelled how they sound). Therefore, learning to accurately
and automatically recognize, read, and spell sight words is a strategy that improves
oral reading fluency and writing skills. When students can easily identify and read
sight words in context, it saves them more “room” in their brain to focus on breaking
apart the more difficult words to “sound them out” and read them, as well as more
“brain power” to monitor their understanding (comprehension) of what they are
reading.
Create a blank Tic-Tac-Toe template and fill in each “space” with a sight word (see
the attached list for words) and have students take turns playing Tic-Tac-Toe with you
(with one exception). . Students have to correctly read the sight word BEFORE
marking an X or O over their space!
One simple and fun way to teach spelling with sight words is to play Sparkle (it also
works well with spelling words or vocabulary terms). Have children stand up to play.
How to Play: Give/show your child a sight word. Hold it up for several seconds and
have your child study the word card to “burn the image of the word in their brains.”
Next, hide the sight word.
After that, each player must take turns to spell the sight word aloud (ONE letter at a
time).
After the LAST letter of the sight word is named, the next player says the whole word
aloud on their turn, and it goes to the player who then says “sparkle” and continues
to the next player who snaps their fingers (or claps their hands once). CONTINUE 
The next player to take a turn unfortunately has to have a seat and is now ”out” of
the game! The game will continue on with a sight words until a final person remains
standing and he/she is the winner of Sparkle.
Only 2 players: If only you and your child (2 players) are playing SPARKLE, you could
easily adapt the game by simply taking turns spelling a Sight Word back & forth until
one of you says, “SPARKLE” and the other has to take a seat. Keep a tally record of
how many rounds each of you win.
Incorrect: If a player names an incorrect letter or can’t remember what letter the
player before him/her named, that player has to sit down (they’re OUT). This is a
game of spelling strategies, focus, and pure luck!
Teacher/Parent: The word is “like” (shows the word).
Player 1: L
Player 2: i
Player 3: k
Player 4: e
Player 5: like
Player 6: Sparkle
Player 7 (Teacher/Parent): snaps fingers once or claps hands one time.
Player 1: sits down.
Player 2: starts the NEW word after teacher/parent says and shows it.