Week of 10/31

Dear Parents,

We hope you had a happy & safe Halloween, and thank you to all who were involved in our wonderful party on Friday.  The kids all had a great time, and it sent them off on a fun Halloween weekend.

Thank you again to the many volunteers who offered to help with our yearbook page.  We are all covered there now, too!  And we have several parents cutting away on the various costume pieces for our Thanksgiving Feast.  When they have had enough cutting, we will pass the shirts/aprons/collars onto another group of parents.  Thanks again for all the help.

So that you can plan ahead, we have two big events (back-to-back!) in November.  On Monday the 22nd, we have our Thanksgiving Feast.  If you can take some time off work to join us, this is a pretty fun and special event.  We ask each family to send in a dish for the event-- either a traditional Thanksgiving dish or a dish from your family's cultural background.  We always enjoy the wonderful mix of foods that we get.  Both morning kindergartens come together for this event.  The children from our class will be dressed as Pilgrims, and the children in Mrs. Arrieta's class will be dressed as Native Americans.  No need to provide any costumes-- this is what parents are preparing for us right now out of pillow cases and sheets.  The event will be at 10:00 and is definitely a great photo-op!

The next day, Tuesday the 23rd, we have Grandparents' Day.  This is an event for grades K-2, so there is a general reception held in the cafeteria at 10:30.  So that we have time to introduce the grandparents beforehand (and in case they need to go to other classrooms) we will invite the grandparents into our room at 10:00.  The kids can briefly introduce their grandparents and tell whose parents they are (mom's, dad's, or both sets) and then the grandparents will go to the reception during our recess time.  Then we will reconvene in K2 at 10:50 for a special art project.  We hope that all grandparents can join us, but if distance, etc., makes this impossible, the children can also invite another special adult to join in (uncle, aunt, special neighbor, even mom or dad).  Also, children are welcome to bring in pictures of grandparents who are too far away to make the trip.   

Our letter this week is Bb, and our Alphafriend is Benny Bear. Our sight words this week will be like. In math, we are introducing a new unit on Comparing Numbers: 0-10. Again we will be comparing numbers to identify which numbers are more than each other, less than each other, and equal. We will also be ordering numbers.

We have begun doing a lot of blending exercises during our opening.  This is an important pre-reading skill.  We say words with the beginning sound separated, for example, b-ath for bath or f-o-x for fox.  We ask the children to guess what the word is if they put it back together.  This is a great game to play in the car, etc., and really helps them start to learn how to blend isolated sounds into words.

Our sharing this week is Letter of the Week sharing.  Please have your child bring in something that starts with Bb, in a bag, with three clues about it.

We will be doing some Fall art projects this week-- Indian corn, squirrels, acorns and cornucopias are all in the plans!

We are looking forward to meeting with each of you beginning next Monday the 8th, for your child's conference. Conferences will be held in the library since the p.m. class will be in session during most conference times.  The library/Media Center is located in the building directly behind the kindergarten building.   Often, we are in the library office, which is behind the check-out desk.  If you are unsure of your conference time, please e-mail us.  Thanks!

Finally, please send in the Red Bags tomorrow with your child's "I Love to Read" calendar inside.  Remember that if you've misplaced the official calendar, you can always e-mail an approximation of your child's total reading minutes for the month to Manami or Margaret.

This Week's Activities/Helpers:
MONDAY: Centers (Megan & Kristi), Sharing, Library, Red Bags Due w/ I Love to Read Calendars
TUESDAY: Centers (Jamie & Wendy), Sharing
WEDNESDAY: Red Bags & Wednesday Envelopes prepped (Karla/Angie/Derek), Computers (Margaret), Sharing, Red Bags go home
THURSDAY: Centers (Tammi & Matt/Lorraine), Sharing
FRIDAY: Sharing, SPARK P.E. (Tim, Margaret, Megan)

UPCOMING EVENTS:
Monday, 11/8: Parent-Teacher Conferences begin
Thursday, 11/11: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday, 11/12: No School: Staff Development Day
Monday, 11/22: Thanksgiving Friendship Feast
Tuesday, 11/23: Grandparent's Day, grades K-2
Wednesday, 11/24-Friday, 11/26: Thanksgiving Break
Friday, 12/17: 10:00 am Nutcracker Performance (don't miss this annual kindergarten favorite!)
Monday, 12/20-Friday, 12/31: Winter Break