Week of 9/7

Dear Parents,

We've made it to an exciting week in kindergarten, where we start centers and homework!

Just a reminder that homework goes home in the Blue Bag on Wednesday and is due back on Monday.    The Blue Bag will have a book inside that we'd like you to read a few times.  There is also a homework folder.  On the right side of the folder is the homework pages for the week.  On the left side of the folder are two laminated reference sheets, that stay in the folder all year.  One sheet explains the Blue Bag program, and has a letter formation guide from Handwriting without Tears on the back.  The other sheet has discussion question ideas for when you finish reading the book with your child.  Please keep in mind that the book in the blue bag is not a book that we expect your kindergartner to read alone.  These are to be read to your children.  Also, the books in the program are of different genres and themes.  The idea is to expose your children to different types of literature.  If the book is really not a favorite of your child's, just read it once and move onto other books that your child prefers.  Please try to keep the blue bags in a place where the dog won't eat it, food won't be spilled on it, etc.  We'd like to keep them nice for the future years of kindergartners!

In language arts, we continue our overview of the alphabet and our readings of familiar tales and fables. In the past few weeks, we've covered The Gingerbread Man, The Three Pigs, The Three Bears, Chicken Little, The Three Billy Goats Gruff,  The Tortoise and The Hare, The Lion and the Mouse, and Jack and the Beanstalk, among others. The children have had fun listening to retellings of these favorite stories.

In math, we will continue with the topic: Numbers 1-5. We will be looking at the value of these numbers, as well as how to write them correctly. Math is one of the subjects we cover in centers, so though the paperwork is the same, the hand-on activities may be different, depending on the ability of the group.

In science, we will begin our unit on Trees & Leaves. This is a fun hand-on science unit through our FOSS science program. We will be looking at trees and learning some names of different types of trees. We will be learning about deciduous trees vs. evergreens.   We enjoyed many activities with last week's science unit on the Five Senses.  The children tasted sour, sweet, salty, and bitter foods and they felt items in a "mystery box."  They also smelled some mystery smells in canisters and tried to guess what they were.  We had a great time!

Our art this week is centered around apples. We have a few fun apple art projects, and we'll be using paint!   Parent helpers and students beware-- don't wear clothes that you are overly concerned about keeping neat this week. :)

Parents of p.m. kindergartners-- at Back-to-School Night, I mentioned that there may be a few additional Wacky Wednesdays.  There will not be.  Miss Miller has hired substitutes for those few dates so that your kindergartner's schedule will stay as planned, and Miss Mangione & I can attend the trainings.  Thank you for your patience while we worked that out.

Upcoming Events:
9/12: No School: Staff Development Day
9/19:  Alta Vista Movie Night
9/24:  September's Wacky Wednesday
10/25:  Alta Vista Walkathon