Week of 1/3

Dear Parents,

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful vacation & are rested and ready to get back into the swing of things!

First of all, I wanted to thank everyone for all the help I received with the Nutcracker performance. From making the paper costume pieces, applying the make-up and helping children get dressed, to photographers-- every job was covered! The kids did a wonderful job and they all looked so cute! We had a great cast party afterward, thanks especially to Susan for coordinating and to those who donated cookies.  Finally, a huge thanks again to everyone for their generosity and thoughtfulness with the wonderful gifts I received.  I am looking forward to a fun & productive 2017 with all of you.

I will be finishing up the 2017 helper schedule tomorrow, so please check back during the week to see the updated schedule.

Smart Start:
We are excited to start the year off with a fun day of hands-on learning. Children will get to experiment and play at a rice table, create with play-dough, play some fun games, paint, stamp, and even do some coding. Thank you to Asma, Anne-Marie, and Minna for helping the children at all the exciting centers.

Language Arts:
This week, we will focus on the "it" and "in" endings. We will spell and read words like sit, fit, fin, tin, pin, etc. Our sight word this week is with. 

Our sharing this week is toy in a bag to give the children a chance to show off all those favorite holiday gifts!

Math:
We are beginning Module 4, covering Number Pairs, Addition & Subtraction to 10. Parent tips for this module can be found here.

Science:
We will be studying weather in the next couple of weeks. We will be learning about different weather conditions and seasons, and learning how to become accurate weather reporters. We have some fun activities surrounding the weather, especially snowy weather!

Upcoming:
Now that we are coming up on our half-year mark, we do need to refresh a few of our supplies.  Especially needed are tissues and Clorox wipes.  If you can donate either, we'd appreciate it.

Blue bags will go home on Wednesday, of course. Remember that from now on, the blue bags will contain a "book report" component. Very specific directions about our expectations with the book report will be in your child's homework folder this week. Please leave the directions there for your continued reference. Basically, your child will use the journal page in the homework packet to respond to the book that's in the blue bag. Children need to write at least one sentence about the book-- what they liked/didn't like, who their favorite character was, etc. If it is a non-fiction book, they will be writing a fact they learned. We DO NOT want children to copy a sentence from the book or copy a sentence that you have written for them. This is their chance for developing writing skills, which will help their confidence when we take our first writing assessment in February. A sentence written: "I like the fune got" for "I like the funny goat." is great and is what is expected from them at this time. If you would like to go over spelling with them once they are done, you can pencil it in underneath their words and show them what the conventional spelling looks like. However, do not make them correct their writing at this time. We want to encourage them in their thinking before we start focusing on the mechanics.

Enjoy your final day of vacation, and I look forward to seeing your children on Tuesday!

This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: No School: New Year's Observation
Tuesday: Smart Start Day (Anne-Marie, Asma, Minna), Sharing
Wednesday: Sharing, Blue Bags w/ Journals go home

Thursday: Weds. envelopes returned, Centers (Susan & Alison), Sharing
Friday: STEAM Centers (Barry), Sharing

Upcoming Events:

Tuesday 1/3: District-wide "Smart Start Day"
Friday 1/13: Staff Development Day, No School
Monday 1/16: Martin Luther King Day, No School
Tuesday 1/17: Incoming Kindergarten Orientation (tell your friends!)
Friday 1/20: Snow Day
Friday 1/27: Lunar New Year Celebration
Thursday 2/2: 100 Day
2/20-2/24: President's Week Vacation