We had a great 2nd week of school & now have eight school days under our belts! The children are doing well with learning the routines and following the rules of kindergarten.
I am working on the parent helper schedule, and hope to have my first draft to you this weekend. I did want to remind you that if you signed up to help with a school wide enrichment program (Art Vistas, Clay, Cornerstone, Room Parent, etc.) that you need to make sure to sign up and indicate that on MSA (MySchoolAnywhere). Those programs all have informational meetings to get you started, and if you only signed up with me in the classroom, you won't receive information about those meetings. To sign up for MSA for the first time, click here: https://www.myschoolanywhere.com/new-family.a5w?fam=AltaVistaElem19550
If you already have an account and just need to sign up to volunteer, click here: https://www.myschoolanywhere.com/volunteer-new.a5w?vol=AltaVistaElem19550
Thank you in advance for signing up! I believe I have all enrichment activities covered!
Language Arts
In language arts this year, we will be introducing two letters per week, wrapping up our isolated letter & sound study by November. This week, we will be covering letters Cc & Dd. We will also continue reading familiar fairy tales and nursery rhymes. Additionally, we will introduce our first sight word, I.
This week, we will begin introducing more activities in our "Daily 5" reading program. All the kindergarten teachers attended a week-long training this summer in this program, and we are excited to begin implementing it. You can read a little summary of it here. Last week, we began working on "read to self." This week, we will introduce some word work.
Math
In math, we will continue studying numbers to 5. We will have some hands-on activities in class as well as several educational YouTubes. More information on this math module can be found here.
Music & Movement
We also will be using a lot of music in the classroom for learning. I have already had them up and dancing to our "Alphabet Action" tune, and this week, we will be learning how to spell color words through singing some catchy tunes. We are introducing a new song each week. This week it will be the "red" song. I also play the violin and break that out from time to time, mostly to play "Happy Birthday" for birthday celebrations. :)
Additionally, Union School District subscribes to a great educational movement online site called "Go Noodle." We have already used Go Noodle quite a bit for our classroom brain breaks. Educational research has shown that when we take brain breaks, it refreshes our thinking and helps us discover another solution to the problem, or see a situation through a different lens. In K2, we love getting the children up and moving through music and other brain breaks.
We have this Friday the 1st off school, as well as Monday the 4th. For other important dates specific to kindergarten, please check the class calendar on my website by clicking here. I have added the dates of many of our big events in there for your future planning!
Upcoming Events:
Friday 9/1: Staff Development Day
Monday 9/4: Labor Day Holiday
Friday 9/15: Alta Vista Movie Night
Saturday 10/21: Alta Vista Walkathon
Wednesday 10/25: Field trip to Spina Farms Pumpkin Patch
Tuesday 10/31: Halloween Parade & Party
