Week of 1/08

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 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 amazing! We had a great cast party afterward, thanks especially to Tanya 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 wanted to let you know that I did spend the gift card over the break, and I ended up buying a much-needed new ski jacket. Thank you so much! I am looking forward to a fun & productive 2018 with all of you.

I will be doing something new to schedule parent help in 2018. Please look for an email with a link to "Sign-Up Genius." By using Sign-Up Genius, parents can go in and choose dates that will work with their schedule. I'm hoping this will give everyone who would like to help a chance to get into the classroom!

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 with "slime,", paint, stamp, and string beads. Thank you to Camille, Lauren, and Celeste for helping the children at all the exciting centers.

Language Arts:
This week, we will focus on the story Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson. We will also read some non-fiction texts about bears. We will put together a fact book of our own with information we've learned about bears. Our sight word this week is with. 

Math:
We are beginning Module 3, Comparison of Weight, Length, Capacity, and Numbers to 10. Parent tips for this module can be found here.

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 glue sticks.  If you can donate any glue sticks, 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 Monday!

This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Smart Start Day (Camille, Lauren, Celeste)
Tuesday: Centers (Josie & Celeste)
Wednesday: Recess 101, Blue Bags w/ Journals go home

Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Tanya & Surbhi)
Friday: Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Mary & Daniela)

Upcoming Events:

Monday 1/8: District-wide "Smart Start Day"
Monday 1/15: Martin Luther King Day, No School
Tuesday 1/23: Incoming Kindergarten Orientation (tell your friends!)
Friday 1/26: Snow Day
Tuesday 1/2: 100 Day
2/19-2/23: President's Week Vacation