Week of 4/15

I hope you are all enjoying a nice week off with your children.  As I mentioned a few weeks ago, we are now into the "final stretch" of kindergarten, and the time will fly by very quickly! I am looking forward to some great fun and learning in the weeks ahead.

Language Arts
This week, we will be looking at the ay ending. We will be looking at words like say, may, and day. We also have two new sight words, his and run. As I mentioned to many of you during conferences, after your child has mastered the kindergarten sight words, start working on the 1st grade 100 word list, that can be found here.

Our stories this week will be farm-themed, as well as our writing activities and projects. We will be learning and reading about life on a farm and different farm animals as we prepare for our trip to Emma Prusch Farm on the 24th.

Homework this week will include a special project called the Baby Guessing Book. Your child will complete a page that describes him/herself. A baby photo will be attached to the page, and then we circulate the book and try and guess who each baby is. This is always one of our most popular books, so start looking for a special baby picture that you can attach to your child's page!

Math
We are in our final week of Module 4. At this point, both addition and subtraction skills should be quite fluent for your child. We will be moving onto Module 5, Numbers 10-20, Count to 100 by 10s and 1s. We have covered the counting piece of this next module already, so we will be focusing on numbers 10-20.

Special Project
For the next few weeks, we will be working on a special art project that is an annual favorite in kindergarten-- life-sized paper dolls. Students will be traced and then paint their posters on Friday, May 3rd. I already have two helpers for this day (Gunnar & Mary), but I could definitely use 2-3 more helpers. We will be painting the posters in the cafeteria all at once at 1:30. Please email me or go to the Sign-Up Genius if you can help with this!

Upcoming Event
We have our field trip on April 24th to Emma Prusch Farm coming right up.  Permission slips for this trip will be in this week's Wednesday envelope, and they will need a quick turn-around. We are so excited for this trip as it is always a hit.  Thank you to Brandie, Mary, Erika, Hiromi, Virginia, and Claire for volunteering to chaperone this trip. We will leave right after school starts, so please don't be late on this day!

I will look forward to seeing the children Monday and hearing all about their adventures over the past week!

This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Daily 5, Centers (Mary & Jenny)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Barb & Claire)
Wednesday: Recess 101, Blue Bags go home with Baby Guessing book page
Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Jennifer R. & Brandie)
Friday: Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Erika/Pablo & Claire)

Upcoming Events:

4/8-4/12: Spring Break
Wednesday, 4/24: Field Trip to Prusch Farm
Friday, 5/3: Kindergarten Movie Night for Auction Winners
Wednesday, 5/8: Parent Volunteer Reception
Friday 5/10: Mother's Day Celebration
Friday 5/10: Alta Vista Fantasy Faire 5:00-8:30pm
Wednesday, 5/15: Art Vista Art Show
Wednesday, 5/22: Open House
Monday, 5/27: Memorial Day Holiday
Friday 5/31: Alta Vista Variety Show
Wednesday, 6/5: School-wide Olympic Day
Thursday, 6/6: Kindergarten Promotion Ceremony-- please attend (parents only)
Friday, 6/7: Last Day of School