Apologies in advance for the long post, but I know that many of you
are new parents to Alta Vista, and as I mentioned, I tend
to err on the side of over-communication ;)
We had a
great first week reading back-to-school themed books and alphabet books,
as well as "No David" books. We did a fun art project to go along with No David.
Next week, we will begin formally introducing the letters Aa and Bb. We
will also begin our first math topic on shapes.
In
the next few weeks, we
will be listening to familiar tales (Three Pigs, Jack & The
Beanstalk, Three Billy Goats Gruff, etc.) and nursery rhymes (Humpty
Dumpty, Little Miss Muffet, Twinkle Little Star, etc) and doing some
STEAM activities that go along with these stories & poems. Hearing
different
versions of familiar tales and rhymes is a fun way to get children
engaged in reading. Some families may own these traditional tales in
another language. If you do, these may be fun for your child to bring in
and share with the students.
During the past week, I
have observed that some of the students will need to work on
fine motor skills, including name-writing skills. One of our kindergarten standards is writing a name
with one capital letter and the rest lower-case. We will begin
practicing this in class this week by tracing our names in a Rainbow Book, but I
encourage you to reinforce this at home-- we try and drop the
all-capital letter name writing as quickly as possible. The faster
children can write their names correctly, the easier it is for them to
get going on assignments, as we encourage them to write their names
first. I appreciate your help with this.
To strengthen
fine motor skills, this week, we will start "Morning Tubs." These tubs
will be out for the first 10 minutes of class and will have fun hands-on
activities for strengthening hand-eye coordination and muscles. You
will want to be on time because the children won't want to miss their
turn at each tub!
Please continue to sign up to join the Home & School Club via the "Membership Toolkit" system. You can sign up by clicking here. This is how you will keep
informed with what is going on at the school, as well as have access to
contact info for other parents in the class to arrange playdates, etc.
Please try and sign up as soon as possible, if you haven't done so
already.
Additionally, some of you have asked for more
details about classroom help. You can use the "Membership Toolkit"
account to sign up to volunteer in our classroom for school-wide programs, as well as the Google
form I had in the classroom at both the orientation and Back-to-School
Night. The Google form can be found here. As we get closer to time to begin classroom centers, I will send out a Sign-Up Genius link to have you sign up for specific days that are good for you that month. Center time is a wonderful way to get involved in our classroom,
get to know the children, and stay apprised of what we are learning.
Even if you're only able to help once or twice, I highly recommend it!
Finally,
I ask that you please make every effort to support our kindergarten
activities by continuing to contribute to the Consolidated Classroom Payment (CCP)
online via the "Membership Toolkit" account. This money goes to support your own child's portion of
items like field trip entrance fees, bus fees, supplemental art supplies, parts of your
child's costume for the Nutcracker performance, etc. Instead of asking
you for money every time we have an event or special activity, we ask for this money up
front. We would not be able to provide many of these enrichment
opportunities without your support, so please make every effort to
donate to this fund, even if it is only a partial payment.
I am looking forward to another fun week with your children!
Upcoming Events
Friday, 8/30: No School: PD Day for Staff
Monday, 9/2: No School: Labor Day
Friday, 9/6: Picture Day
Friday, 9/6: Alta Vista Movie Night
Wednesday, 9/11: Blue Bag Program begins
Saturday, 10/19: Walkathon
