Week of 1/27

We have a big week this week with both 100 Day and Snow Day! Please see details below for these events. Also, I have sent out my sign-ups for Spring conferences. Please check out the schedule and sign up for a time if you haven't already done so. Please email me with your preferred time if you are having any trouble signing up.

Language Arts:
We will introduce the digraphs ch and wh this week. Our sight word is said.

As stated in Friday's email, a big emphasis right now is using our knowledge of letter sounds, digraphs, word families, and sight words to write simple sentences. Children need to be able to put together a readable sentence on their own by the end of kindergarten. I posted a picture of your child's latest writing response in SeeSaw, where they were writing one fact they had learned about Chinese New Year from books we had read in class. I gave them the prompt, "I learned that______" which they copied from the screen. The rest of the writing they did on their own by spelling phonetically and using sight words to share what they learned. Check out SeeSaw to see how your child is progressing. Encourage your children to write and spell phonetically as often as possible to build their abilities as independent writers. Try to resist the temptation to spell words for them if they ask, rather, encourage them to "stretch the word out" and put down all the sounds they hear themselves. They can write notes to you, grocery lists, cards for family members, etc.
 
We will continue reading and writing with a snow theme. We will read Elmer in the Snow by David McKee this week and do a fun art project. We will also read many 100 Day-themed books.

Math:
We are beginning Module 5 this week: Numbers 10-20; Count to 100 by 1s and 10s. We will be breaking teen numbers into "a ten and some ones," continuing to use number bonds and ten frames to model teen numbers as a ten and some ones, and continuing to reinforce counting to 100 by 10s and 1s, which we've been doing on a daily basis during calendar time. Parent tips for this module can be found here.

UPCOMING
100 Day:
100 Day will be on Tuesday, and the students are very excited about it! Because another main focus of kindergarten math is number sense, number recognition, and counting, we count out the number of days we've been in school as part of our calendar activities each day. During this time, we study place value and number recognition to 100. We study patterns on the 1-100 number chart and do mental math using the chart. On the 100th day, we have a fun celebration and look at the value of 100 in different ways. We have been looking forward to filling our 1-100 chart for quite a while now, so Tuesday will be a special day, with special centers celebrating the number 100!

Snow Day:
Snow Day will be on Friday. This is a day when the children come to school all dressed in their snow gear-- whatever items you have. Mittens, knit hats, jackets, snow boots, scarves, goggles, etc. are all welcome! Please do not buy anything special for this day, just use what you have or borrow from a friend. They wear their gear, and then we will be having a "snowball fight" among all our K classes using wadded up recycled paper just after our 10:00 recess. Following the fight, we will enjoy some hot cocoa. Children should bring a separate bag for their snow gear for taking on and off, as it gets too warm wearing some of those items all day. They also tend to get lost if we don't have a place to put them. If they fit in your child's backpack, that is fine too. Our STEAM centers that day will all be snow-themed. It is always lots of fun.

Valentine's Day:
On Friday, February 14th, we will be celebrating Valentine's Day in class. We do not have a party, we just pass out valentine cards. Just to give you some advanced notice (since I know your children will be eagerly shopping for/making Valentines soon!) in kindergarten, we have the kids sign their valentines, but we do not have them write who the valentine is "to." This makes distribution MUCH easier. So please sign the cards, but leave the "to" box blank. I prefer valentines without candy attached because it gets to be a bit much when everyone has candy. There are cute valentines that have mazes and stickers-- please consider those instead. Please send in 19 valentines so that there are enough for each child in the class. Thanks!

This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Return Blue Bags, Daily 5, Centers (Tiffany & Patty)
Tuesday: 100 Day!, Daily 5, Centers (Claire & Daniel)
Wednesday: Trip to Makerspace, P.E, Music, Blue Bags go home

Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Naomi & Gomathi)
Friday: Snow Day!, Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Lisa & Hema)

Upcoming Events:

1/28-2/01: Frozen Play presented by AV Drama ClubFriday 1/31: Snow Day
Tuesday 2/04: STEAM Night @ 6:00
Wednesday 2/05: Global Play Day
Friday 2/14: Valentine's Day Family Dance
2/17-2/21: President's Week Vacation
3/5-3/13: Parent-Teacher Conferences
Monday 3/16: Professional Development Day: No School