Leaves & Seeds
This week, we are doing a few art projects with things that fall from trees (leaves, seed pods, acorns, etc.). If you could please send in one bag of leaves & seeds with your child on Monday, that would be great. We don't have enough variety of leaves and seeds around campus, so we could really use your help with this-- thank you in advance!
Special Family Project
In this week's Wednesday envelope, we will be sending home a turkey for your child to "disguise." This project goes along with a book called Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano. In this book, the turkey does not want to become Thanksgiving dinner, so he disguises himself in many different costumes to avoid getting caught. Your children will receive their own turkey to disguise, along with directions for this project, in their envelope. Examples of this project can be found here, here and here, but please let your child lead this project with their ideas on how to disguise the turkey. We love seeing these projects year after year and look forward to this year's editions!
Please note: the projects are due back in the following week's envelope, which will be 11/14. We will be making this project into a class book to share with all the families, so encourage your children to take their time on the project and have fun with it!
Language Arts
This week, we will be continuing the labeling unit in our writing program. Children will be encouraged to draw pictures and add labels to them to help facilitate independent writing. As children develop as writers, we ask for your support in allowing them to sound out words on their own. If they spell a word phonetically and end up writing "morkr" for "marker," this is the first phase of learning to write and spell independently, and please encourage those attempts!
Our letters this week are Pp and Jj. These are both letters that drop down to the "worm line." To help your child with correct letter formation, please look at the Home Support letter. Our sight words this week are and and go.
Math
This week, we will wrap up Topic B in math, and then begin Topic C. In Topic C, prior experience with attributes paves the way for building, drawing, and composing shapes. To manipulate materials and successfully construct a shape, students draw from the mental images built in the first two topics. Experiences constructing and composing shapes provide students opportunities to observe how shapes look from multiple perspectives, how parts fit together to make a whole, and how shapes relate to one another.
At this point in Module 2, students should now recognize the 2D shapes: square, rectangle, circle, triangle, and hexagon and be able to discuss attributes of those shapes. They should also be able to name the 3D shapes: cube, cylinder, cone, sphere, and pyramid and discuss those shapes' attributes.
Art Vistas
We have our second Art Vista lesson coming up this Thursday. Thank you to Emily, Shelbie, Mallory & Kevin for presenting our art lessons this year.
Center & Library Help
There are still a few openings for center & library help! Check it out here.
**Library is every Wednesday. Please return your child's library book by Tuesday each week.
**School spirit days are every Wednesday. Wear your Alta Vista t-shirts or your Grasshopper t-shirts to show your school pride.
This Week's Helpers & Activities
Monday: Centers (Emily & Shelbie)
Tuesday: Centers (Awais & Barbara)
Wednesday: Library @ 9:10 (Emily & Shelbie), Turkey Project goes home, Dismissal @ 1:15
Thursday: Art Vista @ 12:15 (Emily, Shelbie, Kevin, Mallory)
Monday: Centers (Emily & Shelbie)
Tuesday: Centers (Awais & Barbara)
Wednesday: Library @ 9:10 (Emily & Shelbie), Turkey Project goes home, Dismissal @ 1:15
Thursday: Art Vista @ 12:15 (Emily, Shelbie, Kevin, Mallory)
Upcoming Events
Monday, 11/11: No School: Veteran's Day
11/14-11/22: Parent-Teacher Conferences
11/25-11/29: Thanksgiving Break
Thursday, 12/19 @ 9:15 am: Nutcracker Performance
12/23-1/5: Winter Break
