Week of 12/12

Dear Parents,

Of course, the main "business" of this week is all things Nutcracker! We will be practicing daily this week, so we are canceling centers. We are not introducing a new letter or any new sight words. Therefore, there will also be no homework/red bags this Wednesday. Enjoy a stress-free week to focus on your holiday preparations!

Please be sure to check the"Helper Schedule" link on our website for the center & computer schedule for the next trimester.  Let me know if there are any problems.  Thanks!

We will be finishing up our topic on subtraction in math this week. This week's share is Book Share. Please have your child bring in a book, and be prepared to tell the title and a bit about what it's about. Have their favorite page bookmarked.

We have a Wacky Wednesday this week (the p.m. class comes in at 10:00 and shares the room with us for that last hour & a half) and then afterward, at 1:25, we will be having a costume-making party in K1.  We are asking a few parents from each class to come in and help us make the paper costume pieces for the Nutcracker.  We have patterns for everything, and it shouldn't take too long.  Kids are welcome to play in the room while we work.  Thanks to those who have volunteered to come in!

Please continue e-mailing me or signing up online to let us know what you can bring for our Nutcracker post-party. We will really need everyone's help with a little something for this party-- thanks so much!

A reminder about clothing for the Nutcracker: please remember to dress your children in the clothes suggested in the letter sent home last week. As a reminder, here is the list:

FRITZ: Bathrobe & slippers
NUTCRACKER/SOLDIERS/RUSSIAN DANCERS: White Shirt & Dark Pants w/ dark shoes
MICE/MOUSE KING: Dark Shirt & Dark Pants & dark shoes
SUGAR PLUM, RIBBON CANDY, FLOWERS: Light colored leotard/light colored tights/ballet slippers or light colored shoes-- leotards with tutus are fine & encouraged for Sugar Plum Fairies & Flowers, especially. ARABIAN: Light colored fitted shirt w/ leggings OR leotard (we provide the Harem pants)
CHINESE DANCERS: Shirt doesn't matter so much (will be wearing jacket we provide) dark pants.

Please borrow whatever you need to borrow-- we don't intend for anyone to have to buy anything, if possible.

Please arrive promptly in the cafeteria for the Nutcracker, as we intend to start the show right at 10:00. If you can't get that "perfect shot" on your camera-- don't worry! I always take a lot of pictures and will make sure that you get copies. We want everyone to enjoy the performance, so please refrain from standing and blocking the aisles as much as possible. Thank you!

Remember to bring your red bags tomorrow. Starting in January, a journal will be added to the red bags so that your children can write a response to the book in the bag each week.

Happy Holidays!

This Week's Activities/Helpers:
MONDAY: Return Red Bags, Sharing, Library
TUESDAY:  Sharing
WEDNESDAY: Wednesday Envelopes (Karla/Angie/Derek), Computers (Matt), Sharing
THURSDAY:  Sharing
FRIDAY: Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00-- please be seated by 9:50!

Upcoming Events: 
12/15: Nutcracker Paper Costume Making Party @ 1:25 (parent help needed!)
12/17: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance@ 10:00 in the cafeteria
12/18-1/2: WINTER BREAK
1/17: No School: MLK Holiday
Week of 2/20: No School: President's Week

Week of 12/5

Dear Parents,

We will be letting your children know about their Nutcracker parts this week!  You will be receiving a notice regarding your child's part, and what s/he should wear on the 17th in this week's Wednesday envelope.  Please let us know if there are any problems with gathering up the various clothes needed-- most girls (not all) will be wearing leotards, and most boys will be wearing dark pants and either a light or dark shirt.  Hopefully, if there is a clothing item you do not have, you can borrow it, as we do not intend for you to have to buy anything.  Again, the performance of the Nutcracker will be at 10:00 on the 17th. You won't want to miss it!

Next Wednesday the 15th at 1:20, we will have the "Paper Party" for the Nutcracker costume pieces. We would love to have parent helpers from our class join helpers from all the other kindergarten classes to cut and prepare the paper costume pieces for the Nutcracker performance, using patterns, samples, and materials that we will have ready to go. We will be meeting in K2 to work for no more than an hour on all the bits and pieces.  Thanks to those who have already volunteered.

We also ask for your help with the Nutcracker post-party.  Since we are not having a separate holiday party, we would love for parents to help provide the refreshments for the cast party after the performance.  We need 4 parents to provide a 12-pack of water, 4 parents to provide a 10-pack of juice boxes/pouches, and about 12 parents to bring a dozen baked goods (cookies, brownies, etc.) or other finger food.  Basically, we ask that everyone bring a drink or food item as we are expecting around 80+ people at the party-- parents, siblings, etc.  It's a big party!  Please let us know what you can bring.

 This week's letter is Cc, and the Alphafriend is Callie Cat. We have two new sight words this week: that and at. We will be introducing a new unit in math on subtraction. Subtraction in kindergarten will include facts from 10 and lower. We will often be looking at picture groups, crossing some pictures out, then counting what remains in the group. Please provide additional reinforcement at home on this if you notice your child is having difficulty, as subtraction can be quite confusing at this age.   This is a great time to use the website http://www.ixl.com.  Please follow the information on how to login that is now posted on our "Kindergarten Websites" page.

This week's sharing is Letter of the Week share. Please have your child bring in something that starts with Cc. Please write clues and hide it in a bag.

Please remember to return your child's "I Love to Read" calendar if you haven't done so already. Remember that it is also fine to just e-mail Manami or Margaret the approximate amount of minutes that you think your child read/was read to in the month of November. The presentation will be on Thursday & we wouldn't want any children to miss out on being rewarded for their efforts.

Red Bags are due tomorrow, and will go home again on Wednesday the 8th. That will be the final Red Bag before the holidays. When we return from Winter Break, the journal component will be added to the Red Bags. Your children will be asked to use a page from the journal to respond to the story they read. We would like them to write a sentence about what they liked about the book, and draw a nice picture to go along with it. More details will follow in the Red Bag on the week of the 3rd.

See you all tomorrow!

This Week's Activities/Helpers:
MONDAY: Return Red Bags, Centers (Tammy & Megan), Sharing, Library
TUESDAY:  Centers (Manami & Jamie), Sharing
WEDNESDAY:Wednesday Envelopes/Red Bags prepped (Karla/Angie/Derek), Computers (Margaret), Sharing, Red Bags go home
THURSDAY:  Centers (Rupa & Matt/Lorraine), Sharing, I Love to Read presentation
FRIDAY:  SPARK P.E. (Tim, Megan, Margaret)

Upcoming Events: 
12/15: Nutcracker Paper Costume Making Party @ 1:20 (parent help needed!)
12/17: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance@ 10:00
12/18-1/2: WINTER BREAK
1/17: No School: MLK Holiday
Week of 2/20: No School: President's Week

Week of 11/28

Dear Parents,

We hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving break. We'd like to thank all of you for making last Monday & Tuesday such a success! We had a wonderful spread of food at the feast, and the children all looked darling! Thanks to the MANY parents who helped with that event, and special thanks to Jen Lipscomb for helping us coordinate all the food & help. Also, Grandparents' Day was another great event. It was wonderful to see so many Grandparents & friends in our room that day. We had a fun time!

Now...onto a very busy but exciting time in kindergarten as we prepare for our Nutcracker presentation on the 17th, as well as continue with all the academics & seasonal artwork!

We will have a new letter this week, Vv, and the Alphafriend is Vinnie Volcano. We will also have a new high frequency word, to.  We will continue with our math topic on addition this week, followed by a topic on subtraction next week.

If you check out our webpage, link always at the bottom of the weekly e-mail, I have added a new page tab on the right-hand side.  It is for kindergarten websites.  I link a website, http://www.spellingcity.com/k2grist that I'd like you all to check out with your children. This is a fun way to reinforce both the sight words and short-vowel words that they will be expected to recognize and spell in kindergarten.  I have pre-loaded the list of sight words onto Spelling City, but if you want to make your own list of short-vowel words, you can do that, too.  These are just extra tools to reinforce learning.  I have also added the link to the math website I e-mailed you about a while ago, along with the login directions.  Check it out!

We will return to centers both this week and next week, then we take a break from centers again the week of December 12th.  Please check the helper schedule below, as well as on the website.  I have made just a few minor changes on the website and the helpers are updated all the way through the next trimester.

This week's sharing is Toy in a Bag. Please send in a toy in a bag or backpack, etc., with three written clues. Please make sure that either you or your child is writing the clues so that we have something to prompt them with if they forget. Thanks!

Thank you for returning your red bags last week. They will go home again this Wednesday as well as the following Wednesday. They will not go home on December 15th.

In lieu of returning red bags this week, please remember to send in November's I Love to Read calendar any time this week, beginning Wednesday.

Remember that the Holiday book order will be closing on December 1st. These books should arrive before we leave for break.

Looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow!

This Week's Activities/Helpers:
MONDAY: Centers (Kristi & Tammy), Sharing, Library
TUESDAY:  Centers (Wendy & Manami), Sharing
WEDNESDAY: Wednesday Envelopes/Red Bags prepped (Karla/Angie/Derek), Computers (Matt), Sharing, Red Bags go home, Turn in I Love to Read calendars
THURSDAY:  Centers (Margaret & Arden), Sharing, Turn in I Love to Read calendars
FRIDAY:  ZUMBA!, Turn in I Love to Read calendars

Upcoming Events: 
12/1: Dining for Dollars @ Armadillo Willy's
12/15: Nutcracker Paper Costume Making Party @ 1:25 (parent help needed!)
12/17: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance
12/18-1/2: WINTER BREAK
1/17: No School: MLK Holiday
Week of 2/20: No School: President's Week

Week of 11/21

Dear Parents,

We have a fun & memorable two days this week with the Feast on Monday and Grandparents' Day on Tuesday.  Due to the short week & special activities, there will be no homework, no sharing, and there will be no new sight words or letters.  This is a review week.

Tomorrow, please join us at 10:15 for the Friendship Feast with Mrs. Arrieta's class.  Our class will be dressed as Pilgrims and Mrs. Arrieta's class will be dressed as Native American Indians.  You will not want to miss this great photo-op!  Besides, you will want to join in on all the great food being brought by all the kindergarten families!  Thanks to everyone for volunteering a dish to bring.  Please remember to send it in in the morning so that we can set it out, but if it's a hot dish and you prefer to bring it ready-to-go, just let us know that so that we leave some room on the table :)  If you volunteered to help with the costumes or the art project, please come in at the designated times.  Thank you!

On Tuesday, we will have the grandparents/guests of Abby, Cami, Claire, Damian, Emma, Hunter, Jackson, Jared, Madeline, Miles, Natalie, Patrick, and Railey (is that everyone?) visiting us.  There are plenty of grandparents to go around, so if your child is not having a guest, one of the grandparents will be happy to assist him/her with the project.  Please remember also that if your children would like to share photos or memories of  grandparents who are not able to visit, that they are welcome to do so.  Our introduction time will be from about 10:00 to 10:30.  The children will introduce their grandparents/guests to the class.  I'd like them to tell which side of the family the grandparents are from (mom's, dad's, or both) and where they live (grandparents can help with all of this) and one thing that they like to do together.  If the grandparent(s) want to share one thing that they remember about kindergarten, they may do that.  Then at 10:30, there is a reception in the cafeteria for the grandparents while the kids go out for snack-recess.  When we return to the classroom at 10:50, we will do an art project with the grandparents-- the "Hands & Foot Turkey" and the grandparents can take that project home with them.  It should be a fun but busy morning!

Looking ahead on your calendars at this busy time of year, we wanted to make sure that you are all marking your calendars for Friday, December 17th at 10:00-- our annual performance of The Nutcracker.  This is something that you will not want to miss.  To help you clear your calendar, we have decided that this year, we will do our class holiday party and the Nutcracker performance all on the same day.  In the past, we haven't done this and some parents were torn between taking time off for the holiday party or the performance.  We will have a big "cast party" after the performance this year so that we can send the kids off on a great holiday break!

Have a great Thanksgiving!

UPCOMING EVENTS:
Monday, 11/22: Thanksgiving Friendship Feast-- please join us at 10:15!
Tuesday, 11/23: Grandparent's Day, grades K-2, 10:00 in our classroom
Wednesday, 11/24-Friday, 11/26: Thanksgiving Break
Wednesday, 12/1: Dining for Dollars @ Armadillo Willy's
Friday, 12/17: 10:00 am Nutcracker Performance (don't miss this annual kindergarten favorite!)
Monday, 12/20-Friday, 12/31: Winter Break

Week of 11/14

Dear Parents,

We hope you were able to enjoy a nice long weekend as we head into a busy week & a half before Thanksgiving!

We have enjoyed meeting with many of you so far during parent-teacher conferences, and have gained some great insights on your children from you.  Thank you for meeting with us and being such active participants in your children's educations.  We look forward to meeting with the rest of you this week in the library conference room. 

We will still be taking a break from centers this week while we continue with parent-teacher conferences, and they won't resume until after Thanksgiving.  Then we will start back up with centers for the two weeks before winter break. Last week, I added center helpers through the end of the next trimester.  I will still be tweaking it a bit more, as some other parents would like to be added to the schedule, so please check it again as we get closer to the New Year.

Our new letter this week (and next) is Hh. The Alphafriend is Hattie Horse. Our new sight word is a.  We start a new math topic this week on addition.  We have already been doing addition, in a sense. All of those homework papers on coloring different combinations of each number was obviously addition preparation. You will see much of the same in the upcoming topic. In kindergarten, the children will only be expected to learn addition facts to 10.

This week's sharing is Homemade Item. Please send in something your child has made, either at home, at preschool, etc. It does not have to be in a bag. Children should be prepared to talk about how they made the item. There will be no sharing next week due to the shortened week and all the special activities.

We have an Art Vista lesson on Wednesday.  Last week we enjoyed our first "I Love to Read" presentation, so if your child came home with a new book, it was because s/he reached the first level in the program.  Keep up all the reading! 

This week, we will also be taking a closer look at the Pilgrims & Native Americans as we talk about the first Thanksgiving. We will be preparing for our upcoming feast on Monday the 22nd. If you haven't had a chance to send back the yellow paper regarding the feast (how you can help/what dish you can send) or if you haven't e-mailed Jen Lipscomb, please do so ASAP. If you will not be in town for the Feast, let us know that, too, if you haven't already. It would be great if each child has a parent in attendance. This is a fun time for the kids, as they love to show off their costumes and enjoy the meal with their families. Thanks to those who have already signed up.  It looks like we will have plenty of help and many delicious dishes coming our way!

Next Tuesday the 23rd, we have Grandparents' Day at school.  They are welcome to come at 10:00 so that they can be introduced by their grandchild. Then, the kindergartners will have snack/recess, and the grandparents will go to the cafeteria for a reception. When they return from the reception at about 11:00, they will participate in a fun art project called the "Hands and Feet Turkey." The grandparents will be tracing children's hands and a foot to make a cute turkey! The grandparents will get to take this turkey home as a keepsake.  If your child does not have a local grandparent, feel free to send an aunt, uncle, special friend, etc. Also, the grandparents that come are always great about taking on additional "grandchildren," so don't worry if you don't have someone available. Please let me know if your child has a grandparent(s) coming, and how many will attend so that I can plan for extra chairs.

Mrs. Sheikh has opened a new book order, that is due on December 1st. These books will arrive on time for the holidays, so feel free to order some stocking stuffers!

The Red Bags will go home again this Wednesday, and then the following week, there will be no homework due to the Thanksgiving holiday.

Enjoy all the fun in the next week and a half!

This Week's Activities:
MONDAY: No Centers, Sharing, Library
TUESDAY: No Centers, Sharing
WEDNESDAY: Art Vistas (Angie, Tammy, Lorraine), Wednesday Envelopes prepped (Karla/Angie/Derek), Computers (Margaret), Sharing, Red Bags go home
THURSDAY: No Centers, Sharing
FRIDAY:  No Centers, ZUMBA!

UPCOMING EVENTS:
Monday, 11/15: Parent-Teacher Conferences continue
Monday, 11/22: Thanksgiving Friendship Feast-- please join us at 10:15!
Tuesday, 11/23: Grandparent's Day, grades K-2, 10:00 in our classroom
Wednesday, 11/24-Friday, 11/26: Thanksgiving Break
Friday, 12/17: 10:00 am Nutcracker Performance (don't miss this annual kindergarten favorite!)
Monday, 12/20-Friday, 12/31: Winter Break

Week of 11/7

Dear Parents,

We have a 3 day week this week with Veteran's Day on Thursday, and a staff development day on Friday.  Enjoy a four-day weekend!  Also, don't forget to "Fall back."  Hopefully, you enjoyed an extra hour of sleep this morning, but often that isn't the case with kids in the home!

We begin Parent-Teacher conferences this week, through next Friday.  Remember that conferences will be held in the Media Center (Library/Computer lab) which is the building directly behind the kindergarten building.  Often, we are in the librarian's office, which is behind the check-out desk to the right when you walk in.

We have no centers for the next three weeks due to Parent-Teacher Conferences and Thanksgiving.  However, we will still need help on Wednesdays with Computer Lab & prepping the Wednesday envelopes.  Centers will resume the week after Thanksgiving.  There are a few projects that we may need some help on in class in the upcoming weeks.  We will try to send out an e-mail for those projects to see if anyone may be available.

This week's letter is Nn, and the Alphafriend is Nyle Noodle. We will introduce two new sight words, with and be. Our share this week is Song/Poem/Nursery Rhyme. Remember that if your child prefers not to do a song or nursery rhyme, s/he can always sing one of the Alphafriend songs that we've learned. Also, this is a great opportunity to share songs or rhymes in another language, if your child would like to do that. We love hearing the children use the other languages they know!

Our math topic on comparing numbers continues this week. Children should understand the terms fewer, greater, and equal.  

We will be glazing our clay projects this Wednesday.  Please don't send your children in any extra-special clothes on Wednesday, as the clay glaze does stain.  Thanks again to Tammi, Manami, Laura, Margaret, and Nicole for helping out with Clay this year.
 
We have our first "I Love to Read" presentation this Tuesday.  Hopefully, everyone turned in their calendars or e-mailed their minutes to Margaret or Manami.  We want every child to be rewarded for the reading they are doing at home!

Please remember to send in your child's Red Bag, with the homework folder inside, tomorrow.  We will not have any homework or Red Bags this Wednesday due to the long weekend :)

Thanks to everyone for e-mailing me your schedule changes for 2011 so that I can put together the helper schedule.  Once again, it looks like all days are covered, even with some schedule changes.  Thanks so much to everyone for your generosity with your time and your flexibility!

If you are interested, there are some new book orders up on the "Book Order" link.  They are due December 1st and offer some great selections for stocking stuffers and gifts!

This Week's Activities:
MONDAY: No Centers, Sharing, Library, Red Bags Due w/ I Love to Read Calendars
TUESDAY: No Centers, Sharing
WEDNESDAY: Wednesday Envelopes prepped (Karla/Angie/Derek), Computers (Matt), Sharing, No Red Bags

UPCOMING EVENTS:
Monday, 11/8: Parent-Teacher Conferences begin
Thursday, 11/11: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday, 11/12: No School: Staff Development Day
Monday, 11/22: Thanksgiving Friendship Feast-- please join us at 10:15!
Tuesday, 11/23: Grandparent's Day, grades K-2
Wednesday, 11/24-Friday, 11/26: Thanksgiving Break
Friday, 12/17: 10:00 am Nutcracker Performance (don't miss this annual kindergarten favorite!)
Monday, 12/20-Friday, 12/31: Winter Break

Week of 10/31

Dear Parents,

We hope you had a happy & safe Halloween, and thank you to all who were involved in our wonderful party on Friday.  The kids all had a great time, and it sent them off on a fun Halloween weekend.

Thank you again to the many volunteers who offered to help with our yearbook page.  We are all covered there now, too!  And we have several parents cutting away on the various costume pieces for our Thanksgiving Feast.  When they have had enough cutting, we will pass the shirts/aprons/collars onto another group of parents.  Thanks again for all the help.

So that you can plan ahead, we have two big events (back-to-back!) in November.  On Monday the 22nd, we have our Thanksgiving Feast.  If you can take some time off work to join us, this is a pretty fun and special event.  We ask each family to send in a dish for the event-- either a traditional Thanksgiving dish or a dish from your family's cultural background.  We always enjoy the wonderful mix of foods that we get.  Both morning kindergartens come together for this event.  The children from our class will be dressed as Pilgrims, and the children in Mrs. Arrieta's class will be dressed as Native Americans.  No need to provide any costumes-- this is what parents are preparing for us right now out of pillow cases and sheets.  The event will be at 10:00 and is definitely a great photo-op!

The next day, Tuesday the 23rd, we have Grandparents' Day.  This is an event for grades K-2, so there is a general reception held in the cafeteria at 10:30.  So that we have time to introduce the grandparents beforehand (and in case they need to go to other classrooms) we will invite the grandparents into our room at 10:00.  The kids can briefly introduce their grandparents and tell whose parents they are (mom's, dad's, or both sets) and then the grandparents will go to the reception during our recess time.  Then we will reconvene in K2 at 10:50 for a special art project.  We hope that all grandparents can join us, but if distance, etc., makes this impossible, the children can also invite another special adult to join in (uncle, aunt, special neighbor, even mom or dad).  Also, children are welcome to bring in pictures of grandparents who are too far away to make the trip.   

Our letter this week is Bb, and our Alphafriend is Benny Bear. Our sight words this week will be like. In math, we are introducing a new unit on Comparing Numbers: 0-10. Again we will be comparing numbers to identify which numbers are more than each other, less than each other, and equal. We will also be ordering numbers.

We have begun doing a lot of blending exercises during our opening.  This is an important pre-reading skill.  We say words with the beginning sound separated, for example, b-ath for bath or f-o-x for fox.  We ask the children to guess what the word is if they put it back together.  This is a great game to play in the car, etc., and really helps them start to learn how to blend isolated sounds into words.

Our sharing this week is Letter of the Week sharing.  Please have your child bring in something that starts with Bb, in a bag, with three clues about it.

We will be doing some Fall art projects this week-- Indian corn, squirrels, acorns and cornucopias are all in the plans!

We are looking forward to meeting with each of you beginning next Monday the 8th, for your child's conference. Conferences will be held in the library since the p.m. class will be in session during most conference times.  The library/Media Center is located in the building directly behind the kindergarten building.   Often, we are in the library office, which is behind the check-out desk.  If you are unsure of your conference time, please e-mail us.  Thanks!

Finally, please send in the Red Bags tomorrow with your child's "I Love to Read" calendar inside.  Remember that if you've misplaced the official calendar, you can always e-mail an approximation of your child's total reading minutes for the month to Manami or Margaret.

This Week's Activities/Helpers:
MONDAY: Centers (Megan & Kristi), Sharing, Library, Red Bags Due w/ I Love to Read Calendars
TUESDAY: Centers (Jamie & Wendy), Sharing
WEDNESDAY: Red Bags & Wednesday Envelopes prepped (Karla/Angie/Derek), Computers (Margaret), Sharing, Red Bags go home
THURSDAY: Centers (Tammi & Matt/Lorraine), Sharing
FRIDAY: Sharing, SPARK P.E. (Tim, Margaret, Megan)

UPCOMING EVENTS:
Monday, 11/8: Parent-Teacher Conferences begin
Thursday, 11/11: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday, 11/12: No School: Staff Development Day
Monday, 11/22: Thanksgiving Friendship Feast
Tuesday, 11/23: Grandparent's Day, grades K-2
Wednesday, 11/24-Friday, 11/26: Thanksgiving Break
Friday, 12/17: 10:00 am Nutcracker Performance (don't miss this annual kindergarten favorite!)
Monday, 12/20-Friday, 12/31: Winter Break

Week of 10/24

Dear Parents,

We have a busy week this week with all the regular activities, plus Red Ribbon Week, plus a clay lesson on Wednesday & Halloween celebrations on Friday!

Our letter this week is Tt. The alphafriend is Tiggy Tiger. We have a new high frequency word, my. We will be finishing up our math unit on numbers 6-10. Your children should now be able to count, compare, and write numbers 6-10.

Our sharing this week will be book share. Please have your child bring in a book with a favorite page bookmarked. They should be prepared to tell the title of the book and a bit about what it's about.

Red Ribbon Week is this week. In kindergarten, we do not get into a big discussion about drugs, as that is typically way over their heads. We try to keep the focus on positive choices-- things to do to keep their bodies healthy. We talk about eating right, getting enough sleep, and getting excercise. Sometimes smoking and alcohol do come up, as these are things the children have seen. We will talk about those things if they come up. but mostly we like to keep the focus on "what TO do" rather than "what NOT TO do." There are some theme days that go along with Red Ribbon Week. These are entirely optional. Sometimes the kindergartners do get a kick out of these days, especially if they have older siblings at the school. They are:

• MONDAY: Wear red (Red Ribbon Week)
• TUESDAY: Wear crazy or mismatched socks (Sock it to drugs)
• WEDNESDAY: Wear a baseball cap (Put a cap on drugs)
• THURSDAY: Wear a sports team jersey/shirt (Team up against drugs)
• FRIDAY: Wear some clothes backwards (Turn your back on drugs)

We also have our first Clay lesson this Wednesday.  Children get to work with clay four times a year at Alta Vista (two clay molding lessons & two glazing lessons).  Thanks to Tammi Hall, Manami Iwata, Laura Stegemiller, Margaret Bachman, and Nicole Ovadia for helping out with the Clay program this year.

Friday is our Halloween Party!  Kindergarten children should arrive to school dressed up in their costumes.  Remember that if the costume has a weapon with it (pirate sword, Star Wars lightsaber, etc.) to please leave those at home.  No gory costumes/fake blood allowed either, although that's not usually a problem in kindergarten :)  We will parade around the classrooms at school that have their doors opened starting at 8:30.  Then we will return to our classroom for party activities planned by Jen Lipscomb, Edna Eng, Kristi Guardanapo, and Sue Rowatt.  Thank you!  There is no need to pack a snack on Friday, because in addition to some of the party snacks, we will also be having our pizza party on Friday for turning in 100% of the Consolidated Classroom Payments!  Thanks again for turning that money and all the forms in so quickly.  We were the only pizza party winners in the primary grades!  Finally, if you are returning to the school-wide Halloween parade at 1:15, your children can come into our classroom and get a chair and sit with Mrs. Lawson's afternoon class.  Please let us know if you plan on doing that.

Please remember to send in your child's red bag tomorrow in the midst of all the craziness this week! Also, if you can please send in your Walk-a-thon money tomorrow (enclosed in the envelope that went home last Wednesday),  I know that the Walk-a-thon committee would appreciate it!

Finally, we were able to order black pillow cases this year for our Thanksgiving Feast.  That cuts out the whole dying phase :)  The pillow cases have arrived, so we are ready to start cutting them.  There are no special skills necessary-- just a willingness to do some cutting at home!  If you own zig-zag scissors, we will also need those, but if you don't, I have a pair to borrow.  We will need voluneers to cut boy shirts, girl dresses, girl aprons, and boy belts.  Please let us know if you can help out.

Activities/Helpers this week:
MONDAY: Centers (Tammy & Megan), Sharing, Library, Red Bags Due w/ Walkathon $$
TUESDAY: Centers (Manami & Jamie),  Writing Assessment, Sharing
WEDNESDAY: Red Bags & Wednesday Envelopes prepped (Karla/Angie/Derek), Computers (Matt), Sharing, Clay (Tammi, Manami, Laura, Nicole, Margaret) Red Bags go home
THURSDAY: Centers (Tammi & Arden), Sharing
FRIDAY: Halloween Parade & Party, Sharing

UPCOMING EVENTS: 
Monday, 10/25: Round Table Pizza Fundraiser
Friday, 10/29: 8:15 am: Kindergarten Halloween Parade & Party
Friday, 10/29: 1:15 pm: School-wide Halloween Parade (come back and join us if you'd like!)
Monday, 11/8: Parent-Teacher Conferences begin
Thursday, 11/11: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday, 11/12: No School: Staff Development Day
Monday, 11/22: Thanksgiving Friendship Feast
Tuesday, 11/23: Grandparent's Day, grades K-2
Friday, 12/17: 10:00 am Nutcracker Performance (don't miss this annual kindergarten favorite!) 

Week of 10/17

Dear Parents,

It was GREAT to see so many of you yesterday at the Walk-a-thon! Almost our entire class participated, and it looked like much fun was had by all. Thanks for coming out and supporting the school, and hopefully, it was the beginning of many Walk-a-thons to come for all of you!  Tomorrow, send your children with their walk-a-thon necklaces so that we can all celebrate the laps that we walked! And if you didn't have a chance to check out the Book Fair yesterday, it runs through Thursday of this week, before school, at noon, and after the big kids' school (2:45).

This week's letter is Rr. The Alphafriend is Reggie Rooster. We have a new high frequency word, in. Additionally, in the next two weeks, we will have our first kindergarten writing assessment. The scores are not reported at the District level at this time (but will be in the Spring) but they are something that we will be sharing with you at your Parent-Teacher conference in November. We will be looking for things like detailed & colorful pictures, the use of some of our high-frequency words, attempts at spelling using phonetic spelling ("kat" for "cat", etc.), proper use of spacing between words, etc. This is more of a practice test than anything else, so do not worry if your child is not capable of these skills at this time.

We will continue with our math topic on numbers 6-10. We will be counting, comparing, and making numerals from 6-10. We will also be looking at combinations that build 6-10, which is often featured in the homework pages. Remember that we are looking for different combinations each time in these pages (1 and 5, 6 and 0, 2 and 4, etc.)

Also on the homework cover page, please be sure that your children are coloring all things that start with the sound.  Check the directions at the bottom of each page, as sometimes they vary.  This past week, the children had to finish the pictures that were missing something, as well as draw something new that starts with Mm on the table on the back.  Remember to try and have children choose something that's not already on the page, so that they are showing you that they can isolate the sound and think of some things that start with it on their own.  Thanks again for all your support with homework & for sending in the Red Bags each Monday.  We appreciate it!

We have our first Art Vista lesson this Wednesday.  Art Vista is a program paid for by the Alta Vista Home & School Club, thanks to your generous donations to events like the Walk-a-thon.  It is a very hands-on art program, where the children will look at copies of paintings by many great artists and discuss an artistic element such as line, shade, perspective, etc.  Then they will have a follow-up art project that focuses on the particular element.  Thanks to Angie Lu, Tammy Pochop, and Lorraine Meere for being our art docents this year.

The share this week is back to Toy in a Bag. Please have your children bring a toy, hidden in a bag or backpack, with 3 clues about that item attached or enclosed in the bag. The clues are important-- please don't send an item without clues. Thank you!

Thanks to everyone for scheduling your conferences with us so quickly.  You should have received a confirmation notice in last week's Wednesday envelope (stapled to a walk-a-thon notice) with your official time.  If you did not receive the confirmation, please contact us.  Also, if you still need to schedule a conference with Mrs. Sheikh, please do so as soon as possible.

Finally, it is hard to believe that we are already talking about Thanksgiving, but we need to start planning for our Friendship Feast on November 22nd.  Our class will be Pilgrims this year, and they will wear these great costumes that we make out of pillow cases.  We need volunteers to do some pillow case dying for us, as well as some cutting.  We provide the pillow cases and RIT dye, but we will need someone who owns a top-loading washer (front loaders don't work) to volunteer to dye the cases black.  It's pretty easy-- you just fill your washer with water, add the black dye, and throw in the pillow cases.  And though it sounds scary for your future wash loads, we have been told by previous volunteers that they didn't have any problems :)  If you can volunteer for this, or for the cutting of the pillow cases, please let us know.

MONDAY: Centers (Kristi & Tammy), Sharing, Library, Red Bags Due   
TUESDAY: Centers (Wendy & Manami), Sharing
WEDNESDAY: Red Bags & Wednesday Envelopes prepped (Karla/Angie/Derek), Computers (Margaret), Sharing, Art Vistas (Angie, Tammy, Lorraine) Red Bags go home
THURSDAY: Centers (Margaret & Matt/Lorraine), Sharing
FRIDAY: Sharing, ZUMBA!

UPCOMING EVENTS:
Friday, 10/29: 8:15 am: Kindergarten Halloween Parade & Party
Friday, 10/29: 1:00 pm: School-wide Halloween Parade (come back and join us if you'd like!)
Monday, 11/8: Parent-Teacher Conferences begin
Thursday, 11/11: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday, 11/12: No School: Staff Development Day
Monday, 11/22: Thanksgiving Friendship Feast
Tuesday, 11/23: Grandparent's Day, grades K-2
Friday, 12/17: 10:00 am Nutcracker Performance (don't miss this annual kindergarten favorite!) 

Week of 10/10

Dear Parents,

Walk-a-thon week is finally here! As you know, this is a very fun family event, and the biggest fundraiser for Alta Vista. We will do our practice laps this week, so when your children check in on Saturday morning, they will already have a foot on their Walk-a-thon lanyard. Please join us for some great exercise, fun, and fundraising!

In class this week, we will be focusing on the letter Mm. We will also have a new sight word, see. We will also begin some Halloween projects. We have a fun book coming up that is about a ghost who changes colors, depending on what he eats. We will have some great discussions about food and colors!

In math, we will start a new math topic tomorrow on numbers 6-10.  Please continue reviewing the concept of "more" and "fewer" with your children, as that was difficult for many.  Ask how many you would have if you have one more, one fewer, etc.

This week's sharing is Song, Poem, or Nursery Rhyme. We'd like to have your children come up and recite a short song, poem, or rhyme that is familiar. Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill, singing the ABCs, singing Twinkle, Twinkle, etc., are all popular kindergarten choices. Another option is to sing one of the Alphafriend songs. They can sing last week's song, Sammy Seal. This is also a great opportunity for children who speak more than one language to bring in a song or rhyme they know in that language. We always really enjoy to hear other languages for this share.

We had our first Cornerstone lesson last Friday with Wendy Rowatt & Jen Lipscomb. Cornerstone is a social skills development program that helps teach children ways to interact with one another respectfully. Thank you Wendy & Jen for volunteering to read the stories and lead the activities that go with this program.

This week, we will begin assessing your children at center time so that we have up-to-date information to share with you at conference time. We will be working with them individually to check them on things such as letter recognition, letter sounds, rhyming, etc. We look forward to sharing this information with you in early November.  This of course means that it is also time to sign up for conferences!  We will be sending out our conference sign-up sheet this week.  Remember that while Mrs. Sheikh & I discuss your child's progress and do report cards together, you will only be meeting with one of us.  On the schedule, we have indicated who you will be conferencing with.  When you receive the form via e-mail, please select THREE times that are convenient for you, and we will send out a confirmation with your time as soon as we put together our schedule.  The sooner you return the form (either e-mail your time preferences to us, or print out the form and send it back to us) the more likely you will get your first choice for a time!  Please note that Mrs. Sheikh and I prefer to do one conference per child.  In the case of divorced parents, we prefer that we all come together at the same time to hear the same information so that we are all on the same page-- working together to help and support the child's learning.  If this is a huge problem, please let us know, but we have found that this has always worked well in the past. 

Red bags, with homework folders inside are due tomorrow.  Thanks for being so great about returning those!

MONDAY: Centers (Megan & Kristi), Sharing, Library, Red Bags Due   
TUESDAY: Centers (Jamie & Wendy), Sharing
WEDNESDAY: Red Bags & Wednesday Envelopes prepped (Karla/Angie/Derek), Computers (Matt), Sharing, Red Bags go home
THURSDAY: Centers (Arden & Margaret), Sharing
FRIDAY: Sharing, ZUMBA!

UPCOMING EVENTS:
Saturday, 10/16: 9:00 am Alta Vista Back Field: Walk-a-thon
Friday, 10/29: 8:15 am: Kindergarten Halloween Parade & Party
Friday, 10/29: 1:00 pm: School-wide Halloween Parade (come back and join us if you'd like!)
Monday, 11/8: Parent-Teacher Conferences begin
Thursday, 11/11: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday, 11/12: No School: Staff Development Day
Monday, 11/22: Thanksgiving Friendship Feast
Tuesday, 11/23: Grandparent's Day, grades K-2
Friday, 12/17: 10:00 am Nutcracker Performance (don't miss this annual kindergarten favorite!)

Week of 10/3

Dear Parents,

We have an exciting week this week as we begin our intensive study of each letter of the alphabet, which will not be in alphabetical order. We introduce an "Alphafriend" to help your child remember the sounds of the letter. The children really enjoy the Alphafriends, and singing the songs that accompany each one.

At this point, it is very helpful for the children to have recognition of most letters under their belts, so that they can focus on learning the sounds. If you are noticing that your child does not recognize a number of letters, we highly recommend the DVD called The Letter Factory, which is available for about $10 at Target, etc. It is also available for check-out in the local libraries, although those copies are often scratched. This DVD really helps the children to learn both letter names and letter sounds, and it is truly a great investment. I have used it with my own two children and really seen results.

This week we will introduce the letter Ss. The worksheets that accompany our Language Arts program will all be about the letter Ss (and the stories we are reading)-- we will cover the sound and the handwriting of the letter, and the Alphafriend's name is Sammy Seal. In your child's homework packet this week, you will find a page where they cut out things that begin with the letter Ss, as well as draw something that starts with that letter. If your child is looking for a little more challenge, encourage him/her to draw the picture (or more than one) AND write the word(s) that go along with those pictures. This is entirely optional. Please be prepared at home with a gluestick or tape and some child-safe scissors for this homework, as it will appear in the packet weekly from now on. This will help you to know what letter we are studying in class so that you can reinforce it at home, if necessary.

This week's share is "Letter of the Week" share. Since our letter of the week is Ss, please have your child bring something that starts with Ss. They do like to do the guessing game with this item, so please have it hidden in a bag with three clues written about the item. Because it has to start with the letter Ss, this will also encourage them to think of things that start with the sound.

In addition to a letter of the week, we will also begin introducing a sight word each week. These are words that the children should know instantly, by sight, when the words are shown to them. Many of these words cannot be sounded out. This week's word is I. We will write sentences using the word I and look for the word in things that we are reading. There is a link on our webpage that has the list of sight words so that you can begin practicing with your child. There are 40 words that we will be covering this year. Words that have an asterisk next to them are words that we've introduced in class. We will be assessing the children on these words each trimester for report card information, and they continue using the sight words in first grade, so these are important words to master.

Another thing happening this week is Walk/Bike to School Week.  We are encouraging children to walk, bike, ride scooters, etc., to get to school, rather than riding in a car.  We realize that some children live too far from the school to walk.  What we're asking for you to try in that case is driving, but parking a few blocks away so that your children get in some walking.  Obviously, this encourages healthy activity, and it also reduces the congestion around the school. We hope you'll participate, even if only for a few days.

While on the topic of fitness, we also want to remind you that October 16th is coming up quickly! The kick-off assembly for the Alta Vista Walkathon will be this week. Though kindergarten does not attend the assembly, we will be doing practice laps so that the children will already have a "foot" on their Walkathon necklaces to get the fun started. Every few laps at the Walkathon, they add a foot to a necklace chain. When the children come to school on Monday following the Walkathon, they love to wear the necklace to show-off all the laps they completed! We hope you are all planning to come out for the Walkathon-- it is a great community event.

Also starting this month is the "Student in the Spotlight" program. This is a school-wide character building program, where we emphasize a positive characteristic each month such as honesty, respectfulness, etc. Several children from the class will get chosen for a certificate each month. By the end of the year, every child will be rewarded for a positive trait that they have exhibited. So if you see a certificate with "Student in the Spotlight" at the top, be sure to congratulate your child!

Remember your child's Red Bag tomorrow, with the homework folder inside the bag :)

MONDAY: Centers (Tammy & Megan), Sharing, Library, Red Bags Due
TUESDAY: Centers (Manami & Jamie), Sharing
WEDNESDAY: Red Bags & Wednesday Envelopes prepped (Karla/Angie/Derek), Computers (Margaret), Sharing, Red Bags go home
THURSDAY: Centers (Tammi & Matt/Lorraine), Sharing
FRIDAY: Sharing, SPARK P.E. (Megan, Margaret, Tim)

UPCOMING EVENTS:
Wednesday, 10/6:  Willow Street Pizza fundraiser
Saturday, 10/16: 9:00 am Alta Vista Back Field: Walk-a-thon
Friday, 10/29: 8:15 am: Kindergarten Halloween Parade & Party
Friday, 10/29: 1:00 pm: School-wide Halloween Parade (come back and join us if you'd like!)
Monday, 11/8: Parent-Teacher Conferences begin
Thursday, 11/11: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday, 11/12: No School: Staff Development Day
Monday, 11/22: Thanksgiving Friendship Feast
Tuesday, 11/23: Grandparent's Day, grades K-2
Friday, 12/17: 10:00 am Nutcracker Performance (don't miss this annual kindergarten favorite!)

Week of 9/26

Dear Parents,

We are wrapping up our overview of the alphabet this week, and will begin our weekly study of the letters next week with the letter Ss. The letters do not go in alphabetical order. To help your children in learning the sounds of each letter, we will have an "Alphafriend" that goes along with each letter. Their names are all alliterative, like Sammy Seal, Larry Lion, Mimi Mouse, etc. The children will learn a song for each Alphafriend. They really enjoy these songs and have fun with them. Look forward to hearing your children singing these songs around the house!

We have begun focusing on beginning sounds in our "Daily Phonemic Awareness." We have fun activities where we take a step forward if the two words start with the same sound, etc. You can reinforce this concept at home with similar activities. Riding in the car is a great time to play games like these. Children can respond with a silly word if the two words that you say to them start with the same sound: "Say ga-ga if bunny & boat start the same," etc. It's a fun way to reinforce what's going on at school.

We will start a new math unit this week, "More & Fewer." This is a more challenging topic, where we really delve into the value of numbers and understand their value in relation to other numbers.

We are wrapping up our FOSS Science unit on trees & leaves this week. We will be looking at edible things that come from trees this week, starting tomorrow. If you have a fruit or nut-bearing tree at your house and your child would like to bring an apple, walnut, etc., that would be very helpful. We will show those things in our discussion. We will be providing walnuts & peanuts for them to look at, crack open, and taste. We have no nut allergies listed in our class or the afternoon class, but please let me know if you do not want your child to participate.

This week's share is homemade item. This does not need to be hidden in a bag. The children just bring an item that they made (or mostly made) at home or at preschool or elsewhere. They should be able to tell a bit about how they made it.

Please send in your child's Red Bag tomorrow, with the homework folder inside the bag. I go through the bags and pull out the homework, so there is no need for it to be separate. Thanks for the great job with that last week!

Remember that Friday is Picture Day.  Send in your picture order NO LATER THAN Friday morning, because it is very difficult to order afterward.  If you are not happy with the pictures when they come in, your child can do a retake.  We are also having our first SPARK P.E. lesson this Friday.  It may be a bit tricky with the fancy clothes, but we will try to make it work!  We are very fortunate that Mrs. Sheikh is a certified Zumba (a fun dance for fitness) instructor.  She will be leading Zumba lessons on Fridays with our class, and on the days she doesn't do Zumba, we will have SPARK P.E.   Please send your children in sneakers on Fridays.

On a final note, Silly Bandz have become a bit of an issue in our classroom. We have a very social class, and we are finding that they love to talk among themselves constantly on the rug :) One topic of conversation consistently seems to be about the Silly Bandz that everyone is wearing. Kindergartners have a hard time resisting playing with them, too. Please talk to your children about the Silly Bandz and let them know that they are to stay on their wrists. If your child is missing Silly Bandz at the end of the day, it is because we had to take them, as that is our policy if they are too much of a distraction. Also, starting this week, we are going to be assigning spots for everyone on the rug to cut down on all of the socializing.

Here's who is helping this week and other schedule items:

MONDAY: Centers (Kristi & Tammy), Sharing, Library, Red Bags Due
TUESDAY: Centers (Wendy & Manami), Sharing
WEDNESDAY: Red Bags & Wednesday Envelopes prepped (Karla/Angie/Derek), Computers (Matt), Sharing, Red Bags go home
THURSDAY: Centers (Margaret & Arden), Sharing
FRIDAY: Sharing, SPARK P.E. (Megan, Margaret, Tim)


UPCOMING EVENTS:
Friday, 10/1: Picture Day
Wednesday, 10/6:  Willow Street Pizza fundraiser
Saturday, 10/16: 9:00 am Alta Vista Back Field: Walk-a-thon
Friday, 10/29: 1:00 pm: School-wide Halloween Parade (come back and join us if you'd like!)
Monday, 11/8: Parent-Teacher Conferences begin
Thursday, 11/11: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday, 11/12: No School: Staff Development Day
Monday, 11/22: Thanksgiving Friendship Feast
Tuesday, 11/23: Grandparent's Day, grades K-2

Week of 9/19

Dear Parents,

We had a great first week of centers & sharing, and hopefully homework is going well, too! Thanks so much to all our center helpers. We appreciate your diligence in coming on time, working with the children, and finding substitutes when you are unable to come. All went very well last week!

Remember to send in your child's Red Bag on Monday, with the homework folder inside.  You will receive a new book and some new homework again on Wednesday.

This week's sharing is book share. Remember, if you ever forget what the share topic is (or I forget to mention it), it is marked on the calendar on our web page. For book share, we'd like the children to come prepared with a favorite page bookmarked, and to also know the title of the book and a general idea of what it's about.  No clues necessary on this one!

We will continue with our math topic on numbers 1-5. We are especially reinforcing the formation of numbers in handwriting. Some of these numbers are quite tricky to make, so watch that your child is starting at the top and going in the right direction.

We will also continue with our overview of the alphabet, plus working on rhyming. Letters Pp through Tt will be covered this week.

We began introducing some of our line strokes last week using Handwriting without Tears,  and as mentioned, we also worked individually with each student on his/her name writing.  This week, we will begin another component of the Handwriting program called "Sentence School."  In sentence school, we will all copy a sentence from the easel and work on handwriting and word spacing, while also reinforcing vocabulary and sight words.  We started using "Sentence School" last year, and found that it really improved sentence writing.

We began our science unit on Trees & Leaves last week, and the children really enjoyed it. We introduced important vocabulary such as roots, leaves, branches, and trunk. We talked about evergreens and deciduous trees. This week we will begin looking more closely at leaves. Please send in about 5 or 6 leaves tomorrow in a plastic baggie in your child's red bag.

It was great to see so many of you at the Back-to-School Movie Night! Our next school event is this Thursday, the 23rd-- Family Science Night.   It starts at 6:30 p.m. in the cafeteria. This is a fun night that is sponsored by the Children's Discovery Museum. The children have an opportunity to participate in some great hands-on projects with their parents. Come out and enjoy the fun & learning!

I have also placed a list at the bottom of this e-mail with other important upcoming dates. Please mark your calendars accordingly-- you won't want to miss many of these events :) Please double-check with our website calendar if you forget to mark an event.

Here's a schedule of the events & helpers this week:
MONDAY: Homework/Red Bags due, Library, Centers (Megan & Kristi), Sharing
TUESDAY: Centers (Jamie & Wendy), Sharing
WEDNESDAY: Red Bags & Envelopes (Angie & Karla), Computers (Margaret), Sharing, Red Bags go home.
THURSDAY: Centers (Tammi & Matt/Lorraine), Sharing
FRIDAY: P.E. (please wear sneakers), Sharing

UPCOMING EVENTS:
Thursday, 9/23: 6:30pm Alta Vista Cafeteria, Family Science Night
Saturday, 10/16: 9:00 am Alta Vista Back Field: Walk-a-thon
Friday, 10/29: 1:00 pm: School-wide Halloween Parade (come back and join us if you'd like!)
Monday, 11/8: Parent-Teacher Conferences begin
Thursday, 11/11: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday, 11/12:  No School: Staff Development Day
Monday, 11/22:  Thanksgiving Friendship Feast
Tuesday, 11/23: Grandparent's Day, grades K-2

Week of 9/12

Dear Parents,

We've made it to our "big week" in kindergarten, where we start sharing, centers, library, computers, and homework! We also have our first Wacky Wednesday on the 15th. These do not affect the morning class time-wise, but your children will get to share the room with our friends from the afternoon class for about an hour and a half. We are in and out of the room for much of that time, as we have computers & recess, but it is fun for the kids to meet up with the children that they share the room with.

In language arts, we continue our overview of the alphabet and our readings of familiar tales and fables. In the past few weeks, we've covered The Gingerbread Man, The Three Pigs, The Three Bears, Chicken Little, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Tortoise and The Hare, The Lion and the Mouse, among others. The children have had fun listening to retellings of these favorite stories.

In math, we will start a new topic: Numbers 1-5. We will be looking at the value of these numbers, as well as how to write them correctly. Math is one of the subjects we cover in centers, so though the paperwork is the same, the hand-on activities will be different, depending on the ability of the group.

In science, we will begin our unit on Trees & Leaves. This is a fun hand-on science unit through our FOSS science program. We will be looking at trees and learning some names of different types of trees. We will be learning about deciduous trees vs. evergreens.

Our art this week is centered around apples. We have a few fun apple art projects, and we'll be using paint! Parent helpers and students beware-- don't wear clothes that you are overly concerned about keeping neat this week. :)

Our sharing topic this week is Share in a Bag. Just a reminder again that your child should bring one item, hidden in a bag or backpack, with clues attached. The clues are very important and are part of the preparation for this oral language activity. So please work with your child to come up with three clues that will help the other children guess what is in the bag. If you are not sure of your child's sharing day, please check the class website or e-mail us.

Mrs. Sheikh has extended the deadline on the first book order of the year on Scholastic. Please go to our class website and follow the link: "Scholastic Books" if you are interested in ordering.

If you are participating in the Great American fundraiser, all orders are due on Tuesday the 14th.

Here is how our "day by day" rough schedule looks this week-- helpers are in parentheses:

MONDAY: Our first visit to the school library (we don't check out books), Centers (Tammy & Megan)
TUESDAY: Centers (Manami & Jamie), Sharing
WEDNESDAY: Computers (Matt), Sharing, Homework/Red Bags go home for the 1st time
THURSDAY: Centers (Margaret & Arden), Sharing
FRIDAY: Spiral Review of stories & letters, Sharing

UPCOMING EVENTS: 
Tuesday, September 14th: Great American Fundraiser Ends
Friday, September 17th: Back-to-School Picnic & Movie Night

Saturday, October 16th: Walkathon 9:00-3:00

Week of 9/5

Dear Parents,

We hope you all enjoyed a nice 4 (or 3) day weekend!

This week, we will continue with our overview of the alphabet. We will be covering letters Gg-Jj. We will also be working on the five senses. We have a fun book with some hands-on activities that we do with the children. We will continue on our math topic on sorting, and we will also be working on number writing in a book called, "My Beary Good Book of Numbers." We will also begin our first Social Studies unit on being a Good Citizen. This is basically an overview of rules in the classroom and rules in our community. Some newsprint "booklets" accompany the Social Studies program.

You will also probably catch your children singing some color songs at home. We introduced these songs last week with the color "red," and these catchy tunes help them learn how to spell their color words. Ask your children to sing the red song for you!

Of course, next week is a big week for us. We will begin sharing on the 13th. Our first share topic is "toy in a bag." The topic lasts for the whole week, (each week is a different topic) but your child's share day never changes. The share days are:

•     Monday: Abby, Andrew, Ava, Avery
•     Tuesday: Cami, Claire, Damian, Dylan, Emily
•     Wednesday: Emma, Hannah, Hunter, Hinako, Isabella
•     Thursday: Jackson, Jared, Madeline, Miles
•     Friday: Natalie, Patrick, Railey, Sean, Will

Homework will also begin next week on the 15th. Finally, centers will begin next week on Monday. I am working on the helper schedule and will have it out this week. If you signed up to help with centers on Monday, be prepared to possibly come in on the 13th! It looks like we have enough volunteers that we will be doing a rotation of helpers (meaning you won't have to come in weekly). Thank you again for volunteering in so many different areas. I believe we have every activity covered!

UPCOMING EVENTS: 
Tuesday, September 14th: Great American Fundraiser Ends

Friday, September 17th: Back-to-School Picnic & Movie Night

Saturday, October 16th: Walkathon 9:00-3:00

Week of 8/29

Dear Parents,

I believe we now have almost everyone receiving our e-mails.  Thank you for responding to our various tests.  If you haven’t replied to one of the e-mails to let us know you are receiving it, please do so. Otherwise, we will check in with you at Back-to-School Night to make sure we have all addresses entered correctly.   Also, we still need those pink “Rules for RESPECT” signature sheets, as well as the Student Handbook signature sheet from a few families. Please send those in on Monday if you can.

We had a great first week searching for and finding our runaway Gingerbread Men and getting to know one another, along with beginning our Language Arts workbook!  Right now, our workbook pages are focusing on a quick overview of the alphabet—one letter a day, in alphabetical order.  We familiarize ourselves with all the names of our classmates by looking for those letters in each person’s name.  Of course, when we are done with our overview, we will begin a more intense study of each letter—a week per consonant/vowel, along with meeting that letter’s “Alphafriend.” The Alphafriends go along with our reading program and help the children remember letter names & sounds in a fun & catchy way.

We will also begin our math program this week.  Our first unit is on sorting & classifying.  Children will study how things are alike and different, and sort them accordingly.  We will have a week-long science unit on the five senses as well.

In the next few weeks, we will be listening to familiar tales (Three Pigs, Three Billy Goats Gruff, etc.) and nursery rhymes.  Hearing different versions of familiar tales and rhymes is a fun way to get children engaged in reading.

During the past week, we have observed that many of our students will need to work on 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 by tracing our names on a worksheet, but we encourage you to reinforce this at home.  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.  We appreciate your help with this.

In class, your child will be using a program called, "Handwriting without Tears."  This is a wonderful program that really focuses on correct formation of letters along with correct pencil grip.  We find that it is so important to get in good habits (and in some cases, break bad habits) with handwriting early on.  We have already begun the basics of this program, and we will use it in conjunction with our letter program in language arts.  So when your child is learning about the letter "s," s/he will also be learning the correct formation of that letter.

Back-to-School Night is this Wednesday at 6:00 in K2.  This is a night for parents only, as we go over our curriculum and classroom policies.  Please make every effort to attend.  We cover a lot of information that night in only 45 minutes, so afterward, if you need more information on anything, please don’t hesitate to contact us.  Please also plan on attending the Home & School Club meeting in the cafeteria immediately following our presentation.  If you are unable to attend Back-to-School Night, please let us know so that we can set aside materials for you.

As mentioned last week, one item we will be covering during our meeting is the Consolidated Classroom Payment.  It looks like this payment will be between $65 & $70.  Again, this payment goes directly to your child’s “extra” items during the year, such as field trip and bus fees, binders that we buy for them, class t-shirts for each child, etc.  Please make every effort to make this payment.  If for some reason we don’t spend all of the money, it stays with your child and will go toward their first grade consolidated payment.  It is a lot easier to collect this payment at Back-to-School Night, so we’d appreciate it if you bring your checkbooks and attach your payment to your Home & School Club membership form that we will have you fill out that night.  If this payment is a hardship, the Home & School Club does help supplement the CCP money for our grade level.  Thank you in advance for your support with this payment—it helps us do a lot of projects and activities that would otherwise not be possible.

Some of you have asked about classroom help.  We will put our parent helper opportunities back out at Back-to-School Night, then make our final schedule.  You will find out which days you are officially helping after we have a chance to look over all of the information, and make sure we have coverage for all the activities and days.  If you signed up to help at center time, we will begin centers the week of September 12th.  Thank you to so many of you who signed up to help at the Orientation—we already have most of our activities covered!  I know we do still need Thursday center helpers and a Wednesday envelope/Red Bag person, so we’ll hope for a few more volunteers at Back-to-School Night.

There is no school this Friday, September 3rd, or Monday, September 6th.  Friday there will be a staff development meeting throughout the district, and Monday is of course Labor Day.

We are looking forward to another fun week with your children, and we are excited to meet and talk with you all Wednesday night!

UPCOMING EVENTS:
Wednesday, September 1st @ 6:00: Back-to-School Night
Friday, September 3rd: No School-- Teacher Inservice Day
Monday, September 6th: No School-- Labor Day
Tuesday, September 14th: Great American Fundraiser Ends
Friday, September 17th: Back-to-School Picnic & Movie Night

Fundraiser

Dear Parents,

I forgot to mention in my earlier e-mail that your children will be coming home tomorrow with the catalog for our first school-wide fundraiser.  Of course, participation is entirely optional.  We are partnering for the first time with Great American.  Unique, high-quality gift wrap, stationery, food items, holiday and home products will be available, through their catalog and online. There will be incentive prizes awarded during and after the sale to students who collect orders.  The sale will run from August 30th, with order forms due by September 14th.

Since many of you are new to the school, you may want to know how to "pace yourselves" on school fundraisers, so that your family members/co-workers don't run away when they see you coming!!  Our biggest fundraiser, the Walk-a-thon, is coming up in October.  With the walk-a-thon, 100% of the proceeds go to Alta Vista, whereas with the upcoming fundraiser,  just 40% goes to the school.  Throughout the school year, we also have dinner nights at various restaurants that give back a percentage to our school, and then in late winter, we have a check drive (also 100% to the school).  At the end of the year, there is also an auction, where classroom projects and donations from the community (such as vacation homes, etc.) are auctioned off.

These fundraisers are different than the CCP, as the money raised goes to the Home & School Club to pay for school-wide enrichment programs such as Art Vista, Clay, and technology expenses.  With the CCP, the money goes directly to your child to pay for grade level field trips and fees associated with kindergarten activities.

I have also confirmed that the CCP is $65, and the check should be made out to the Alta Vista Home & School Club.  You will attach the payment to your Home & School Club membership form that you will receive at Back-to-School Night.

Week of 8/22

Dear Parents,

It was great meeting you at our Kindergarten Orientation, and we are looking forward to a fantastic year together!

This e-mail will serve as a test.  Please reply to me so that I know that you've received it.  If you'd like to add any other e-mail addresses to our distribution list, please send me those addresses as well.  As mentioned at orientation, we do nearly all of our communication via e-mail, so please provide an e-mail address that you check frequently.  We have found that e-mail is a much more reliable method to ensure that you are receiving our communications, as kindergartners often tend to lose things between school and home, especially if they are making a day care stop in between :)

On Monday, Mrs. Sheikh and I will both be there all day with your children.  Starting Tuesday, we will begin our typical schedule (Mrs. Grist=M, T, every other W.  Mrs. Sheikh=every other W, Th, F) so only I will be at school, and I will be there on Wednesday as well.  Hopefully, you all had time to review the letter we gave you on Friday explaining the benefits of the shared contract.  You will find that you are getting more than 50% from each of us, which is definitely a plus for your children!

I typically send out an e-mail on Sunday each week so that you know what's going on for the week.  You can also check our website for further information:
http://altavista.unionsd.org/home/Classroom+Pages/Kindergarten/Mrs.+Grist+and+Mrs.+Sheikh
The calendar tab on the left-hand side is particularly helpful.  We put all "big" events on our calendar, and we also have the sharing topic for the week posted there as well.  Sharing doesn't begin for a few more weeks, but you can find some information about sharing by clicking the "sharing" tab.  I have updated that link to include which day is your child's sharing day.

For tomorrow:

• Please arrive on time and have your child ready to enter the classroom at 8:05
• Please say goodbye to your children at the door, rather than following them into the classroom and prolonging the goodbyes.  We will both be there to comfort any children who need an extra hug!
• Pack a healthy snack for your child that includes a drink.
• We do like your children to have a small backpack.  Although it may often come home empty (except on Wednesdays!), we often do have a project here and there that we send home during the week.  Having a backpack gets the children in an early habit of taking responsibility for their things and putting them all in one place.
• All supplies are provided for your children, but we do have a list on our web page of optional donations.

This week in class will of course be all about procedures and getting to know the children.  We will be reading the story of the "Gingerbread Man" and decorating some gingerbread cookies of our own.  In years past, those gingerbread cookies have run away and so we have to go on a hunt around the school looking for them!  This is our way of familiarizing your children with the campus, and it is an extremely memorable event for the children-- look forward to them coming home and talking all about the gingerbread cookies later this week.  We will also be enjoying the story, "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" and doing some fun art projects that go along with that.

Back-to-School Night is on September 1st at 6:00 p.m., followed by a Home & School Club meeting in the school cafeteria at 6:45.  Please be sure to attend both meetings, as we have a lot of information to cover to familiarize you with our classroom program and all of the wonderful programs at our school provided by funding & support from our Home & School Club. 

We look forward to seeing you all tomorrow morning!  Again, please e-mail me back with a confirmation that I've entered your e-mail address correctly, and please feel free to e-mail any questions you may have or add any additional e-mail addresses that you'd like.

Sincerely,
Nikki Grist & Michele Sheikh

Welcome

Dear Parents,

We'd like to welcome you and your children to our kindergarten class, and we are very excited to meet everyone tomorrow!  Please come to our classroom, K2, at 10:00 for our "meet and greet".  Our focus will mostly be on the children tomorrow, but we do have some papers to give you and we will briefly talk with you about basic procedures for Monday morning.

Our primary form of communication is via e-mail, so if you'd like to add other family members to our distribution list, please feel free.  This e-mail will serve as a test that we have entered the addresses we do have correctly.  We obviously do not have all e-mail addresses at this time, so if you happen to have a friend in the class that we've missed, please feel free to forward this message.  We will also be collecting e-mail addresses tomorrow and confirming those that we have.

A bit about Mrs. Sheikh and me-- this is the start of our 8th year teaching kindergarten together (our 7th year at Alta Vista and we also taught at Athenour for a year).  Prior to that, I taught 1st grade at Lone Hill and Mrs. Sheikh taught 2nd grade at Lietz.  We have what is called a "shared contract."  I will be with your children on Mondays, Tuesdays, and every other Wednesday.  Mrs. Sheikh will be at school on alternate Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.  We feel that this schedule is very beneficial for your children, as you will have the insight and experience of two different teachers.  We are in constant communication, and we have heard from all our previous classes that the transition between the two of us is seamless.

Please mark your calendars and arrange babysitters for Back-to-School Night on Wednesday, September 1st, at 6:00.  We will go over our classroom policies and procedures, discuss our curriculum, and answer any questions that you may have.  Of course, if you have any questions prior to that, please feel free to ask!  We are both very good about responding to e-mails and of course, you will also have a great opportunity to talk with us tomorrow.

We look forward to meeting you and your children tomorrow, and we hope that the orientation will help ease any anxieties as we begin our exciting year together.  Kindergarten is an extremely special time, and we look forward to sharing it with you!

Sincerely,
Nikki Grist & Michele Sheikh