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
Sunday, August 29, 2010
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.
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.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
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/
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:
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
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/
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.
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
Thursday, August 19, 2010
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
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