Dear Parents,
The big news this week is our first Field Trip on Friday! We are excited to see the play, I Don't Want to Go to Bed. Here's the description of the play from the website:
Observe the frustrations of a young girl who doesn’t like bedtime so transforms this task one night into a wonderful imaginative adventure with her parents by re-enacting her favorite stories including The Three Little Pigs and The Billy Goats Gruff.
We have seen this play in the past, and it's a fun one! Your child needs to wear his/her "Grist/Sheikh" t-shirt, preferably over the top of something warm (a turtleneck, fleece, long-sleeved t-shirt underneath). This makes them easier to spot as we enter the theater and get seated. Because this trip doesn't require a lot of extra supervision (we are simply boarding the bus at school, then pulling into the parking lot in Sunnyvale, exiting the bus, and going in the theater) we are only having one parent chaperone. Thanks to those who offered-- we do have a farm trip in the Spring when we will need more chaperones. Please remember to also send a snack with your child. We will eat it upon returning to school.
This week's share is 100 Day collections. Please have your child bring in 100 items that they'd like to show us on his/her share day. Children who share on Friday can bring in their sharing any day this week, since we won't have time for sharing due to the field trip. This is a fun counting activity at home, plus a fun way to see the many ways 100 can look. I will probably ask your child how they counted out their items (by 1s, 10s, 5s, etc.), so have him/her prepared to talk about the process. Remember that it can be as simple as 100 cheerios-- whatever your child has 100 items of that s/he would like to share.
The 100th day of school is this Wednesday, and we will have lots of fun projects and activities in class in celebration of the day! We have 180 total school days, so we are more than half-way through the year. Our Spring conferences are rapidly approaching (March) and I will be sending out those sign-ups in a separate e-mail. If you had a conference with me in the Fall, I will send you my schedule, and if you had a conference with Mrs. Sheikh, I will send you her schedule. As in the Fall, you can either print out our schedule and write in your time preferences & send it back with your child this week, or you can e-mail us with your three time preferences.
This week's letter is Kk, and our Alphafriend is Keely Kangaroo. We will be learning a new word this week, here. Last week, we learned a new vowel, Ii, and met the Alphafriend Iggy Iguana. Now we can read and spell CVC words with both short a and short i. We will be continuing with numbers 20-30 in math.
Our art activities this week will center around our snowy theme, the 100 day theme, and we will also begin talking about Chinese New Year/Lunar New Year. If there are any families in our class that celebrate Lunar New Year and would like to come and talk about this holiday, we would love to have you! The previous two years, we've had wonderful presentations on the Lunar New Year with cultural outfits and other important items being brought in. Please let us know if you'd be interested in talking to the class, either this week or next week.
On Monday, February 14th, we will be celebrating Valentine's Day in class. Just a reminder (since I know your children will be eagerly shopping for Valentines soon!) in kindergarten, we have the kids sign their valentines, but we do not have them write who the valentine is "to." This makes distribution MUCH easier, since most kids cannot read the names! So please sign the cards, but leave the "to" box blank. Please send in 23 valentines so that there are enough for each child in the class. Thanks!
Please send in your child's red bag tomorrow, and remember to include January's "I Love to Read" calendar, which is now almost due.
Helpers/Activities This Week:
MONDAY: Red Bags due, Centers (Laura & Megan), Sharing, Library
TUESDAY: Centers (Manami & Margaret), Sharing
WEDNESDAY: 100 Day Fun, Red Bags/Weds. Envelopes prepped (Karla/Derek/Angie), Sharing, Computers (Matt), Red Bags go home
THURSDAY: Centers (Tammi & Melanie), Sharing
FRIDAY: Field Trip to California Theater Center
Upcoming Events:
2/2: 100 Day
2/4: Field trip to CA Theater Center to see a play
2/7: Snow Day (dress up in snow gear and have a day of "snow" activities)
Week of 2/20: No School: President's Week
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Week of 1/23
Dear Parents,
We hope you all enjoyed this glorious weekend, and it looks like we're in for continued beautiful weather this week! We wanted to thank everyone for turning in their permission slips so promptly for the upcoming field trip on Feb. 4th. And finally, we wanted to thank all parents and students for having such a great first month of journal entries with the Red Bags! Everyone seems to be letting their children do all their own spelling, and are encouraging them so well in their efforts! I already see improvement in the writing just in this short time. Remember that the focus in kindergarten is giving kids the ability to use their phonics skills to write on their own and get their thoughts down on paper. As they move through the grade levels, spelling will become more of a focus. Right now the focus is the process and applying phonetic sounds so that they have that framework to fall back on whenever they need to write on their own.
Our new letter this week is Ll, and the Alphafriend is Larry Lion. We have a new word this week, is. We will also introduce another vowel sound this week, Ii, and that Alphafriend is Iggy Iguana. We are now half-way through our kindergarten year, as we had our 90th day of school last week!
We are starting a new math topic this week: numbers to 30. Even though we have completed the numbers to 20 topic, many children have more difficulty with the numbers between 10 and 20 than they have with numbers between 20 and 30. Please check in with your children on recognition of numbers below 20. As a reminder, a good reinforcement website for math concepts is the link I've sent you before-- http://www.ixl.com The school paid for this website for the year for all kindergartners to use, so take advantage of it, as the membership will expire in June. The info on how to log in is posted on the right-hand side of this web page, under the tab, "Kindergarten Websites." The ixl website is broken up into all the kindergarten standards, so you can easily choose topics that your child needs more reinforcement on. Check it out!
Much of our art this week is around a penguin theme, which is always fun for the kids. We are also beginning our new Social Studies unit on geography and mapping. We have SPARK P.E. on Friday, so send your children in their sneakers and class t-shirts.
This Wednesday, there is another school-wide Spirit Day. The theme is "Patriot Day." The children may wear red, white, and blue, or they may also wear camouflage gear. Again, these days are entirely optional.
Another fun day to mark your calendars for is 100 day on Wednesday the 2nd. This is an in-class celebration of our 100th day of school. We will have many fun activities for counting out 100. This is another very memorable day for the children. The sharing theme next week, in honor of 100 day, will be a collection of 100 things. This does not have to be anything fancy-- the kids can bring in 100 pennies, Legos, Cheerios, etc. The main thing is that you & your child sit down together to count out the item. You can count them by 1s or put them into 10 groups of 10-- whatever your child prefers. It is a fun activity for them to see the different ways that "100" can look, so start discussing with your children what they'd like to bring in next week.
On Monday, February 7th, mark your calendars for Snow Day!! This is a day when the children come to school all dressed in their snow gear-- whatever items you have. Mittens, knit hats, jackets, snow boots, scarves, goggles, etc. are all welcome! Please do not buy anything special for this day, just use what you have or borrow from a friend. They wear their gear, and then we have a day of snow-themed fun! We will be making snowy pictures and having a "snowball fight" using wadded up recycled paper! It is always lots of fun.
This week's share is Book Share. Please have your child prepared to tell the title of the book, and a few sentences about what it's about. Also, have a favorite page bookmarked. Thanks!
Helpers/Activities This Week:
MONDAY: Red Bags due, Centers (Tammy & Laura), Sharing, Library
TUESDAY: Centers (Wendy & Manami), Sharing
WEDNESDAY: Red Bags/Weds. Envelopes prepped (Karla/Derek/Angie), Sharing, Computers (Margaret), Red Bags go home
THURSDAY: Centers (Arden & Kristi), Sharing
FRIDAY: Sharing, SPARK P.E. (Tim, Margaret, Megan/Mark, Angie/Derek)
Upcoming Events:
1/26: Patriot Day (wear red, white, & blue or camouflage)
1/28: Wear class t-shirts & sneakers (SPARK P.E.)
2/2: 100 Day
2/4: Field trip to CA Theater Center to see a play
2/7: Snow Day (dress up in snow gear and have a day of "snow" activities)
Week of 2/20: No School: President's Week
We hope you all enjoyed this glorious weekend, and it looks like we're in for continued beautiful weather this week! We wanted to thank everyone for turning in their permission slips so promptly for the upcoming field trip on Feb. 4th. And finally, we wanted to thank all parents and students for having such a great first month of journal entries with the Red Bags! Everyone seems to be letting their children do all their own spelling, and are encouraging them so well in their efforts! I already see improvement in the writing just in this short time. Remember that the focus in kindergarten is giving kids the ability to use their phonics skills to write on their own and get their thoughts down on paper. As they move through the grade levels, spelling will become more of a focus. Right now the focus is the process and applying phonetic sounds so that they have that framework to fall back on whenever they need to write on their own.
Our new letter this week is Ll, and the Alphafriend is Larry Lion. We have a new word this week, is. We will also introduce another vowel sound this week, Ii, and that Alphafriend is Iggy Iguana. We are now half-way through our kindergarten year, as we had our 90th day of school last week!
We are starting a new math topic this week: numbers to 30. Even though we have completed the numbers to 20 topic, many children have more difficulty with the numbers between 10 and 20 than they have with numbers between 20 and 30. Please check in with your children on recognition of numbers below 20. As a reminder, a good reinforcement website for math concepts is the link I've sent you before-- http://www.ixl.com The school paid for this website for the year for all kindergartners to use, so take advantage of it, as the membership will expire in June. The info on how to log in is posted on the right-hand side of this web page, under the tab, "Kindergarten Websites." The ixl website is broken up into all the kindergarten standards, so you can easily choose topics that your child needs more reinforcement on. Check it out!
Much of our art this week is around a penguin theme, which is always fun for the kids. We are also beginning our new Social Studies unit on geography and mapping. We have SPARK P.E. on Friday, so send your children in their sneakers and class t-shirts.
This Wednesday, there is another school-wide Spirit Day. The theme is "Patriot Day." The children may wear red, white, and blue, or they may also wear camouflage gear. Again, these days are entirely optional.
Another fun day to mark your calendars for is 100 day on Wednesday the 2nd. This is an in-class celebration of our 100th day of school. We will have many fun activities for counting out 100. This is another very memorable day for the children. The sharing theme next week, in honor of 100 day, will be a collection of 100 things. This does not have to be anything fancy-- the kids can bring in 100 pennies, Legos, Cheerios, etc. The main thing is that you & your child sit down together to count out the item. You can count them by 1s or put them into 10 groups of 10-- whatever your child prefers. It is a fun activity for them to see the different ways that "100" can look, so start discussing with your children what they'd like to bring in next week.
On Monday, February 7th, mark your calendars for Snow Day!! This is a day when the children come to school all dressed in their snow gear-- whatever items you have. Mittens, knit hats, jackets, snow boots, scarves, goggles, etc. are all welcome! Please do not buy anything special for this day, just use what you have or borrow from a friend. They wear their gear, and then we have a day of snow-themed fun! We will be making snowy pictures and having a "snowball fight" using wadded up recycled paper! It is always lots of fun.
This week's share is Book Share. Please have your child prepared to tell the title of the book, and a few sentences about what it's about. Also, have a favorite page bookmarked. Thanks!
Helpers/Activities This Week:
MONDAY: Red Bags due, Centers (Tammy & Laura), Sharing, Library
TUESDAY: Centers (Wendy & Manami), Sharing
WEDNESDAY: Red Bags/Weds. Envelopes prepped (Karla/Derek/Angie), Sharing, Computers (Margaret), Red Bags go home
THURSDAY: Centers (Arden & Kristi), Sharing
FRIDAY: Sharing, SPARK P.E. (Tim, Margaret, Megan/Mark, Angie/Derek)
Upcoming Events:
1/26: Patriot Day (wear red, white, & blue or camouflage)
1/28: Wear class t-shirts & sneakers (SPARK P.E.)
2/2: 100 Day
2/4: Field trip to CA Theater Center to see a play
2/7: Snow Day (dress up in snow gear and have a day of "snow" activities)
Week of 2/20: No School: President's Week
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Week of 1/16
Dear Parents,
We hope you are enjoying some fun family time on this long weekend!
Of course, we have tomorrow off school in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. On Tuesday, it will be very important to return the Red Bags on time since we only have a day to turn them back around. So please put them by the door or wherever you will remember them Tuesday morning :) Please remember to check your child's red bag to be sure that it includes the journal, the book, and the homework folder. Many red bags have been returned recently that are missing one item. Thanks!
We have a new letter this short week, Ff, and the Alphafriend is Fifi Fish. We have a new sight word, can. Please review the "High Frequency Word" tab from our website to learn which words we've introduced. A good way to practice reading and spelling the sight words is by logging onto http://www.spellingcity.com/k2grist "Missing Letter" and "Audio Word Match" are great games for younger players.
We will continue with our math topic on numbers to 20. Please continue reinforcing these numbers at home with flashcards, especially if you've noticed your child having difficulty recognizing them. Especially difficult seem to be 12, 13, and 15, because they don't follow the pattern of "number in the ones place" plus "the word teen," like fourteen, sixteen, etc.
This week's share will be letter of the week share. Please have your children bring in things that start with the letter Ff. They usually like to hide these in a bag and write clues, so encourage them to do so.
We have been doing a great job getting our calendars in for I Love to Read. As we draw closer and closer to becoming first graders, we'd like to encourage you to do as much reading as you can with your children. They really should be reading at least 20 minutes a day. In first grade, the big push is to read 1000 minutes each month (about 30 minutes a day), so your children need to start getting prepared for that transition.
We look forward to seeing everyone on Tuesday, Red Bags in hand!
Helpers/Activities This Week:
MONDAY: NO SCHOOL
TUESDAY: Red Bags due, Centers (Margaret & Jamie), Sharing
WEDNESDAY: Red Bags/Weds. Envelopes prepped (Karla/Derek/Angie), Sharing, Computers (Tim), Red Bags go home
THURSDAY: Centers (Tammi & Matt/Lorraine), Sharing
FRIDAY: Sharing, SPARK P.E. (Tim, Margaret, Megan/Mark)
Upcoming Events:
1/17: No School: MLK Holiday
2/2: 100 Day
2/4: Field trip to CA Theater Center to see a play
2/7: Snow Day (dress up in snow gear and have a day of "snow" activities)
Week of 2/20: No School: President's Week
We hope you are enjoying some fun family time on this long weekend!
Of course, we have tomorrow off school in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. On Tuesday, it will be very important to return the Red Bags on time since we only have a day to turn them back around. So please put them by the door or wherever you will remember them Tuesday morning :) Please remember to check your child's red bag to be sure that it includes the journal, the book, and the homework folder. Many red bags have been returned recently that are missing one item. Thanks!
We have a new letter this short week, Ff, and the Alphafriend is Fifi Fish. We have a new sight word, can. Please review the "High Frequency Word" tab from our website to learn which words we've introduced. A good way to practice reading and spelling the sight words is by logging onto http://www.spellingcity.com/k2grist "Missing Letter" and "Audio Word Match" are great games for younger players.
We will continue with our math topic on numbers to 20. Please continue reinforcing these numbers at home with flashcards, especially if you've noticed your child having difficulty recognizing them. Especially difficult seem to be 12, 13, and 15, because they don't follow the pattern of "number in the ones place" plus "the word teen," like fourteen, sixteen, etc.
This week's share will be letter of the week share. Please have your children bring in things that start with the letter Ff. They usually like to hide these in a bag and write clues, so encourage them to do so.
We have been doing a great job getting our calendars in for I Love to Read. As we draw closer and closer to becoming first graders, we'd like to encourage you to do as much reading as you can with your children. They really should be reading at least 20 minutes a day. In first grade, the big push is to read 1000 minutes each month (about 30 minutes a day), so your children need to start getting prepared for that transition.
We look forward to seeing everyone on Tuesday, Red Bags in hand!
Helpers/Activities This Week:
MONDAY: NO SCHOOL
TUESDAY: Red Bags due, Centers (Margaret & Jamie), Sharing
WEDNESDAY: Red Bags/Weds. Envelopes prepped (Karla/Derek/Angie), Sharing, Computers (Tim), Red Bags go home
THURSDAY: Centers (Tammi & Matt/Lorraine), Sharing
FRIDAY: Sharing, SPARK P.E. (Tim, Margaret, Megan/Mark)
Upcoming Events:
1/17: No School: MLK Holiday
2/2: 100 Day
2/4: Field trip to CA Theater Center to see a play
2/7: Snow Day (dress up in snow gear and have a day of "snow" activities)
Week of 2/20: No School: President's Week
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Week of 1/9
Dear Parents,
We hope that the journal writing has gone successfully this week. Our goal is that the children are excited about writing, not stressed out by it, so please let us know if there were any problems. A few other reminders about the journals:
We have a new letter this week: Gg. The Alphafriend is Gertie Goose. We also have a new high frequency word: go. We have begun our new math topic on numbers 10-20. Numbers in the teens can sometimes be difficult for the children to identify, so if you feel your child needs some reinforcement with these, make some flashcards and practice at home. By the end of the year, children should be easily able to recognize, write, and count up to numbers 0-30. This week's sharing is Homemade Item-- no clues necessary for this one-- the kids just tell about how they made the item.
We have Martin Luther King's birthday holiday coming up. We will be talking about him in class and doing some art projects. When we discuss MLK, we will discuss some of the discrimination that took place in the past, and how he helped change that. So if you hear your children asking questions about that, you will know why. We try to keep it fairly simple in kindergarten in terms that they can understand and relate to.
We still need a few I Love to Read calendars from December. Please send those in tomorrow's Red Bags, or e-mail Manami/Margaret your child's minutes. The presentation is this Thursday. Thanks!
You will be getting a permission slip in your Wednesday envelope this week for our first field to the California Theater Center in Sunnyvale to go and see a play! Details will be in the Wednesday envelope. Please fill out the permission slip & return it as soon as possible. Children will ride a school bus to Sunnyvale, see the play, and ride back to Alta Vista.
We have SPARK P.E. this Friday. Please remember to send your children in sneakers, and let's also wear our Grist/Sheikh Great White Sharks shirts!
Helpers/Activities This Week:
MONDAY: Red Bags Due, Centers (Melanie & Tammy), Sharing, Library
TUESDAY: Centers (Manami & Margaret), Sharing
WEDNESDAY: Red Bags/Weds. Envelopes prepped (Karla/Derek/Angie), Sharing, Computers (Matt), Red Bags go home (due back Tuesday next week)
THURSDAY: Centers (Kristi & Arden), Sharing, I Love to Read (Margaret & Manami)
FRIDAY: Sharing, SPARK P.E. (Tim, Margaret, Megan/Mark)
Upcoming Events:
1/13: I Love to Read Presentation
1/17: No School: MLK Holiday
2/4: Field trip to CA Theater Center to see a play
2/7: Snow Day
Week of 2/20: No School: President's Week
We hope that the journal writing has gone successfully this week. Our goal is that the children are excited about writing, not stressed out by it, so please let us know if there were any problems. A few other reminders about the journals:
- Writing should always be in PENCIL.
- Above the writing, in the blank box, children should draw a neat, (at least) four-color picture.
- Encourage your children to spell high-frequency words that we've introduced correctly.
- Please DO NOT copy a sentence from the book.
We have a new letter this week: Gg. The Alphafriend is Gertie Goose. We also have a new high frequency word: go. We have begun our new math topic on numbers 10-20. Numbers in the teens can sometimes be difficult for the children to identify, so if you feel your child needs some reinforcement with these, make some flashcards and practice at home. By the end of the year, children should be easily able to recognize, write, and count up to numbers 0-30. This week's sharing is Homemade Item-- no clues necessary for this one-- the kids just tell about how they made the item.
We have Martin Luther King's birthday holiday coming up. We will be talking about him in class and doing some art projects. When we discuss MLK, we will discuss some of the discrimination that took place in the past, and how he helped change that. So if you hear your children asking questions about that, you will know why. We try to keep it fairly simple in kindergarten in terms that they can understand and relate to.
We still need a few I Love to Read calendars from December. Please send those in tomorrow's Red Bags, or e-mail Manami/Margaret your child's minutes. The presentation is this Thursday. Thanks!
You will be getting a permission slip in your Wednesday envelope this week for our first field to the California Theater Center in Sunnyvale to go and see a play! Details will be in the Wednesday envelope. Please fill out the permission slip & return it as soon as possible. Children will ride a school bus to Sunnyvale, see the play, and ride back to Alta Vista.
We have SPARK P.E. this Friday. Please remember to send your children in sneakers, and let's also wear our Grist/Sheikh Great White Sharks shirts!
Helpers/Activities This Week:
MONDAY: Red Bags Due, Centers (Melanie & Tammy), Sharing, Library
TUESDAY: Centers (Manami & Margaret), Sharing
WEDNESDAY: Red Bags/Weds. Envelopes prepped (Karla/Derek/Angie), Sharing, Computers (Matt), Red Bags go home (due back Tuesday next week)
THURSDAY: Centers (Kristi & Arden), Sharing, I Love to Read (Margaret & Manami)
FRIDAY: Sharing, SPARK P.E. (Tim, Margaret, Megan/Mark)
Upcoming Events:
1/13: I Love to Read Presentation
1/17: No School: MLK Holiday
2/4: Field trip to CA Theater Center to see a play
2/7: Snow Day
Week of 2/20: No School: President's Week
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Week of 1/2
Dear Parents,
Happy New Year! We hope you all had a wonderful vacation & are rested and ready to get back into the swing of things! I am sending this e-mail a little earlier to help you prepare for the upcoming week-- it'll feel like a long one!
First of all, we wanted to thank everyone for all the help we received with the Nutcracker performance. The kids did a wonderful job and they all looked so cute! We had a great cast party afterward, thanks to all of you. Finally, a huge thanks to everyone for their generosity and thoughtfulness with all the wonderful gifts Michele & I received. We have been so touched by how giving this class is, and we appreciate it so much.
We have a pretty academic month ahead of us with no major breaks other than the observation of Martin Luther King's Birthday on the 17th.
We will start right in with a new letter-- Pp-- and a new word-- and. The Alphafriend's name is Pippa Pig. We will have centers all this month. Art projects will revolve around the theme of weather, especially snow! We will even start right back up this week with an Art Vista lesson on Wednesday. Thank you to Angie & Tammy for presenting this one.
Our sharing this week is toy in a bag to give the children a chance to show off all those favorite holiday gifts!
Red bags will go home on Wednesday, of course. Remember that from now on, the red bags will contain a journal component. Very specific directions about our expectations with the journal will be attached to the journal this week. Please read that letter and leave it in the red bag folder for your reference. Basically, your child will use the journal to respond to the book that's in the red bag. Children need to write at least one sentence about the book-- what they liked/didn't like, who their favorite character was, etc. We DO NOT want children to copy a sentence from the book or copy a sentence that you have written for them. This is their chance for developing writing skills, which will help their confidence when we take our first writing assessment in February. A sentence written: "I like the fune got" for "I like the funny goat." is great and is what is expected from them at this time. If you would like to go over spelling with them once they are done, you can pencil it in underneath their words and show them what the conventional spelling looks like. However, do not make them correct their writing at this time. We want to encourage them in their thinking before we start focusing on the mechanics.
I Love to Read calendars for December are now due. Please turn them in as soon as possible. It was obviously misprinted this month, so just do your best with making it work. Remember that you can always use any blank calendar to report your child's minutes, or you can simply send an e-mail with how many minutes your child read in the month. Thanks!You should be receiving the January calendar in this week's Wednesday envelope.
This Week's Activities/Helpers:
MONDAY: Centers (Laura & Megan) Sharing, Library
TUESDAY: Centers (Jamie & Manami), Sharing
WEDNESDAY: Art Vista, Red Bags/Wednesday Envelopes (Karla/Angie/Derek), Computers (Margaret), Sharing
THURSDAY: Centers (Tammi & Derek) Sharing
FRIDAY: ZUMBA, Sharing
Upcoming Events:
1/5: Art Vista Lesson
1/17: No School: MLK Holiday
2/2: Field trip to CA Theater Center to see a play
Week of 2/20: No School: President's Week
Happy New Year! We hope you all had a wonderful vacation & are rested and ready to get back into the swing of things! I am sending this e-mail a little earlier to help you prepare for the upcoming week-- it'll feel like a long one!
First of all, we wanted to thank everyone for all the help we received with the Nutcracker performance. The kids did a wonderful job and they all looked so cute! We had a great cast party afterward, thanks to all of you. Finally, a huge thanks to everyone for their generosity and thoughtfulness with all the wonderful gifts Michele & I received. We have been so touched by how giving this class is, and we appreciate it so much.
We have a pretty academic month ahead of us with no major breaks other than the observation of Martin Luther King's Birthday on the 17th.
We will start right in with a new letter-- Pp-- and a new word-- and. The Alphafriend's name is Pippa Pig. We will have centers all this month. Art projects will revolve around the theme of weather, especially snow! We will even start right back up this week with an Art Vista lesson on Wednesday. Thank you to Angie & Tammy for presenting this one.
Our sharing this week is toy in a bag to give the children a chance to show off all those favorite holiday gifts!
Red bags will go home on Wednesday, of course. Remember that from now on, the red bags will contain a journal component. Very specific directions about our expectations with the journal will be attached to the journal this week. Please read that letter and leave it in the red bag folder for your reference. Basically, your child will use the journal to respond to the book that's in the red bag. Children need to write at least one sentence about the book-- what they liked/didn't like, who their favorite character was, etc. We DO NOT want children to copy a sentence from the book or copy a sentence that you have written for them. This is their chance for developing writing skills, which will help their confidence when we take our first writing assessment in February. A sentence written: "I like the fune got" for "I like the funny goat." is great and is what is expected from them at this time. If you would like to go over spelling with them once they are done, you can pencil it in underneath their words and show them what the conventional spelling looks like. However, do not make them correct their writing at this time. We want to encourage them in their thinking before we start focusing on the mechanics.
I Love to Read calendars for December are now due. Please turn them in as soon as possible. It was obviously misprinted this month, so just do your best with making it work. Remember that you can always use any blank calendar to report your child's minutes, or you can simply send an e-mail with how many minutes your child read in the month. Thanks!You should be receiving the January calendar in this week's Wednesday envelope.
This Week's Activities/Helpers:
MONDAY: Centers (Laura & Megan) Sharing, Library
TUESDAY: Centers (Jamie & Manami), Sharing
WEDNESDAY: Art Vista, Red Bags/Wednesday Envelopes (Karla/Angie/Derek), Computers (Margaret), Sharing
THURSDAY: Centers (Tammi & Derek) Sharing
FRIDAY: ZUMBA, Sharing
Upcoming Events:
1/5: Art Vista Lesson
1/17: No School: MLK Holiday
2/2: Field trip to CA Theater Center to see a play
Week of 2/20: No School: President's Week