Dear Parents,
It was great seeing so many of you at the Alta Vista Auction on Saturday night. Thank you for coming out and supporting the school. I hope that some of you won some of the many wonderful items being auctioned off. A huge thanks goes out to the Carlens for braving hosting this school-wide event, not to mention all of the preparation that went into it! Also, hats off to Edna & Art for drumming up so many donations from local restaurants and businesses! And of course, thanks to all of you for your donations. I may be biased, but I definitely think our auction item was one of the best :)
If you were unable to attend the auction, but would still like to make a donation to the Home & School Club, you can send in a check to the check drive. They are recommending $25 per child at the school, but whatever you can send in would be appreciated.
I know that a few of you have mentioned that you'd like to chaperone for the upcoming field trip on the 7th. We can take up to five parents with us. Please e-mail me (again if you already have!) to let me know that you are interested. If we need to, we will draw names from a hat in the interest of fairness. Thank you!
Thank you also for volunteering to donate items to the Spring Fling, as well as volunteer on April 8th for this fun event. This is definitely a kindergarten favorite, so please join us if you can. Please send in the pink form to let us know if you can donate an item or sign up to help. Thanks again.
We have Spring pictures tomorrow. For this one, you do not need to pre-order. Just send your children dressed in their "Spring best" and they will all have their pictures taken. In a few weeks, the proofs will arrive. If you like the proofs, you can order them and if you don't, you just send them back.
This week, we have two new letters, Ww & Ee. The Alphafriends are Willy Worm and Edna Elephant. We also have a new sight word, play. A few parents mentioned to me last week that they've been having their children use http://www.spellingcity.com and they've been enjoying it. Check it out if you haven't-- it is great reinforcement of the high frequency words. The link and information on how to access our list is to the right on the "Kindergarten Websites" tab. We will also introduce a new math unit on weight and capacity this week.
We are continuing our science unit on wood & paper. We are now on the "paper" part of the unit. We have many great hands-on activities ahead of us this week, including making a paper mache project tomorrow.
We have an Art Vista lesson on Thursday.
This week's sharing is Book Share. Please have your child prepared to tell us the name of the book, a little bit about what it's about, and have a favorite page bookmarked.
Moms will want to note that we have set the date for Muffins with Mom. This is an important day to the kindergartners to celebrate their moms, so please try to attend. Muffins with Mom will actually be AFTER Mother's Day on Monday, May 9th. Dads, we will have an event for you, too, in June, so stay tuned! We hope that by giving these dates ahead of time, working parents will be able to take a little time off to join us.
Please remember your Red Bags tomorrow. This Wednesday we will send home the last Red Bag before Spring Break-- there will be no homework next week.
We resume with Centers tomorrow, so please check the schedule! Thank you.
Helpers/Activities This Week:
MONDAY: Red Bags due, Centers (Tammi & Manami), Sharing, Library
TUESDAY: Centers (Jamie & Laura), Sharing
WEDNESDAY: Weds. Envelopes & Red Bags prepped (Karla/Derek/Angie), Computers (Matt), Sharing, Red Bags go home
THURSDAY: Art Vistas (Angie, Tammy, Lorraine), Centers (Melanie & Arden), Sharing
FRIDAY: SPARK P.E. (Megan/Mark, Derek, Tim, Margaret)
Upcoming Events:
3/28: Spring Pictures
4/7: Field Trip to Prusch Farm
4/8: Spring Fling
4/9-4/17: Spring Break
5/5: Cinco de Mayo Hat Dance
5/9: Muffins with Mom
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Week of 3/20
Dear Parents,
We enjoyed all the fun with trapping leprechauns last week, and we thank you for your help and encouragement with the traps! We hope that it was a fun family project-- we know that the kids certainly seemed to enjoy sharing them and seeing what happened after setting them up.
Thank you to all the families who have met with us so far for conferences. We look forward to meeting with the rest of you this week. We have one trimester left together to prepare your children for first grade-- let's continue working as a team to make that happen.
We have a new consonant this week, and we did introduce another vowel last week that I forgot to mention. Our consonant will be Xx, and our vowel was Oo. The Alphafriends are "Mr. X-ray" and "Ozzy Octopus." Now that we are introducing another vowel, we will be able to do even more blending and spelling on our own. Keep practicing! We also have a new sight word, the. Children should now know 22 of our 40 sight words. See the list of words on our webpage for more reinforcement, or go to http://www.spellingcity.com, click on "find a list," and enter my last name under teacher search. You will be able to see both the kindergarten list, and the expanded list that includes first grade words. Your children will be able to play word games on this website to become more familiar with these words.
The sharing this week is toy in a bag. At this point in the year, your children can probably write a few words in the clues, if not the entire clue. Even if they just write single words to help them with their presentation (eg. "red" instead of "It is red."), sharing is a great chance to encourage your children to do more writing on their own.
We are continuing with our math topic on measuring this week, and will get back to science next week. We now have plenty of boxes to take apart-- thank you for all the donations.
We will have a Cornerstone lesson on Tuesday. We continue without centers this week. We will return to our regular center schedule next week when conferences are over.
On a final note, please plan on attending the Alta Vista Home & School Club's auction this Saturday, March 26th. The auction money goes toward supporting all of the great enrichment programs that the Home & School Club funds-- Art Vistas, Clay, I Love to Read, Cornerstone, Music (grades 1-5), and playground improvements. There will be appetizers and drinks and of course time to bid on all of the fabulous classroom creations and teacher adventures. Mrs. Sheikh & I both have items up for bidding-- Mrs. Sheikh will take children to the park for a play date, and I will take children to Golfland for a round of mini-golf. Our classroom creation along with creations from all the classrooms will be up for bidding. It is a fun event that helps raise a good percentage of the Home & School Club's budget, so come on out and support Alta Vista!
Helpers/Activities This Week:
MONDAY: NO CENTERS, Sharing, Library
TUESDAY: NO Centers, Sharing, Cornerstone
WEDNESDAY: Weds. Envelopes & Red Bags prepped (Karla/Derek/Angie), Computers (Margaret), Red Bags go home
THURSDAY: NO Centers
FRIDAY: Author visit, SPARK P.E. (Megan/Mark, Derek, Tim, Margaret)
Upcoming Events:
3/14-3/25: Parent-Teacher Conferences
3/25: Author Tim Myers visits Alta Vista
3/26: Home & School Club Auction
3/28: Spring Pictures
4/7: Field Trip to Prusch Farm
4/8: Spring Fling
4/9-4/17: Spring Break
5/5: Cinco de Mayo Hat Dance
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Week of 3/13
Dear Parents,
We hope you are all getting used to the new schedule after "springing forward" and have enjoyed a nice long weekend.
Of course, we begin parent-teacher conferences this week. Please contact us if you need a reminder of your date or time. We are looking forward to meeting with everyone and discussing your child's progress. It's hard to believe that we are already in our last trimester of kindergarten. The time will pass quickly in this last 3 months, and before you know it, we will be moving on to first grade! After we meet over these next two weeks, please be sure to praise your children for the progress they've made, and also continue to support them in areas where they still need reinforcement to meet end-of-year standards.
We are looking forward to seeing all of the wonderful leprechaun traps tomorrow! It's exciting to see the children's creations, and they are so proud to share and talk about how their trap will work. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, they will have that opportunity. They will share their design with the class and tell us how it will hopefully catch a leprechaun! That will be this week's sharing so that you don't have to prepare any additional items after St. Patrick's Day. Then, we will all come in on Thursday and see if we were successful!
Please remember to send in your child's Red Bag tomorrow amidst all the excitement of bringing in the leprechaun trap. The only additional homework this week was the journal.
This week, we have another review week with letters. We are reviewing the letters t, k, and n. We do have a new high frequency word: said. Our art will center around St. Patrick's Day activities. We had fun last week with our new science unit called "Wood and Paper," and will continue more with it after conferences.
We are also beginning a new math topic on measuring & comparing length. We finished the topic on geometric shapes, but please continue to keep the words sphere, cone, cube, and cylinder in your child's vocabulary. These words will continue to be a big part of the math program in years to come, so it is a good idea to keep your children familiar with them.
There are no centers for the next two weeks due to parent-teacher conferences. Remember that all conferences will be up in the office conference room, two doors past Miss Vicky's desk.
Please note a few events below in the "upcoming events." On April 8th, we will have a fun celebration called Spring Fling. This is an annual kindergarten event, and K1 & K2 will join together for this. Children will participate in many special spring-inspired centers for the duration of their school day. There will be spin art, seed planting, outside games and activities, etc. We will need many parent volunteers to run the centers on this day, so please plan on joining us if you are able. The previous day, April 7th, we will have a field trip to Emma Prusch Farm, for which we will need a few chaperones. Unfortunately, space is limited, but if you are unable to join us on the field trip, please consider helping at Spring Fling instead. Thank you!
Helpers/Activities This Week:
MONDAY: NO CENTERS, Leprechaun Trap Sharing, Library
TUESDAY: NO Centers, Leprechaun Trap Sharing
WEDNESDAY: Weds. Envelopes & Red Bags prepped (Karla/Derek/Angie), Leprechaun Trap Sharing, Computers (Matt), Red Bags go home, Leprechaun Traps set up.
THURSDAY: NO Centers
FRIDAY: SPARK P.E. (Megan/Mark, Derek, Tim, Margaret)
Upcoming Events:
3/14-3/25: Parent-Teacher Conferences
3/25: Author Tim Myers visits Alta Vista
3/29: Spring Pictures
4/7: Field Trip to Prusch Farm
4/8: Spring Fling
4/9-4/17: Spring Break
5/5: Cinco de Mayo Hat Dance
We hope you are all getting used to the new schedule after "springing forward" and have enjoyed a nice long weekend.
Of course, we begin parent-teacher conferences this week. Please contact us if you need a reminder of your date or time. We are looking forward to meeting with everyone and discussing your child's progress. It's hard to believe that we are already in our last trimester of kindergarten. The time will pass quickly in this last 3 months, and before you know it, we will be moving on to first grade! After we meet over these next two weeks, please be sure to praise your children for the progress they've made, and also continue to support them in areas where they still need reinforcement to meet end-of-year standards.
We are looking forward to seeing all of the wonderful leprechaun traps tomorrow! It's exciting to see the children's creations, and they are so proud to share and talk about how their trap will work. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, they will have that opportunity. They will share their design with the class and tell us how it will hopefully catch a leprechaun! That will be this week's sharing so that you don't have to prepare any additional items after St. Patrick's Day. Then, we will all come in on Thursday and see if we were successful!
Please remember to send in your child's Red Bag tomorrow amidst all the excitement of bringing in the leprechaun trap. The only additional homework this week was the journal.
This week, we have another review week with letters. We are reviewing the letters t, k, and n. We do have a new high frequency word: said. Our art will center around St. Patrick's Day activities. We had fun last week with our new science unit called "Wood and Paper," and will continue more with it after conferences.
We are also beginning a new math topic on measuring & comparing length. We finished the topic on geometric shapes, but please continue to keep the words sphere, cone, cube, and cylinder in your child's vocabulary. These words will continue to be a big part of the math program in years to come, so it is a good idea to keep your children familiar with them.
There are no centers for the next two weeks due to parent-teacher conferences. Remember that all conferences will be up in the office conference room, two doors past Miss Vicky's desk.
Please note a few events below in the "upcoming events." On April 8th, we will have a fun celebration called Spring Fling. This is an annual kindergarten event, and K1 & K2 will join together for this. Children will participate in many special spring-inspired centers for the duration of their school day. There will be spin art, seed planting, outside games and activities, etc. We will need many parent volunteers to run the centers on this day, so please plan on joining us if you are able. The previous day, April 7th, we will have a field trip to Emma Prusch Farm, for which we will need a few chaperones. Unfortunately, space is limited, but if you are unable to join us on the field trip, please consider helping at Spring Fling instead. Thank you!
Helpers/Activities This Week:
MONDAY: NO CENTERS, Leprechaun Trap Sharing, Library
TUESDAY: NO Centers, Leprechaun Trap Sharing
WEDNESDAY: Weds. Envelopes & Red Bags prepped (Karla/Derek/Angie), Leprechaun Trap Sharing, Computers (Matt), Red Bags go home, Leprechaun Traps set up.
THURSDAY: NO Centers
FRIDAY: SPARK P.E. (Megan/Mark, Derek, Tim, Margaret)
Upcoming Events:
3/14-3/25: Parent-Teacher Conferences
3/25: Author Tim Myers visits Alta Vista
3/29: Spring Pictures
4/7: Field Trip to Prusch Farm
4/8: Spring Fling
4/9-4/17: Spring Break
5/5: Cinco de Mayo Hat Dance
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Week of 3/6
Dear Parents,
The upcoming week is a review week in language arts. We will start to have many more of these, as we have now learned 19 of the 26 letter sounds. We will be reviewing Dd & Zz this week, as well as reviewing for and have. From our expanded word list (those that are also covered in first grade) we will introduce the words of and not.
We will continue the study of shapes this week in math. Last week was mostly a review of the plane shapes-- square, rectangle, circle, and triangle. This week we will focus more on the solid shapes-- sphere, cone, cube, cylinder. Again, whatever reinforcement you can provide at home on this vocabulary will be helpful. Additionally, to reinforce the solid shape names, we will have "solid shape sharing" this week! Have your child bring in something shaped like a sphere, cone, cube, or cylinder. They need to tell which shape the item is. It will be fun to see the different way that solid shapes can look.
We will begin our science unit, "Wood & Paper," this week. This is a really fun unit for the children, with many fun hands-on projects for identifying wood, paper, and their properties. Look forward to lots of dinner-time talk about wood & paper!
This Wednesday, your child will bring home a special homework assignment. We will be building leprechaun traps! Get creative and have fun-- traps are due on Monday the 14th, along with the Red Bag journal (there will be no other homework this week). There will be more specific directions in the Red Bag this week, but we do ask two things-- that the traps not contain any unwrapped food items (we've had trouble with ants in the past!) and that the traps are not overly large-- shoebox sized is perfect. We have to store traps from both the a.m. class & the p.m. class, and it gets tricky if we have huge traps. Plus, we're only catching tiny leprechauns :) We will share the traps during the week of the 14th, then on the 16th, we will set the traps in hopes of catching the little guys!
Parent-teacher conferences begin next Monday. If you have forgotten your date/time, please e-mail us. This trimester, we will be meeting in the office conference room. Go to the main office, past Miss Vicki's desk, and we will be in the 2nd door to the right. We will not have centers during conference time since Mrs. Lawson is not available to help since she will be conducting her own conferences.
There is no school this Friday due to a teacher inservice day.
Parent Helpers: the helper schedule (see tab at right) has now been updated through the end of the year. Please check it out and let me know if there are any conflicts. Thank you all of you for being so reliable & for always finding replacements when there is a conflict. We REALLY appreciate it! Centers have run so smoothly this year, thanks to all of you.
If you have not yet sent in February's "I Love to Read" calendar, please do so in tomorrow's Red Bag.
Helpers/Activities This Week:
MONDAY: Centers (Megan & Tammy), Sharing
TUESDAY: Centers (Margaret & Jamie), Sharing
WEDNESDAY: Weds. Envelopes & Red Bags prepped (Karla/Derek/Angie), Sharing, Computers (Tim), Red Bags go home
THURSDAY: Centers (Matt/Lorraine & Kristi), Sharing
FRIDAY: NO SCHOOL: INSERVICE DAY
Upcoming Events:
3/9: Leprechaun Trap building homework
3/11: No School: Staff Development Day
3/14-3/25: Parent-Teacher Conferences
3/25: Author Tim Myers visits Alta Vista
3/29: Spring Pictures
4/7: Field Trip to Prusch Farm
4/8: Spring Fling
4/11-4/15: Spring Break
5/5: Cinco de Mayo Hat Dance
The upcoming week is a review week in language arts. We will start to have many more of these, as we have now learned 19 of the 26 letter sounds. We will be reviewing Dd & Zz this week, as well as reviewing for and have. From our expanded word list (those that are also covered in first grade) we will introduce the words of and not.
We will continue the study of shapes this week in math. Last week was mostly a review of the plane shapes-- square, rectangle, circle, and triangle. This week we will focus more on the solid shapes-- sphere, cone, cube, cylinder. Again, whatever reinforcement you can provide at home on this vocabulary will be helpful. Additionally, to reinforce the solid shape names, we will have "solid shape sharing" this week! Have your child bring in something shaped like a sphere, cone, cube, or cylinder. They need to tell which shape the item is. It will be fun to see the different way that solid shapes can look.
We will begin our science unit, "Wood & Paper," this week. This is a really fun unit for the children, with many fun hands-on projects for identifying wood, paper, and their properties. Look forward to lots of dinner-time talk about wood & paper!
This Wednesday, your child will bring home a special homework assignment. We will be building leprechaun traps! Get creative and have fun-- traps are due on Monday the 14th, along with the Red Bag journal (there will be no other homework this week). There will be more specific directions in the Red Bag this week, but we do ask two things-- that the traps not contain any unwrapped food items (we've had trouble with ants in the past!) and that the traps are not overly large-- shoebox sized is perfect. We have to store traps from both the a.m. class & the p.m. class, and it gets tricky if we have huge traps. Plus, we're only catching tiny leprechauns :) We will share the traps during the week of the 14th, then on the 16th, we will set the traps in hopes of catching the little guys!
Parent-teacher conferences begin next Monday. If you have forgotten your date/time, please e-mail us. This trimester, we will be meeting in the office conference room. Go to the main office, past Miss Vicki's desk, and we will be in the 2nd door to the right. We will not have centers during conference time since Mrs. Lawson is not available to help since she will be conducting her own conferences.
There is no school this Friday due to a teacher inservice day.
Parent Helpers: the helper schedule (see tab at right) has now been updated through the end of the year. Please check it out and let me know if there are any conflicts. Thank you all of you for being so reliable & for always finding replacements when there is a conflict. We REALLY appreciate it! Centers have run so smoothly this year, thanks to all of you.
If you have not yet sent in February's "I Love to Read" calendar, please do so in tomorrow's Red Bag.
Helpers/Activities This Week:
MONDAY: Centers (Megan & Tammy), Sharing
TUESDAY: Centers (Margaret & Jamie), Sharing
WEDNESDAY: Weds. Envelopes & Red Bags prepped (Karla/Derek/Angie), Sharing, Computers (Tim), Red Bags go home
THURSDAY: Centers (Matt/Lorraine & Kristi), Sharing
FRIDAY: NO SCHOOL: INSERVICE DAY
Upcoming Events:
3/9: Leprechaun Trap building homework
3/11: No School: Staff Development Day
3/14-3/25: Parent-Teacher Conferences
3/25: Author Tim Myers visits Alta Vista
3/29: Spring Pictures
4/7: Field Trip to Prusch Farm
4/8: Spring Fling
4/11-4/15: Spring Break
5/5: Cinco de Mayo Hat Dance