Week of 12/16

Dear Parents,

First of all, we would like to say that our hearts go out to the families and community of Newtown, Connecticut.  I want to assure you that we do have a plan in place and annual training/review for this type of disaster.  I also wanted to post the letter that was sent by Karen Miller last Friday regarding this tragedy:
Dear Alta Vista Community,

We are all saddened by the horrific school shooting that occurred today in Connecticut, and our hearts go out to the parents and families. I want to assure our parents that we have safety and security procedures in place to protect our students and staff.  Our staff is prepared to assist students and parents in dealing with the news of this tragic event. 

Living in the age of information, some of our children will undoubtedly hear about this tragedy. This is a good time for parents to discuss with their children the importance of speaking with a trusted adult concerning matters that they hear about in the media.  Even though none of us will be able to understand this senseless tragedy, it is important for children (who hear of it) to be able to talk with a trusted adult.  As adults, it will be important for us to assure the children that our school campus is extremely safe.  

 For more information on Alta Vista's emergency procedures, please visit the school website > About Us > Emergency Procedures. You can also find links to resources to help children deal with tragic events at www.cde.ca.gov/ls/ss/cp/tragedy.asp 

 If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the school or district office.

Respectfully,

Karen Miller

Of course, the main "business" of this week is all things Nutcracker! We will be practicing daily this week, so I am canceling centers. We do not have 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 the website for the schedule for the next trimester. Let me know if there are any problems. Thanks!

We will be wrapping up our topic on subtraction this week.  This is definitely a concept that needs continued reinforcement at home as well.  Get out those iPads over the break, or go to a math reinforcement website to work on both addition and subtraction facts.  This week's share is Song, Poem, Nursery Rhyme. Children can choose a song or poem that they are familiar with, or sing an Alphafriend song or a color song that we've learned in class. Songs and poems in other languages are always welcome, too!

We have a Wacky Wednesday this week for the p.m. class, and then afterward, at 1:25, we will be having a costume-making party in K2. 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 the room moms to let them know how you can help for our Nutcracker post-party.  Also, we have our photographers, but we will also need just a few parents to help us with the theater make-up and costuming.  Please let us know if you can help with this.

A reminder about clothing for the Nutcracker: please remember to dress your children in the clothes suggested in the letter sent home a few weeks ago. Children should come to school dressed in these items on Friday. Girls can wear something over the top of their leotards when they arrive and change into their ballet shoes for the performance. As a reminder, here is the list:

MARIE: Bathrobe & slippers
SOLDIERS/RUSSIAN DANCERS: White Shirt & Dark Pants w/ dark shoes
MOUSE KING/MICE: 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.

Please arrive promptly in the cafeteria for the Nutcracker, as we intend to start the show right on time. We want everyone to enjoy the performance, so please refrain from standing and blocking the aisles as much as possible.  Also remember that school-aged siblings are not to be pulled out of class to watch the performance.  Thank you!

Remember to bring your blue bags tomorrow. Starting in January, a journal will be added to the blue bags so that your children can write a response to the book in the bag each week. No blue bags this Wednesday, but there will be Wednesday envelopes. Please return those on Thursday so that they don't get lost over the long holiday.

Happy Holidays!

Week of 12/9

Dear Parents,

This is our final week of centers & homework before the holidays.  Thank you so much to our classroom helpers in 2012, and thank you for your continued support in 2013!  I have added center helpers through the beginning of March-- please check the schedule and put it in your calendars.  Next week, we will be focusing on our Nutcracker rehearsals.  Speaking of Nutcracker, now that you know your child's part, please let me know if you have any trouble rounding up leotards, ballet shoes, etc.  I have a few extra ballet items of my daughter's that I am happy to loan out to anyone.

On another Nutcracker note, I am in need of two photographers for the event.  They will be responsible for taking constant pictures throughout the performance, and then burning me a CD of the pictures afterward.  We will offer priority seating to the photographers.  Please let me know if you can help.

And on a final Nutcracker note, our "Paper Party" for making all the paper parts of the costumes (wands, hats, ribbons, etc.) is next Wednesday the 19th at 1:20.  This is a Wacky Wednesday for the afternoon class.  We could still use more parent helpers for this event.  Children are welcome to stay (or return) and play in the classroom.

This week's letter is Pp and the Alphafriend is Pippa Pig.  We also have a new word, and.  Our sharing this week will be "Letter of the Week" sharing again-- this time for Pp. 

We wrapped up our math unit on addition, but judging by the test scores, this is a topic that may need some continued reinforcement.  I highly encourage you to check out the website http://www.xtramath.org  I also recommend iPad apps such as "Math Bingo," "Math Puppy," and "Hungry Fish," to name a few.  If there are other math reinforcement apps your child enjoys, please email them to me-- we are always looking for new apps.  Our new math topic is subtraction, so these types of reinforcement tools will continue to be beneficial.

Please return your child's Blue Bag tomorrow for the last time in 2012!  Blue Bags will go home this Wednesday, but not on the the 19th.  

Upcoming Events:
12/19:  December's Wacky Wednesday & Nutcracker "Paper Party"
12/21:  Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00 (a.m. class) & 1:30 (p.m. class)
1/18:  Staff Development Day, no school
1/21:  MLK Day, no school
1/30:  January's Wacky Wednesday

Week of 12/2

Dear Parents,

I 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 21st in this week's Wednesday envelope. Please let me 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 I do not intend for you to have to buy anything. Again, the performance of the Nutcracker will be at 10:00 (a.m. class) and 1:30 (p.m. class) on the 21st. Get there a little early (the invitation we are sending home this has a time 10 minutes before the start) so that you can be seated when the performance begins. You won't want to miss it!

On Wednesday the 19th at 1:20, we will have the "Paper Party" for the Nutcracker costume pieces. I 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.  Please let me know if you are available.

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 continuing with our math unit on addition.  Again, I want to remind you that http://www.xtramath.org is a great, free website for reinforcing math facts.

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.

Blue Bags are due tomorrow, and will go home again for the next two weeks. When we return from Winter Break, the journal component will be added to the Blue 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 Blue Bag on the week of the January 6th.

Upcoming Events:
12/19:  December's Wacky Wednesday & Nutcracker Costume Making Event
12/21:  Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00 (a.m. class) & 1:30 (p.m. class)
1/21:  MLK Day, no school
1/30:  January's Wacky Wednesday

Week of 11/25

Dear Parents,

I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving break. I'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. 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 21st, 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 begin a math topic on addition this week. Any reinforcement you can provide at home on this would be great, as this is obviously a core concept.

If you check out our webpage, link always at the bottom of the weekly e-mail, there is a link 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. In addition to Spelling City, you may also want to check out: http://www.xtramath.org to reinforce math facts. These sites are just extra tools to reinforce learning.

We will return to centers for the next three weeks, then we take a break from centers again the week of December 16th. Please check the helper schedule below, as well as on the website.

This week's sharing is Book Share. Please send in a book with your child, with a favorite page bookmarked. Children should be prepared to tell the title of the book & a bit about what it's about.

If you are in need of some new books or holiday books-- I have activated a new book order on the Scholastic website. There is a quick turnaround on this one so that we can hopefully get them in time for the holidays. They are due next Wednesday the 5th. Take a look by following the link on the right-hand side of the website.

Thank you for returning your blue bags last week. They will go home for the next three weeks. They will not go home on December 19th.

REMINDER: There is a Wacky Wednesday this Wednesday the 28th. The p.m. class runs from 10:00 to 1:20.

Looking forward to seeing everyone Monday!

Upcoming Events:
11/28: November's Wacky Wednesday
12/19: December's Wacky Wednesday & Nutcracker Costume-Making Event
12/21: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00 (a.m. class) & 1:30 (p.m. class)
1/21: Martin Luther King Day, No School
1/30: January's Wacky Wednesday

Week of 11/12

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 office conference room. After school conferences will be held in the classroom.

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 three weeks before winter break.

Our new letter this week (and next) is Hh. The Alphafriend is Hattie Horse. We will also be introducing our first vowel, Aa, Andy Apple! This means that we will begin blending and spelling short-vowel words now. Our new sight word is a. We continue on our math topic of more, fewer, and equal.

This week's sharing is Toy in a Bag. Please work with your child to think of three clues about the item that they can recite for the class. There will be no sharing next week due to the shortened week and all the special activities.

We will also continue with our Social Studies unit on "Times Past." On Friday, we will have SPARK P.E., weather permitting.

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 19th. 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) 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. Even if you are unable to attend, please send a food item with your child-- no need for anything complicated! Thanks to those who have already signed up. It looks like we will have plenty of help and many delicious dishes coming our way! Also, if you are still cutting costumes for us, we will need those by the end of this week. Thank you so much!

Next Tuesday the 20th, we have Grandparents' Day at school. They are welcome to come to the reception at 10:30 in the cafeteria, but there will be a gap before the afternoon class starts. They will come into the classroom with their grandchild and 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. An orange form went home about Grandparents' Day in last week's Wednesday envelope. 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.

Please be sure to send in your child's Blue Bag tomorrow since we have only one day to turn them around. The Blue 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!

Upcoming Events:
11/12: No School, Veteran's Day
11/13-11/16: Parent-Teacher Conferences
11/19: Kindergarten Friendship Feast @ 10:15 (a.m. class) and 1:30 (p.m. class)
11/20: Grandparents' Day @ 10:30 (a.m. class) and 11:30 (p.m. class)
11/28: November's Wacky Wednesday
12/19: December's Wacky Wednesday & Nutcracker Costume-Making Event
12/21: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00 (a.m. class) & 1:30 (p.m. class)

Week of 11/4

Dear Parents,

Remember that Daylight Savings Time ends.  Hopefully, you got to enjoy an extra hour of sleep on Sunday!

We begin Parent-Teacher conferences this Tuesday, through next Friday the 16th. Remember that conferences will be held in the Office Conference Room. Walk past Miss Vicki's desk to the 2nd door on the right. Please e-mail me if you need to confirm your time. Also another reminder that the p.m. class schedule will remain the same-- 11:30-2:50-- for the next 2 weeks.

We have no centers for the next three weeks due to Parent-Teacher Conferences and Thanksgiving. However, I will still need help on Wednesdays with Computer Lab, and we will also continue with SPARK P.E., weather permitting. Centers will resume the week after Thanksgiving. There are a few projects that I may need some help on in class in the upcoming weeks. I 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 Homemade Item. Please send in an item that your child made or mostly made at home, a crafting place, party, etc. No need for clues or bags!  As always, Friday kids can share any day this week due to the Friday holiday.

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

We will begin our Social Studies Unit on Times Past this week. We will be comparing and contrasting modern times to times past.

Please remember to send in your child's Blue Bag, with the homework folder inside, tomorrow. In this week's Wednesday envelope, you will find a sign-up form for the food and help at the Friendship Feast on the 19th.   Please fill that out and turn it in as soon as you can. We need many helpers and plenty of food to make this a success. We are looking forward to a fun event!

I am going to start putting together the helper schedule on the website for 2013. Please e-mail me if any changes need to be made/you need to switch days/etc. If anyone new would like to be added to the schedule, please let me know. Thanks so much to everyone for your generosity with your time-- centers and all enrichment activities have run SO smoothly this year!!

Week of 10/28

Dear Parents,

Happy Halloween week!  To make things run more smoothly this week, we are planning to send home the blue bags on Tuesday instead of Wednesday.  The children will already have enough bits and pieces to get home on Wednesday between costumes and party crafts!  Because of this, please make sure to send in your child's blue bag tomorrow.  We only have one day to turn around the bags and we will need every bag there to make this possible.

Curriculum

Our letter this week is Bb, and our Alphafriend is Benny Bear. Our sight words this week will be like and can.  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-ox 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. 

Halloween

A few reminders again about Halloween--  First, it is a Wacky Wednesday for the p.m. class.  All Kindergarten children should arrive 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 begin heading out to the all-kindergarten parade at 10:30.  Please join us on the kindergarten playground. 

November Events

While on the subject of classroom events, and to give you an opportunity to plan ahead, we have two big events (back-to-back) in November.  On Monday the 19th, 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 afternoon kindergartens come together for this event.  The children from our class will be dressed as Native Americans, and the children in K1 will be dressed as Pilgrims.  No need to provide any costumes-- we have some special costumes made out of pillowcases that a few parents have offered to cut for us in the upcoming weeks.  This event is definitely a great photo-op!

The next day, Tuesday the 20th, 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.  Afterward, the grandparents will come into our room with the kids.  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 join us for a fun art project.   I 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.    

Conferences 
I am looking forward to meeting with each of you beginning next Tuesday the 6th, for your child's conference. Conferences will be held in the office conference room since the kindergarten classes will be in session during most conference times.  The conference room is located in the main office, 2nd door to the right after you walk through the swinging half-door.  If you are unsure of your conference time, please e-mail me.  Thanks! 

Upcoming Events:

10/29:  Dining for Dollars @ Willow Street Pizza
10/31: October's Wacky Wednesday  
10/31: Halloween Parade & Celebration, 10:30
11/6-11/16: Parent-Teacher Conferences 
11/12: No School, Veteran's Day 
11/19: Kindergarten Friendship Feast @ 10:15 (a.m. class) and 1:30 (p.m. class) 
11/20: Grandparents' Day @ 10:30 (a.m. class) and 11:30 (p.m. class)
11/28: November's Wacky Wednesday  
12/21: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00 (a.m. class) & 1:30 (p.m. class)

Week of 10/21

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 & t-shirts, if possible, so that we can all celebrate the laps that we walked!

If you didn't have a chance to check out the Book Fair yesterday, it runs through Wednesday of this week, before school (for the big kids), at noon, and after school (for the big kids).  Additionally, if you cannot make it to the Fair, you can order online and have your child's books delivered directly to school with no shipping charges.  That link is:
http://bookfairs.scholastic.com/bookfairs/cptoolkit/homepage.do?method=homepage&url=alta_vista

We have a busy week this week with all the regular activities, plus Red Ribbon Week.

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.

The sharing this week is Book Share.  Please send your child with a book to show the class.  Have them prepared to tell the title, a little bit about what happens in the story, and please bookmark a favorite page.

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 exercise. 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)

Please remember to send in your child's blue bag tomorrow after such a busy weekend.

Upcoming Events:
10/29:  Dining for Dollars @ Willow Street Pizza
10/31: October's Wacky Wednesday  
10/31: Halloween Parade & Celebration, 10:30
11/6-11/16: Parent-Teacher Conferences 
11/12: No School, Veteran's Day 
11/19: Kindergarten Friendship Feast @ 10:15 (a.m. class) and 1:30 (p.m. class) 
11/20: Grandparents' Day @ 10:30 (a.m. class) and 11:30 (p.m. class)
11/28: November's Wacky Wednesday  
12/21: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00 (a.m. class) & 1:30 (p.m. class)

Week of 10/14

Dear Parents,

It's Walk-a-thon week!!  We will be doing our practice laps this week so that the kids have an idea of the lap length and what to expect.  On Friday, the kids will get a peek at their special necklace that they will get at check-in.  Every 5 laps, the kids get a different plastic foot on the necklace.  The kindergartners get a special foot already on their necklace for the practice laps that they've done.  These plastic feet are very motivating for the children!  You will see them walk many more laps than you ever thought they could walk, all for a plastic foot! :)  There are also treats every few laps and plenty of other fun things on campus like face painting and a crazy hair booth.  The walk-a-thon runs from 9:00 to 3:00, but you can arrive and leave any time that fits with your schedule-- don't worry about needing to check in at the start.  You can check in any time during the day, and don't forget that if you are coming from participating in a soccer game, etc., to mention that at check-in.  Even if you can only come for an hour or so, please join in for a fun day that supports all of the enrichment programs at our school!

Our next big event is the school book fair starting this Thursday.  You may check it out in the morning, at lunch, or after school with your children.  There are many great offerings, and a percentage of every dollar you spend there will go toward our school library.  So please check it out! 

Language Arts

This week's letter is Rr. The Alphafriend is Reggie Rooster. We have a new high frequency word, in. We have started incorporating these words in our writing and encouraging the children to begin writing a short sentence.  For example, now that we know I and see, we wrote a sentence that started with "I see...."  As kindergarten progresses, the expectation is that the children will write at least one sentence on their own.  We will be expecting 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.  It is very fun to watch their writing progress at this level. 

Math

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 (1 and 5, 6 and 0, 2 and 4, etc.)  The idea behind many of the coloring pages you'll see coming home (they are often red & yellow) is to help the children visualize number combinations that make the bigger number.  We are also working on the concept of counting on.  We use a "five frame" and we know that if it is full, we just count on from 5 (5, 6, 7, 8...).  This is a hard concept for kindergartners, but it is an important one to know. 

Homework

On the homework letter page this week & next, 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.  If there is a box to draw a picture that starts with the letter, 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 Blue Bags each Monday.  I appreciate it! 

Sharing

The share this week is song, poem, or nursery rhyme.  Children should be prepared to recite a familiar song, poem or nursery rhyme that they know.  A good choice for this one if your child is "stuck" is to sing a color song or an Alphafriend song.  This is also a great time for children who know another language to share a song or nursery rhyme in that language.  We love hearing other languages in K2!

Upcoming

 Thanks to everyone for scheduling your conferences with me so quickly.  If you have not yet scheduled a conference, please do so as soon as possible.

We are still in need of cardboard egg cartons.  We have a project coming up this week where we use sections of egg cartons for eyes and a nose.  If you have an empty cardboard egg carton at home that you can send in, I'd appreciate it.

Just an update on the Halloween parade-- the school-wide parade is now at 8:30.  Kindergarten will not be participating in that.  Instead, we will take advantage of our Wacky Wednesday and have an all-kindergarten parade at 10:30 on the kindergarten yard.  Kindergartners should come to class dressed in their costumes.

Please send in your child's blue bag tomorrow, homework folder inside :) 

Upcoming Events:
10/20: Walk-a-thon  
10/31: October's Wacky Wednesday  
10/31: Halloween Parade & Celebration, 10:30
11/6-11/16: Parent-Teacher Conferences 
11/12: No School, Veteran's Day 
11/19: Kindergarten Friendship Feast @ 10:15 (a.m. class) and 1:30 (p.m. class) 
11/20: Grandparents' Day @ 10:30 (a.m. class) and 11:30 (p.m. class)
11/28: November's Wacky Wednesday  
12/21: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00 (a.m. class) & 1:30 (p.m. class)

Week of 10/7

Dear Parents,

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!  The color songs that we've been singing (and that hopefully, you've heard your children singing at home) will help the children spell out the color words on their own.

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 Letter of the Week sharing again-- this time for the letter Mm.  It is great to give the children an opportunity to think about things that start with the letter of the week.  Please have three clues about what is inside the bag either written on the bag or on a paper inside the bag.  Several children did not have clues written last week and this made it difficult for them, as they were unprepared to stand up in front of the class.  I told the children that this week, if they don't have their clues, they will have to try again the next day.  If your child shares on Friday, s/he may share any other day this week due to the Friday Staff Development day.

This week, I will begin assessing your children at center time so that I have up-to-date information to share with you at conference time. I will be working with them individually to check them on things such as letter recognition, letter sounds, sight word recognition, rhyming, etc. I 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!  Please either e-mail me with your time selections, or print out the form I have sent out and send it back to class with your child.

Last week, an envelope came home with your child with all the information about the walkathon.  The envelope is what you will use for collecting donations, unless you register your child online.  On the day of the walkathon, you DO NOT bring your money.  You just bring the envelope with your sponsor information/amounts, and the walkathon committee will figure out how much you owe after your child completes his/her laps.  This year, as I mentioned last week, the walkathon committee has added an online registration, where you can collect sponsor money via PayPal.  The online registration is easy to do!  Go to http://www.altavistawalkathon.org  The children all seem very excited about the walkathon, so I hope to see you all there on the 20th!  Not only does it help raise money for all of the wonderful enrichment programs at our school, but it is a great community event.  There is so much to do besides the walking!  Come out and enjoy the day.

And...since I've seen many of you on the soccer fields, I wanted to let you know that if you have to leave for a soccer game (or come a little later because of soccer) please let the people at the check-in desk know.  Your child gets 10 laps of credit for soccer games or other outside sports obligations that they have.

Along with the Walk-a-thon, the Scholastic Book Fair also begins on Thursday the 18th.  It will be open in the morning (8:00-9:00) at lunch (noon) and after school (2:00-3:30).  It will also be open during the Walk-a-thon.  Check it out-- there will be some great selections there, and a percentage of the sales goes to support the Alta Vista Library.   

Blue bags, with homework folders inside are due tomorrow.  Thanks for being so great about returning the Blue Bags each week on time.   

Upcoming Events:
10/12: No School, Staff Development Day
10/20: Walk-a-thon  
10/31: October's Wacky Wednesday  
10/31: Halloween Parade & Celebration
11/6-11/16: Parent-Teacher Conferences 
11/12: No School, Veteran's Day 
11/19: Kindergarten Friendship Feast @ 10:15 (a.m. class) and 1:30 (p.m. class) 
11/20: Grandparents' Day @ 10:30 (a.m. class) and 11:30 (p.m. class)
11/28: November's Wacky Wednesday  
12/21: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00 (a.m. class) & 1:30 (p.m. class)

Week of 9/30

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. Instead, it is in the order of frequency of these sounds in words.  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. I have noticed in the past several weeks while we were doing our daily overview of the alphabet that a few children had difficulty recognizing the letters out of sequence.  They also had trouble completing the activities at the bottom of those pages, whether it was matching upper case letters with lower case letters, or figuring out which letter came next in a sequence of letters.  If you are noticing that your child has had difficulty with these activities, I highly recommend the DVD called The Letter Factory, which is available for about $10 at Target, and I have also seen it recently at Costco.  This DVD really helps the children to learn both letter names and letter sounds, and it is truly a great investment. I used it with my own two children and really saw 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 pages like this will appear in the packet quite often 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 my 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 I've introduced in class. I 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.  Although kindergarten is not formally participating in this activity, we are encouraging children to walk, bike, ride scooters, etc., to get to school, rather than riding in a car.  Obviously, this encourages healthy activity, and it also reduces the congestion around the school. I hope you'll try coming to school by "foot power" even if only for a few days.

While on the topic of fitness, I also want to remind you that the Walkathon is coming up quickly on October 20th! Kindergarten will be doing practice laps so that the children will already have a tally mark on their Walkathon t-shirts to get the fun started. The children will also be collecting plastic feet on a necklace on the day of the event.  Every few laps at the Walkathon, they add a foot to the 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! There is a kick-off assembly this week to get the kids excited about the walkathon, but kindergarten students usually don't attend assemblies.  However, I wanted to give you the link to the walkathon's website, where you can register your child and easily solicit donations on his/her behalf :)  It is: http://www.altavistawalkathon.org  The first 100 registrants get a coupon for a free bundtlet from "Nothing Bundt Cakes" in Los Gatos.  I hope you are all planning to come out for the Walkathon-- it is a great community event & your child won't want to miss it.

Finally, last week,  Miss Miller hosted the first Cougar Gold Card lunch.  When children are "caught being good," I give them Cougar Gold Cards.  At the end of each month, one child's name is drawn from each classroom to come to a pizza lunch with the principal.  Obviously, only 10 children will get to go to this lunch, but I keep telling the kids that the more Cougar Gold Cards they have, the better their chances :) 

On a final note, if anyone thinks they may be going to IKEA in the next month, please let me know.  We purchase the pillow cases that we use for the Thanksgiving Feast costumes there at a very reasonable price.  If you are going, please e-mail me and I will give you the details on what we need, and of course, you will be fully reimbursed for the purchase.

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

Upcoming Events:
10/1-10/5:  Walk to School Week
10/12: No School, Staff Development Day
10/20: Walk-a-thon  
10/31: October's Wacky Wednesday  
10/31: Halloween Parade & Celebration, 10:30 a.m.
11/6-11/16: Parent-Teacher Conferences 
11/12: No School, Veteran's Day 
11/19: Kindergarten Friendship Feast @ 10:15 (a.m. class) and 1:30 (p.m. class) 
11/20: Grandparents' Day @ 10:30 (a.m. class) and 11:30 (p.m. class)
11/28: November's Wacky Wednesday  
12/21: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00 (a.m. class) & 1:30 (p.m. class) 

Week of 9/23

Dear Parents,

Happy Fall!  In our first days of Fall, we continue with our FOSS science unit on trees.  We are still studying the leaves on trees.  Last week, we collected leaves around campus, along with the leaves that the children brought in from home.  This week, we are doing leaf rubbings on Thursday.  If you have any large or interesting leaves in your yard at home, we'd love to use those for leaf rubbings. Finally, we will be talking about things that come from trees this week.  If you have a fruit or nut-bearing tree,  it would be great if your child can bring in an apple, walnut, lemon, etc. from a tree that you may have.  Please send those items in tomorrow or Tuesday.  Thank you!

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 jump 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 boo 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.

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.

We have our first Wacky Wednesday this week on the 26th.  The p.m. class runs from 10:00 to 1:20.  The p.m. class & a.m. class will do a joint activity and have some fun together during the overlap!

Remember that Friday is Picture Day.  At this time, I have not seen a picture order envelope.  I am guessing it may go home in this week's Wednesday envelope.  Look for it there.

Please send in your child's Blue 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!

Please note below: we have set the dates for the Friendship Feast & the Nutcracker performance-- mark you calendars-- you won't want to miss out :)

Upcoming Events:
9/26: First Wacky Wednesday (10:00-1:20)
9/28: Picture Day
10/12: No School, Staff Development Day
10/20: Walk-a-thon  
10/31: October's Wacky Wednesday  
10/31: Halloween Parade & Celebration 
11/6-11/16: Parent-Teacher Conferences 
11/12: No School, Veteran's Day 
11/19: Kindergarten Friendship Feast @ 10:15 (a.m. class) and 1:30 (p.m. class) 
11/20: Grandparents' Day @ 10:30 (a.m. class) and 11:30 (p.m. class)
11/28: November's Wacky Wednesday  
12/21: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00 (a.m. class) & 1:30 (p.m. class)

Week of 9/16

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. I 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 Blue Bag on Monday, with the homework folder inside.  No need to pull the homework folder out and turn it in separately-- I go through all the bags and pull out the homework.  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, I'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. I am 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" a couple of years ago, and found that it really improved sentence writing.

We began our science unit on Trees & Leaves last week, and the children are really enjoying 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 a leaf from home in a baggie on Monday.  It can be in the blue bag if that's easier.

Our next school-wide event is this Thursday, the 20th-- Family Science Night.   Participation is totally optional.  It starts at 6:15 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! 

Upcoming Events:
9/20:  Family Science Night @ 6:15 in Cafeteria
9/26:  First Wacky Wednesday
9/28:  School Picture Day
10/12:  No School: Staff Development Day
10/20:  Alta Vista Walkathon
10/31:  Halloween Party & Parade
10/31:  October's Wacky Wednesday

Week of 9/9

Dear Parents,

We've made it to our big week in kindergarten, where we start sharing, centers, and homework!

Just a reminder that homework goes home in the Blue Bag on Wednesday and is due back on Monday.    The Blue Bag will have a book inside that we'd like you to read a few times.  There is also a homework folder.  On the right side of the folder is the homework packet for the week.  On the left side of the folder are two laminated reference sheets, that stay in the folder all year.  One sheet explains the Blue Bag program, and has a letter formation guide from Handwriting without Tears on the back.  The other sheet has discussion question ideas for when you finish reading the book with your child.  Please keep in mind that the book in the blue bag is not a book that we expect your kindergartner to read alone.  These are to be read to your children.  Also, the books in the program are of different genres and themes.  The idea is to expose your children to different types of literature.  If the book is really not a favorite of your child's, just read it once and move onto other books that your child prefers.  Please try to keep the blue bags in a place where the dog won't eat it, food won't be spilled on it, etc.  We'd like to keep them nice for the future years of kindergartners!

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 Boy Who Cried Wolf, The Tortoise and The Hare, The Lion and the Mouse, and Jack and the Beanstalk, 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.   We enjoyed many activities with last week's science unit on the Five Senses.  The children tasted sour, sweet, salty, and bitter foods and they felt items in a "mystery box."  They also smelled some mystery smells in canisters and tried to guess what they were.  We had a great time!

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 Toy 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. 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 click on the link below for the classroom website, and look on the right-hand side at the "Sharing Info" link.  Sharing topics each week are posted under the "calendar" link.

Upcoming Events:
9/20:  Family Science Night
9/26:  First Wacky Wednesday
9/28:  School Picture Day
10/12:  No School: Staff Development Day
10/20:  Alta Vista Walkathon
10/31:  Halloween Party & Parade
10/31:  October's Wacky Wednesday

Week of 9/2

Dear Parents,

This week, we will continue with our overview of the alphabet. We will be covering letters Gg-Jj. We will also continue reading familiar fairy tales as well as some Aesop's Fables.  We will begin studying the five senses. I have a fun book with some hands-on activities that I do with the children, ending with doing a taste test of different apples for "taste". We will continue on our math topic on sorting, and we will also be working on an "All About Me" book.

In the next couple of weeks, we will be working on 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.

We have also been learning how to spell color words through singing some catchy tunes. We are introducing a new song each week. You may have enjoyed hearing your children sing the "red" song last week.

Of course, next week is a big week for us. We will begin sharing on the 10th. 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. Please click on the links (a.m. or p.m.) to the right to find more information about the share topics, as well as your child's share day.

Homework will also begin next week on the 12th.  It will come home in a blue bag.  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 10th!

Upcoming Events:
9/3:  No School: Labor Day
9/7:  Alta Vista Movie Night
9/20:  Family Science Night
9/26:  First Wacky Wednesday
9/28:  School Picture Day
10/20:  Alta Vista Walkathon

Week of 8/26

Dear Parents,

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 the 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.

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, I have observed that many of the 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 I encourage you to reinforce this at home-- we try and drop the all-capital letter name writing as quickly as possible. 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-- starting with a jazzy song called "We Start our Letters at the Top"-- and we will use it in conjunction with our letter program in language arts.  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 in K2.  The schedule for the night is as follows:
6:00-6:45:  Mrs. Sheikh's class meets in K2
6:45-7:15:  All classes meet in the cafeteria for a Home & School Club presentation
7:15-8:00:  Mrs. Grist's class meets in K2
This is a night for parents only, as I go over our curriculum and classroom policies. Please make every effort to attend. I cover a lot of information that night in only 45 minutes, so afterwards, if you need more information on anything, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Please also plan on attending the Home & School Club meeting in the cafeteria.   If you are unable to attend Back-to-School Night, please let me know so that I can set aside materials for you.

One item I will be covering during our meeting is the Consolidated Classroom Payment.  The CCP is a payment that each grade level at Alta Vista asks for at the beginning of each year.  It is different than a donation to the Home & School Club, which goes to school-wide programs such as Art Vistas, Clay, etc.  This payment goes directly to your child.  Rather than asking for money and items every time we have an event, the kindergarten team has totaled up what our costs will be for the entire year.  So instead of paying for your child's entrance fee each time we have a field trip, or running out to buy a pillow case when we have our Thanksgiving Feast (it's part of the costume), we ask for the money for these items up front.  Then we go out and do the purchasing in bulk, saving you time and money.  The CCP for kindergarten this year is around $65-- I will get the exact total for you before Back-to-School Night.  Please do whatever you can to make this payment, as it covers the costs of your own child's supplies and entrance fees and bus fees.  Even if you can only make a partial payment at this time-- every little bit helps. 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 I’d appreciate it if you bring your checkbooks.  Plus, there's usually a school-wide contest to see which class can get their CCP payments in first, and K2 has won that contest for the past three years, earning a class pizza party!  We would love to win again!  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. I will put our parent helper opportunities back out at Back-to-School Night, then make the final schedule. You will find out which days you are officially helping after I have a chance to look over all of the information, and make sure I have coverage for all the activities and days. If you sign up to help at center time, we will begin centers the week of September 9th. Thank you to so many of you who signed up to help at the Orientation—we already have most of our activities covered!

There is no school this Friday, August 31st, or Monday, September 3rd.  Friday there will be a staff development meeting throughout the district, and Monday is of course Labor Day.

I am looking forward to another fun week with your children, and I am excited to meet and talk with you all Wednesday night!

Upcoming Events:
8/29: Back-to-School Night
8/31:  No School: Staff Development Day
9/3:  No School: Labor Day
9/7:  Alta Vista Movie Night
9/20:  Family Science Night
9/26:  Wacky Wednesday
9/28:  School Picture Day
10/20:  Alta Vista Walkathon

Welcome!

Dear Parents,

We'd like to welcome you and your children to our kindergarten class, and we were happy to meet so many of you at the orientation.  

Our primary form of communication is via e-mail, so hopefully, you were able to provide an e-mail address to us at the orientation.  If not, please make sure to do so between now and Back-to-School Night.   We will send a few test e-mails between now and then, too, so look for those in your inbox.

The kindergarten daily schedules are:

• 8:05-11:25 AM Session
• 11:30-2:50 PM Session

For Monday:

• Please arrive on time and have your child ready to enter the classroom at the start time.
• 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.  If your child is attending day care either before or after kindergarten, it is a good idea to separate the snack items from the lunch items, as kindergartners often get confused and will eat all the food in one sitting!
• We do like your children to have a small backpack. Although it may often come home empty (except on Wednesdays!), we 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 appreciate donations of baby wipes, tissues, glue sticks, and dry-erase markers.
• The kindergarten parking lot will be closed this year at 7:45 a.m.  This is a new policy due to traffic congestion problems.  Please plan on walking or parking on Westchester between the hours of 7:45 to 8:15 a.m. AND 2:15 to 3:00.

Next 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 next week.  We will also be enjoying the story, "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" and doing some fun art projects that go along with that.

Please mark your calendars and arrange babysitters for Back-to-School Night on Wednesday, August 29th.   The schedule is as follows:

• 6:00-6:45 AM Class Presentation
• 6:45-7:15 Home & School Club Presentation
• 7:15-8:00 PM Class Presentation

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.

At the orientation, we provided you with the Alta Vista Student handbook.  Please look over the handbook with your child this weekend and go over all grade-appropriate rules with your child.  Please return the signature page (last page of handbook) to class as soon as possible.

We are looking forward to an exciting year!

Back-to-School 2012

We are looking forward to meeting our new kindergartners of 2012-13 on Friday!  You should be receiving a letter from the school on Wednesday the 15th telling you whether your child is in the morning or afternoon kindergarten session.  We are very excited for the upcoming school year!

School begins on August 20, 2012-- morning session is 8:05 to 11:25 and the afternoon session is 11:30 to 2:50. Child care for both sessions is available at Champions (408) 356-3178 or Holy Cross (408) 356-6828.

Kindergarten Orientation is Friday, August 17th, from 10:00 to 10:45 (for a.m. students) and 11:00 to 11:45 (for p.m. students).  This is a little meet & greet that helps alleviate any first-day jitters.  Please plan on attending with your child.

Supplies that we usually ask for include glue sticks, cap erasers, tissues, pencils, white board markers, and baby wipes.  Check Back-to-School sales for these items-- we appreciate it!!

Back-to-School Night is Wednesday, August 29th.  This is a night for parents only, so please round up those babysitters.  It will be from 6:00 to 6:45 p.m. for parents who have students in a.m. kindergarten, followed by a Home & School Club presentation (explaining many of our school's enrichment programs) for both a.m. & p.m. parents at 6:45 to 7:15 p.m.  Finally, the p.m. kindergarten parents return to room K2 for their Back-to-School Night presentation. 

If you have any other questions about our program, please e-mail us at: gristn@unionsd.org or sheikhm@unionsd.org.

Thank you & we look forward to seeing you in August!

Week of 6/3

Dear Parents,

It's exciting and a little sad at the same time, but we are heading into our last week together. What a wonderful year it's been! I'd like to thank you for the fantastic support you've given me all year long.

During the week, there will probably be a couple of opportunities to watch movies (class party day especially). If you can, please send in G-rated DVDs (no Blu-Rays, please) with your child's name on them, so that we have some movies to choose from. We will take a vote, so please let your children know that we won't necessarily be watching the movie they bring (there always seem to be some hurt feelings when a favorite movie doesn't "win" a vote!)

Here is a day-by-day run-down of the week-- hopefully the weather cooperates to allow all of these activities, but please check your e-mail daily to see if there are any updates!

MONDAY: Doughnuts with Dad:  Dads, please arrive with your children and the action will start at 8:30 (a.m. class) and 11:30 (p.m. class).  This event should last about 45 minutes or so.

TUESDAY: Class party/water play. Your party money is covering the food for this event. Again, no snacks needed. Pizza will be served. Please send your child with a bathing suit underneath (girls might want to wear a two-piece for ease of bathroom use/boys can wear swim trunks as shorts) a towel, and flip flops/water shoes/crocs, etc. for walking around on the blacktop. If they are going to day care afterward, please send a change of clothes. Please put sunblock on before school. Weather forecast is showing a pleasant day for Tuesday!

WEDNESDAY: Olympic Day. This is a school-wide event. Please wear class t-shirts and appropriate footwear! Sunblock would also be a good idea, and hats, too. The event starts at 10:00 and goes on until noon.  We will have snack time, so please send snacks on this day. I could still use 1-2 parents to walk around with us and help with each station.  Please e-mail me if you are available.

THURSDAY: Promotion Ceremony in the classroom. Be prepared for a brief presentation from the children and a great walk down memory lane of our wonderful year together. Please plan on attending this event or sending another family member who can attend! This is a special time to share with your children. No snacks needed-- refreshments will be served.

FRIDAY: All children in kindergarten on an early schedule, so we will have 47 children in the room! Children will clean the classroom, sign yearbooks, and participate in our annual "Alphafriend Song Marathon!"  Please send a snack on this day.

Week of 5/28

Dear Parents,

I hope you are all enjoying this long weekend. With only 9 days to go in kindergarten, this post will mostly just remind you of upcoming special events!

There is no sharing this week and in class, we will wrap up our science unit on animals. The children have really enjoyed observing fish, guppies, land snails and pond snails, red worms, and night crawlers. Our butterflies all hatched last weekend, and we let them go on Wednesday. This week, we will also wrap up our social studies units.

Our last Wednesday envelope will go home this week. Please review the papers, and then keep the envelope-- no need to send it back again :)

This Thursday, we have lunch in the cafeteria to practice for next year. The children do not need to pack a snack that day, as we will have a full hot lunch tray. The food choices for that day are:

• Baked Chicken Nuggets
• Whole Wheat Corn Dog
• Tony's Whole Grain Smart Cheese Pizza
• Ham & Cheese Sub on a Wheat Roll w/ Snack Mix

Please go over the choices with your child so that s/he knows what to select in advance. No note or pre-order required-- the children just state what they want when they get to the front of the line. Also, you already paid for this lunch with your CCP payment at the beginning of the year, so no additional funds are required. Thank you!  I could use about 2 helpers to help serve the lunch. Please e-mail me if you are available. Thank you.

On Monday the 4th, we have Doughnuts with Dad. Dads, we will start up the activities at around 8:30 (a.m. class) or 11:30 (p.m. class) with some doughnuts and water, and then we will have a paper airplane folding activity. Things should wrap up in about 45 minutes to an hour. Again, if dads are unavailable, feel free to send a grandpa, mom, uncle, neighbor, etc.

We have our water play day/class party coming up on Tuesday the 5th. Please send your children with a towel, a swimsuit under their clothes (or boys just wear their swimsuits as shorts) water shoes or flip flops or old shoes you don't mind having them get wet. We don't like them to go barefoot on the blacktop, so we need them to be wearing shoes that will work with the water. Please coat them in sunblock before their arrival, as sun block is most effective if applied about a half hour before the activity. Children who are going to daycare after class should have a change of clothes.

Wednesday the 6th, we do have a school-wide Olympic Day. So that the children can participate, the afternoon class will have a Wacky Wednesday that day. Please let daycares know as soon as possible, as this was not originally planned. I could use a few parent helpers to walk around with us. Also, I know they are in need of parent helpers to run the various stations. Please let me know if you can help.

The afternoon class also has a Wacky Wednesday this week. Class runs from 10:00 to 1:20. Thank you.

Our last big event together is next Thursday the 7th for our Promotion Day celebration. This should wrap up before class is out, and then the kids can stay and sign yearbooks, etc. If you want them to leave early that day, please sign them out in the office. Please plan on joining us as we have a small presentation and will look back on our wonderful year together!

There are no events on Friday the 8th, but all kindergarten classes attend from 8:05 to 11:25. Both the morning class and the afternoon class will be in the room together, cleaning up, signing yearbooks, and wrapping up our year together.

In our final weeks, there will be a few opportunities to watch movies (class party, after Olympic Day, etc.) If your child has any Rated G movies that s/he would like to bring in to share, I'd appreciate it. We do not have a Blue-Ray player, just a DVD and VHS. Please clearly mark the movies with your child's name.

Upcoming Events:
5/28: No School: Memorial Day
5/30: May's Wacky Wednesday & Volunteer Social
5/31: Try out lunch in the cafeteria-- no snacks needed
6/4: Doughnuts with Dad
6/5: End-of-Year Class Party/Water Play Day
6/6: Olympic Day-- Wacky Weds. Schedule for p.m. class
6/7: Kindergarten Promotion Ceremony
6/8:  Last Day:  All K classes attend from 8:05 to 11:25

Week of 5/20

Dear Parents,

It was great to see so many of you at Open House on Wednesday night and Fantasy Faire on Friday night.  Thanks for coming out to support your children and our school! A special thanks goes to Kelly Williams, Sara Callow, and Jacque Page, along with Traci White from the morning class, for coordinating our Fantasy Fair classroom booth.  A lot of fun was definitely had by all!

This is a week of many "lasts."  It is our last week of centers, sharing, SPARK P.E., and our last homework bag is due tomorrow.  I'd like to thank all of the volunteers for their commitment to coming in weekly to help us in the classroom.  This was an amazing year for classroom help-- whenever somebody was unable to come in, someone else stepped right up as a sub.  That small-group instruction time is so important, and without all of the helpers, it would not have been possible.  Thank you so much!

The upcoming final 14 days (can you believe it??) will be devoted to reviewing concepts that we have learned in kindergarten.  We will introduce our final two sight words, by and his.  I will also be administering the final round of assessments to evaluate your children for the 3rd trimester report cards. Those report cards will come home with your children on the last day of school.

We will continue our last math unit on graphing this week, and will also be working on our final science unit on living things. The kids are really enjoying the snails and worms and caterpillars that we've had in class!  It was amazing to see how many of your children did not even hesitate to handle the worms last week and let them crawl along their arms :)  Still to come are sow bugs and pill bugs, along with goldfish & guppies.

This week's sharing is personal choice. It is our last week of sharing, so your child can bring a share item from any of the themes we've used-- book, homemade item, toy in a bag, song, poem or nursery rhyme.

Another reminder again to please plan on attending our kindergarten promotion ceremony on the 7th. Please plan on joining us for a DVD presentation, followed by a short program performed by the children, along with refreshments.

Dads, we hope you are planning on joining us on Monday the 4th for Doughnuts with Dad. We will have some doughnuts (of course!) and dads will do a little project with their kids. It should be a fun hour or so.

Please send in your child's homework folder & blue bag tomorrow for the last time!

Please continue checking the upcoming events below, as this is a VERY busy time of year, and new events keep getting added!

Upcoming Events:
5/23: YSI's "Life in the Pond" Presentation  
5/28: No School: Memorial Day
5/30: May's Wacky Wednesday & Volunteer Social
5/31: Try out lunch in the cafeteria-- no snacks needed 
6/4: Doughnuts with Dad  
6/5: End-of-Year Class Party/Water Play Day 
6/7: Kindergarten Promotion Ceremony
6/8: Last day of School: All K classes attend 8:05-11:35

Week of 5/13

Dear Parents,

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for the wonderful Teacher Appreciation Week.  From the flowers on Monday to the lovely notes on Friday and everything in between, I was so touched!  Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness and for entrusting me with your wonderful children.  Thank you also to all the moms, grandmas, and dad for coming on Friday.  The children were so excited to have you there for our Mother's Day event, and it was wonderful that each child had someone to honor.

We have another review week covering several consonants this week (Dd, Jj, Nn, Ww). All letters have now been introduced, so please work on practicing both writing and reading consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words. Your children should be able to read all of those types of words using their letter sounds and blending skills-- cut, bus, rat, sip, hot, etc. This is a really important skill to work on now and through the summer, as that is something your children will be expected to do proficiently in first grade. Books such as the leveled Scholastic Readers, Bob Books, I Can Read Books, and Ready to Read Books are great for reinforcing blending skills and practicing fluency. Please keep your children reading 20-30 minutes daily now and through the summer. Also, continue working on the sight words.  They need to know all 40, and in first grade, the list increases to 100 words.  That list can be found on the first grade home page: http://www3.unionsd.org/23042054153032310/site/default.asp  I can't emphasize enough that the best way to help your child become a successful reader is to offer plenty of opportunity for practice.

We will also be finishing our math topic on days of the week this week, and starting our final math topic on graphing next week. Things are wrapping up quickly! Our final science unit on animals/living things continues for the next few weeks. Our caterpillars in the classroom have all gone into chrysalids, so we are eagerly awaiting the butterfly stage!

In art, we are busily preparing for Open House this Wednesday the 16th. There is a Home & School Club meeting from 6:30 to 7:00, and then classrooms are open from 7:00 to 8:00.  Please plan on coming into the room and checking out all the work that will be on display! The children have worked hard and are so excited to show off all their wonderful projects. Open House is also a great opportunity to check out the 1st grade classrooms to see what you can look forward to there.

We have author Mac Barnett coming into our classroom on Monday.  He will do a half-hour session with both kindergarten classes.  We are excited to meet a real author! 

Please send in your Blue Bags tomorrow.  A homework packet will go home this Wednesday, and then that is also our final week of homework! Please use the extra time for additional reading practice, and of course, outdoor time is always important.

The sharing this week is Book Share.  Please send your child prepared to tell us the title of the book, a bit about its plot, and with a favorite page bookmarked.

Fantasy Faire is this Friday!! I hope you are all planning to come. This is a really fun event for the whole family. It is a carnival with classroom booths, bounce houses, a cake walk-- definitely a night to remember for the kids. I also want to mention that the cake contest is totally fun & exciting to participate in! Even if you don't participate, you must go into the cafeteria on Friday morning and check out all the amazing cake entries!

Our final days that we'd like you all to join us for are coming up. Dads-- we'd like you to come in on the morning of June 4th for some doughnuts & fun. This event should only be about an hour or so for those heading back to work. Everyone-- our Promotion Ceremony is Thursday, June 7th.  This is a fun ceremony where we look back on our year together-- you won't want to miss it!

Hard to believe that we have just 19 class days left together!!

Upcoming Events:
5/14: Author Mac Barnett visits the classroom  
5/16: Open House 7:00 pm
5/18: Fantasy Fair 5:00-8:30 pm
5/23: YSI's "Life in the Pond" Presentation  
5/28: No School: Memorial Day
5/30: May's Wacky Wednesday
5/31: Try out lunch in the cafeteria-- no snacks needed 
6/4: Doughnuts with Dad  
6/5: End-of-Year Class Party/Water Play Day 
6/7: Kindergarten Promotion Ceremony
6/8: Last day of School: All K classes attend 8:05-11:35

Week of 5/6

Dear Parents,

I am looking forward to celebrating with all the moms or other "representatives" on Friday. We have a short presentation of a mini-play and a few songs, and then you can enjoy some treats with your child. This is an event the kindergartners always look forward to sharing with their moms/someone special, so please try to have someone come. Thank you!

We have now introduced all of the consonants & vowels. This week (and all the rest of the weeks this school year) will be a review week. We will be reviewing the letters Bb, Cc, Ll, but we do have two new sight words-- he & as. In math, we will begin our unit on the calendar. Children will learn things such as there are seven days in the week, twelve months in the year, the order of the days of the week & the months of the year, etc.

In science, we are beginning our unit on the life cycle of a butterfly. We had some real caterpillars arrive in class last week, and we will watch the metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly. This is a very exciting unit for the children. We also began our unit on Animals. Last week, we observed snails and got to cheer for our snails in a snail race! Other "creatures" that we will be observing include worms, sow bugs & pill bugs, and fish.

We are busily preparing for Open House, on the night of May 16th. We will have much on display in our room that night, and the kids are very excited to show off their work. Please plan on attending with your child!

Our sharing this week is Letter of the Week: Bb, Cc, or Ll. Have your child bring in something that starts with Bb, Cc, or Ll. They can hide it in a bag and write clues. Great job last week to the kids for writing their own clues!

Please send in your Blue Bags tomorrow-- there are only two weeks left of homework!-- along with the April "Reading is Cool" logs if you haven't done so already. Tomorrow is the final day they will be accepted, and it is also the final log you will submit. Thank you to everyone who turned in their logs last week.

For your future planning-- please review all dates in the "Upcoming Events" section below. Critical dates (where I'd really like a parent to try to come) are: Muffins with Mom (this Friday), Open House (May 16th), Doughnuts with Dad (June 4th), and the Promotion Ceremony (June 7th). The Promotion Ceremony is our big last "hurrah" together, where we look back on our year & celebrate the children. Also, please be aware that the last day of school, Friday the 8th, all K classes are on a MORNING schedule (8:05 to 11:25)-- there are no celebrations or parties as we will have 47 kids in the classroom and don't have room for any extra bodies! 

Upcoming Events:
5/10: Art Vista Art Show 5:30-8:00 
5/11: Muffins with Mom
5/14: Author Mac Barnett visits the classroom  
5/16: Open House 7:00 pm
5/18: Fantasy Fair 5:00-8:30 pm
5/23: YSI's "Life in the Pond" Presentation  
5/28: No School: Memorial Day
5/30: May's Wacky Wednesday
5/31: Try out lunch in the cafeteria-- no snacks needed 
6/4: Doughnuts with Dad  
6/5: End-of-Year Class Party/Water Play Day 
6/7: Kindergarten Promotion Ceremony
6/8: Last day of School: All K classes attend 8:05-11:35

Week of 4/30

Dear Parents,

We had a great field trip to the farm last Wednesday-- the weather held for us and the kids enjoyed feeding geese and goats, petting roosters, rabbits, and sheep, observing cows and pigs, and going on a hay ride!  Thank you to our parent chaperones and to all of you for making field trips possible through your participation in the Consolidated Classroom Payment at the beginning of the year. 

Our Cinco de Mayo dance will be this Friday, May 4th, at 11:15 a.m. Please arrive on time so that you don't miss it!  All four kindergarten classes are involved in this dance, so parking may be tricky. If your children have any festive, bright dresses or bright colorful tops, those always make the scene even more vibrant. Remember that if work constraints only allow you occasional days off that we would prefer that you are present for the Muffins with Mom event next Friday the 11th. If you cannot come, please consider sending a grandma, aunt, good friend, etc. Thank you!


This week, we introduce our final two letters.  The consonant is Jj and the Alphafriend is Jumping Jill.   Our final vowel is Uu, and the Alphafriend is Umbie Umbrella.  We will also have a new word, are. We are also finishing our topic on time in math.

Our sharing this week is toy in a bag.  Your child should write three clues about it so that we can guess. They have been doing a great job writing their own clues!

We will be doing some painting and other messy projects this week at center time, so please don't wear any super special outfits!  We are also beginning our final science unit on animals.  We start by studying pond snails and land snails, which we already have in the classroom.  The children will enjoy many hands-on lessons in the upcoming weeks, including watching a snail race!

The district's parent survey is up on the Alta Vista website, and it is really important that you participate. Thank you to the many families who already have.  For those who would still like to, please go to the Alta Vista website and look for the link in the scrolling "Announcements" area.  Please let me know if you've participated by either sending in the form that was sent home via email over a week ago, or just sending us an e-mail stating that you've participated. I will give a Cougar Gold Card to each child whose family participates. Thank you for your help with this.

Also, a reminder that STAR testing for grades 2-5 begins this week. At drop-off time, please be mindful of the fact that the older children are test-taking during the entire morning block. This is not a good week to be making a lot of noise outside the classrooms or as you walk around campus during the school hours. Thanks so much for your cooperation.

Please check out the Upcoming Events below-- we have set many end-of-year dates, including "Doughnuts with Dad."

Upcoming Events:
5/4: Cinco de Mayo Hat Dance @ 11:15
5/11: Muffins with Mom
5/16: Open House 7:00 pm
5/18: Fantasy Fair 5:00-8:30 pm
5/23: YSI's "Life in the Pond" Presentation
5/28: No School: Memorial Day
5/30: May's Wacky Wednesday
6/4: Doughnuts with Dad
6/5: End-of-Year Class Party
6/7: Kindergarten Promotion Ceremony

Week of 4/22

Dear Parents,

We are very excited for our field trip to Emma Prusch farm on Wednesday!  Remember that it is a Wacky Wednesday schedule, so please arrive promptly at 10:00. The bus will leave shortly thereafter. Please send your children in their "Grist Grasshoppers" t-shirt, and put a shirt underneath for warmth if needed. There is a slight chance of rain projected for Wednesday, so we will need to be prepared for that. Definitely send your children in close-toed shoes that are appropriate for walking around a potentially muddy farm! Please also pack a fully disposable snack (with your child's name visible on the bag) so that we don't have to worry about losing lunchboxes, etc. Parent helpers for this trip are: Chris Barbara, Heddi Shariat, Michelle Martin, Angela Valera, and Amy Olofsen. Thank you!

This week, we have another review week with letters. We only have one consonant and one vowel left to formally introduce, so we will have many review weeks ahead of us. We will be reviewing both w and y, as those are more difficult sounds which are often confused. Our sight words are if and was.

We will begin the math topic on telling time. This topic covers telling time to the hour and half hour on both a digital and an analog clock. It also covers estimating how much time something takes, sequencing events, as well as things that happen during the day versus during the night.

This week's sharing is "Homemade Item".   The children should bring in a craft project, art project, etc. that they mostly made themselves, and tell about how they made it.

Remember that we have canceled centers this week due to the assessments of the incoming kindergartners. Center helpers, enjoy a week off this week because, as many of you know, this is the time of year when it gets incredibly busy at Alta Vista!

Moms, remember that Muffins with Mom is coming up on May 11th at 2:00, and it is most important that you come to that. If for some reason you are unable to join us, please consider sending another "representative," such as Grandma, Aunt, a special neighbor, etc. The kids are always so excited to host their mothers for this event, so it is important that someone is there. Thank you!

Upcoming Events:
4/25: April's Wacky Wednesday
4/25: Field Trip to Emma Prusch Farm
5/4: Cinco de Mayo Hat Dance @ 11:15
5/11: Muffins with Mom @ 2:00
5/16: Open House 7:00 pm
5/18: Fantasy Fair 5:00-8:30 pm
5/23: YSI Presentation, "Life in the Pond"
5/30: May's Wacky Wednesday