Dear Parents,
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!
P.M. parents-- 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 addition 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 (coming in January) 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. This day is also "Holiday Spirit Day." Please send your children in their holiday attire, hats included, if you'd like to participate. At the end of class that day, 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 last week. 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 attached 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. I have 2-3 leotards in the classroom that used to belong to my daughter that are also available.
Please arrive promptly in the cafeteria for the Nutcracker, as we intend to start the show right on time. Also, please do not try to come early and save seats. We will be keeping the doors locked until about 15 minutes before the performance.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 page will be added to the homework packet 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!
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Week of 12/8
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 20th in this week's Wednesday envelope. Please let me know if there are any problems with gathering up the various clothes needed-- most girls 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. Girls-- I have several leotards of my daughter's that can be borrowed. Again, the performance of the Nutcracker will be at 10:00 (a.m. class) and 1:30 (p.m. class) on the 20th. 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 18th 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. Kids are welcome to play in the room while you work. We already have a few volunteers, but could use a couple more. Thank you!
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.
Curriculum
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. I would suggest continuing to work on addition throughout the holidays as well.
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.
This is our final week of centers before the holidays, as next week we will be focusing on Nutcracker rehearsals. Thank you so much to our classroom helpers in 2013, and thank you for your continued support in 2014! I have added center helpers through Spring Break--- please check the schedule and put it in your calendars.
Blue Bags are due tomorrow, and will go home again on Wednesday for the last time before the holidays. 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 (attached to the homework packet) 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 5th.
Upcoming Events:
12/18: December's Wacky Wednesday & Nutcracker Costume-Making Event (parent help needed @ 1:20!)
12/20: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00 (a.m. class) & 1:30 (p.m. class)
12/21-1/5: Winter Break
1/17: No School: Staff Development Day
1/20: No School: MLK B'day
1/29: January's Wacky Wednesday
2/15-2/23: President's Week Vacation
2/26: February's Wacky Wednesday
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 20th in this week's Wednesday envelope. Please let me know if there are any problems with gathering up the various clothes needed-- most girls 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. Girls-- I have several leotards of my daughter's that can be borrowed. Again, the performance of the Nutcracker will be at 10:00 (a.m. class) and 1:30 (p.m. class) on the 20th. 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 18th 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. Kids are welcome to play in the room while you work. We already have a few volunteers, but could use a couple more. Thank you!
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.
Curriculum
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. I would suggest continuing to work on addition throughout the holidays as well.
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.
This is our final week of centers before the holidays, as next week we will be focusing on Nutcracker rehearsals. Thank you so much to our classroom helpers in 2013, and thank you for your continued support in 2014! I have added center helpers through Spring Break--- please check the schedule and put it in your calendars.
Blue Bags are due tomorrow, and will go home again on Wednesday for the last time before the holidays. 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 (attached to the homework packet) 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 5th.
Upcoming Events:
12/18: December's Wacky Wednesday & Nutcracker Costume-Making Event (parent help needed @ 1:20!)
12/20: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00 (a.m. class) & 1:30 (p.m. class)
12/21-1/5: Winter Break
1/17: No School: Staff Development Day
1/20: No School: MLK B'day
1/29: January's Wacky Wednesday
2/15-2/23: President's Week Vacation
2/26: February's Wacky Wednesday
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Week of 12/1
Dear Parents,
I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving break. I'd like to thank all of you for making the Feast such a success! We had a wonderful spread of food, and the children all looked darling! Thanks to the MANY parents who helped with that event.
Now...onto a very busy but exciting time in kindergarten as we prepare for our Nutcracker presentation on the 20th, as well as continue with all the academics & seasonal artwork!
Academics
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.
At the side of this webpage, there is a link for kindergarten websites. There is one 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 two weeks, then we take a break from centers again the week of December 15th. Please check the helper schedule.
This week's sharing is Homemade Item. Please have your child bring in something s/he has created, whether at preschool, a crafting class, or at home. Have children be prepared to tell a bit about how they made the item (glazed clay, colored it with markers, etc.)
Upcoming
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 Friday the 6th. Take a look by following the link on the right-hand side of the website.
Thank you for returning your blue bags last week. If you still have a white envelope, please send it in on Monday. Blue Bags will go home for the next two weeks. They will not go home on December 18th.
On December 18th, we will be having our annual "Nutcracker Hat Party." We need parents to come in straight after the p.m. class's Wacky Wednesday (1:20) to help make all the paper parts of the Nutcracker costumes. Children are invited to play in the classroom while parents create from provided patterns. If all goes well, this will last about an hour: 1:20 to 2:20 or so. Please let us know if you can join!
Looking forward to seeing everyone Monday!
Upcoming Events:
12/18: December's Wacky Wednesday & Nutcracker Costume-Making Event (parent help needed @ 1:20!)
12/20: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00 (a.m. class) & 1:30 (p.m. class)
12/21-1/5: Winter Break
1/17: No School: Staff Development Day
1/20: No School: MLK B'day
1/29: January's Wacky Wednesday
2/15-2/23: President's Week Vacation
2/26: February's Wacky Wednesday
I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving break. I'd like to thank all of you for making the Feast such a success! We had a wonderful spread of food, and the children all looked darling! Thanks to the MANY parents who helped with that event.
Now...onto a very busy but exciting time in kindergarten as we prepare for our Nutcracker presentation on the 20th, as well as continue with all the academics & seasonal artwork!
Academics
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.
At the side of this webpage, there is a link for kindergarten websites. There is one 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 two weeks, then we take a break from centers again the week of December 15th. Please check the helper schedule.
This week's sharing is Homemade Item. Please have your child bring in something s/he has created, whether at preschool, a crafting class, or at home. Have children be prepared to tell a bit about how they made the item (glazed clay, colored it with markers, etc.)
Upcoming
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 Friday the 6th. Take a look by following the link on the right-hand side of the website.
Thank you for returning your blue bags last week. If you still have a white envelope, please send it in on Monday. Blue Bags will go home for the next two weeks. They will not go home on December 18th.
On December 18th, we will be having our annual "Nutcracker Hat Party." We need parents to come in straight after the p.m. class's Wacky Wednesday (1:20) to help make all the paper parts of the Nutcracker costumes. Children are invited to play in the classroom while parents create from provided patterns. If all goes well, this will last about an hour: 1:20 to 2:20 or so. Please let us know if you can join!
Looking forward to seeing everyone Monday!
Upcoming Events:
12/18: December's Wacky Wednesday & Nutcracker Costume-Making Event (parent help needed @ 1:20!)
12/20: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00 (a.m. class) & 1:30 (p.m. class)
12/21-1/5: Winter Break
1/17: No School: Staff Development Day
1/20: No School: MLK B'day
1/29: January's Wacky Wednesday
2/15-2/23: President's Week Vacation
2/26: February's Wacky Wednesday
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Week of 11/17
Dear Parents,
Upcoming Events
Looking ahead on your calendars at this busy time of year, I wanted to make sure that you are all marking your calendars for Friday, December 20th-- our annual performance of The Nutcracker. This is something that you will not want to miss. To help you clear your calendar, the kindergarten teachers have decided that we will do our class holiday party and the Nutcracker performance all on the same day. We will have a big "cast party" after the performance this year so that we can send the kids off on a great holiday break!
Please remember your child's blue bag tomorrow. We will have no homework this week due to the Thanksgiving holiday next week, but we will send home a white envelope. Please try & return it on Thursday so that it doesn't get lost over the week break.
Have a great Thanksgiving!
Upcoming Events:
11/18-11/22: Parent-Teacher Conferences continue
11/20: November's Wacky Wednesday
11/22: Kindergarten Friendship Feast @ 10:15 (a.m. class) and 1:30 (p.m. class)
12/18: December's Wacky Wednesday & Nutcracker Costume-Making Event (parent help needed @ 1:20!)
12/20: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00 (a.m. class) & 1:30 (p.m. class)
I 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 me and being such active participants in your children's educations. I look forward to meeting with the rest of you this week.
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 two weeks before winter break (there are no centers again the week before the holidays).
The p.m. class has a Wacky Wednesday this week on the 20th. Class runs from 10:00 to 1:20.
Curriculum
Our new letter this week 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 reviewing numbers to 10 in math.
This week's sharing is Book Share. Please send your child with a favorite book. They should be prepared to state the title, tell a little about what it's about, and show a favorite page that is bookmarked.
We will also continue with our Social Studies unit on "Times Past." This week, we will also continue taking a closer look at the Pilgrims & Native Americans as we talk about the first Thanksgiving & prepare for our reenactment of this event, our Friendship Feast on the 22nd. We have a great simple book that we will be putting together about the first Thanksgiving, and we have some great books that we will be reading to the children. It would be great if you can all join us for the Feast on Friday, even if you can only come briefly. The children look so cute in their costumes & love sharing the meal with family members. Thank you to everyone for sending in food for the event!
The p.m. class has a Wacky Wednesday this week on the 20th. Class runs from 10:00 to 1:20.
Curriculum
Our new letter this week 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 reviewing numbers to 10 in math.
This week's sharing is Book Share. Please send your child with a favorite book. They should be prepared to state the title, tell a little about what it's about, and show a favorite page that is bookmarked.
We will also continue with our Social Studies unit on "Times Past." This week, we will also continue taking a closer look at the Pilgrims & Native Americans as we talk about the first Thanksgiving & prepare for our reenactment of this event, our Friendship Feast on the 22nd. We have a great simple book that we will be putting together about the first Thanksgiving, and we have some great books that we will be reading to the children. It would be great if you can all join us for the Feast on Friday, even if you can only come briefly. The children look so cute in their costumes & love sharing the meal with family members. Thank you to everyone for sending in food for the event!
Upcoming Events
Looking ahead on your calendars at this busy time of year, I wanted to make sure that you are all marking your calendars for Friday, December 20th-- our annual performance of The Nutcracker. This is something that you will not want to miss. To help you clear your calendar, the kindergarten teachers have decided that we will do our class holiday party and the Nutcracker performance all on the same day. We will have a big "cast party" after the performance this year so that we can send the kids off on a great holiday break!
Please remember your child's blue bag tomorrow. We will have no homework this week due to the Thanksgiving holiday next week, but we will send home a white envelope. Please try & return it on Thursday so that it doesn't get lost over the week break.
Have a great Thanksgiving!
Upcoming Events:
11/18-11/22: Parent-Teacher Conferences continue
11/20: November's Wacky Wednesday
11/22: Kindergarten Friendship Feast @ 10:15 (a.m. class) and 1:30 (p.m. class)
12/18: December's Wacky Wednesday & Nutcracker Costume-Making Event (parent help needed @ 1:20!)
12/20: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00 (a.m. class) & 1:30 (p.m. class)
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Week of 11/10
Dear Parents,
We hope you are enjoying a nice long weekend as we head into a busy two weeks before Thanksgiving! We will see your children on Tuesday the 12th.
We look forward to meeting with many of you this week in the office conference room (Mrs. Grist) or the library (Mrs. Sheikh). Before school conferences for Mrs. Sheikh and after school conferences for Mrs. Grist will be held in the classroom. If you need to confirm your time, please email your child's teacher.
We will be taking a break from centers for the next two weeks while we continue with parent-teacher conferences, and they won't resume until after Thanksgiving. Then we will start back up with centers for two weeks and take another break the week before winter break.
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 Toy in a Bag. Please send your child in with any toy hidden in a bag, with three clues written to help us guess what's inside. Monday children can share any other day this week.
Our math topic on reviewing numbers to 10 continues this week. Common Core really focuses on delving deeper into number sense. We are understanding that each number can be made up of two other numbers, and visualizing how numbers appear using 10 frames, dot cards, and dice, as well as writing and practicing number formation. There is a great free app for iPads and iPhones called Ten Frame Fill that focuses on Kindergarten Common Core concepts of understanding numbers to 10. Check it out if you have these devices.
We will begin our Social Studies Unit on Times Past this week. We will be comparing and contrasting modern times to times past.
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 Friday the 22nd. If you haven't had a chance to send back the paper regarding the feast (how you can help/what dish you can send) please do so ASAP. 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.
Please be sure to send in your child's Blue Bag on Tuesday 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.
Upcoming Events:
We hope you are enjoying a nice long weekend as we head into a busy two weeks before Thanksgiving! We will see your children on Tuesday the 12th.
We look forward to meeting with many of you this week in the office conference room (Mrs. Grist) or the library (Mrs. Sheikh). Before school conferences for Mrs. Sheikh and after school conferences for Mrs. Grist will be held in the classroom. If you need to confirm your time, please email your child's teacher.
We will be taking a break from centers for the next two weeks while we continue with parent-teacher conferences, and they won't resume until after Thanksgiving. Then we will start back up with centers for two weeks and take another break the week before winter break.
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 Toy in a Bag. Please send your child in with any toy hidden in a bag, with three clues written to help us guess what's inside. Monday children can share any other day this week.
Our math topic on reviewing numbers to 10 continues this week. Common Core really focuses on delving deeper into number sense. We are understanding that each number can be made up of two other numbers, and visualizing how numbers appear using 10 frames, dot cards, and dice, as well as writing and practicing number formation. There is a great free app for iPads and iPhones called Ten Frame Fill that focuses on Kindergarten Common Core concepts of understanding numbers to 10. Check it out if you have these devices.
We will begin our Social Studies Unit on Times Past this week. We will be comparing and contrasting modern times to times past.
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 Friday the 22nd. If you haven't had a chance to send back the paper regarding the feast (how you can help/what dish you can send) please do so ASAP. 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.
Please be sure to send in your child's Blue Bag on Tuesday 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.
Upcoming Events:
11/11: No School, Veteran's Day
11/14-11/22: Parent-Teacher Conferences
11/20: November's Wacky Wednesday
11/22: Kindergarten Friendship Feast @ 10:15 (a.m. class) and 1:30 (p.m. class)
12/20: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00 (a.m. class) & 1:30 (p.m. class)
11/14-11/22: Parent-Teacher Conferences
11/20: November's Wacky Wednesday
11/22: Kindergarten Friendship Feast @ 10:15 (a.m. class) and 1:30 (p.m. class)
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Week of 11/3
Dear Parents,
I hope you all enjoyed a fun Halloween with your children. What a great party we had in class! A huge thanks to the room parents and parent helpers who organized such wonderful Halloween centers & treats. The kids all enjoyed themselves very much.
Remember that Daylight Savings Time ends. Hopefully, you got to enjoy an extra hour of sleep on Sunday!
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 reviewing and expanding the unit on 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 and deconstructing them to help children visualize addition problems. For example, we will break down 8 into 1 & 7 or 2 & 6 or 3 & 5, etc.
Sharing this week will be Letter of the Week share for Bb. Children should bring in an item that starts with Bb, hide it in a bag, and write three clues for that item.
We are also doing much more writing using phonetic spelling. We went over this a bit at Back-to-School Night, but this is where children are encouraged to sound words out on their own and spell them phonetically. For example, they may spell hope as hop or monster as monsr. These spellings are totally acceptable at this time as a first tool to becoming an independent writer. Please try your best not to constantly spell words for your child. Encourage them to think for themselves and experiment with phonics so that they have a tool to fall back on when they need to spell on their own. We will have a practice writing assessment this week that I will share with you at parent-teacher conferences.
Upcoming
We begin Parent-Teacher conferences next Thursday the 14th through Friday the 22nd. Although grades 1-5 have an altered schedule during conferences, the kindergarten schedule remains the same. The p.m. class will still dismiss at 2:50 during the duration of conferences, with the exception of Wednesday the 20th, which is a Wacky Wednesday.
We will have no centers for the two weeks due to Parent-Teacher Conferences. 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.
Please remember to send in your child's Wednesday envelope, if you have not done so already, by 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 22nd. 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!
Soon, I am going to start putting together the helper schedule on the website for 2014. 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 so far!
Upcoming Events:
I hope you all enjoyed a fun Halloween with your children. What a great party we had in class! A huge thanks to the room parents and parent helpers who organized such wonderful Halloween centers & treats. The kids all enjoyed themselves very much.
Remember that Daylight Savings Time ends. Hopefully, you got to enjoy an extra hour of sleep on Sunday!
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 reviewing and expanding the unit on 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 and deconstructing them to help children visualize addition problems. For example, we will break down 8 into 1 & 7 or 2 & 6 or 3 & 5, etc.
Sharing this week will be Letter of the Week share for Bb. Children should bring in an item that starts with Bb, hide it in a bag, and write three clues for that item.
We are also doing much more writing using phonetic spelling. We went over this a bit at Back-to-School Night, but this is where children are encouraged to sound words out on their own and spell them phonetically. For example, they may spell hope as hop or monster as monsr. These spellings are totally acceptable at this time as a first tool to becoming an independent writer. Please try your best not to constantly spell words for your child. Encourage them to think for themselves and experiment with phonics so that they have a tool to fall back on when they need to spell on their own. We will have a practice writing assessment this week that I will share with you at parent-teacher conferences.
Upcoming
We will have no centers for the two weeks due to Parent-Teacher Conferences. 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.
Please remember to send in your child's Wednesday envelope, if you have not done so already, by 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 22nd. 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!
Soon, I am going to start putting together the helper schedule on the website for 2014. 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 so far!
Upcoming Events:
11/11: No School, Veteran's Day
11/14-11/22: Parent-Teacher Conferences
11/20: November's Wacky Wednesday
11/22: Kindergarten Friendship Feast @ 10:15 (a.m. class) and 1:30 (p.m. class)
12/20: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00 (a.m. class) & 1:30 (p.m. class)
11/14-11/22: Parent-Teacher Conferences
11/20: November's Wacky Wednesday
11/22: Kindergarten Friendship Feast @ 10:15 (a.m. class) and 1:30 (p.m. class)
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Week of 10/27
Dear Parents,
We have an exciting week ahead of us with the field trip Wednesday, Halloween Thursday, and no school on Friday. Due to the shortened week and Halloween excitement, we will not be doing Blue Bags this week, but Wednesday envelopes will go home as usual.
Curriculum
We are not going to be introducing a new letter this week due to the shortened week, but we will cover a new word, it. 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 Homemade item. Children who normally share on Friday can share any other day this week.
In math, we are wrapping up our unit on 2-dimensional shapes. The children are doing very well with identifying a square, rectangle, circle, triangle, and hexagon. They are also able to tell the features of those shapes, such as a circle is round and has no corners.
Field Trip
A few reminders again about the field trip-- First, it is a Wacky Wednesday for the p.m. class. Both a.m. & p.m. students need to arrive promptly at the start of the day (8:05 & 10:00) or they may miss the bus. Please send your children in their class t-shirts, with a fully disposable snack (please avoid lunch boxes and reusable water bottles on this day as we don't want to have things left behind on the bus). Please try to have the class t-shirt visible-- if your child wears a long-sleeved shirt for warmth, please have it UNDER their class t-shirt so that we can quickly see who is in our group.
Halloween
All Kindergarten children should arrive dressed up in their costumes. The morning class/school-wide parade is at 8:30, between the primary playground and rooms 7, 8, and 9. The afternoon class parade is at 1:00 on the kindergarten playground. 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 :) Parties will immediately follow the parades. Parents are welcome to attend.
November Events
While on the subject of classroom events, and to give you an opportunity to plan ahead, we have another big event coming up in November. On Friday the 22nd, we have our Thanksgiving Feast. If you can take some time off work to join us, this is a pretty fun and special event. We ask each family to send in a dish for the event-- either a traditional Thanksgiving dish or a dish from your family's cultural background. We always enjoy the wonderful mix of foods that we get. Both K1 & K2 kindergartners come together for this event. The children from our class will be dressed as Pilgrims, and the children in K1 will be dressed as Native Americans. 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!
Conferences
I am looking forward to meeting with each of you beginning November 14th for your child's conference. Conferences will be held in the library (a.m. class conferences) or the office conference room (p.m. class conferences) 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. The library is the building directly behind the kindergarten building. If you are unsure of your conference time, please e-mail me. Thanks!
Upcoming Events:
We have an exciting week ahead of us with the field trip Wednesday, Halloween Thursday, and no school on Friday. Due to the shortened week and Halloween excitement, we will not be doing Blue Bags this week, but Wednesday envelopes will go home as usual.
Curriculum
We are not going to be introducing a new letter this week due to the shortened week, but we will cover a new word, it. 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 Homemade item. Children who normally share on Friday can share any other day this week.
In math, we are wrapping up our unit on 2-dimensional shapes. The children are doing very well with identifying a square, rectangle, circle, triangle, and hexagon. They are also able to tell the features of those shapes, such as a circle is round and has no corners.
Field Trip
A few reminders again about the field trip-- First, it is a Wacky Wednesday for the p.m. class. Both a.m. & p.m. students need to arrive promptly at the start of the day (8:05 & 10:00) or they may miss the bus. Please send your children in their class t-shirts, with a fully disposable snack (please avoid lunch boxes and reusable water bottles on this day as we don't want to have things left behind on the bus). Please try to have the class t-shirt visible-- if your child wears a long-sleeved shirt for warmth, please have it UNDER their class t-shirt so that we can quickly see who is in our group.
Halloween
All Kindergarten children should arrive dressed up in their costumes. The morning class/school-wide parade is at 8:30, between the primary playground and rooms 7, 8, and 9. The afternoon class parade is at 1:00 on the kindergarten playground. 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 :) Parties will immediately follow the parades. Parents are welcome to attend.
November Events
While on the subject of classroom events, and to give you an opportunity to plan ahead, we have another big event coming up in November. On Friday the 22nd, we have our Thanksgiving Feast. If you can take some time off work to join us, this is a pretty fun and special event. We ask each family to send in a dish for the event-- either a traditional Thanksgiving dish or a dish from your family's cultural background. We always enjoy the wonderful mix of foods that we get. Both K1 & K2 kindergartners come together for this event. The children from our class will be dressed as Pilgrims, and the children in K1 will be dressed as Native Americans. 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!
Conferences
I am looking forward to meeting with each of you beginning November 14th for your child's conference. Conferences will be held in the library (a.m. class conferences) or the office conference room (p.m. class conferences) 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. The library is the building directly behind the kindergarten building. If you are unsure of your conference time, please e-mail me. Thanks!
Upcoming Events:
10/30: October's Wacky Wednesday & Field Trip to see a play
10/31: Halloween Parade & Celebration 8:30 & 1:00
11/1: Staff Development Day: No School
11/11: No School, Veteran's Day
11/14-11/22: Parent-Teacher Conferences
11/20: November's Wacky Wednesday
11/22: Kindergarten Friendship Feast @ 10:15 (a.m. class) and 1:30 (p.m. class)
12/20: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00 (a.m. class) & 1:30 (p.m. class) 10/31: Halloween Parade & Celebration 8:30 & 1:00
11/1: Staff Development Day: No School
11/11: No School, Veteran's Day
11/14-11/22: Parent-Teacher Conferences
11/20: November's Wacky Wednesday
11/22: Kindergarten Friendship Feast @ 10:15 (a.m. class) and 1:30 (p.m. class)
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Week of 10/20
Dear Parents,
Here's what's going on in the classroom this week:
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 Thursday 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
If you didn't have a chance to check out the Book Fair yesterday, it runs through Thursday 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
Here's what's going on in the classroom this week:
Language Arts:
Our letter this week is Tt. The alphafriend is Tiggy Tiger. We have a new high frequency word, my.
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.
Math:
We will continue our topic on 2-dimensional shapes. Children are expected to be able to identify triangles, rectangles, circles, squares, and hexagons. Additionally, children should be able to tell the characteristics of those shapes. For example, a triangle has three corners and three sides.
Field Trip:
I still have a few extra tickets for the field trip on October 30th. If you'd like to join us, please let me know.
Upcoming:
Conferences: Thank you to everyone for scheduling your conferences so quickly with me. If you need to confirm your time, please email me.
Halloween: The school-wide parade will be at 8:30 am. on the blacktop between the primary playground & rooms 7, 8, and 9. Afternoon kindergarteners are welcome to come to that parade and join in with the morning kindergartners if they would like. However, there will be a separate K1 & K2 p.m. parade on our kindergarten playground at 1:00. Parents, of course, are welcome & encouraged to attend either parade. Classroom parties will follow the parades.
Thanksgiving Feast: Thank you to Jill Brehmer & Sanae Kakeue for getting most of the pillowcases available at IKEA for our costumes for the Thanksgiving Feast. Now, we need to have volunteers who can cut these at home. This is a great project for those who would like to help out but are unable to due to work commitments. We will send home pillowcases and a sample shirt for you to replicate. We also have aprons that need to be cut. You will need a pair of pinking shears (zigzag scissors) for this project. Please let us know if you do not have a pair-- we have a couple of pairs ourselves we can loan out. We will not need the pillowcases back until a few days before the Feast (11/22). Please let us know if you can help!
Please send in your child's blue bag tomorrow, homework folder inside.
Upcoming Events:
Our letter this week is Tt. The alphafriend is Tiggy Tiger. We have a new high frequency word, my.
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.
Math:
We will continue our topic on 2-dimensional shapes. Children are expected to be able to identify triangles, rectangles, circles, squares, and hexagons. Additionally, children should be able to tell the characteristics of those shapes. For example, a triangle has three corners and three sides.
Field Trip:
I still have a few extra tickets for the field trip on October 30th. If you'd like to join us, please let me know.
Upcoming:
Conferences: Thank you to everyone for scheduling your conferences so quickly with me. If you need to confirm your time, please email me.
Halloween: The school-wide parade will be at 8:30 am. on the blacktop between the primary playground & rooms 7, 8, and 9. Afternoon kindergarteners are welcome to come to that parade and join in with the morning kindergartners if they would like. However, there will be a separate K1 & K2 p.m. parade on our kindergarten playground at 1:00. Parents, of course, are welcome & encouraged to attend either parade. Classroom parties will follow the parades.
Thanksgiving Feast: Thank you to Jill Brehmer & Sanae Kakeue for getting most of the pillowcases available at IKEA for our costumes for the Thanksgiving Feast. Now, we need to have volunteers who can cut these at home. This is a great project for those who would like to help out but are unable to due to work commitments. We will send home pillowcases and a sample shirt for you to replicate. We also have aprons that need to be cut. You will need a pair of pinking shears (zigzag scissors) for this project. Please let us know if you do not have a pair-- we have a couple of pairs ourselves we can loan out. We will not need the pillowcases back until a few days before the Feast (11/22). Please let us know if you can help!
Please send in your child's blue bag tomorrow, homework folder inside.
Upcoming Events:
10/30: October's Wacky Wednesday & Field Trip to see a play
10/31: Halloween Parade & Celebration 8:30 & 1:00
11/1: Staff Development Day: No School
11/11: No School, Veteran's Day
11/14-11/22: Parent-Teacher Conferences
11/20: November's Wacky Wednesday
11/22: Kindergarten Friendship Feast @ 10:15 (a.m. class) and 1:30 (p.m. class)
12/20: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00 (a.m. class) & 1:30 (p.m. class) 10/31: Halloween Parade & Celebration 8:30 & 1:00
11/1: Staff Development Day: No School
11/11: No School, Veteran's Day
11/14-11/22: Parent-Teacher Conferences
11/20: November's Wacky Wednesday
11/22: Kindergarten Friendship Feast @ 10:15 (a.m. class) and 1:30 (p.m. class)
Saturday, October 12, 2013
Week of 10/13
Dear Parents,
It's Walk-a-thon week!! We will be doing one more practice lap this week so that the kids have an idea of the lap length and what to expect. On Friday, the kids will receive both their walk-a-thon t-shirt (if they have signed up online & received a pledge of $35 by Wednesday the 16th) and their lanyard with the first foot. Please be sure to wear both the t-shirt & lanyard on Saturday. Every 5 laps, the kids get a different plastic foot on the lanyard/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 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 can write a sentence that starts 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 begin our math topic on 2-Dimensional shapes. Circle, square, rectangle, triangle, and hexagon are the shapes to know. Please reinforce these shapes as much as possible in your conversations at home. "What shape is the table?" "What shape is this paper?" and questions of this nature are good to ask.
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!
Field Trip
Thank you for returning the permission slips so quickly! If you still need to send one in, please send it at your earliest convenience. We do have a few tickets available for parent chaperones. Please e-mail me if you are interested in joining us.
Upcoming
Thanks to everyone for scheduling your conferences with me so quickly. Please contact me if you need to know when your conference time is.
Just an update on the Halloween parade-- the school-wide parade is now at 8:30 on the blacktop between the primary playground & rooms 7, 8, and 9. Afternoon kindergarteners are welcome to come to that parade and join in with the morning kindergartners if they would like. However, there will be a separate K1 & K2 p.m. parade on our kindergarten playground at 1:00. Parents, of course, are welcome & encouraged to attend either parade.
Please send in your child's blue bag tomorrow, homework folder inside.
Upcoming Events:
10/18: Walk-a-thon t-shirts & lanyards passed out in class
It's Walk-a-thon week!! We will be doing one more practice lap this week so that the kids have an idea of the lap length and what to expect. On Friday, the kids will receive both their walk-a-thon t-shirt (if they have signed up online & received a pledge of $35 by Wednesday the 16th) and their lanyard with the first foot. Please be sure to wear both the t-shirt & lanyard on Saturday. Every 5 laps, the kids get a different plastic foot on the lanyard/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 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 can write a sentence that starts 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 begin our math topic on 2-Dimensional shapes. Circle, square, rectangle, triangle, and hexagon are the shapes to know. Please reinforce these shapes as much as possible in your conversations at home. "What shape is the table?" "What shape is this paper?" and questions of this nature are good to ask.
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!
Field Trip
Thank you for returning the permission slips so quickly! If you still need to send one in, please send it at your earliest convenience. We do have a few tickets available for parent chaperones. Please e-mail me if you are interested in joining us.
Upcoming
Thanks to everyone for scheduling your conferences with me so quickly. Please contact me if you need to know when your conference time is.
Just an update on the Halloween parade-- the school-wide parade is now at 8:30 on the blacktop between the primary playground & rooms 7, 8, and 9. Afternoon kindergarteners are welcome to come to that parade and join in with the morning kindergartners if they would like. However, there will be a separate K1 & K2 p.m. parade on our kindergarten playground at 1:00. Parents, of course, are welcome & encouraged to attend either parade.
Please send in your child's blue bag tomorrow, homework folder inside.
Upcoming Events:
10/18: Walk-a-thon t-shirts & lanyards passed out in class
10/19: Walk-a-thon
10/30: October's Wacky Wednesday & Field Trip to see a play
10/31: Halloween Parade & Celebration 8:30 & 1:00
11/1: Staff Development Day: No School
11/11: No School, Veteran's Day
11/14-11/22: Parent-Teacher Conferences
11/20: November's Wacky Wednesday
11/22: Kindergarten Friendship Feast @ 10:15 (a.m. class) and 1:30 (p.m. class)
12/20: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00 (a.m. class) & 1:30 (p.m. class) 10/30: October's Wacky Wednesday & Field Trip to see a play
10/31: Halloween Parade & Celebration 8:30 & 1:00
11/1: Staff Development Day: No School
11/11: No School, Veteran's Day
11/14-11/22: Parent-Teacher Conferences
11/20: November's Wacky Wednesday
11/22: Kindergarten Friendship Feast @ 10:15 (a.m. class) and 1:30 (p.m. class)
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Week of 10/6
Dear Parents,
This week is Walk & Roll week. An email already went home informing you about this event. Please try and walk or scooter/bike to school at least once this week. Remember that if driving is necessary, that you can always park a few blocks away to get a little extra exercise and reduce congestion around the school. If your child attends Holy Cross for daycare, I know that they always park the bus further away this week so that the children can participate. Another event this week is Color Day on Wednesday. If your child would like to participate, kindergarteners have been assigned the color red. Wear something red on Wednesday to show your school spirit!
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 wrap up our topic on deconstructing numbers to 10. Children should be learning combinations that make up numbers to 10, for example, 8 & 2 make 10 or 1 & 4 make 5. Our next topic is on two-dimensional shapes.
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.
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 November. This of course means that it is also time to sign up for conferences! Hopefully, you all received the information about how to do this yesterday. Please email me if you need further instructions.
We are doing very well with our walkathon sign-ups! Keep on registering your children at: http://www.altavistawalkathon.org The children all seem very excited about the walkathon, so I hope to see you all there on the 19th! 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 heard many of your children talking about soccer, 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 17th. 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 Walkathon. Check it out-- there will be some great selections there, and a percentage of the sales goes to support the Alta Vista Library.
Finally, in this week's Wednesday Envelope, a permission slip will be coming home for our first field trip to see a play called "I Don't Want to go to Bed" at the Sunnyvale Community Center. The trip is on October 30th. Here is the description of the play:
Observe the frustrations of a young girl who simply doesn't like bedtime! One night she transforms this task into a wonderful imaginative adventure with her parents by re-enacting her favorite stories including The Three Little Pigs and The Billy Goats Gruff.
This week is Walk & Roll week. An email already went home informing you about this event. Please try and walk or scooter/bike to school at least once this week. Remember that if driving is necessary, that you can always park a few blocks away to get a little extra exercise and reduce congestion around the school. If your child attends Holy Cross for daycare, I know that they always park the bus further away this week so that the children can participate. Another event this week is Color Day on Wednesday. If your child would like to participate, kindergarteners have been assigned the color red. Wear something red on Wednesday to show your school spirit!
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 wrap up our topic on deconstructing numbers to 10. Children should be learning combinations that make up numbers to 10, for example, 8 & 2 make 10 or 1 & 4 make 5. Our next topic is on two-dimensional shapes.
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.
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 November. This of course means that it is also time to sign up for conferences! Hopefully, you all received the information about how to do this yesterday. Please email me if you need further instructions.
We are doing very well with our walkathon sign-ups! Keep on registering your children at: http://www.altavistawalkathon.org The children all seem very excited about the walkathon, so I hope to see you all there on the 19th! 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 heard many of your children talking about soccer, 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 17th. 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 Walkathon. Check it out-- there will be some great selections there, and a percentage of the sales goes to support the Alta Vista Library.
Finally, in this week's Wednesday Envelope, a permission slip will be coming home for our first field trip to see a play called "I Don't Want to go to Bed" at the Sunnyvale Community Center. The trip is on October 30th. Here is the description of the play:
Observe the frustrations of a young girl who simply doesn't like bedtime! One night she transforms this task into a wonderful imaginative adventure with her parents by re-enacting her favorite stories including The Three Little Pigs and The Billy Goats Gruff.
This is a great first field trip for kindergarten because there is not a lot of walking around. We just go into the theater, watch a wonderful live performance, eat a snack, and come back to school. The children are very excited to take a school bus for the first time and enjoy a very cute play!
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:
Upcoming Events:
10/19: Walk-a-thon
10/30: October's Wacky Wednesday & Field Trip to see a play
10/31: Halloween Parade & Celebration 1:00
11/1: Staff Development Day: No School
11/11: No School, Veteran's Day
11/14-11/22: Parent-Teacher Conferences
11/20: November's Wacky Wednesday
11/22: Kindergarten Friendship Feast @ 10:15 (a.m. class) and 1:30 (p.m. class)
12/20: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00 (a.m. class) & 1:30 (p.m. class)
10/30: October's Wacky Wednesday & Field Trip to see a play
10/31: Halloween Parade & Celebration 1:00
11/1: Staff Development Day: No School
11/11: No School, Veteran's Day
11/14-11/22: Parent-Teacher Conferences
11/20: November's Wacky Wednesday
11/22: Kindergarten Friendship Feast @ 10:15 (a.m. class) and 1:30 (p.m. class)
12/20: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00 (a.m. class) & 1:30 (p.m. class)
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Week of 9/29
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.
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.
We will also officially begin the Handwriting without Tears program this week. Whatever the letter of the week is, that will be the letter we are learning in Handwriting. We will be using mini-chalkboards on Mondays to help the children practice the formation of letters in an engaging & multi-sensory way.
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 (their list has 100 words), so these are important words to master.
We completed our FOSS science unit on Trees & Leaves. The children really enjoyed looking at different trees, learning about the parts of a tree, and looking closely at leaves & other things that grow on trees. Thank you for sending in leaves, fruit, and other items from your trees-- the unit was a lot of fun for the kids.
I also want to remind you that the Walkathon is coming up quickly on October 19th! Kindergarteners have already done their first practice lap last Wednesday as part of our walkathon assembly, and therefore have already earned their first "foot," which they will receive the Friday before the walkathon. The children will be collecting these plastic feet on a necklace on the day of the event. Every five 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! Keep registering your children and checking our progress on the walkathon website: http://www.altavistawalkathon.org 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, this week, Miss Miller will be hosting the first Cougar Gold Card lunch. When children are "caught being good," I give them Cougar Gold Cards. At the end of each month, two children's names are drawn from each classroom to come to a pizza lunch with the principal. Obviously, not every child who has earned a Cougar Gold 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:
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.
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.
We will also officially begin the Handwriting without Tears program this week. Whatever the letter of the week is, that will be the letter we are learning in Handwriting. We will be using mini-chalkboards on Mondays to help the children practice the formation of letters in an engaging & multi-sensory way.
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 (their list has 100 words), so these are important words to master.
We completed our FOSS science unit on Trees & Leaves. The children really enjoyed looking at different trees, learning about the parts of a tree, and looking closely at leaves & other things that grow on trees. Thank you for sending in leaves, fruit, and other items from your trees-- the unit was a lot of fun for the kids.
I also want to remind you that the Walkathon is coming up quickly on October 19th! Kindergarteners have already done their first practice lap last Wednesday as part of our walkathon assembly, and therefore have already earned their first "foot," which they will receive the Friday before the walkathon. The children will be collecting these plastic feet on a necklace on the day of the event. Every five 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! Keep registering your children and checking our progress on the walkathon website: http://www.altavistawalkathon.org 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, this week, Miss Miller will be hosting the first Cougar Gold Card lunch. When children are "caught being good," I give them Cougar Gold Cards. At the end of each month, two children's names are drawn from each classroom to come to a pizza lunch with the principal. Obviously, not every child who has earned a Cougar Gold 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:
10/19: Walk-a-thon
10/30: October's Wacky Wednesday & Field Trip to see a play
10/31: Halloween Parade & Celebration
11/1: Staff Development Day: No School
11/11: No School, Veteran's Day
11/14-11/22: Parent-Teacher Conferences
11/20: November's Wacky Wednesday
11/22: Kindergarten Friendship Feast @ 10:15 (a.m. class) and 1:30 (p.m. class)
12/20: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00 (a.m. class) & 1:30 (p.m. class)
10/30: October's Wacky Wednesday & Field Trip to see a play
10/31: Halloween Parade & Celebration
11/1: Staff Development Day: No School
11/11: No School, Veteran's Day
11/14-11/22: Parent-Teacher Conferences
11/20: November's Wacky Wednesday
11/22: Kindergarten Friendship Feast @ 10:15 (a.m. class) and 1:30 (p.m. class)
12/20: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00 (a.m. class) & 1:30 (p.m. class)
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Week of 9/22
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, lime, 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 with the letters Uu-Zz. We 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 on decomposing numbers. We will play some games with two-sided beans (one side is painted red and the other side is white) and we will look at combinations that make up a number. For example, 5 can be 1 & 4, 2 & 3, 5 & 0. Obviously, this sets them up for pre-addition skills.
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 25th. The p.m. class runs from 10:00 to 1:20. The p.m. class & a.m. class will have a joint walk-a-thon kickoff assembly and have some fun together during the overlap!
Remember that Friday is Picture Day. You should have received a picture order form in last week's Wednesday envelope. You can either order online, or send in the order form with your child any time this week. Please make sure that you place your order by Friday, at the latest. The kids need to have their order envelopes in-hand (or an online order place) on Friday.
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 :)
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, lime, 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 with the letters Uu-Zz. We 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 on decomposing numbers. We will play some games with two-sided beans (one side is painted red and the other side is white) and we will look at combinations that make up a number. For example, 5 can be 1 & 4, 2 & 3, 5 & 0. Obviously, this sets them up for pre-addition skills.
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 25th. The p.m. class runs from 10:00 to 1:20. The p.m. class & a.m. class will have a joint walk-a-thon kickoff assembly and have some fun together during the overlap!
Remember that Friday is Picture Day. You should have received a picture order form in last week's Wednesday envelope. You can either order online, or send in the order form with your child any time this week. Please make sure that you place your order by Friday, at the latest. The kids need to have their order envelopes in-hand (or an online order place) on Friday.
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:
9/25: First Wacky Wednesday (10:00-1:20)
9/27: Picture Day
10/19: Walk-a-thon
10/30: October's Wacky Wednesday & Field Trip to see a play
10/31: Halloween Parade & Celebration
11/1: Staff Development Day: No School
11/11: No School, Veteran's Day
11/14-11/22: Parent-Teacher Conferences
11/20: November's Wacky Wednesday
11/22: Kindergarten Friendship Feast @ 10:15 (a.m. class) and 1:30 (p.m. class)
12/20: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00 (a.m. class) & 1:30 (p.m. class)
9/25: First Wacky Wednesday (10:00-1:20)
9/27: Picture Day
10/19: Walk-a-thon
10/30: October's Wacky Wednesday & Field Trip to see a play
10/31: Halloween Parade & Celebration
11/1: Staff Development Day: No School
11/11: No School, Veteran's Day
11/14-11/22: Parent-Teacher Conferences
11/20: November's Wacky Wednesday
11/22: Kindergarten Friendship Feast @ 10:15 (a.m. class) and 1:30 (p.m. class)
12/20: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00 (a.m. class) & 1:30 (p.m. class)
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Week of 9/15
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 have a parent helper who will 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, now covering 6-10. 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 a few leaves from trees around your home in a baggie on Monday. It can be in the blue bag if that's easier.
Upcoming Events:
9/25: First Wacky Wednesday
9/27: Picture Day
10/19: Alta Vista Walkathon
10/30: October's Wacky Wednesday
10/31: Halloween Party & Parade
11/1: No School: Staff Development Day
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 have a parent helper who will 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, now covering 6-10. 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 a few leaves from trees around your home in a baggie on Monday. It can be in the blue bag if that's easier.
Upcoming Events:
9/25: First Wacky Wednesday
9/27: Picture Day
10/19: Alta Vista Walkathon
10/30: October's Wacky Wednesday
10/31: Halloween Party & Parade
11/1: No School: Staff Development Day
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Week of 9/8
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 continue with the 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. With our new Common Core curriculum, we will really be delving deeper with each math topic, aiming for a greater understanding.
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 bag." 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, especially on Tuesday. :)
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 on the right-hand side called "Sharing Info." Sharing topics each week are posted under the "calendar" link.
Looking forward to an exciting first 5-day week!
Upcoming Events:
9/25: First Wacky Wednesday
10/19: Alta Vista Walkathon
10/30: October's Wacky Wednesday
10/31: Halloween Party & Parade
11/1: No School: Staff Development Day
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 continue with the 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. With our new Common Core curriculum, we will really be delving deeper with each math topic, aiming for a greater understanding.
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 bag." 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, especially on Tuesday. :)
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 on the right-hand side called "Sharing Info." Sharing topics each week are posted under the "calendar" link.
Looking forward to an exciting first 5-day week!
Upcoming Events:
9/25: First Wacky Wednesday
10/19: Alta Vista Walkathon
10/30: October's Wacky Wednesday
10/31: Halloween Party & Parade
11/1: No School: Staff Development Day
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Week of 9/1
Dear Parents,
I hope you all had a great 3 (or 4) day weekend, and are ready to get back into the swing of things! It's our final short week for a while!
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 in science. 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".
In math, we will begin studying numbers to 5. We will have some hands-on activities in class as well as begin our math book pages.
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 9th. 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 11th. 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 9th!
Upcoming Events:
9/2: No School: Labor Day
9/6: Alta Vista Movie Night
9/25: First Wacky Wednesday
10/19: Alta Vista Walkathon
I hope you all had a great 3 (or 4) day weekend, and are ready to get back into the swing of things! It's our final short week for a while!
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 in science. 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".
In math, we will begin studying numbers to 5. We will have some hands-on activities in class as well as begin our math book pages.
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 9th. 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 11th. 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 9th!
Upcoming Events:
9/2: No School: Labor Day
9/6: Alta Vista Movie Night
9/25: First Wacky Wednesday
10/19: Alta Vista Walkathon
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Week of 8/25
Dear Parents,
Apologies in advance for the long post, but I know that many of you are new parents to Alta Vista, and there is much to explain.
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 shapes. At Back-to-School Night, I will be talking to you a bit more about the new national "Common Core Standards" that are focusing on a more intense study of math topics with higher level questioning. Though the topic of shapes sounds simple enough, with our common core standards, we will be talking about angles, sides and points, using higher level mathematical language.
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. Some families may own these traditional tales in another language. If you do, these may be fun for your child to bring in and share with the students
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-- we will introduce a jazzy song called "We Start our Letters at the Top" this week-- 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, starting at 6:00 in the classroom for K2-PM parents. Following this presentation, there is a Home & School Club presentation in the cafeteria at 6:45. Finally, at approximately 7:15, there is another presentation in K2 for the AM parents. This is a night for parents only, as we 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. 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 $70-- 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 for field trips. 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. 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 8th. Thank you to so many of you who signed up to help at the Orientation—we already have most of our activities covered! I know we do still need more center helpers, so I’ll hope for a few more volunteers at Back-to-School Night. Center time is a wonderful way to get involved in our classroom, get to know the children, and stay apprised of what we are learning.
There is no school this Friday, August 30th, or Monday, September 2nd. 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!
Apologies in advance for the long post, but I know that many of you are new parents to Alta Vista, and there is much to explain.
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 shapes. At Back-to-School Night, I will be talking to you a bit more about the new national "Common Core Standards" that are focusing on a more intense study of math topics with higher level questioning. Though the topic of shapes sounds simple enough, with our common core standards, we will be talking about angles, sides and points, using higher level mathematical language.
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. Some families may own these traditional tales in another language. If you do, these may be fun for your child to bring in and share with the students
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-- we will introduce a jazzy song called "We Start our Letters at the Top" this week-- 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, starting at 6:00 in the classroom for K2-PM parents. Following this presentation, there is a Home & School Club presentation in the cafeteria at 6:45. Finally, at approximately 7:15, there is another presentation in K2 for the AM parents. This is a night for parents only, as we 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. 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 $70-- 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 for field trips. 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. 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 8th. Thank you to so many of you who signed up to help at the Orientation—we already have most of our activities covered! I know we do still need more center helpers, so I’ll hope for a few more volunteers at Back-to-School Night. Center time is a wonderful way to get involved in our classroom, get to know the children, and stay apprised of what we are learning.
There is no school this Friday, August 30th, or Monday, September 2nd. 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!
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
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:
Please mark your calendars and arrange babysitters for Back-to-School Night on Wednesday, August 28th. The schedule is as follows:
At the orientation, we provided you with the Union School District handbook. Please look over this handbook with your child (as appropriate). Please return the final page of this booklet as soon as possible. There are signature areas on both sides of the final page. These include: internet acceptable use policies (in kindergarten, we put them on a site and do not have them roving on the internet), acknowledgement that you've received a copy of your parent rights (within the book), and permission for your child's photograph to be published in the media, along with information about student insurance. We must get this signature page from all parents. Thank you for your cooperation.
We are looking forward to an exciting year!
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
- 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 continue to be closed this year at 7:45 a.m. This is 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.
Please mark your calendars and arrange babysitters for Back-to-School Night on Wednesday, August 28th. The schedule is as follows:
- 6:00-6:45 PM Class Presentation in K2
- 6:45-7:15 Home & School Club Presentation in the Cafeteria
- 7:15-8:00 AM Class Presentation in K2
At the orientation, we provided you with the Union School District handbook. Please look over this handbook with your child (as appropriate). Please return the final page of this booklet as soon as possible. There are signature areas on both sides of the final page. These include: internet acceptable use policies (in kindergarten, we put them on a site and do not have them roving on the internet), acknowledgement that you've received a copy of your parent rights (within the book), and permission for your child's photograph to be published in the media, along with information about student insurance. We must get this signature page from all parents. Thank you for your cooperation.
We are looking forward to an exciting year!
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Summer 2013
We thank the students and parents from the kindergarten class of
2012-2013 for a wonderful year, and we look forward to meeting our new
kindergartners of 2013-2014!
Kindergarten Orientation is Tuesday, August 20th, from 10:00 to 11:00 (a.m.) and 11:00 to 12:00 (p.m.)
Supplies that we usually ask for include glue sticks, tissues, #2 pencils, white board markers, and baby wipes. Check Back-to-School sales for these items-- we appreciate it!!
School begins on Wednesday, August 21, 2013-- 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.
You will receive a letter around August 15th or 16th stating whether your child will be in the morning or afternoon session. Due to fluctuation in enrollment, we cannot let you know before that time.
For kindergarten readiness, we highly recommend that your child comes into kindergarten:
If you have any other questions about our program, please feel free to e-mail us at: gristn@unionsd.org or sheikhm@unionsd.org
Thank you, and we look forward to seeing you in August!
Kindergarten Orientation is Tuesday, August 20th, from 10:00 to 11:00 (a.m.) and 11:00 to 12:00 (p.m.)
Supplies that we usually ask for include glue sticks, tissues, #2 pencils, white board markers, and baby wipes. Check Back-to-School sales for these items-- we appreciate it!!
School begins on Wednesday, August 21, 2013-- 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.
You will receive a letter around August 15th or 16th stating whether your child will be in the morning or afternoon session. Due to fluctuation in enrollment, we cannot let you know before that time.
For kindergarten readiness, we highly recommend that your child comes into kindergarten:
- recognizing most letters
- writing his/her name legibly
- recognizing numbers to 10 & beyond
- knowing names of basic shapes
- having good cutting/scissor skills
- able to sit attentively for the duration of a picture book
If you have any other questions about our program, please feel free to e-mail us at: gristn@unionsd.org or sheikhm@unionsd.org
Thank you, and we look forward to seeing you in August!
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Week of 6/2
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: No special activities
TUESDAY: Class party/water play. Pizza will be served-- no snacks needed. 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. Thank you to the parents who have volunteered to walk around with the class. I could use you all, or the Olympic Day stations can use you, too!
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 (8:05-11:25), so we will have 50 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 if you think your child will get hungry.
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: No special activities
TUESDAY: Class party/water play. Pizza will be served-- no snacks needed. 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. Thank you to the parents who have volunteered to walk around with the class. I could use you all, or the Olympic Day stations can use you, too!
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 (8:05-11:25), so we will have 50 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 if you think your child will get hungry.
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Week of 5/26
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 continue our science unit on animals. The children have really enjoyed observing fish, guppies, red worms, and night crawlers so far. Our butterflies mostly hatched last Friday, so we let them go over the weekend. This week, we will also wrap up our social studies units. We will also do a few pieces of writing for our memory books.
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. On Friday, we will have our final SPARK P.E.
We have our water play day/class party coming up on Tuesday the 4th. We will have a pizza lunch and some fun in the sun! 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 5th, we do have a school-wide Olympic Day. So that the children can participate, the afternoon class will have another Wacky Wednesday that day. 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 6th 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 7th, 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 player (and VHS if anyone still has those lying around!) Please clearly mark the movies with your child's name.
Upcoming Events:
5/29: May's Wacky Wednesday
6/4: Water Play Day & Class Party
6/5: June's Wacky Wednesday/Alta Vista Olympic Day
6/6: Kindergarten Promotion Ceremony
6/7: Last day of school: Class runs from 8:05-11:25 for ALL KINDERGARTNERS
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 continue our science unit on animals. The children have really enjoyed observing fish, guppies, red worms, and night crawlers so far. Our butterflies mostly hatched last Friday, so we let them go over the weekend. This week, we will also wrap up our social studies units. We will also do a few pieces of writing for our memory books.
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. On Friday, we will have our final SPARK P.E.
We have our water play day/class party coming up on Tuesday the 4th. We will have a pizza lunch and some fun in the sun! 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 5th, we do have a school-wide Olympic Day. So that the children can participate, the afternoon class will have another Wacky Wednesday that day. 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 6th 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 7th, 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 player (and VHS if anyone still has those lying around!) Please clearly mark the movies with your child's name.
Upcoming Events:
5/29: May's Wacky Wednesday
6/4: Water Play Day & Class Party
6/5: June's Wacky Wednesday/Alta Vista Olympic Day
6/6: Kindergarten Promotion Ceremony
6/7: Last day of school: Class runs from 8:05-11:25 for ALL KINDERGARTNERS
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Week of 5/12
Dear Parents,
First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for the wonderful Teacher Appreciation Week. Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness and for entrusting me with your wonderful children. Thank you also to all the moms 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. I hope all the moms are enjoying their day today.
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 page here: http://www.unionsd.org/cms/lib07/CA01001465/Centricity/Domain/97/100_Sight_Words.pdf: 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.
This is our last week of centers. 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, thank you!
We also finished our math topic on days of the week last week, and will start our final math topic on graphing tomorrow. Things are wrapping up quickly! Our final science unit on animals/living things continues for the next few weeks. Our caterpillars in the classroom will soon go into chrysalids, so we are eagerly awaiting the butterfly stage!
In art, we are busily preparing for Open House next Wednesday the 22nd. 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.
Please send in your Blue Bags tomorrow. You will no longer see the Blue Bags and this is our last week of homework. A homework packet will go home this Wednesday as well as your child's journal, but you may choose a book on your own bookshelf for our final journal assignment. Please use the extra time in the upcoming weeks for additional reading practice, and of course, outdoor time is always important.
The sharing this week is Song, Poem, or Nursery Rhyme. Please have your child prepared to recite/sing something in front of the class. Songs or poems in other languages are always welcome and encouraged!
Thank you to those of you who have already completed the Union School District parent survey. For those of you who have not completed it, you can find it here: http://www3.unionsd.org/domain/29 Please take the survey, then email me that you've completed it. Your child will receive a Cougar Gold Card to thank you for your participation in the survey.
Hard to believe that we have just 19 class days left together!!
Upcoming Events:
5/22: Open House 6:30-8:00
5/29: May's Wacky Wednesday
6/4: Water Play Day & Class Party
6/5: June's Wacky Wednesday/Alta Vista Olympic Day
6/6: Kindergarten Promotion Ceremony
6/7: Last day of school: Class runs from 8:05-11:25 for ALL KINDERGARTNERS
First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for the wonderful Teacher Appreciation Week. Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness and for entrusting me with your wonderful children. Thank you also to all the moms 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. I hope all the moms are enjoying their day today.
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 page here: http://www.unionsd.org/cms/lib07/CA01001465/Centricity/Domain/97/100_Sight_Words.pdf: 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.
This is our last week of centers. 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, thank you!
We also finished our math topic on days of the week last week, and will start our final math topic on graphing tomorrow. Things are wrapping up quickly! Our final science unit on animals/living things continues for the next few weeks. Our caterpillars in the classroom will soon go into chrysalids, so we are eagerly awaiting the butterfly stage!
In art, we are busily preparing for Open House next Wednesday the 22nd. 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.
Please send in your Blue Bags tomorrow. You will no longer see the Blue Bags and this is our last week of homework. A homework packet will go home this Wednesday as well as your child's journal, but you may choose a book on your own bookshelf for our final journal assignment. Please use the extra time in the upcoming weeks for additional reading practice, and of course, outdoor time is always important.
The sharing this week is Song, Poem, or Nursery Rhyme. Please have your child prepared to recite/sing something in front of the class. Songs or poems in other languages are always welcome and encouraged!
Thank you to those of you who have already completed the Union School District parent survey. For those of you who have not completed it, you can find it here: http://www3.unionsd.org/domain/29 Please take the survey, then email me that you've completed it. Your child will receive a Cougar Gold Card to thank you for your participation in the survey.
Hard to believe that we have just 19 class days left together!!
Upcoming Events:
5/22: Open House 6:30-8:00
5/29: May's Wacky Wednesday
6/4: Water Play Day & Class Party
6/5: June's Wacky Wednesday/Alta Vista Olympic Day
6/6: Kindergarten Promotion Ceremony
6/7: Last day of school: Class runs from 8:05-11:25 for ALL KINDERGARTNERS
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Week of 4/28
Dear Parents,
We had a great field trip to the farm last Wednesday-- the weather was beautiful and the kids enjoyed feeding geese and goats, petting roosters and rabbits, 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 3rd, 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 and pants, 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 10th. 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 beginning our second to last topic in math on the calendar.
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!
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 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.
We are currently circulating our final class book, the "Baby Guessing Book." It is really important when you get this book to please make sure you turn it right back around and send it to the classroom the next day. We will not get through all the children in the class if this book gets forgotten a lot. Thank you for your help with this! Please also remember your blue bags tomorrow :)
Upcoming Events:
5/3: Cinco de Mayo Dance
5/9: Art Vista Art Show
5/10: Mother's Day Celebration in Class
5/10: "Under the Big Top" Fantasy Fair 5:00 pm
5/22: Open House
5/29: May's Wacky Wednesday
6/4: Water Play Day & Class Party
6/5: June's Wacky Wednesday/Alta Vista Olympic Day
6/6: Kindergarten Promotion Ceremony
6/7: Last day of school: Class runs from 8:05-11:25 for ALL KINDERGARTNERS
We had a great field trip to the farm last Wednesday-- the weather was beautiful and the kids enjoyed feeding geese and goats, petting roosters and rabbits, 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 3rd, 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 and pants, 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 10th. 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 beginning our second to last topic in math on the calendar.
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!
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 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.
We are currently circulating our final class book, the "Baby Guessing Book." It is really important when you get this book to please make sure you turn it right back around and send it to the classroom the next day. We will not get through all the children in the class if this book gets forgotten a lot. Thank you for your help with this! Please also remember your blue bags tomorrow :)
Upcoming Events:
5/3: Cinco de Mayo Dance
5/9: Art Vista Art Show
5/10: Mother's Day Celebration in Class
5/10: "Under the Big Top" Fantasy Fair 5:00 pm
5/22: Open House
5/29: May's Wacky Wednesday
6/4: Water Play Day & Class Party
6/5: June's Wacky Wednesday/Alta Vista Olympic Day
6/6: Kindergarten Promotion Ceremony
6/7: Last day of school: Class runs from 8:05-11:25 for ALL KINDERGARTNERS
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Week of 4/21
Dear Parents,
We are very excited for our field trip to Emma Prusch farm on Wednesday! Remember that it is a Wacky Wednesday schedule for the afternoon class, so those children need to arrive promptly at 10:00. The bus will leave shortly thereafter. Please send your children in their class t-shirts, and put a shirt underneath for warmth if needed, so that I can still see the class t-shirt. The weather is supposed to be excellent! Definitely send your children in close-toed shoes that are appropriate for walking, though. 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, water bottles, etc.
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 continue the math topic on telling time. This topic covers telling time to the hour. 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.
Moms, remember that Muffins with Mom is coming up on May 10th, 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!
We have a Spirit Week coming up this week, gearing up for Relay for Life this Friday. Each day will have a different theme that the children can dress to. As always, these days are fully optional. Here is the run-down::
MONDAY: Earth Day: Take care of the earth & take care of your body. Wear brown, green, or blue.
TUESDAY: "Black Out Day" Block out cancer by wearing black (and sunscreen, of course!)
WEDNESDAY: We cannot participate due to the field trip. Wear your class t-shirt, please!
THURSDAY: Jersey day: "Team up against cancer" Wear any team jersey-- professional or from a sport you play!
FRIDAY: Purple Day: Wear the official color of Relay for Life to show your support!
If you would like to support the staff's Relay for Life team, here is the link:
http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?team_id=1265973&fr_id=48818&pg=team
Finally, please remember your Blue Bags tomorrow, with your "Baby Guessing" book page inside. It is really important to get these back tomorrow so that I can create the class book and start circulating it immediately, or everyone won't get a turn-- we are so close to the end of the year that we also need to make sure to return this class book right after we receive it! Thank you for your cooperation!
Upcoming Events:
4/24: April's Wacky Wednesday & Field Trip to Prusch Farm
4/24: Alta Vista Science Fair
5/3: Cinco de Mayo Dance
5/9: Art Vista Art Show
5/10: Mother's Day Celebration in Class
5/10: "Under the Big Top" Fantasy Fair 5:00 pm
5/22: Open House
5/29: May's Wacky Wednesday
6/5: June's Wacky Wednesday/Alta Vista Olympic Day
6/6: Kindergarten Promotion Ceremony
6/7: Last day of school: Class runs from 8:05-11:25 for ALL KINDERGARTNERS
We are very excited for our field trip to Emma Prusch farm on Wednesday! Remember that it is a Wacky Wednesday schedule for the afternoon class, so those children need to arrive promptly at 10:00. The bus will leave shortly thereafter. Please send your children in their class t-shirts, and put a shirt underneath for warmth if needed, so that I can still see the class t-shirt. The weather is supposed to be excellent! Definitely send your children in close-toed shoes that are appropriate for walking, though. 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, water bottles, etc.
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 continue the math topic on telling time. This topic covers telling time to the hour. 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.
Moms, remember that Muffins with Mom is coming up on May 10th, 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!
We have a Spirit Week coming up this week, gearing up for Relay for Life this Friday. Each day will have a different theme that the children can dress to. As always, these days are fully optional. Here is the run-down::
MONDAY: Earth Day: Take care of the earth & take care of your body. Wear brown, green, or blue.
TUESDAY: "Black Out Day" Block out cancer by wearing black (and sunscreen, of course!)
WEDNESDAY: We cannot participate due to the field trip. Wear your class t-shirt, please!
THURSDAY: Jersey day: "Team up against cancer" Wear any team jersey-- professional or from a sport you play!
FRIDAY: Purple Day: Wear the official color of Relay for Life to show your support!
If you would like to support the staff's Relay for Life team, here is the link:
http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?team_id=1265973&fr_id=48818&pg=team
Upcoming Events:
4/24: April's Wacky Wednesday & Field Trip to Prusch Farm
4/24: Alta Vista Science Fair
5/3: Cinco de Mayo Dance
5/9: Art Vista Art Show
5/10: Mother's Day Celebration in Class
5/10: "Under the Big Top" Fantasy Fair 5:00 pm
5/22: Open House
5/29: May's Wacky Wednesday
6/5: June's Wacky Wednesday/Alta Vista Olympic Day
6/6: Kindergarten Promotion Ceremony
6/7: Last day of school: Class runs from 8:05-11:25 for ALL KINDERGARTNERS
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Week of 4/14
Dear Parents,
I hope you all enjoyed a nice week off with your children. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, we are now into the "final stretch" of kindergarten, and the time will fly by very quickly! I am looking forward to some great fun and learning in the weeks ahead.
We have a new letter this week, Yy, and the Alphafriend is Yetta Yo-Yo. We will also have a new sight word, she. Our art projects this week will be around the Farm theme, in preparation for our field trip on the 24th. We will begin a new math topic on time. In kindergarten, we will be covering telling time to the hour on both analog & digital clocks.
On May 3rd, you may have noticed in the "Upcoming Events" that we have our Cinco de Mayo hat dance. This is an annual tradition in kindergarten, and you are all invited to come and watch! All the kindergarten classes dance the Hat Dance together, and it is a sight to see! The dance will start at 11:15, which means that the afternoon class will need to bring your children to school a little earlier that day. Don't be late, or you will miss it! Please plan on joining us if you can, but if your work schedule only allows for one day off, I would MUCH prefer that moms join us for the Mother's Day celebration the following week. Thank you!
The sharing this week will be Book Share. Please have your child prepared to state the title of the book, and a bit about what it's about. Please also have the favorite page bookmarked. Thank you!
Homework this week will be a special project called the Baby Guessing Book. Your child will complete a page that describes him/herself. A baby photo will be attached to the page, and then we circulate the book and try and guess who each baby is. This is always one of our most popular books, so start looking for a special baby picture that you can attach to your child's page!
Alta Vista's Multicultural Family Night is this Friday from 5:00 to 7:30. This event is in its 3rd year, and is a wonderful family event. A few students in our class are participating by having a board on display of their family's culture or even taking part in cultural performances! Check it out if you can!
I will look forward to seeing the children Monday and hearing all about their adventures over the past week!
Upcoming Events:
4/19: Muli-Cultural Family Night @ 5:00
4/24: April's Wacky Wednesday & Field Trip to Prusch Farm
4/24: Alta Vista Science Fair
5/3: Cinco de Mayo Dance
5/9: Art Vista Art Show
5/10: Mother's Day Celebration in Class
5/10: "Under the Big Top" Fantasy Fair 5:00 pm
5/22: Open House
5/29: May's Wacky Wednesday
6/5: June's Wacky Wednesday/Alta Vista Olympic Day
6/6: Kindergarten Promotion Ceremony
6/7: Last day of school: Class runs from 8:05-11:25 for ALL KINDERGARTNERS
I hope you all enjoyed a nice week off with your children. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, we are now into the "final stretch" of kindergarten, and the time will fly by very quickly! I am looking forward to some great fun and learning in the weeks ahead.
We have a new letter this week, Yy, and the Alphafriend is Yetta Yo-Yo. We will also have a new sight word, she. Our art projects this week will be around the Farm theme, in preparation for our field trip on the 24th. We will begin a new math topic on time. In kindergarten, we will be covering telling time to the hour on both analog & digital clocks.
On May 3rd, you may have noticed in the "Upcoming Events" that we have our Cinco de Mayo hat dance. This is an annual tradition in kindergarten, and you are all invited to come and watch! All the kindergarten classes dance the Hat Dance together, and it is a sight to see! The dance will start at 11:15, which means that the afternoon class will need to bring your children to school a little earlier that day. Don't be late, or you will miss it! Please plan on joining us if you can, but if your work schedule only allows for one day off, I would MUCH prefer that moms join us for the Mother's Day celebration the following week. Thank you!
The sharing this week will be Book Share. Please have your child prepared to state the title of the book, and a bit about what it's about. Please also have the favorite page bookmarked. Thank you!
Homework this week will be a special project called the Baby Guessing Book. Your child will complete a page that describes him/herself. A baby photo will be attached to the page, and then we circulate the book and try and guess who each baby is. This is always one of our most popular books, so start looking for a special baby picture that you can attach to your child's page!
Alta Vista's Multicultural Family Night is this Friday from 5:00 to 7:30. This event is in its 3rd year, and is a wonderful family event. A few students in our class are participating by having a board on display of their family's culture or even taking part in cultural performances! Check it out if you can!
I will look forward to seeing the children Monday and hearing all about their adventures over the past week!
Upcoming Events:
4/19: Muli-Cultural Family Night @ 5:00
4/24: April's Wacky Wednesday & Field Trip to Prusch Farm
4/24: Alta Vista Science Fair
5/3: Cinco de Mayo Dance
5/9: Art Vista Art Show
5/10: Mother's Day Celebration in Class
5/10: "Under the Big Top" Fantasy Fair 5:00 pm
5/22: Open House
5/29: May's Wacky Wednesday
6/5: June's Wacky Wednesday/Alta Vista Olympic Day
6/6: Kindergarten Promotion Ceremony
6/7: Last day of school: Class runs from 8:05-11:25 for ALL KINDERGARTNERS
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Week of 3/31
Dear Parents,
As we head into our final week before Spring break, I hate to say it, but the weeks after the break are going to just fly by! We have a lot to pack in and a lot of upcoming events, so keep updating your calendars with the information at the bottom of this e-mail. You will notice there are A LOT of upcoming events!
This week, we have a new letter, Ww. The alphafriend is Willy Worm. We have a new word, play. We also have a new vowel, Ee. The alphafriend is Edna Elephant. After this week, we only have one vowel and two consonants remaining! In math, we will wrap up the topic on weight & capacity. The children will be comparing baskets and containers by looking at how much they hold. They will also be ordering items by weight (heaviest to lightest, etc.)
In our final week of the science unit on Wood & Paper, we will have the chance to make paper mache. We will also make our own paper by creating some paper pulp, then drying it. Finally, we will take apart boxes and look at how the flat template appears before being folded into a box. Then, we will use the remaining boxes to create structures. This unit has been a lot of fun! Our next science unit will be on animals and will begin in May.
We have Spring Fling this Friday, of course. Thank you again for answering the call for help!! I believe almost all items are now covered, and we have plenty of helpers, but if anyone else would like to join us for the day, feel free to do so.
If you haven't already, please return the permission slip for the upcoming field trip to Emma Prusch Farm so that they don't get forgotten over the Spring Break. Blue Bags will not go home this Wednesday due to the upcoming vacation week, but please try to return the bags tomorrow.
This week's sharing is Song, Poem, or Nursery Rhyme. Please have your children come prepared with a song, poem, alphafriend song, nursery rhyme, etc. that they can recite in front of the class.
A reminder again that we've set the date for Muffins with Mom (May 10). Please come join us for this important event honoring all the moms! All parents will also want to mark their calendars for our Promotion Ceremony on Thursday, June 6th. More details will follow, but this is our celebration of our year together as Friday (the final day of the school year) is just a housekeeping day.
Upcoming Events:
4/2: Dining for Dollars @ Armadillo Willy's
4/5: Spring Fling
4/8-4/12: Spring Break
4/19: Muli-Cultural Family Night @ 5:00
4/24: April's Wacky Wednesday & Field Trip to Prusch Farm
4/24: Alta Vista Science Fair
5/3: Cinco de Mayo Dance
5/9: Art Vista Art Show
5/10: Mother's Day Celebration in Class
5/10: "Under the Big Top" Fantasy Fair 5:00 pm
5/22: Open House
5/29: May's Wacky Wednesday
6/5: June's Wacky Wednesday/Alta Vista Olympic Day
6/6: Kindergarten Promotion Ceremony
As we head into our final week before Spring break, I hate to say it, but the weeks after the break are going to just fly by! We have a lot to pack in and a lot of upcoming events, so keep updating your calendars with the information at the bottom of this e-mail. You will notice there are A LOT of upcoming events!
This week, we have a new letter, Ww. The alphafriend is Willy Worm. We have a new word, play. We also have a new vowel, Ee. The alphafriend is Edna Elephant. After this week, we only have one vowel and two consonants remaining! In math, we will wrap up the topic on weight & capacity. The children will be comparing baskets and containers by looking at how much they hold. They will also be ordering items by weight (heaviest to lightest, etc.)
In our final week of the science unit on Wood & Paper, we will have the chance to make paper mache. We will also make our own paper by creating some paper pulp, then drying it. Finally, we will take apart boxes and look at how the flat template appears before being folded into a box. Then, we will use the remaining boxes to create structures. This unit has been a lot of fun! Our next science unit will be on animals and will begin in May.
We have Spring Fling this Friday, of course. Thank you again for answering the call for help!! I believe almost all items are now covered, and we have plenty of helpers, but if anyone else would like to join us for the day, feel free to do so.
If you haven't already, please return the permission slip for the upcoming field trip to Emma Prusch Farm so that they don't get forgotten over the Spring Break. Blue Bags will not go home this Wednesday due to the upcoming vacation week, but please try to return the bags tomorrow.
This week's sharing is Song, Poem, or Nursery Rhyme. Please have your children come prepared with a song, poem, alphafriend song, nursery rhyme, etc. that they can recite in front of the class.
A reminder again that we've set the date for Muffins with Mom (May 10). Please come join us for this important event honoring all the moms! All parents will also want to mark their calendars for our Promotion Ceremony on Thursday, June 6th. More details will follow, but this is our celebration of our year together as Friday (the final day of the school year) is just a housekeeping day.
Upcoming Events:
4/2: Dining for Dollars @ Armadillo Willy's
4/5: Spring Fling
4/8-4/12: Spring Break
4/19: Muli-Cultural Family Night @ 5:00
4/24: April's Wacky Wednesday & Field Trip to Prusch Farm
4/24: Alta Vista Science Fair
5/3: Cinco de Mayo Dance
5/9: Art Vista Art Show
5/10: Mother's Day Celebration in Class
5/10: "Under the Big Top" Fantasy Fair 5:00 pm
5/22: Open House
5/29: May's Wacky Wednesday
6/5: June's Wacky Wednesday/Alta Vista Olympic Day
6/6: Kindergarten Promotion Ceremony