Dear Parents,
I wanted to thank parents and students for having such a great first month of journal entries with the Blue Bags! Everyone seems to be letting their children do all their own spelling, and are encouraging them so well in their efforts! I already see improvement in the writing just in this short time. Remember that the focus in kindergarten is giving kids the ability to use their phonics skills to write on their own and get their thoughts down on paper. As they move through the grade levels, spelling will become more of a focus. Right now the focus is the process and applying phonetic sounds so that they have that framework to fall back on whenever they need to write on their own.
We had a wonderful "Snow Day" last Wednesday-- thank you! It seems that
for the past 3 or 4 years, Snow Day is always on one of the warmest days
in January-- we finally broke our streak last Wednesday! The kids had fun with the snowball fight, and enjoyed some treats afterward.
This week's share is 100 Day collections. Please have your child bring
in 100 of the same item that they'd like to show on his/her share day. This is a
fun counting activity at home, plus a fun way to see the many ways 100
can look. I will probably ask your child how they counted out their
items (by 1s, 10s, 5s, etc.), so have him/her prepared to talk about the
process. Remember that it can be as simple as 100 cheerios-- whatever
your child has 100 items of that s/he would like to share. If they want
to glue down the 100 items and make a picture out of them, that's fine,
too.
The 100th day of school is this Thursday , and we will have lots of fun
projects and activities in class in celebration of the day! We have 180
total school days, so we are more than half-way through the year.
Spring conferences are rapidly approaching (March) and I sent out those
sign-ups in a separate e-mail. Thank you to so many of you for already
returning your time selections. As in the Fall, you can either print
out our schedule and write in your time preferences & send it back
with your child this week, or you can e-mail me with your three time
preferences.
This week's letter is Kk, and our Alphafriend is Keely Kangaroo. We will be learning a new word this week, here. We are now up to 18 sight words. Please check the sight word link on the website and make sure that your child knows the words we've introduced, as this is a heavy emphasis at this time. If your child is struggling with these words, a good website to go to is http://www.spellingcity.com
and log in under my name for the "40 Word List" of all the sight words we're covering this year. Last week, we learned a new vowel, Ii, and met the Alphafriend Iggy Iguana. Now we can read and spell CVC words with both short a and short i. We will finish the chapter on numbers 20-30 in math.
Our art activities this week will continue to center around our snowy
theme, the 100 day theme, and penguins.
On Thursday, February 14th, we will be celebrating Valentine's Day in
class. Just a reminder (since I know your children will be eagerly
shopping for Valentines soon!) in kindergarten, we have the kids sign
their valentines, but we do not have them write who the valentine is
"to." This makes distribution MUCH easier, since many kids cannot read
the names. So please sign the cards, but leave the "to" box blank.
Please send in 25 valentines so that there are enough for each child in
the class. Thanks!
The afternoon class has a Wacky Wednesday this week. Class runs from 10:00 to 1:20.
Please send in your child's blue bag tomorrow, and please continue sending in the permission slips for the field trip. Thank you!
Upcoming Events:
1/30: January's Wacky Wednesday
1/31: 100 Day-- celebration of the 100th day of school
2/13: Special Wacky Wednesday(p.m. class) and field trip to see a play (all K classes)
2/14: Valentine's Day celebration: only sign valentines
2/18-2/22: President's Week: No School
2/27: February's Wacky Wednesday
3/4-3/15: 2nd Trimester Conferences
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Week of 1/21
Dear Parents,
I hope you are enjoying some fun family time on this long weekend!
Of course, we have tomorrow off school in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. On Tuesday, it will be very important to return the Blue Bags on time since we only have a day to turn them back around. So please put them by the door or wherever you will remember them Tuesday morning :) Please remember to check your child's blue bag to be sure that it includes the journal, the book, and the homework folder. Many blue bags have been returned recently that are missing one item. Thanks!
Our new letter this week is Ll, and the Alphafriend is Larry Lion. We have a new word this week, is. We will also introduce another vowel sound this week, Ii, and that Alphafriend is Iggy Iguana. We are now more than half-way through our kindergarten year. This is where the kindergarten curriculum really takes off, and your continued support with the curriculum will be especially important at this time. Completing homework weekly, including the journal, reading to your children and asking them questions about what they are reading, and reinforcing math facts and sight words is really important at this time. We want to ensure that everyone is prepared for first grade, and we definitely need your help :).
We completed the math topic on numbers to 20 last week. Many children have more difficulty with the numbers between 10 and 20 than they have with numbers between 20 and 30 (our next chapter). Please check in with your children on recognition of numbers below 20.
We also have Snow Day this week. It will be Wednesday for the p.m. class (please note the change of day) and Friday for the a.m. class. This is a day when the children come to school all dressed in their snow gear-- whatever items you have. Mittens, knit hats, jackets, snow boots, scarves, goggles, etc. are all welcome! Please do not buy anything special for this day, just use what you have or borrow from a friend. They wear their gear, and then we will have some snow-themed fun! We will be having a "snowball fight" using wadded up recycled paper & have an icy treat! It is always lots of fun.
Another fun day to mark your calendars for is 100 day on Thursday the 31st. This is an in-class celebration of our 100th day of school. We will have many fun activities for counting out 100. This is another very memorable day for the children. The sharing theme next week, in honor of 100 day, will be a collection of 100 things. This does not have to be anything fancy-- the kids can bring in 100 pennies, Legos, Cheerios, etc. The main thing is that you & your child sit down together to count out the item. You can count them by 1s or put them into 10 groups of 10-- whatever your child prefers. It is a fun activity for them to see the different ways that "100" can look, so start discussing with your children what they'd like to bring in next week.
This week's share is Letter of the Week sharing. Please have your child bring something in that starts with the letter Ll. The children like to bring this sharing in a bag with clues, so please help them with that. Many children are writing their own clues now, which is wonderful! Children who normally share on Monday can share any other day this week.
We look forward to seeing everyone on Tuesday, Blue Bags in hand!
Upcoming Events:
1/21: MLK Day, no school
1/23 or 1/25: Snow Day-- children dress up in snow gear
1/30: January's Wacky Wednesday
1/31: 100 Day-- celebration of the 100th day of school
2/13: Special Wacky Wednesday for field trip to see a play
2/18-2/22: President's Week: No School
I hope you are enjoying some fun family time on this long weekend!
Of course, we have tomorrow off school in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. On Tuesday, it will be very important to return the Blue Bags on time since we only have a day to turn them back around. So please put them by the door or wherever you will remember them Tuesday morning :) Please remember to check your child's blue bag to be sure that it includes the journal, the book, and the homework folder. Many blue bags have been returned recently that are missing one item. Thanks!
Our new letter this week is Ll, and the Alphafriend is Larry Lion. We have a new word this week, is. We will also introduce another vowel sound this week, Ii, and that Alphafriend is Iggy Iguana. We are now more than half-way through our kindergarten year. This is where the kindergarten curriculum really takes off, and your continued support with the curriculum will be especially important at this time. Completing homework weekly, including the journal, reading to your children and asking them questions about what they are reading, and reinforcing math facts and sight words is really important at this time. We want to ensure that everyone is prepared for first grade, and we definitely need your help :).
We completed the math topic on numbers to 20 last week. Many children have more difficulty with the numbers between 10 and 20 than they have with numbers between 20 and 30 (our next chapter). Please check in with your children on recognition of numbers below 20.
We also have Snow Day this week. It will be Wednesday for the p.m. class (please note the change of day) and Friday for the a.m. class. This is a day when the children come to school all dressed in their snow gear-- whatever items you have. Mittens, knit hats, jackets, snow boots, scarves, goggles, etc. are all welcome! Please do not buy anything special for this day, just use what you have or borrow from a friend. They wear their gear, and then we will have some snow-themed fun! We will be having a "snowball fight" using wadded up recycled paper & have an icy treat! It is always lots of fun.
Another fun day to mark your calendars for is 100 day on Thursday the 31st. This is an in-class celebration of our 100th day of school. We will have many fun activities for counting out 100. This is another very memorable day for the children. The sharing theme next week, in honor of 100 day, will be a collection of 100 things. This does not have to be anything fancy-- the kids can bring in 100 pennies, Legos, Cheerios, etc. The main thing is that you & your child sit down together to count out the item. You can count them by 1s or put them into 10 groups of 10-- whatever your child prefers. It is a fun activity for them to see the different ways that "100" can look, so start discussing with your children what they'd like to bring in next week.
This week's share is Letter of the Week sharing. Please have your child bring something in that starts with the letter Ll. The children like to bring this sharing in a bag with clues, so please help them with that. Many children are writing their own clues now, which is wonderful! Children who normally share on Monday can share any other day this week.
We look forward to seeing everyone on Tuesday, Blue Bags in hand!
Upcoming Events:
1/21: MLK Day, no school
1/23 or 1/25: Snow Day-- children dress up in snow gear
1/30: January's Wacky Wednesday
1/31: 100 Day-- celebration of the 100th day of school
2/13: Special Wacky Wednesday for field trip to see a play
2/18-2/22: President's Week: No School
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Week of 1/13
Dear Parents,
I hope that the journal writing has gone successfully this week. My goal is that the children are excited about writing, not stressed out by it, so please let me know if there were any problems. A few other reminders about the journals:
We have a new letter this week, Ff, and the Alphafriend is Fifi Fish. We have a new sight word, we. Please review the "High Frequency Word" tab on the right to learn which words we've introduced. A good way to practice reading and spelling the sight words is by logging onto http://www.spellingcity.com/k2grist. "Missing Letter" and "Audio Word Match" are great games for younger players. The link to this site is also on the right.
We will continue our math topic on numbers to 20. Please continue reinforcing these numbers at home with flashcards, especially if you've noticed your child having difficulty recognizing them. Especially difficult seem to be 12, 13, and 15, because they don't follow the pattern of "number in the ones place" plus "the word teen," like fourteen, sixteen, etc. Also, subtraction needs continued reinforcement as we wrapped this up before the holidays, and many children had a hard time with it.
We have Martin Luther King's birthday holiday coming up. We will be talking about him in class and doing some art projects. When we discuss MLK, we will discuss some of the discrimination that took place in the past, and how he helped change that. So if you hear your children asking questions about that, you will know why. We try to keep it fairly simple in kindergarten in terms that they can understand and relate to.
This week's share will be Book Share. Friday children can share any other day this week. Please have your children choose a book and be ready to tell the title, a bit about what it's about, and have a favorite page bookmarked. We will also continue with wintery-themed art projects this week.
We continue to need glue sticks & baby wipes if you can donate those-- thank you!
Also-- please take note below at some new special events that have been posted. They are-- Snow Day: children will dress up in whatever snow gear they have-- hats, mittens, coats, scarves, etc. and we will have a fake snowball fight with K1. 100 Day-- we celebrate the 100th day of school with some special activities. Also there will be special homework that week. First Field trip!! We will go to the Sunnyvale Community Center to see a play-- please note that the afternoon class will be on a Wacky Wednesday schedule.
We look forward to seeing everyone tomorrow, Blue Bags in hand!
Upcoming Events:
1/18: Staff Development Day, no school
1/21: MLK Day, no school
1/25: Snow Day-- children dress up in snow gear
1/30: January's Wacky Wednesday
1/31: 100 Day-- celebration of the 100th day of school
2/13: Special Wacky Wednesday for field trip to see a play
2/18-2/22: President's Week: No School
I hope that the journal writing has gone successfully this week. My goal is that the children are excited about writing, not stressed out by it, so please let me know if there were any problems. A few other reminders about the journals:
- Writing should always be in PENCIL.
- Above the writing, in the blank box, children should draw a neat, (at least) four-color picture.
- Encourage your children to spell high-frequency words that we've introduced correctly.
- Please DO NOT copy a sentence from the book.
We have a new letter this week, Ff, and the Alphafriend is Fifi Fish. We have a new sight word, we. Please review the "High Frequency Word" tab on the right to learn which words we've introduced. A good way to practice reading and spelling the sight words is by logging onto http://www.spellingcity.com/k2grist. "Missing Letter" and "Audio Word Match" are great games for younger players. The link to this site is also on the right.
We will continue our math topic on numbers to 20. Please continue reinforcing these numbers at home with flashcards, especially if you've noticed your child having difficulty recognizing them. Especially difficult seem to be 12, 13, and 15, because they don't follow the pattern of "number in the ones place" plus "the word teen," like fourteen, sixteen, etc. Also, subtraction needs continued reinforcement as we wrapped this up before the holidays, and many children had a hard time with it.
We have Martin Luther King's birthday holiday coming up. We will be talking about him in class and doing some art projects. When we discuss MLK, we will discuss some of the discrimination that took place in the past, and how he helped change that. So if you hear your children asking questions about that, you will know why. We try to keep it fairly simple in kindergarten in terms that they can understand and relate to.
This week's share will be Book Share. Friday children can share any other day this week. Please have your children choose a book and be ready to tell the title, a bit about what it's about, and have a favorite page bookmarked. We will also continue with wintery-themed art projects this week.
We continue to need glue sticks & baby wipes if you can donate those-- thank you!
Also-- please take note below at some new special events that have been posted. They are-- Snow Day: children will dress up in whatever snow gear they have-- hats, mittens, coats, scarves, etc. and we will have a fake snowball fight with K1. 100 Day-- we celebrate the 100th day of school with some special activities. Also there will be special homework that week. First Field trip!! We will go to the Sunnyvale Community Center to see a play-- please note that the afternoon class will be on a Wacky Wednesday schedule.
We look forward to seeing everyone tomorrow, Blue Bags in hand!
Upcoming Events:
1/18: Staff Development Day, no school
1/21: MLK Day, no school
1/25: Snow Day-- children dress up in snow gear
1/30: January's Wacky Wednesday
1/31: 100 Day-- celebration of the 100th day of school
2/13: Special Wacky Wednesday for field trip to see a play
2/18-2/22: President's Week: No School
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Week of 1/6
Dear Parents,
Happy New Year! We hope you all had a wonderful vacation & are rested and ready to get back into the swing of things!
First of all, I wanted to thank everyone for all the help I received with the Nutcracker performance. From making the paper pieces of the costumes at the paper party, to applying the make-up and helping them get dressed, to photographers-- every job was covered! The kids did a wonderful job and they all looked so cute! We had a great cast party afterward, thanks especially to our room moms for coordinating. Finally, a huge thanks to everyone for their generosity and thoughtfulness with all the wonderful gifts I received. I have been so touched by how giving this class is, and I appreciate it so much.
We have a pretty academic month ahead of us with no breaks other than the observation of Martin Luther King's Birthday on the 21st.
We have a new letter this week: Gg. The Alphafriend is Gertie Goose. We also have a new high frequency word: go. Art projects will revolve around the theme of weather, especially snow! We will also begin our math topic on numbers to 20. Please continue reinforcing these numbers at home with flashcards, especially if you've noticed your child having difficulty recognizing them. Especially difficult seem to be 12, 13, and 15, because they don't follow the pattern of "number in the ones place" plus "the word teen," like fourteen, sixteen, etc. Also, subtraction needs continued reinforcement as we wrapped this up before the holidays, and many children had a hard time with it.
Our sharing this week is toy in a bag to give the children a chance to show off all those favorite holiday gifts!
Now that we are coming up on our half-year mark (the 90th day of school out of 180 days is in the upcoming week), we do need to refresh a few of our supplies. Especially needed are glue sticks and baby wipes. If you can donate either, we'd appreciate it.
Blue bags will go home on Wednesday, of course. Remember that from now on, the blue bags will contain a journal component. Very specific directions about our expectations with the journal will be in your child's homework folder this week. Please leave it there for your continued reference. Basically, your child will use the journal to respond to the book that's in the blue bag. Children need to write at least one sentence about the book-- what they liked/didn't like, who their favorite character was, etc. We DO NOT want children to copy a sentence from the book or copy a sentence that you have written for them. This is their chance for developing writing skills, which will help their confidence when we take our first writing assessment in February. A sentence written: "I like the fune got" for "I like the funny goat." is great and is what is expected from them at this time. If you would like to go over spelling with them once they are done, you can pencil it in underneath their words and show them what the conventional spelling looks like. However, do not make them correct their writing at this time. We want to encourage them in their thinking before we start focusing on the mechanics.
Enjoy your final day of vacation, and I look forward to seeing your children on Monday!
Upcoming Events:
1/18: Staff Development Day, no school
1/21: MLK Day, no school
1/30: January's Wacky Wednesday
2/18-2/22: President's Week: No School
Happy New Year! We hope you all had a wonderful vacation & are rested and ready to get back into the swing of things!
First of all, I wanted to thank everyone for all the help I received with the Nutcracker performance. From making the paper pieces of the costumes at the paper party, to applying the make-up and helping them get dressed, to photographers-- every job was covered! The kids did a wonderful job and they all looked so cute! We had a great cast party afterward, thanks especially to our room moms for coordinating. Finally, a huge thanks to everyone for their generosity and thoughtfulness with all the wonderful gifts I received. I have been so touched by how giving this class is, and I appreciate it so much.
We have a pretty academic month ahead of us with no breaks other than the observation of Martin Luther King's Birthday on the 21st.
We have a new letter this week: Gg. The Alphafriend is Gertie Goose. We also have a new high frequency word: go. Art projects will revolve around the theme of weather, especially snow! We will also begin our math topic on numbers to 20. Please continue reinforcing these numbers at home with flashcards, especially if you've noticed your child having difficulty recognizing them. Especially difficult seem to be 12, 13, and 15, because they don't follow the pattern of "number in the ones place" plus "the word teen," like fourteen, sixteen, etc. Also, subtraction needs continued reinforcement as we wrapped this up before the holidays, and many children had a hard time with it.
Our sharing this week is toy in a bag to give the children a chance to show off all those favorite holiday gifts!
Now that we are coming up on our half-year mark (the 90th day of school out of 180 days is in the upcoming week), we do need to refresh a few of our supplies. Especially needed are glue sticks and baby wipes. If you can donate either, we'd appreciate it.
Blue bags will go home on Wednesday, of course. Remember that from now on, the blue bags will contain a journal component. Very specific directions about our expectations with the journal will be in your child's homework folder this week. Please leave it there for your continued reference. Basically, your child will use the journal to respond to the book that's in the blue bag. Children need to write at least one sentence about the book-- what they liked/didn't like, who their favorite character was, etc. We DO NOT want children to copy a sentence from the book or copy a sentence that you have written for them. This is their chance for developing writing skills, which will help their confidence when we take our first writing assessment in February. A sentence written: "I like the fune got" for "I like the funny goat." is great and is what is expected from them at this time. If you would like to go over spelling with them once they are done, you can pencil it in underneath their words and show them what the conventional spelling looks like. However, do not make them correct their writing at this time. We want to encourage them in their thinking before we start focusing on the mechanics.
Enjoy your final day of vacation, and I look forward to seeing your children on Monday!
Upcoming Events:
1/18: Staff Development Day, no school
1/21: MLK Day, no school
1/30: January's Wacky Wednesday
2/18-2/22: President's Week: No School