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: 

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) 

Week of 10/20

Dear Parents,

It was GREAT to see so many of you yesterday at the walk-a-thon! Almost our entire class participated, and it looked like much fun was had by all. Thanks for coming out and supporting the school, and hopefully, it was the beginning of many walk-a-thons to come for all of you!  Tomorrow, send your children with their walk-a-thon necklaces & t-shirts, if possible, so that we can all celebrate the laps that we walked!

If you didn't have a chance to check out the Book Fair yesterday, it runs through 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: 

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) 

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

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) 

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 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:

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)