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)
