Week of 9/21

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-bearing tree,  it would be great if your child can bring in an apple, 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 fun math games while 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 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 this general script:
1) My book is called:______________
2)  It is about: ___________________
3) My favorite page is: (have favorite page bookmarked)________________

We have a Wacky Wednesday this week on the 24th.  The p.m. class runs from 10:00 to 1:20.

Remember that Friday is Picture Day.  We have not yet received the order forms, but I assume they will come home in this week's Wednesday envelope.  You can either order online, or send in the order form with your child.  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. A parent helper goes through the bags and pulls 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 your calendars-- you won't want to miss out :)

Upcoming Events:
9/24: September's Wacky Wednesday (10:00-1:20)
9/26: Picture Day
10/20: Field Trip to California Theater Center
10/25: Alta Vista Walkathon
10/29: October's Wacky Wednesday
10/30: Halloween Parade & Celebration 
10/31:  Staff Development Day: No School
11/10-11/11: No School, Veteran's Day 
11/13-11/21: Parent-Teacher Conferences 
11/19: November's Wacky Wednesday
11/21: Kindergarten Friendship Feast @ 10:15 (a.m. class) and 1:30 (p.m. class)  
11/24-11/28: Thanksgiving Week Vacation
12/19: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00 (a.m. class) & 1:30 (p.m. class)