Week of 2/1

Dear Parents,

I hope you are having a great Superbowl Sunday.

The 100th day of school is this Tuesday, and we will have lots of fun projects and activities in class in celebration of the day! Remember that we also have a school spirit day that day-- dress like you are 100 years old.  Participation is totally optional.

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 last week. Thank you to so many of you for already signing up-- if you haven't done so already, please select a time.

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 20 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 (consonant-vowel-consonant) words with both short a and short i such as had, hid, rap, rip, etc.

We will wrap up our math chapter on subtraction this week, and begin a new math chapter on numbers to 20.  In this chapter, not only will children learn to recognize and write numbers to 20, but they will also learn how to decompose these numbers into parts.  For example, nineteen can be 10 & 9.  Decomposing numbers is a common core strategy to create innate number sense.

Our art activities this week will center around Chinese New Year and 100 Day.  Because the start of Chinese New Year is during our President's Week vacation, we are celebrating early.  If any parents would like to come in to discuss and share their traditions surrounding the Lunar New Year, we'd love to have you.  Please email me to set up a time to come in.

In celebration of 100 Day, 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.

Homework is due tomorrow, and then we will have a special homework project coming home this week. In honor of President's Day, we will be doing a very simple project honoring George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. The children will complete and color a dot-to-dot of each president. There are two dot-to-dots in the packet, one of Abraham Lincoln, and one of George Washington. On the back of each of these pictures,  your child is to write one sentence about each President. The children will present these facts next week for sharing. It is always fun when the children bring in little-known facts about the Presidents, so do a little research on the web and see what you can find! Of course, it is also okay to stick with basic facts such as "He was the first President." and "He was the sixteenth President." This is their first exposure to doing an oral report, so it is most important to choose a sentence that you think your child will be able to remember and present on his/her own. There will be no homework/blue bags on February 11th, due to the upcoming President's Week holiday.

On Friday, February 13th, we will be celebrating Valentine's Day in class.  This is not a party, but we will be passing out valentines.  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 21 valentines so that there are enough for each child in the class. Thanks!

See you all tomorrow, Blue Bags in hand!

Upcoming Events:
2/3: 100 Day Celebration
2/13: Valentine's Day celebration
2/16-2/20: President's Week
2/25: February's Wacky Wednesday
3/14: Bocce Ball Fundraiser at Campo di Bocce
3/19-3/27: Parent-Teacher Conferences
3/25: March's Wacky Wednesday

Week of 1/24

Dear Parents,

I wanted to thank parents and students for having such a great first month of journal entries with the Blue Bags! Everyone is working on 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" on Friday-- thank you!  It seems that for the past 4 or 5 years, Snow Day is always on one of the warmest days in January, and this year was no exception!  The kids had fun with the snowball fight, and enjoyed a treat afterward.  We also had a few snowy day activities & stories in class.

Our new letter this week is Ll, and the Alphafriend is Larry Lion. We have two new words this week, is and his. We will also introduce another vowel sound this week, Ii, and that Alphafriend is Iggy Iguana. Iggy will help us spell words with the short i sound, such as: bit, pin, rib, etc.  We are now up to 19 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.

We will continue working on subtraction this week.  Please continue reinforcing the concept at home using apps on iPhones & iPads or logging into the ixl.com account I have set up for your children.  Although ixl isn't a "game," it does provide solid reinforcement of the facts & concepts covered in kindergarten.  If you need a reminder of how to log into your child's ixl account, please email me.

Other sites to continue taking advantage of are raz-kids.com and lexia.com.  All of these sites-- ixl, lexis, and raz-kids, are paid for by the district or through Home & School Club monies, and you should definitely make use of them.  These are great sites to use for the children who'd like more homework.  Raz-Kids has comprehension questions after reading books at the "A" level on up, so it is a good way to build up reading comprehension skills.  If you are having trouble accessing any of these sites, please email me.

This week's share is homemade item.  Children should bring in something they made or mostly made themselves, and be prepared to talk about how they made it.  Crafts from parties, preschool, home, etc are all great for this share.

Our art activities this week will continue to center around our snowy theme,  and we will also be discussing penguins this week.

On Friday, February 13th, we will be celebrating Valentine's Day in class.  Just to give you some advanced notice (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 21 valentines so that there are enough for each child in the class. Thanks!

I wanted to thank all the families who participated in the book drive, "Laundry to Literacy."  Our school collected 1000 books, which doubled their goal of 500!  Thank you to so many of you for helping support this organization.

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, with the book & homework folder inside.  Thank you!

Upcoming Events:
1/28: January's Wacky Wednesday
2/3: 100 Day Celebration
2/13: Valentine's Day celebration
2/16-2/20: President's Week
2/25: February's Wacky Wednesday
3/14: Bocce Ball Fundraiser at Campo di Bocce

Week of 1/18

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 :)

We have a new letter this week, Ff, and the Alphafriend is Fifi Fish. We have a new sight word, we.  This week, we will be 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 will continue working on subtraction this week.  In class, I have been using a math technique called "Number Talks," which really makes computations and number sense much more innate for children.  In the "real world," most computations that we do are in our head-- figuring out the tip at a restaurant, how much an item will be after taxes, how much of a discount we are getting, etc., are all computations we do on a regular basis in our heads.  Number talks are one way to encourage mental math at an early age to build up these skills as they go through school.  Continue talking to your children about math computations and how they are solving problems.  Common Core encourages much more of the explaining how you arrived at an answer versus just stating the answer.  Conversations like, "I know that 9 + 5=14 because 9 is one less than 10 and I know that 10 + 5 = 15, and 9 is one less than 10" are the types of conversations we will be encouraging in class.

We also have Snow Day this week. It will be on Friday, right at the beginning of class for both the a.m. & p.m. classes.   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.  After the snowball fight, they can take off all their extra gear as temperatures & weather for Friday don't look too snowy!!

On February 19th, we have the start of Chinese New Year/Tet/Lunar New Year. Since we are not in school at that time, we will celebrate early-- the first week of Februaray. We have several fun art projects surrounding this theme. If any parents would like to come in and talk about this holiday, we would love to have you. Please e-mail us!

Another fun day to mark your calendars for is 100 day on February 3rd. 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 Feb. 2-6, 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 for 100 day.  Many children are quite surprised that 100 pennies fit into a sandwich baggie!

This week's share is Letter of the Week sharing. Please have your child bring something in that starts with the letter Ff.  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:
1/19: Martin Luther King Holiday: No School
1/23: Snow Day
1/28: January's Wacky Wednesday
2/3: 100 Day Celebration
2/16-2/20: President's Week
2/25: February's Wacky Wednesday

3/14: Bocce Ball Fundraiser at Campo di Bocce

Week of 1/11

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 journal page:

• 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.

Blue bags should be returned tomorrow, with the homework folder & journal inside. They will go home again on Wednesday. Obviously, due to the Martin Luther King holiday, they will not be due back until Tuesday the 20th. Please make sure you send them that day so that we can turn them back around quickly the following Wednesday.

We have a new letter this week: Gg. The Alphafriend is Gertie Goose. We also have a new high frequency word: go. 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 begin our math topic on subtraction this week.  This will need plenty of reinforcement at home.  There are many great free apps for the iPad, iPhone, and Android phones & tablets that provide engaging reinforcement in both addition & subtraction facts.  Additionally, take advantage of your subscription to ixl.com, paid for by the school district.  It is a great math reinforcement website.

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. 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.  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.

Thank you for the donations of glue sticks & baby wipes!  I think we are set for a while.

Also-- please take note below at some new events that have been posted.  They are:

• Kindergarten Registration Info Night 1/15 6:00-7:00:  If you have friends with incoming kindergartners who live in the AV attendance area, please let them know about this informational evening, preparing them for registration on 1/22.
•  Snow Day 1/23: 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 2/3-- we celebrate the 100th day of school with some special activities.  Also there will be special homework that week.  
• Bocce Ball Tournament & Auction 3/14 6:00-11:00 @ Campo di Bocce:  Tickets go on sale starting Monday for this fun event-- stop by the table after school. It is sure to be a fun evening, raising money for Alta Vista's Enrichment programs.  Get a group of 6 together & create a bocce team!  Enjoy hors d'oeuvres, dinner, and dessert and bid on auction items.  Tickets have sold out very quickly in the past-- don't miss out!  Contact Nicole Crandall if you have any questions: nicole@thecrandallfam.com

We look forward to seeing everyone tomorrow, Blue Bags in hand!

Upcoming Events:
1/15: Incoming Kindergarten Parent Info Night @ 6:00 pm
1/19: Martin Luther King Holiday: No School
1/23: Snow Day
1/28: January's Wacky Wednesday
2/3: 100 Day Celebration
2/16-2/20: President's Week
2/25: February's Wacky Wednesday

Week of 1/4

Dear Parents,

Happy New Year! I 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 children 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 weekend of the 17th-19th.

We will start right in with a new letter-- Pp-- and a new word-- and. The Alphafriend's name is Pippa Pig. We will have centers all this month. Art projects will revolve around the theme of weather, especially snow! We will conclude our math topic on addition, and then begin the topic of subtraction. Again, plenty of at-home reinforcement is appreciated on this topic, as it can be quite difficult.

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 "book report" component. Very specific directions about our expectations with the book report will be in your child's homework folder this week. Please leave the directions there for your continued reference. Basically, your child will use the journal inside the homework folder 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 days of vacation, and I look forward to seeing your children on Monday!

Upcoming Events:
12/22-1/4/15: Winter Break
1/15: Incoming Kindergarten Parent Info Night @ 6:00 pm
1/19: Martin Luther King Holiday: No School
1/23: Snow Day
1/28: January's Wacky Wednesday
2/16-2/20: President's Week
2/25: February's Wacky Wednesday