Dear Parents,
We had a great first week of centers, and hopefully homework is going well, too! Thanks so much to all our center helpers. I appreciate your diligence in coming on time, working with the children, and finding substitutes when you are unable to come. All went very well last week!
Remember to send in your child's Blue Bag on Monday, with the homework folder inside. No need to pull the homework folder out and turn it in separately-- I have a parent helper (Maddie's mom) who will go through all the bags and pull out the homework. You will receive a new book and some new homework again on Wednesday.
As we begin Fall this week, we will also start our first FOSS science unit on trees. We are studying different types of trees, deciduous trees vs. evergreen trees, and taking a close look at parts of a tree. FOSS science units provide fun, hands-on lessons for the kids.
We will also wrap up our unit on apples by learning about Johnny Appleseed this week. We have some good books to read and a fun art project.
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)________________
This 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. Due to picture day, we will not be having SPARK P.E. or a Grasshopper t-shirt day :)
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 :)
This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Return Blue Bags (Jillian), Centers (Camille & Hiromi), Sharing
Tuesday: Centers (Lizl & Gwenny), Recess 101 (Coach Jose), Sharing
Wednesday: Computers (Conrad), Sharing, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Centers (Jill & Lisa), Sharing
Friday: Picture Day, Sharing
Upcoming Events
10/08: Field Trip to California Theatre Center
10/17: Walkathon
10/19-10/27: Parent-Teacher Conferences
10/30: No School: Staff Development Day
11/11: No School: Veteran's Day
11/20: Friendship Feast @ 10:15
11/23-11/27: No School: Thanksgiving Break
12/18: Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00
