Week of 12/11

Dear Parents,

We were excited to participate in Hour of Code last week, and we got to participate in some familiar activities, as well as some new ones. One of the new activities we participated in was using an iPad app called "Kodable," which is also a website (www.kodable.com). You can have your child continue to use this app or website at home by using our classroom code (sent in an email). Children seemed to really enjoy trying to get the little creatures in this app through the various mazes.

The main "business" of this week is all things Nutcracker! We will be practicing daily this week, so I am canceling centers. There will also be no homework/blue bags this Wednesday.  Enjoy a stress-free week to focus on your holiday preparations!

For the Nutcracker performance, we have a couple of photographers-- thanks to Anne-Marie & Asma, but we could use a couple more parents to help us with the theater make-up and costuming on the day of the performance.  Please let me know if you can help with this, along with Marylu & Jennifer. You would come in at around 8:45 or so and begin calling kids back individually and get them ready for the stage. Thank you!

This will be our student teacher, Miss Anna's, last week in K2. She will be moving onto an upper grade assignment in her 2nd semester of her credential program. Miss Anna has been a huge help to our classroom, and the children have really connected with her. She will be missed!

Language Arts:
We will be focusing on the word family "ag." We will be building words such as rag, bag, lag, sag, and tag. Our sight word is is. We will be building and reading sentences with the word is and some of the words from the word families we've been studying.

This week's share is song, poem, or nursery rhyme. Please have your child be prepared to recite a song, poem, or nursery rhyme. If children are stuck for ideas, they can always sing a favorite classroom song song. Songs or poems in other languages are always appreciated as well!

Math:
We are finishing with Module 3 in Eureka Math: Comparison of Weight, Length, Capacity, and Numbers to 10. Parent tips can be found here. This week, we will be comparing numbers. When we return from Winter Break, we will begin Composing & Decomposing, which is preparing the children for addition and subtraction skills.

Upcoming Events:
There is a Wacky Wednesday this week for the p.m. class. This means that our class will be leaving backpacks outside along the window wall. Also, dismissal will be from the library.

A reminder about clothing for the Nutcracker: please remember to dress your children in the clothes suggested in the letter sent home in the Wednesday envelope last week. Children should come to school dressed in these items on Friday. Girls can wear something over the top of their leotards when they arrive and change into their ballet shoes for the performance. As a reminder, here is the list:

FRITZ: Bathrobe/pajamas & slippers
NUTCRACKER/SOLDIERS/RUSSIAN DANCERS: White Shirt & Dark Pants w/ dark shoes
MICE: Dark Shirt & Dark Pants & dark shoes
SUGAR PLUM, RIBBON CANDY, FLOWERS: Light colored leotard/light colored tights/ballet slippers or light colored shoes-- leotards with tutus attached are fine & encouraged for Sugar Plum Fairies & Flowers, especially. Ribbon tutu provided for Ribbon Candies.
ARABIAN: Light colored fitted shirt w/ leggings OR leotard (we provide the Harem pants)
CHINESE DANCERS: Shirt doesn't matter so much (will be wearing jacket we provide) dark pants.

Please borrow whatever you need to borrow-- we don't intend for anyone to have to buy anything.  I have 2-3 leotards and a few pairs of ballet slippers in the classroom that used to belong to my daughter that are also available-- let me know if you need to borrow.

Please arrive promptly in the cafeteria for the Nutcracker, as we intend to start the show right at 10:00. Also, please do not try to come early and save seats. We will be keeping the doors locked until about 15 minutes before the performance.We want everyone to enjoy the performance, so please refrain from standing and blocking the aisles as much as possible. Also remember that school-aged siblings are not to be pulled out of class to watch the performance. Thank you!

Remember to bring your blue bags tomorrow. Starting in January, a journal will be added to the homework bag so that your children can write a response to the book in the bag each week. No blue bags this Wednesday, but there will be Wednesday envelopes. Please return those on Thursday so that they don't get lost over the long holiday.

Happy Holidays!

This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Blue Bags returned (Hosun), No centers, Sharing
Tuesday: No centers, Sharing
Wednesday: Wacky Weds., Sharing, Weds. envelopes go home

Thursday: Weds. envelopes returned, No centers, Sharing
Friday: Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00 followed by Cast Party afterward!

Upcoming Events:

Friday 12/16: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00
12/19-01/02: Winter Break
Tuesday 1/3: District-wide "Smart Start Day"
Friday 1/13: Staff Development Day, No School
Monday 1/16: Martin Luther King Day, No School
Tuesday 1/17: Incoming Kindergarten Orientation
Friday 1/27: Snow Day
Thursday 2/2: 100 Day

Week of 12/5

Dear Parents,

You should have received a note regarding your child's Nutcracker part, and what s/he should wear for the performance in last week's Wednesday envelope. Please let me know if there are any problems with gathering up the various clothes needed-- most girls will be wearing leotards, and most boys will be wearing dark pants and either a light or dark shirt. Hopefully, if there is a clothing item you do not have, you can borrow it, as I do not intend for you to have to buy anything.  Girls-- I have several leotards of my daughter's that can be borrowed.  Again, the performance of the Nutcracker will be at 10:00 on the 16th. Get there a little early (the invitation we are sending home this week has a time 10 minutes before the start) so that you can be seated when the performance begins. You won't want to miss it!

On another Nutcracker note, I am in need of a few people who can help with make-up and costuming on the day of the show. You will come into the classroom at about 8:45 and call children back one-by-one to get them ready for the stage. Please email me if you can help with this!

Language Arts
We are continuing our study of word families. This week's families/endings will be "ad" and "ap." We will read and build words that end with those sounds, such as sad, bad, had and lap, map, nap. 

Our sight word this week is look. This word is not on our original list of 40 words, but we feel that it is important to learn this high frequency word.

Our story this week will be Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson, along with other books in this cute series. We will also read a non-fiction selection on bears and write a mini-book of our own with bear facts that we have learned.

Our sharing this week is Toy in a Bag. Please have your child hide an item in a bag and write three clues about what is inside the bag. Please have your child help in writing the clues, as we are trying to encourage as much independent writing as possible at this point in the year.

Math
We are continuing with Module 3 in Eureka Math: Comparison of Weight, Length, Capacity, and Numbers to 10. Parent tips can be found here. This week, we will be looking at weight and volume of things. We will get to use the balance scales during centers to weigh various objects.

STEAM
This week, our class will participate in an exciting movement called Hour of Code. Students have become very proficient at writing code for our Bee Bot, and will get more practice with that on Monday. We will also be working on a program called Kodable, and using the Osmos again to do Osmo Coding.  We will also do some "off the grid" programming using a game called "Puppy Programming." We are excited to be a part of this global movement!

We have an Art Vista lesson on Wednesday. Thank you to Susan, Minna, and Eden for presenting the lesson.

This is our final week of centers before the holidays, as next week we will be focusing on Nutcracker rehearsals.  Thank you so much to our classroom helpers in 2016, and thank you for your continued support in 2017!  I will be updating the 2017 schedule as soon as I can. Please let me know if there are any changes to the schedule or if you'd like to be added to the schedule.

Blue Bags are due tomorrow, and will go home again on Wednesday for the last time in 2016. When we return from Winter Break, the journal component will be added to the Blue Bags. Your children will be asked to write a response to the story they read. We would like them to write a sentence about what they liked about the book, and draw a nice picture to go along with it. If it is a non-fiction selection, they will be writing a fact that they learned from the book. More details will follow in the Blue Bag on the week of January 3rd.

This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Special Coding Centers (Annie & Marylu), Sharing
Tuesday: Centers (Zaakir & Anne-Marie), Sharing
Wednesday: Art Vista Lesson (Susan, Eden, Minna) PE with Coach Sierra, Sharing

Thursday: Centers (Susan & Anna G.), Sharing
Friday: Sharing, STEAM Centers (Barry), Story time with Grandma Gail

Upcoming Events:

Wednesday 12/07: Art Vista Presentation

Friday 12/16: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00
12/19-01/02: Winter Break
Friday 1/13: Staff Development Day, No School
Monday 1/16: Martin Luther King Day, No School
Friday 1/27: Snow Day
Thursday 2/2: 100 Day

Week of 11/28

Dear Parents,

I hope you are all enjoying a wonderful Thanksgiving break. I'd like to thank all of you for making the Feast such a success! We had a wonderful spread of food, and the children all looked darling! Thanks to the MANY parents who helped with that event.

We have an assembly on Monday. Author Steve Suskin, who wrote a book we use for Cornerstone called Don't Laugh at Me, will do a presentation for the students. We are looking forward to meeting an author!

Now...onto a very busy but exciting time in kindergarten as we prepare for our Nutcracker performance on the 16th, as well as continue with all the academics & exciting literature!

Language Arts
We have completed the introduction of all isolated letters & letter sounds. At this point in the school year, your children should recognize all letters and know most to all of the sounds. If you think your child needs more reinforcement, please use websites such as lexia.com, starfall.com, or have your child watch The Letter Factory DVD. Although we will continue reviewing letter sounds, this is no longer our main focus at this time.

We are now moving onto word endings-- encouraging children to read by "chunking" these sounds. The endings we will focus on in the upcoming week are "an" and "at." We will manipulate the beginning sounds of words and create words such as fan, man, ran, can, pan or mat, bat, cat, rat, etc.

Our sight word this week is you. At the side of this webpage, there is a link for kindergarten websites.  There is one website, http://www.spellingcity.com/k2grist that I'd like you all to check out with your children. This is a fun way to reinforce both the sight words and short-vowel words that they will be expected to recognize and spell in kindergarten. I have pre-loaded the list of sight words onto Spelling City, but if you want to make your own list of short-vowel words, you can do that, too.

Our stories this week will be different versions of The Gingerbread Man. We will be comparing two different versions in particular: The Gingerbread Boy by Paul Galdone and The Gingerbread Girl by Lisa Campbell Ernst. We have some fun activities and art projects surrounding both these stories.
We will return to centers for the next two weeks, then we take a break from centers again the week of December 12th. Please check the helper schedule.

This week's sharing is Book Share. Please have your child bring in a favorite book and be prepared to tell: 1) The Title  2) A bit about what the book is about  3) Show a favorite page (please bookmark).

Math
We are beginning Module 3 in Eureka Math: Comparison of Weight, Length, Capacity, and Numbers to 10. Parent tips can be found here. This week, we will be looking at the different length of things. We will have an exciting activity during center time where we will measure things around the room.

STEAM
STEAM centers are back this Friday in preparation for Hour of Code next week. On Friday, we will have two new exciting centers that we purchased with money from a Home & School Club grant. The children will be introduced to basic architecture using a game called Blocks & Blueprints. They will also look at the laws of physics using another game called Engineer-a-Coaster.

Upcoming
Thank you for returning your blue bags last week. If you still have a white envelope, please send it in on Monday.  Blue Bags will go home for the next two weeks. They will not go home on December 14th.

I am going to be working on the 2017 helper schedule in the upcoming weeks. Please let me know if your schedule has changed at all (a different day would be better for you) or if you would like to be added more regularly to the helper schedule. I'm hoping everyone can stay on as center helpers in 2017, but if you are no longer able to help, please let me know that too.

Please be setting aside time out of your busy holiday schedules to join us for our presentation of The Nutcracker on December 16th at 10:00 a.m.!

This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: No Centers (Author Assembly), Sharing
Tuesday: Centers (Claire K. & Claire L), Sharing
Wednesday: PE with Coach Sierra, Sharing

Thursday: Centers (Alison & Chris), Sharing
Friday: Sharing, STEAM Centers (Chris/Janette), Story time with Grandma Gail

Upcoming Events:
11/21-11/25: Thanksgiving Vacation

Monday 11/28: Cornerstone Author presentation
Wednesday 12/07: Art Vista Presentation

Friday 12/16: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performances
12/19-01/02: Winter Break
Friday 1/13: Staff Development Day, No School
Monday 1/16: Martin Luther King Day, No School

Week of 11/14

Dear Parents,

It was great meeting with all of you the past two weeks to discuss your children's progress. Thank you so much for providing support to your children in areas that we went over, for having them continue to practice using Lexia, Raz-Kids, and IXL, and for helping them with homework and preparing their sharing. Kindergarten is such a year of fantastic growth, and you are a huge part of that. Thank you!

I hope you had fun with the "Turkey Trouble" homework project, and I look forward to seeing those Monday. We will be using the turkey projects for sharing this week in class, so please try and have your homework bags ready. There will be no homework this week due to the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, but there will be white envelopes. Please return those Thursday so that you have one less thing to remember on November 28th!

Language Arts
Our final letters will be introduced this week-- Yy and Zz. This means that we will be doing much more blending and spelling short-vowel words now. We will focus on word endings, such as "at," "an," etc. to read and spell words like cat, bat, rat, fan, man, pan, etc. Our new sight words is we.

As mentioned, this week's sharing is going to be sharing the Turkey Trouble projects that they did for homework. They will show their turkey and read the prompt at the bottom of the orange page for their presentation.

We will be reading and writing about owls this week. We will put together a non-fiction booklet about owls and write a few sentences about owls during center time.

Math
We will wrap up our topic on shapes this week, looking more closely at 3D shapes and reviewing the flat shapes as well. When we return from Thanksgiving break, we will be doing some measurement and comparing length, weight, and capacity. This leads into then comparing numbers.

Science/Social Studies
We will take a closer look at the Pilgrims & Native Americans as we talk about the first Thanksgiving & prepare for our reenactment of this event, our Friendship Feast on the 18th. We have some interesting books that we will be reading to the children about life during the time of the Pilgrims. It would be wonderful if you can all join us for the Feast on Friday, even if you can only come briefly. The children look so cute in their costumes & love sharing the meal with family members. They will sing a couple of songs for you and then we will get started with the meal. Younger siblings are welcome if there is a child care issue. Thank you to everyone for sending in food for the event! The sign-ups are looking good, but if you still haven't had a chance to check it out, you can do so here: https://goo.gl/xgjxJg It does look like we could use some more help with both food set-up and food serving.

Upcoming Events
We are glazing our clay projects this Wednesday. Please don't send your children in any special outfits that day, as the clay glaze does stain. Please contact Asma if you can help with this. We will be glazing first thing in the morning at the picnic table outside our classroom due to the Wacky Wednesday that day.

We also have a Cornerstone lesson, presented by Alison & Claire, this Thursday. There will be a Cornerstone author assembly on Monday, 11/28. Centers will be canceled that day so that we can attend the assembly.

Looking ahead on your calendars at this busy time of year, I wanted to make sure that you are all marking your calendars for Friday, December 16th at 10:00-- our annual performance of The Nutcracker. This is something that you will not want to miss. To help you clear your calendar, the kindergarten teachers do our class holiday party and the Nutcracker performance all on the same day. We will have a big "cast party" after the performance so that we can send the kids off on a great holiday break!

Have a great Thanksgiving!

This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Return Blue Bags (Ho Sun), Centers (Annie & ???), Sharing
Tuesday: Centers (Claire & Anne-Marie), Sharing
Wednesday: Clay Glazing, PE with Coach Sierra, Sharing

Thursday: Centers (Alison & Susan), Cornerstone (Alison & Claire), Sharing
Friday: Sharing, FRIENDSHIP FEAST @ 10:00

Upcoming Events:
Wednesday 11/16: Clay Glazing
Thursday 11/17: Cornerstone presentation

Friday 11/18: Friendship Feast @ 10:00

11/21-11/25: Thanksgiving Vacation
Monday 11/28: Cornerstone Author presentation
Wednesday 12/07: Art Vista Presentation

Friday 12/16: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performances
12/19-01/02: Winter Break

Week of 11/7

Dear Parents,

We have another four-day school week this week due to the Veteran's Day holiday on Friday. We will also continue parent-teacher conferences. I have enjoyed meeting with many of you so far, and have gained some great insights on your children from you. Thank you for meeting with me and being such active participants in your child's education. I look forward to meeting with the rest of you this week.  For this week, all conferences will continue to be in the office conference room, right next to the principal's office, except for the Monday evening conferences. Those will be in K2. If you need to confirm your conference time, please contact me.

There will continue to be no classroom centers this week, due to conferences. Centers will resume next Monday the 14th.

Language Arts
Our letters this week are Ww and Xx. For Xx, we will be looking at words that end with that sound, such as fox, box, mix, etc. Our sight word this week is to.

Sharing this week will be solid shape sharing. Since we are studying the solid shapes sphere, cone, cylinder, and cube, I'd like your children to bring in an item shaped like one of these shapes. For example, a child might bring an ice cream cone shaped like a cone, or a can of some sort that is shaped like a cylinder, etc. Your children can just say: I brought a _______. It is the shape of a _____.
Students who share on Friday can share any other day this week.

Our story this week is Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano, which is a funny story about a turkey who wants to avoid becoming Thanksgiving dinner, so he disguises himself as different animals on the farm. We will do several activities that go along with this story. Finally, our homework this week includes a fun project where your child will have the opportunity to disguise a turkey, just as the turkey in Turkey Trouble disguises himself. Feel free to get creative with these disguises! Add some dimension to the pictures with construction paper, stickers, etc. Here is a picture of a sample project I found on Pinterest:

Math
In math, we will be focusing on 3D (solid) shapes. We will talk about the flat surfaces on these shapes (if any), the number of vertices, and the number of sides.

STEAM
This Tuesday, Miss Pugliese (Alta Vista STEAM TOSA) will be returning to our classroom to do more activities with Sphero. Children will program a Sphero and experiment with it. The students were very excited by this last week, so we are looking forward to more fun and exploration!

Upcoming Events:
The link to sign up for our Friendship Feast food and parent help can be found here. Please check it out and sign up for an item to bring, and if you can help, please sign up for that as well. We need everyone's contributions to make this event a success! Thank you also to the parents who cut out the costumes for this event: Tiffany Iida, Janette Barrios, and Claire Liau. I truly appreciate your help!

This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Return Blue Bags (Ting), Sharing
Tuesday: Sphero Lesson with Miss Puliese, Sharing
Wednesday: Recess 101, Sharing, Blue Bags go home
Thursday:  Sharing
Friday: No School: Veteran's Day

Upcoming Events:

11/1-11/10: Parent-Teacher Conferences

Friday 11/11: No School: Veteran's Day

Friday 11/18: Friendship Feast

11/21-11/25: Thanksgiving Vacation

Friday 12/16: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performances
12/19-01/02: Winter Break

Week of 11/1

Dear Parents,

I hope you are all enjoying a fun Halloween weekend with your children.  What a great party we had in class!  A huge thanks to the party coordinators and parent helpers who organized such wonderful Halloween centers & treats. The kids all enjoyed themselves very much.

I am looking forward to meeting with each of you beginning Tuesday for your child's conference. All conferences will be held in the office conference room, except for the 7:30 am time slot, which will be held in the classroom. The conference room is located in the main office, 2nd door to the right after you walk through the swinging half-door.  To confirm your conference time, please click here: https://goo.gl/nFbxE7. Please note that you can no longer edit this form. If you need to change your conference time, please email me.

Due to conferences, Mrs. Barbara is unable to help in my class, and I am unable to help in her class. Therefore, center time is canceled for the next two weeks. Centers will resume the week before Thanksgiving. Thank you for your support with centers-- they have been running SO smoothly this year!

If you were not able to send in your child's Wednesday envelope last week, please send it on Monday. Blue bags will go home again this Wednesday.

Language Arts
Our letters this week are Uu and Vv. Our new sight word is a. We are now reading sentences with the words: I, see, my, like, can, go, a, the. We have been sending home a list of sentences each week in your child's Wednesday envelope that they are reading in class. Please be sure to have your child read these sentences to you so that you can see how they are doing with sight word recognition and reading fluency.

We will be focusing on the season of Fall this week in our writing and our art projects. Children will be writing and reading about Fall things. We will create squirrels, Indian corn, and owls in our art. Our story this week is Scaredy Squirrel by Melanie Watt. Children might enjoy checking out Scaredy Squirrel's own website here.

Sharing this week will be Homemade Item. For this share, children can bring in something they've made or mostly made themselves (crafts, drawings, stories they've written, projects from parties or preschool, etc.) They can talk about how they made it, what materials they used, and why they like it. Children who normally share on Monday can share any other day this week.

Math
In math this week, we will continue talking about 2D (flat) shapes. Our main focus is on triangles, circles, squares, rectangles, and hexagons. Children are expected to know how many sides these shapes have, as well as how many corners/vertices that they have. Last week, we used a fun iPad app with Miss Anna called "Geoboard," where the children experimented with making the different shapes and talking about how to make them correctly.

Science & Social Studies
We will be reading and writing about squirrels, owls, and the season of Fall in the upcoming weeks. We have many good non-fiction/informational texts on these subjects.

You may have noticed that your child is bringing home a little newspaper called "Let's Find Out." These weekly newspapers cover a variety of science and social studies topics in a fun way. Additionally, there is an online link to these articles that feature movies and additional information that we will be showing in class. This is a fun way to keep up on current events and topics that are interesting to kindergartners.

STEAM
Both this Tuesday and next Tuesday, we have Miss Pugliese (Alta Vista STEAM TOSA) returning to our classroom to show the children Sphero. Children will program a Sphero and experiment with it. These always generate lots of excitement, so we are looking forward to a fun day of learning and experimentation!

Upcoming Events
We have our second Art Vista lesson coming up on Wednesday the 2nd. Thank you to Susan, Eden, and Minna for presenting the lesson.

As you know, our next big event is the Friendship Feast on November 18th. Children will dress as Pilgrims and Native Americans and come together with their friends in K1 to sing a few songs and share some food. A sign-up form for the food and helping at that event can be found here. We need many helpers and plenty of food to make this a success. We are looking forward to a fun event!

This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: No School: Staff Development Day
Tuesday: Sphero Lesson with Miss Puliese, Sharing
Wednesday: Art Vista (Susan, Eden, Minna), Recess 101, Sharing, Blue Bags go home
Thursday:  Sharing
Friday: Story Time with Grandma Gail, Sharing

Upcoming Events:

Monday 10/31: No School: Staff Development Day

11/1-11/10: Parent-Teacher Conferences

Friday 11/11: No School: Veteran's Day

Friday 11/18: Friendship Feast

11/21-11/25: Thanksgiving Vacation

Friday 12/16: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performances
12/19-01/02: Winter Break

Week of 10/24

We had a fun-filled exploration of pumpkins last week, ending with our pumpkin STEAM day on Friday! Children measured the circumference and height of their pumpkins, checked if their pumpkin sank or floated, and dissected a pumpkin and examined the parts. Children also used an iPad app, Starfall, where they virtually carved a pumpkin and read an emergent reader that went along with that activity. Thank you for sending in the pumpkins-- we had a lot of fun.

Here's what's going on in the classroom this week:

Language Arts
Our letters this week are Ss and Tt. Our sight word is go. We will read a variety of both pumpkin-themed and Halloween-themed books this week.

The sharing this week is "Letter of the Week." Children can bring an item that starts with either Ss or Tt, hide it in a bag or backpack, and write three clues for us to guess what's inside.

Math
We will begin a new module in math this week on 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. The 3D shapes that they will be expected to know are cones, spheres, cubes, and cylinders. Again, they also need to be able to tell the characteristics of those shapes.

Science
We will continue reading non-fiction books about pumpkins. We will also read a few non-fiction spider books and make a fun book about a spider's walk, which reinforces prepositions.

Solo Week:
This is Miss Anna's solo week, which means that she will be doing the majority of the teaching on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I will still be in the classroom, but Miss Anna will welcome the children at the door and dismiss them, as well as be the one doing most of the instruction.

Upcoming
Homework:
Please send in your child's blue bag Monday, homework folder inside. Please note: Due to the upcoming Monday staff development day, as well as Halloween weekend, we will not be sending home the blue bags this Wednesday. Homework will resume on November 2nd. Have a fun-filled Halloween weekend!

Halloween:
The Halloween Party & parade is on Friday, October 28th. Children are encouraged to wear costumes to school. If your child goes to daycare afterward, s/he may want to bring a change of clothes for comfort. Just a reminder that Halloween costumes worn at school cannot have any weapons as accessories. Also, fake blood or masks that prevent children from being able to see are not allowed. The school-wide parade (which a.m. kindergarten will be a part of) is at 8:30, on the primary blacktop (near rooms 7, 8, and 9.) Come out and watch the fun! Our classroom party will follow at 9:00. It will be center-style, with four party stations.

Conferences:
I am looking forward to meeting with each of you beginning Tuesday, November 1st for your child's conference. All conferences will be held in the office conference room, except for the 7:30 am time slot, which will be held in the classroom. The conference room is located in the main office, 2nd door to the right after you walk through the swinging half-door.  To confirm your conference time, please click here. Please note that you can no longer edit this form. If you need to change your conference time, please email me.

Friendship Feast:

To give you an opportunity to plan ahead, this Friendship Feast will be on the 18th at 10:00. 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-- those are what parents in our class will be busy cutting in the next few weeks. This event is definitely a great photo-op!

This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Return Blue Bags (Ho-Sun), Centers (Annie & Anna R.), Sharing
Tuesday: Centers (Claire K. & Marylu), Sharing
Wednesday: Recess 101, Sharing, Wacky Wednesday for p.m. (Dismissal from the library)
Thursday: Centers (Susan & Anna G.), Sharing
Friday: Halloween Parade (8:30), Special Halloween Party Centers

Upcoming Events:
Friday 10/28: Halloween Parade & Party

Monday 10/31: No School: Staff Development Day

11/1-11/10: Parent-Teacher Conferences

Friday 11/11: No School: Veteran's Day

Friday 11/18: Friendship Feast

11/21-11/25: Thanksgiving Vacation

Friday 12/16: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performances
12/19-01/02: Winter Break

Week of 10/17

Dear Parents,

It was GREAT to see so many of you Saturday at the walk-a-thon! It looked like much fun was had by all for their first walk-a-thon outing. 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! On Monday, 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 at the walkathon, it runs through Wednesday of this week, closing at 2:00 on the 19th. Check it out!

Here's what's going on in the classroom this week:

Language Arts
Our letters this week are Qq and Rr. Our sight word is the. Our story this week is Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbell.

The sharing this week is "Book Share." Children can bring in a book (perhaps a new one from the book fair) and be prepared to give the title of the book, a bit about what it's about, and have a favorite page bookmarked to talk about.

Clay
We have our first lesson this week from the Clay Program. Thanks to Asma for leading this. Clay is another program that fundraising events like the walkathon help fund.  The clay lesson will be on Wednesday. Children will get to work with clay to make a special project that they will also glaze at a separate time. I'm sure that Asma would love extra hands to help set up, work with the children, and clean up. I believe she is starting set-up at around 8:15. Please email Asma or me if you can help.

Math
This is our final week of Module 1 in Eureka math. The children have been occasionally completing math pages from a workbook in class that we will be sending home soon. However, most of our math teaching is through hands-on activities and math games during center time. If your child would like to complete the remaining pages in the workbook, s/he is welcome to do that.

Science
This week, we will be studying pumpkins. As previously requested, please send in a small pumpkin with your child by Friday for our STEAM activities. We are looking forward to a fun pumpkin-themed week!

Upcoming
Friendship Feast:
I could still use a few volunteers to cut the aprons and collars for the Pilgrim costumes that we are wearing at our Thanksgiving Friendship Feast on November 18th. I don't need these back until about November 14th. Please let me know if you can help with the cutting.

To give you an opportunity to plan ahead, this Friendship Feast will be on the 18th at 10:00. 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-- those are what parents in our class will be busy cutting in the next few weeks. This event is definitely a great photo-op!

Halloween:
I believe the planning is underway for the Halloween party & parade on Friday, October 28th. The school-wide parade (which a.m. kindergarten will be a part of) is at 8:30, on the primary blacktop (near rooms 7, 8, and 9.) Come out and watch the fun! Our classroom party will follow at 9:00. It will be center-style, with four party stations.

Conferences:
I am looking forward to meeting with each of you beginning Tuesday, November 1st for your child's conference. All conferences will be held in the office conference room, except for the 7:30 am time slot, which will be held in the classroom. The conference room is located in the main office, 2nd door to the right after you walk through the swinging half-door.  To confirm your conference time, please click here. Please note that you can no longer edit this form. If you need to change your conference time, please email me.

Please send in your child's blue bag Monday, homework folder inside. Don't forget to wear your walk-a-thon necklace and/or t-shirt (if clean ;)

This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Return Blue Bags (Ting), Centers (Annie & Minna), Sharing
Tuesday: Centers (Claire K. & Anne-Marie), Sharing
Wednesday: Clay, Recess 101, Sharing, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Centers (Marylu & Asma), Sharing
Friday: STEAM Centers (Belinda), Sharing

Upcoming Events:
10/17-10/19: Book Fair (special K hours on Weds. @ 11:00)
Friday 10/28: Halloween Parade & Party

Monday 10/31: No School: Staff Development Day

11/1-11/10: Parent-Teacher Conferences

Friday 11/11: No School: Veteran's Day

Friday 11/18: Friendship Feast

11/21-11/25: Thanksgiving Vacation

Friday 12/16: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performances

Week of 10/10

Dear Parents,

It's Walk-a-thon week!!  I hope everyone will be able to join in on Saturday! Please go to the website, www.altavistawalkathon.org, if you have not already registered so that you can be a part of this fun event.  Even if you can't join us, please consider signing up so that your child can receive a t-shirt to wear and you can also help support all the great enrichment programs at Alta Vista. We will be doing one 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 $40 by Wednesday) 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 lap that they did.  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 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 (for the big kids) 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 that out as well!

Thank you for all signing up for a conference time. The conference schedule can be viewed here, but please note that it can no longer be edited. If you need to change your conference time, please email me. 

Language Arts
This week's letters are Oo and Pp. Our new sight word is can. Hopefully, you have been receiving our list of sight word sentences each week in your child's Wednesday envelope. Please listen to your child read these sentences. They love coloring the stars at the bottom every time they read them! We have also 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 two sentences 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 are have two weeks left in our first module in Eureka math. We have been learning about numbers to 10, "decomposing" them into parts (4 and 5 make 9, 6 and 4 make 10, etc.), and learning how to count objects arranged in different ways. We have been learning what one more and one less than a given number would be. We are also learning to recognize the dots on a 10 frame by sight as the number that they represent.

Science
We wrapped up our unit on trees & leaves last week. We studied the leaves that the children collected and made leaf rubbings. Next, we will be studying pumpkins.

Sharing
The sharing topic this week is a new one: Song, Poem, or Nursery Rhyme. Children should be prepared to recite a short poem or sing a song they know. It can be as simple as the ABC song, a color song that we've learned in class, a letter song we've learned in class, or a song or poem that they know in another language. We always love to hear children speak in another language they might know and this is a chance to do that! *If we don't have time for children to share on Monday, they can share any other day this week.

Field Trip
Please be sure to send your children in their Grasshopper t-shirt on Monday. We will leave promptly from school, so please arrive on time. We should be back by 11:25 dismissal, but traffic is always a factor!

Upcoming
Halloween: Just a reminder that we will be celebrating Halloween on Friday the 28th due to the staff development day on the 31st. I believe the school-wide parade is at 8:30 and our class party will follow at 9:00. I was excited to find out last week that we had 100% participation in the Home & School Club Membership drive!!!! Thank you so much for your participation-- the Grasshoppers have won a pizza party again! We have decided to serve that pizza at the Halloween party, so no need to pack a lunch on that day.

Thanksgiving Feast: I have purchased pillow cases for our upcoming Thanksgiving Feast.  These will be turned into Pilgrim costumes with some simple cutting.  Now, I 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.  I will send home pillowcases and a sample shirt for you to replicate.  I also have aprons that need to be cut.  You will need a pair of pinking shears (zigzag scissors) for this project.  Please let me know if you do not have a pair-- I have an extra pair myself that I can loan out.  I will not need the pillowcases back until a few days before the Feast (11/18).  Please let me know if you can help!

Please send in your child's blue bag tomorrow, homework folder inside.

This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Return Blue Bags (Asma), Field Trip to CA Theatre Center, Sharing
Tuesday: Centers (Marylu & Chris), Sharing
Wednesday: Recess 101, Sharing, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Centers (Claire K. & Susan), Sharing
Friday: STEAM Centers (Anna R.), Sharing

Upcoming Events:
Monday 10/10: Field trip to see Frog Prince

Saturday 10/15: Alta Vista Walkathon
Friday 10/28: Halloween Parade & Party
Monday 10/31: No School: Staff Development Day

11/1-11/10: Parent-Teacher Conferences

Friday 11/11: No School: Veteran's Day

Friday 11/18: Friendship Feast

11/21-11/25: Thanksgiving Vacation

Friday 12/16: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performances

Week of 10/3

Dear Parents,

This week, a permission slip will be coming home with your child in the Wednesday envelope for our first field trip to Spina Farms Pumpkin Patch. We are very excited for this trip! For all field trips at Alta Vista, children travel by school bus to the location. The trip is on October 25th, and children will come to school as usual from 8:05 to 11:25. Please sign the permission slip and return it in your child's Wednesday envelope the next day or by October 15th at the latest. More information will follow about the limited number of chaperones we can bring on this trip.

Please continue signing your children up for the walkathon on October 21st, which is only three weeks away!  Go to:  http://www.altavistawalkathon.org  to register or solicit sponsors for your children. 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 during the walkathon event.

We will have our first Art Vista lesson this week. This is a program that is paid for by the Home & School Club through your generous donation to fundraisers like the Walkathon. In Art Vistas, children look at a group of lithographs by various artists. They look for a particular element in those pictures, like colors, lines, shading, etc.  Then they create their own art project modeled after the prints they saw. Thank you to Tanya Winn & Jason Smiley for leading Art Vistas this year.

Language Arts:

In class this week, we will be focusing on the letters Mm and Nn. Our plan is to have all letters introduced by the end of the first trimester, which is coming up in early November. If you are noticing that your child is having difficulty recognizing letters and knowing letter sounds, especially those that we've introduced already (A-L), please provide additional reinforcement at home. As the kindergarten year continues, it becomes very difficult to keep up with the pace of the curriculum if your child is still not mastering letter recognition and sounds. Good reinforcement is available by watching Leap Frog's The Letter Factory, which is available on Netflix streaming or on YouTube. There is also a website & app called starfall.com which is excellent. Finally the video series we are using in class, called HeidiSongs, is available here, and streams on Vimeo.

Our story this week is called The Dot, by Peter H. Reynolds. This is a wonderful story that encourages readers to "make your mark, and see where it takes you."

Math:

In math, we continue our topic on numbers to 10.  Children will continue counting objects and writing numbers to 10. Most of our math involves hands-on activities in small-group centers. That is why you often don't see math papers in the Wednesday envelopes, but we do have daily math activities and lessons in class.

Science:
This week and next, we will be looking closely at leaves. We have many stories, both fiction and non-fiction, to share about leaves.

**Please send in your child's Blue Bag tomorrow, and your child's envelope if you haven't already. They will go home as usual this week on Wednesday.

This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Return Blue Bags (Ho Sun), Centers (Minna & Claire K.), Sharing
Tuesday: Centers (Claire L. & Belinda), Sharing
Wednesday: Art Vistas, Recess 101, Sharing, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Centers (Anna G. & Alison), Sharing
Friday: STEAM Centers (Open--please let me know if you'd like to come in!), Sharing

Upcoming Events:
Monday 10/10: Field trip to see Frog Prince

Saturday 10/15: Alta Vista Walkathon
Friday 10/28: Halloween Parade & Party
Monday 10/31: No School: Staff Development Day

11/1-11/10: Parent-Teacher Conferences

Friday 11/11: No School: Veteran's Day

Friday 11/18: Friendship Feast

11/21-11/25: Thanksgiving Vacation

Friday 12/16: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performances

Week of 9/25

Dear Parents,

We had another great week in K2, culminating in the apple-themed STEAM Day, from which I sent out a video to you last week. I hope you were all able to view it!

This Tuesday is a district-wide "no homework night." Since our homework bags are due on Monday, we don't typically have homework in kindergarten on a Tuesday anyway, but the intent of "no homework nights" is that you enjoy some family time, like a game night, an evening walk, etc. If you have older students, nobody should have homework, so I hope you do something fun as a family!

Wednesday the 28th is another school-wide Spirit Day. The theme is "Wacky Wednesday." Children can wear silly clothes and hats, backwards clothes, etc. Participation is totally optional. Since we normally do Grasshopper t-shirts on Wednesday, your child can decide whether or not s/he wants to wear it that day. However, we still do have P.E. with Coach Sierra, so please make sure that the Wacky outfit is one that they can participate in P.E. with.

This Friday is Picture Day.  The order forms went home in last 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. Typically, they take the kindergarten picture right away so that you don't have to worry about clothes getting messy at snack or recess. :)

Language Arts:
We have begun introducing the sight words (also called high-frequency words). So far, we have introduced I and like. This week, we will introduce my. These are words that the children should know instantly, by sight, when the words are shown to them. Many of these words cannot be sounded out. There is a link on this webpage (called "High Frequency Word List") that has the list of sight words so that you can begin practicing with your child. We have also begun sending home a list of sentences for your child to read to you that have the sight words. Every time they read the sentences, they color a star at the bottom of the page. The first of these sight word sentence sheets should come home in this week's Wednesday envelope. There are 40 words that we will be covering this year. Words that have an asterisk next to them are words that I've introduced in class. I will be assessing the children on these words each trimester for report card information, and they continue using the sight words in first grade (their list has 100 words), so these are important words to master. If your child has already mastered the 40 kindergarten words, you can find the first grade words here.

This week's letters are Kk and Ll. We continue to use Heidisongs Singalong Songs for Letters to introduce/review the letters and sounds. If you'd like to offer further reinforcement at home, information on this DVD (it can also be streamed on Vimeo) can be found here.

This week's sharing will be "Letter of the Week share" for Kk or Ll. This is similar to toy share, except that the item hidden in the bag has to start with Kk or Ll. Remember that if you aren't sure of your child's sharing day or need more information about the sharing topic, to please go to the sharing link on the website.

Math:
We are still working our way through Module 1 in Eureka Math, "Numbers to 10." We are in the section "Numerals to 5 in Different Configurations." You can find a link for helping your children at home here.

Science:
We have begun our FOSS Science unit on trees. On Friday, the children went around the school and looked at two different trees during center time. This week, they will be learning the parts of trees and talking about how trees change during the different seasons. We will also be putting together some tree puzzles.

I want to remind you again that the Walkathon is coming up quickly on Saturday, October 15th! The children will do a practice lap with me some time before the 15th.  The practice lap will give them a sense of where they will be walking and how big the lap is, and they will also earn their first "foot," which they will receive the Friday before the walkathon. The children will be collecting these plastic feet on a necklace on the day of the event.  Every five laps at the walkathon, they add a foot to the necklace chain. When the children come to school on Monday following the Walkathon, they love to wear the necklace to show-off all the laps they completed!  You can continue registering your children and checking our progress on the walkathon website: http://www.altavistawalkathon.org   I hope you are all planning to come out for the Walkathon-- it is a great community event & your child won't want to miss it.

Remember your child's Blue Bag tomorrow, with the homework folder inside the bag :)

This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Return Blue Bags (Ting), Centers (Anna R. & Annie), Sharing
Tuesday: Centers (Claire K. & Anna G.), Sharing
Wednesday: Wacky Wednesday, Recess 101 with Coach Sierra, Sharing, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Centers (Susan & Alison), Sharing
Friday: Picture Day, STEAM Centers (Marylu), Sharing

Upcoming Events:
Wednesday, 9/28: "Wacky Wednesday" Spirit Day
Friday 9/30: Picture Day

Monday 10/10: Field trip to see a play
Saturday 10/15: Alta Vista Walkathon
Friday 10/28: Halloween Parade & Party
Monday 10/31: No School: Staff Development Day

11/1-11/10: Parent-Teacher Conferences

Friday 11/11: No School: Veteran's Day

Friday 11/18: Friendship Feast

11/21-11/25: Thanksgiving Vacation

Friday 12/16: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performances

Week of 9/18

Dear Parents,

We had a great first week of centers and sharing! 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 several parent helpers 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.

We have an assembly this week called "Be a Hero," followed by "Character Day" on the 22nd. Character Day is a global initiative that Alta Vista is becoming a part of this year. For more information about it, go to the website here.

Alta Vista's Walkathon is coming right up, and I hope to see everyone out there! The students had a kickoff assembly this past Friday (kindergarten didn't attend due to STEAM centers) and we will be talking to the kindergartners this week about this amazing school-wide event. Please mark your calendars for Saturday, October 15th, and plan to come out for this great community-building day-- your child won't want to miss it!

Language Arts:
Our "Daily Phonemic Awareness" activities have been focusing on many different skills. We've been breaking apart compound words and putting them back together. We've been deleting parts of words and stating what is left. We have also been identifying beginning and ending sounds, and working on rhyming.

This week, we will be reading the book Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. In this book, the main character is teased because of her long name. By the end of the story, she learns to be proud of her name and its meaning. We will do some fun activities around the story, and for homework, the children will be comparing their own names to Chrysanthemum's in various ways.

We will be focusing on the letters Ii and Jj and our sight word this week is like. 

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)________________

Math:
We will continue looking at numbers to 5 and begin 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. We will also be learning some counting skills so that children can count one-to-one, no matter what the arrangement of the items is (scattered, in a circle, in a grid, etc.)

Science:
We will wrap up our apple study this week, and begin our FOSS science unit on Trees & Leaves at the end of the week.We will be 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.

STEAM:
This week's STEAM centers will be apple-themed, and our Alta Vista STEAM TOSA (Teacher on Special Assignment) Ms. Puliese, will be leading these exciting investigations. We will be building structures with apple pieces & toothpicks, investigating whether apples sink or float, dissecting apples, and seeing how far apples roll! Last week, we had a ball investigation, where we looked at different types of balls and made predictions about which bounced the highest, which rolled the farthest, etc. We also programmed our Bee-Bot again, this time writing the code on a whiteboard. Finally, we used Osmo again, but this time we did some elementary physics using the Newton kit.

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 (Asma), Centers (Marylu & Minna), Sharing
Tuesday: Centers cancelled due to "Be a Hero"Assembly, Sharing
Wednesday: Recess 101 with Coach Sierra, Sharing, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: STEAM Centers (Anna G. & Claire K.), Global Character Day, Sharing
Friday: Centers (Gus), Sharing

Upcoming Events:
Tuesday 9/20: "Be a Hero" assembly

Thursday 9/22: Character Day
Friday 9/30: Picture Day
Monday 10/10: Field trip to see a play
Saturday 10/15: Alta Vista Walkathon
Friday 10/28: Halloween Parade & Party
Monday 10/31: No School: Staff Development Day

11/1-11/10: Parent-Teacher Conferences

Friday 11/11: No School: Veteran's Day

Friday 11/18: Friendship Feast

11/21-11/25: Thanksgiving Vacation

Friday 12/16: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performances

Week of 9/12

Dear Parents,

We've made it to an exciting week in kindergarten, where we start centers and sharing and our first homework bag will be returned on Monday!

As a reminder to center helpers, centers run from about 9:00 to 10:15. Please come a little before 9:00 so that you can sign in & get a visitor's badge in the office. Then just come straight to the classroom & you will catch my explanation of the center to the children so that you know what the expectation is. If there is clean-up involved at the end of centers, if you could stay for a bit afterwards to help with that so that things are ready for the afternoon class, I'd appreciate it. Thank you so much-- the schedule for centers each week is posted below, in addition to the link on the right, "Helper Schedule."

Please return your child's blue bag tomorrow, and this will become your routine every Monday. The book should be inside the bag, as well as the homework folder. Your child will get a new book and a new page in the homework folder on Wednesday each week.

Sharing also begins this week! Our sharing topic this week is Toy in a Bag. Your child should bring one item, hidden in a bag or backpack, with clues attached. The clues are very important and are part of the preparation for this oral language activity. Please work with your child to come up with three clues that will help the other children guess what is in the bag. Sharing days are:
MONDAY: Aiden, Alexandre, Anna, Bodie
TUESDAY: Brett, Cameron, Cody, David
WEDNESDAY: Emil, Isabella, Joseph, Keigo
THURSDAY: Liam, Lila, Madison, Mimi
FRIDAY: Peyton, Rez, Safa, Sophie

If you ever forget which day is your child's sharing day, or if you need more information about the sharing topic, please click on the link on the right-hand side called "Sharing Info."  Sharing topics each week are posted under the "calendar" link.

MATH:

We will continue with our math topic on numbers.  I am especially reinforcing the formation of numbers in handwriting. Some of these numbers are quite tricky to make, so watch that your child is starting at the top and going in the correct direction.

LANGUAGE ARTS:
We will introduce letters Gg & Hh plus continue working on rhyming. We will read more non-fiction books about apples. We will introduce our first sight word, I. We will begin our handwriting program, Handwriting without Tears, this week. We will work on correctly forming the letter Bb. We will continue working on name writing and we will have a name writing page again for homework this week. We really want to ensure that children are forming the letters in their names correctly. The sooner they break any bad habits, the better.

SCIENCE:
We will look at how the change in seasons affect how an apple tree looks throughout the year. We will continue learning about apples and apple trees.

STEAM: (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Math)
We had our first STEAM centers on Friday, and the children were excited! They worked with Keva Planks, designed a marble run, used Osmo, and programmed a Bee-Bot. We are incorporating STEAM centers into our program once a week, and we look forward to much collaboration, innovation, trial & error, and excitement in the process! For more information on STEM/STEAM (used interchangeably) in the primary classroom, read this article.

Helpers & Activities This Week
Monday: Blue Bags returned (HoSun), Centers (Anna R. & Annie), Sharing
Tuesday: Centers (Claire K. & Anne-Marie), Sharing
Wednesday: Sharing, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Centers (Alison & Susan), Sharing
Friday: STEAM Centers (Barry)

Upcoming Events:

Monday 9/12: Centers begin
Friday 9/16: Alta Vista Movie Night Inside Out

Friday 9/30: Picture Day
Monday 10/10: Field trip to see a play
Saturday 10/15: Alta Vista Walkathon
Friday 10/28: Halloween Parade & Party

Monday 10/31: No School: Staff Development Day

Week of 9/5

Dear Parents,

I hope you have had a wonderful long weekend. We will get right back into the swing of things on Tuesday, with no days off again until October 31st.

In language arts, we continue introducing letters and letter sounds with letters Ee and Ff this week. We will switch gears to non-fiction books this week and begin reading and learning about apples and apple trees. We will also continue reading familiar tales-- The Three Pigs is up this week!

In math, we will continue with the topic: Numbers 1-10. We will be looking at the value of these numbers, as well as how to write them correctly. Math is one of the subjects we cover in centers, so though the paperwork is the same, the hand-on activities may be different, depending on the ability of the group.

In science, we enjoyed many activities with last week's unit on the Five Senses.  The children tasted sour, sweet, salty, and bitter foods and they felt items in a "mystery bag."  They also smelled some mystery smells in canisters and tried to guess what they were.  We had a great time!

Our art this week is centered around apples. We have a few fun apple art projects, and we'll be using paint!   Please don't send your children in any clothes that you are overly concerned about keeping neat this week. :)

I have forgotten to mention previously that we have a program called Recess 101 this year in kindergarten. It is a weekly P.E. program on Wednesdays, led by "Coach Sierra." Please send your children in shoes appropriate for fitness on Wednesdays each week.

Our first homework bag will go home this Wednesday! We will have a name writing practice sheet for your child in the homework folder. The blue bag will contain the first book in our weekly book program. Please return both the homework folder and the book in the bag after you use them each night so that when you return the bag every Monday, everything is easy to find.

Next week, the week of 9/11, we will begin centers and sharing. It's a big week! Parent helpers, this is when you will begin coming in. Please check over the helper schedule (link to the right) and let me know if there are any conflicts. If you ever have an unexpected conflict (sick kids, sick adult, etc.), please email the class, as we have many parents who just wanted to help a few times, and subbing at centers is a perfect opportunity for that.

Looking forward to another fun week in kindergarten!

Upcoming Events:

Monday 9/12: Centers begin
Friday 9/16: Alta Vista Movie Night Inside Out

Friday 9/30: Picture Day
Monday 10/10: Field trip to see a play
Saturday 10/15: Alta Vista Walkathon
Friday 10/28: Halloween Parade & Party

Week of 8/28

Dear Parents,

Thank you so much for your attendance at Back-to-School Night. It was so wonderful to have most of you there-- I feel very supported already in making our year together the very best. Thank you also for your sign-ups to volunteer in the classroom. I have everything covered! Wow! I will get back to you some time this week with the center schedule. Centers will not start until the week of September 11th, so you have a couple of weeks before coming into the classroom. Again, I know I didn't cover everything during my presentation, so please feel free to email me with any questions you have along the way.

One thing that I forgot to cover was sharing. Sharing will begin on September 12th. There are various sharing topics: toy in a bag, letter(s) of the week, homemade item, book share, and song/poem/nursery rhyme share. For a description of what is expected for each of these topics, please go to the sharing tab on the website. The sharing topic stays the same all week, and can be found on the class calendar on my website. The sharing days do not change. They are:
MONDAY: Aiden, Alexandre, Anna, Bodie
TUESDAY: Brett, Cameron, Cody, David
WEDNESDAY: Emil, Isabella, Joseph, Keigo
THURSDAY: Liam, Lila, Madison, Mimi
FRIDAY: Peyton, Rez, Safa, Sophie
*If we have a Monday or Friday holiday, children can share any day that week

In language arts this year, we will be introducing two letters per week, wrapping up our isolated letter & sound study by November. From there, we will move onto digraphs, blends, and word families.
This week, we will be covering letters Cc & Dd.  We will also continue reading familiar fairy tales as well as some Aesop's Fables.  We will begin studying the five senses in science. I have a fun book with some hands-on activities that I do with the children, ending with doing a taste test of salty, sweet, sour, and bitter items.

In math, we will continue studying numbers to 5.  We will have some hands-on activities in class as well as several educational YouTubes.

We also will be using a lot of music in the classroom for learning. I have already had them up and dancing to our "Alphabet Action" tune, and this week, we will be learning how to spell color words through singing some catchy tunes. We are introducing a new song each week. This week it will be the "yellow" song.  I also play the violin and break that out from time to time, mostly to play "Happy Birthday" for birthday celebrations. :)

We have this Friday the 2nd off school, as well as Monday the 5th. For other important dates, specific to kindergarten, please check the class calendar on my website. I have added the dates of many of our big events in there for your future planning!

Upcoming Events:
Friday 9/2: Staff Development Day
Monday 9/5: Labor Day Holiday
Friday 9/16: Alta Vista Movie Night
Monday 10/10: Field trip to see a play
Saturday 10/15: Alta Vista Walkathon
Friday 10/28: Halloween Parade & Party

Week of 8/21

Dear Parents,

Apologies in advance for the long post, but I know that many of you are new parents to Alta Vista, and you will start to notice that I tend to err on the side of over-communication ;)

We had a great first week reading books from the "If You Give a...." series by Laura Numeroff, along with playing some letter recognition games. Next week, we will begin formally introducing the letters Aa and Bb. We familiarize ourselves with all the names of our classmates by looking for those letters in each person’s name.

We also began our first math topic on numbers to five. This topic also introduces shapes, which we will focus more on this week.

In the next few weeks, we will be listening to familiar tales (Three Pigs, Jack & The Beanstalk, Three Billy Goats Gruff, etc.) and nursery rhymes. Hearing different versions of familiar tales and rhymes is a fun way to get children engaged in reading. Some families may own these traditional tales in another language. If you do, these may be fun for your child to bring in and share with the students.

During the past week, I have observed that some of the students will need to work on name-writing skills. One of our kindergarten standards is writing a name with one capital letter and the rest lower-case. We will begin practicing this in class by tracing our names on a worksheet, but I encourage you to reinforce this at home-- we try and drop the all-capital letter name writing as quickly as possible. The faster children can write their names correctly, the easier it is for them to get going on assignments, as we encourage them to write their names first. I appreciate your help with this.

In class, your child will be using a program called, "Handwriting without Tears." This is a wonderful program that really focuses on correct formation of letters along with correct pencil grip. It is so important to get in good habits (and in some cases, break bad habits) with handwriting early on. I will begin introducing the basics of this program by introducing a jazzy song called "We Start our Letters at the Top"--- and we will have a handwriting center weekly when we start academic centers in September.

Back-to-School Night is this Wednesday, starting at 6:00 in the classroom. Following my presentation, there will be a meeting in the cafeteria to talk about Alta Vista's Home & School Club and all the great enrichment programs it supports. This is a night for parents only, as I go over our curriculum and classroom policies. Please make every effort to attend so that you can be informed about the year ahead. I cover a lot of information that night in only 45 minutes, so afterwards, if you need more information on anything, please don’t hesitate to contact me. If you are unable to attend Back-to-School Night, please let me know so that I can set aside materials for you.

Please continue to sign up to join the Home & School Club via the "My School Anywhere" system. You can sign up by clicking here. The invitation code is AltaVista. This is how you will keep informed with what is going on at the school, as well as have access to contact info for other parents in the class to arrange playdates, etc. PLEASE try and sign up as soon as possible, if you haven't done so already.

Additionally, some of you have asked for more details about classroom help. You can use the "My School Anywhere" account to sign up to volunteer in our classroom. I will be going over all the volunteer opportunities as part of my presentation at Back-to-School Night. I will also put the center helper sign-ups back out that night. You will find out which days you are officially helping after I have a chance to look over all of the information, and make sure I have coverage for all the activities and days. Then, I put together a schedule, usually for an entire quarter, so that you know which days to schedule on your calendar in advance for classroom help. If you sign up to help at center time, we will begin centers the week of September 11th. Thank you to so many of you who signed up to help at the Orientation—we already have most of our activities covered! I know we do still need more center helpers, so I’ll hope for a few more volunteers at Back-to-School Night. Center time is a wonderful way to get involved in our classroom, get to know the children, and stay apprised of what we are learning.

Finally, I ask that you please make every effort to support our kindergarten activities by contributing to the Consolidated Classroom Payment (CCP) online via the "My School Anywhere" account. This money goes to support your own child's portion of items like field trip entrance fees, bus fees, your child's class t-shirt, your child's costume for the Friendship Feast, parts of your child's costume for the Nutcracker performance, etc.  Instead of asking you for money every time we have an event, we ask for this money up front. We would not be able to provide many of these enrichment opportunities without your support, so please make every effort to donate to this fund, even if it is only a partial payment.

For your upcoming scheduling: There is no school on Friday the 2nd or Monday the 5th.

I am looking forward to another fun week with your children, and I am excited to meet and talk with you all Wednesday night!

Week of 8/15

Dear Parents,

I'd like to welcome you and your children to my kindergarten class, and I enjoyed meeting you and your child at the orientation today!

My primary form of communication is via e-mail, so hopefully, you were able to provide an e-mail address to me at the orientation.  If not, please make sure to do so between now and Back-to-School Night by filling out this form. I will send a few test e-mails between now and then, too, so look for those in your inbox.

I love to have classroom helpers, and the school's enrichment programs depend on them! Please sign up to be a part of the Home & School Club and to pay the "Consolidated Classroom Payment" (a one-time fee we ask you to please try and contribute to, which allows us to offer many extras such as field trips, special class projects, etc.) You can sign up and pay here  The invitation code is AltaVista.  We greatly appreciate your support with this.

The kindergarten daily schedule is:

• 8:05-11:25 AM Session

For tomorrow:

• Please arrive on time and have your child ready to enter the classroom at the start time.
• Please say goodbye to your children at the door, rather than following them into the classroom and prolonging the goodbyes. Both Mrs. Barbara & I will be there to comfort any children who need an extra hug!
• Pack a healthy snack for your child that includes a drink.  If your child is attending day care either before or after kindergarten, it is a good idea to separate the snack items from the lunch items, as kindergartners often get confused and will eat all the food in one sitting!
• I do like your children to have a small backpack. Although it may often come home empty (except on Wednesdays!), I do have a project here and there that I send home during the week. Having a backpack gets the children in an early habit of taking responsibility for their things and putting them all in one place.
• All supplies are provided for your children, but I do appreciate donations of baby wipes, tissues, glue sticks, and Clorox/Sanitizing Wipes.
• The kindergarten parking lot will continue to be closed this year at 7:45 a.m.  This is due to traffic congestion problems.  Please plan on walking or parking on Westchester between the hours of 7:45 to 8:15 a.m. At pick-up time (11:25), you are permitted to park at the curb in front of the school on Blossom Valley.
• This week in class will of course be all about procedures and getting to know the children.  We will be reading the story "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" as well as "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom."  We will also be reading many familiar stories as well as nursery rhymes to create that sense of familiarity for your children.

Please mark your calendars and arrange babysitters for Back-to-School Night on Wednesday, August 24th.   The schedule is as follows:

• 6:00-6:45 AM Class Presentation in K2
• 6:45-7:15 Home & School Club Presentation in the Cafeteria
• 7:15-8:00 PM Class Presentation in K2

I will go over classroom policies and procedures, discuss the curriculum, and answer any questions that you may have. Of course, if you have any questions prior to that, please feel free to ask! I am very responsive over e-mail.

At the orientation, I provided you with the Alta Vista handbook, the Union School District handout, and the Home & School Club information. Please look over both handbooks with your child (as appropriate).  Please return the final page of these booklets as soon as possible.   Finally, I think many of you may have missed the "pick-ups & drop-offs" form, so I will have those available again tomorrow.  If you could just fill that out & give me a rough idea of who to expect each day at the door, particularly for pick-ups at the end of the day, I'd appreciate it.

I am looking forward to an exciting year!

Summer 2016

I'd like to thank the students and parents from my kindergarten class of 2015-2016 for a wonderful year, and I look forward to meeting our new kindergartners of 2016-2017!

Kindergarten Orientation is Tuesday, August 16th, from 10:00 to 11:00 (a.m.) and 11:00 to 12:00 (p.m.)

Supplies that we usually ask for in kindergarten include glue sticks, tissues, white board markers, baby wipes, and hand sanitizer. Check Back-to-School sales for these items-- we appreciate it!!

School begins on Wednesday, August 17, 2016-- morning session is 8:05 to 11:25 and the afternoon  session is 11:30 to 2:50. Child care for both sessions is available at Champions (408) 356-3178 or Holy Cross (408) 356-6828.

You will receive a letter the week of August 7th stating whether your child will be in the morning or afternoon session.  Due to fluctuation in enrollment, we cannot let you know before that time.

For kindergarten readiness, the AV kindergarten team highly recommends that your child comes into kindergarten:

• recognizing most letters
• writing his/her name legibly, using one upper-case & the rest lower-case letters
• recognizing numbers to 10 & beyond
• knowing names of basic shapes
• having good cutting/scissor skills
• able to sit attentively for the duration of a picture book

We highly recommend LeapFrog's  DVD "The Letter Factory" for a good review of letter recognition and letter sounds.

If you have any other questions about our program, please feel free to e-mail me at: gristn@unionsd.org

Thank you, and I look forward to seeing you in August!

Week of 6/5

Dear Parents,

It's exciting and a little sad at the same time, but we are heading into our last week together. What a wonderful year it's been! I'd like to thank you for the fantastic support you've given me all year long.

Here is a day-by-day run-down of the week:

MONDAY: No special activities. Please send your child with a backpack as we continue to send things home.

TUESDAY:  Promotion Ceremony in K2.  Be prepared for a brief presentation from the children and a great walk down memory lane of our wonderful year together. Please plan on attending this event or sending another family member who can attend! This is a special time to share with your children. No snacks or backpacks needed-- refreshments will be served. Approximate schedule of events for those who need to arrange around work schedules:

• 9:00 to about 9:30: Children perform songs we've learned throughout the year, followed by presentation of memory binders
• 9:30 to 10:05: Video review of our year. If you need to leave after the 9:00 presentation, this would be a good time to leave, as I will be sharing out the video presentation.
• 10:05-10:30: Refreshments and conversation!
• If you need to take your child home after the ceremony, please be sure to sign him/her out in the office. Otherwise, children will stay at school and have choice time and fun for the remainder of the day.

A final note about the Promotion Ceremony: Because this event will be in the classroom, and we have 25 students in our class, space is extremely limited. I really like to keep this event to parents and younger siblings only-- if both parents come and a handful of younger siblings, that's already around 80 people in our classroom. Unfortunately, we simply don't have the space for many more people than that. Thank you for your understanding.

WEDNESDAY: Olympic Day. This is a school-wide event. Please wear class t-shirts and appropriate footwear! Sunblock would also be a good idea, and hats, too. The event starts at 10:00 and goes on until dismissal.  We will have an early snack time, so please send snacks and backpacks on this day. Thank you to the parents who have already volunteered to help. If you'd still like to help, please email me or go to this link: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e084cafae29a64-alta2

THURSDAY: All children in kindergarten on an early schedule (8:05-11:25), so we will have 47 children in the room! I will be there at the beginning of class, but will not be ending the day with your children due to the promotion ceremonies of my own children. Children will clean the classroom, sign yearbooks, and have some last day fun with Mrs. Beadle and Mrs. Arrasmith. Please send a snack on this day if you think your child will get hungry.

Happy Summer!!!

Week of 5/29

Dear Parents,

 I hope you are all enjoying this long weekend. We are heading into the final stretch here with many year-end events, so keep your calendars updated! With only 8 days to go in kindergarten, this post will mostly just remind you of upcoming special events, and this week is a week of a few more "lasts!"

It is the last week of sharing.  In celebration of that fact, children may pick ANY share topic-- toy in a bag; book share; song, poem, or nursery rhyme; or homemade item. If there's something they've been desperate to share that doesn't fit into any of these topics, that's fine too.

Our last Wednesday envelope will go home this week. Please review the papers, and then keep the envelope-- no need to send it back again. However, please DO send in a paper grocery bag with your child's name on it as soon as possible. I am going to be taking all the art and projects off the walls and would like them to be safely transported home. Thank you!

We have an entire week of spirit events coming up this week. Participation is totally optional. Here is the rundown:
TUESDAY: Mustache Day
WEDNESDAY: Tutu & Bow Tie Day
THURSDAY: Crazy Hair Day
FRIDAY: Hero Day

On Thursday the 2nd, please come to the cafeteria any time between 5:30 and 8:00 to enjoy the Art Vista Art show.  Every child in our class will have several pieces on display.  The Art Vista art show is always a sight to behold-- such beautiful artwork from all the grade levels!  It is truly impressive.

We have our class party coming up this Friday the 3rd. This is a water play day (sprinklers and water table). Please send your children with a towel, a swimsuit under their clothes (or boys just wear their swimsuits as shorts) water shoes or flip flops or old shoes you don't mind having them get wet. We don't like them to go barefoot on the blacktop, so we need them to be wearing shoes that will work with the water. Please coat them in sunscreen before their arrival. Children who are going to daycare after class should have a change of clothes and shoes. Thank you to Jillian for coordinating the food for this party. Heavy snacks & treats will be served, so no need to pack a big lunch if your child is going to daycare. If you'd like to sign up to help or bring food, please contact Jillian.

Our last big event (parental attendance strongly encouraged) together is next Tuesday the 7th at 9:00 for our Promotion Day celebration. This should wrap up before class is out (my guess is approximately an hour or so), and then the kids can stay and sign yearbooks, etc. If you want them to leave early that day, please sign them out in the office. Please plan on joining us as we have a small presentation and a video look back on our wonderful year together!

Wednesday the 8th, we have a school-wide Olympic Day. It starts at 10:00. I could use a few parent helpers to walk around with us-- it gets a little crazy out there! Please email me if you can help. This is another day with a lot of outdoor time, so hats and sunscreen are highly recommended.

There are no events on Thursday the 9th, but all kindergarten classes attend from 8:05 to 11:25. Both the morning class and the afternoon class will be in the room together, cleaning up, signing yearbooks, and wrapping up our year together. Remember that I will be leaving early that day due to the two ceremonies for my own children, so I will say my goodbyes to your children in the early morning.

Looking forward to lots of fun & memories in these final weeks!

Upcoming Events:
5/30: Memorial Day
6/2: Art Vista Art Show @ 5:30-8:00
6/3: End of the year Party & Water Play Day
6/7: Kindergarten Promotion Ceremony @ 9:00
6/8: School-wide Olympic Day @ 10:00
6/9: Last Day of School: All Kindergartners come from 8:05-11:25