Week of 1/17

Dear Parents,

I hope you are enjoying some fun family time on this long weekend.

Of course, we have Monday 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. I want to ensure that everyone is prepared for first grade, and I definitely need your help :).

We will continue working on subtraction this week.  In class, I have been reinforcing mental math skills to help make 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. 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. To provide additional reinforcement with subtraction, I am including some subtraction flash cards in your child's blue bag this week. You can cut them apart and use them to increase your child's speed with subtraction facts.

We also have Snow Day this week. It will be on Friday, before recess, for both K1 & K2. 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.

On February 8h, we have the start of Chinese New Year/Tet/Lunar New Year. I would like to celebrate in class around that time. We have several fun art projects surrounding this theme. If any parents would like to come in and talk about this holiday, I would love to have you. Please e-mail me!

Another fun day to mark your calendars for is 100 day on February 2nd. 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. 1-5, 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.

I look forward to seeing everyone on Tuesday, Blue Bags in hand!

This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: NO SCHOOL
Tuesday: Blue Bags returned (Jillian), Centers (Gwenny & Lizl), Sharing
Wednesday: Computers (Duan), Sharing, Blue Bags go home

Thursday: Centers (Jill & Nancy C.), Sharing
Friday: Story Time with Grandma Gail, Cornerstone Lesson (Matt & Meg), Snow Day Fun, Sharing

Upcoming Events:

1/18: No School: MLK Day
1/21: Incoming Kindergartner Parent Information Night 6:00-7:30pm
1/22: Snow Day
2/2: 100 Day
2/15-2/19: President's Week Break
3/5: Bocce Ball Tournament & Auction