Week of 12/18

We had a great Project Cornerstone lesson last week after reading the story Big by Coleen Paratore. The story's theme was that size isn't what makes you "big," it's the good deeds you do and your kindness toward others. Afterward, Celeste had the children decorate "Kindness Rocks." Children wrote an encouraging phrase on the rocks, then we placed them around Alta Vista. If you happened to find one, we hope it made your day brighter!

This Wednesday the 20th, we will be going to the AV Makerspace again to experiment with Snap Circuits. I could use 1-2 helpers for this activity. If you are available from 10:30 to 11:25, please let me know.

The main business of this week is all things Nutcracker! We will be practicing daily this week, so there will be no 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 Lawrence helping with photography and Mary, Tanya, and Ying helping with make-up and costuming. If costume parents could please come at around 8:45 or so and begin calling kids back individually and get them ready for the stage, that would be great. Thank you!

On Monday this week, you will have an opportunity to bid in an online auction for front-row seating for the Nutcracker. Every Spring, Alta Vista has an Auction fundraiser, and there is always an online auction that offers various goods & services. Since most parents aren't at the school yet who will have children in the Nutcracker, those tickets are put aside for a separate auction in December. Look for an email and start the bidding! All money will go toward supporting the enrichment programs funded by the Alta Vista Home & School Club. The auction will close on Wednesday. Good luck!

Language Arts:
We will continue to focus on Gingerbread Man stories. We will also read some holiday books. 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.

Math:
We are finishing with Module 2 in Eureka Math: Two Dimensional & Three Dimensional Shapes. We have been studying the attributes of the 2D shapes square, triangle, rectangle, circle, and hexagon. The 3D shapes we are studying are the cube, cylinder, cone, and sphere. Parent tips for this unit can be found here.

This Week's Special 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 AV Makerspace.

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/MOUSE KING: 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. There are plenty of seats for everyone, so no need to stress. 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.

Upcoming
When we return from Winter Break on January 8th, we are having a special district-wide day called "Smart Start." Basically, it's a fun day of activities to get children excited about returning to school. In  kindergarten, we will be having a center-based day of fun hands-on activities. I am going to start centers earlier on that day at approximately 8:45, and run them until about 10:15. I already have Camille & Lauren scheduled to help on that day, but I could use 1-2 more helpers. If you are interested in coming in for Smart Start, please email me.

Happy Holidays and enjoy your break!

This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Blue Bags returned (Touria), No centers
Tuesday: Nutcracker practice on stage, no centers
Wednesday: Wacky Weds., Makerspace for Snap Circuits, Recess 101, Weds. envelopes go home

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

Upcoming Events
Friday 12/22: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance @ 10:00
12/25-01/07: Winter Break
Monday 01/08: Districtwide Smart Start Day
Monday 01/15: Martin Luther King Holiday
02/19-02/23: President's Week Vacation

Week of 12/11

We were excited to participate in Hour of Code last week, and we got to use some familiar activities, as well as some new ones. We used 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. Another new app we used was Scratch Jr., which we started using last week. We did some offline coding with a board game called Robot Turtles, and children enjoyed coding using Coding Awbie. Finally, we brought out our Bee-Bot once again, which is always a favorite. Not only did we have all-coding centers on STEAM Friday, but we also rotated in one of these activities each day this week, to make it a full week of Computer Science Education. We will continue to bring back these activities throughout the year, as Computer Science Education is critical to developing logical thinking and problem solving. I encourage you to check out some of these apps and items at home-- perhaps even add them to holiday gift ideas!

Language Arts
This week, we will enjoy more stories from The Gingerbread Man series-- we have The Ninjabread Man, The Gingerbread Girl, Gingerbread Baby, Gingerbread Man Loose in the School and many others. We will follow up with many Gingerbread Man writing and art activities. Our Daily Five literacy centers have also been including many fun Gingerbread-themed activities, and will continue to do so this week as well. Our sight word for the week is big.

Math
We are continuing with Module 2 in Eureka Math: Two Dimensional & Three Dimensional Shapes. We will study the attributes of the 2D shapes square, triangle, rectangle, circle, and hexagon. The 3D shapes we will be studying are the cube, cylinder, cone, and sphere. Parent tips for this unit can be found here.

Upcoming

Your child should have received his/her part assignment for the Nutcracker in last week's Wednesday envelope. Please let me know if there are any problems gathering the clothes we've asked them to wear. I do have several leotards that my daughter outgrew from her dance days in the classroom, as well as a few pairs of ballet slippers. We do not intend for you to have to buy anything. We are looking forward to a memorable performance on the 22nd at 10:00!

We have another Cornerstone lesson this Wednesday with Celeste. We will be reading and discussing the book BIG by Coleen Paratore.

This is the last week of parent helpers in the classroom for 2017. I will be working on the helper schedule for 2018 in the upcoming weeks. Please continue emailing me if there is any change to your helping schedule or if you'd like to be added to the schedule. Thank you so much for all the support in 2017!

**Please return your child's Blue Bag on Monday.

This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Return Blue Bags (Ying), Daily 5, Centers (Celeste & Lauren)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Camille & Anastasia)
Wednesday: Cornerstone (Celeste), PE with Coach Sierra, Blue Bags Go Home

Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Emily & Tanya)
Friday: Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Jackie & Daniela), Story time with Grandma Gail

Upcoming Events
Friday 12/22: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performances
12/25-01/07: Winter Break
Monday 01/15: Martin Luther King Holiday
02/19-02/23: President's Week Vacation

Week of 12/4

Dear Parents,

You will be receiving a note regarding your child's Nutcracker part, and what s/he should wear for the performance in this 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 22nd. I only know of one student who will not be at school on that date. Please email me ASAP if you will not be in town for the performance!

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
Our sight word this week is at. We will have a few stories this week. First, we will be reading Scaredy Squirrel by Melanie Watt. Children might enjoy checking out Scaredy Squirrel's own website here. After that, we will begin reading different versions of The Gingerbread Man, which we will continue enjoying next week as well. 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 all of these stories.

Math
We are continuing with Module 2 in Eureka Math: Two Dimensional & Three Dimensional Shapes. We will study the attributes of the 2D shapes square, triangle, rectangle, circle, and hexagon. The 3D shapes we will be studying are the cube, cylinder, cone, and sphere. Parent tips for this unit can be found here.

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 this week. 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 "Robot Turtles." We are excited to be a part of this global movement!

We have an Art Vista lesson on Wednesday. Thank you to Tanya, Jason, Camille, and Surbhi for presenting the lesson.

**Please remember to send in your child's Blue Bag on Monday.

This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Return Blue Bags (Jillian), Daily 5, Centers (Camille & Ying)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Josie & Anastasia)
Wednesday: Art Vistas (Tanya, Jason, Camille, Surbhi), PE with Coach Sierra, Blue Bags Go Home

Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Surbhi & Tanya)
Friday: Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Touria & Lauren), Story time with Grandma Gail

Upcoming Events
Week of 12/4: Computer Science Education Week
Friday 12/22: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performances
12/25-01/07: Winter Break
Monday 01/15: Martin Luther King Holiday
02/19-02/23: President's Week Vacation

Week of 11/27

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.

Now...onto a very busy but exciting time in kindergarten as we prepare for our Nutcracker performance on the 22nd, 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 all of the sounds. If you think your child needs more reinforcement, please use websites such as starfall.com, or have your child watch The Letter Factory. 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. For example, using the endings "an" and "at," children 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 look. 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 about Owls, both fiction and non-fiction. We will be learning and writing about Owls, along with doing an owl art project.

Parent helpers, we will return to centers for the next three weeks, then we take a break from centers again the week of December 18th. Please check the helper schedule.

Math
We are beginning Module 2 in Eureka Math: Two Dimensional & Three Dimensional Shapes. We will study the attributes of the 2D shapes square, triangle, rectangle, circle, and hexagon. The 3D shapes we will be studying are the cube, cylinder, cone, and sphere. Parent tips for this unit can be found here.

STEAM
STEAM centers are back this Friday in preparation for Hour of Code next week. On Friday, we will have a new exciting center that we purchased last year with money from a Home & School Club grant. Children will look at the laws of physics using a game called Create-a-Chain Reaction. We will also make boats out of foil and test them out by seeing how well they can carry different amounts of pennies.

Upcoming
I am going to be working on the 2018 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 2018, but if you are no longer able to help, please let me know that too. If you'd like to request specific date(s) please feel free to email those to me. Thanks again to everyone for being so reliable with classroom help-- we couldn't run the program the way we do without all of you!

Please be setting aside time out of your busy holiday schedules to join us for our presentation of The Nutcracker on December 22nd at 10:00 a.m.!

This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Daily 5, Centers (Celeste & Lynda)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Josie & Camille)
Wednesday: Writer's Workshop, PE with Coach Sierra, Blue Bags Go Home

Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Emily W. & Tanya)
Friday: Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Mary & Celeste), Story time with Grandma Gail

Upcoming Events
Week of 12/4: Computer Science Education Week
Friday 12/22: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performances
12/25-01/07: Winter Break
Monday 01/15: Martin Luther King Holiday
02/19-02/23: President's Week Vacation

Week of 11/13

I hope you are all enjoying a long weekend. In the upcoming week, we will continue parent-teacher conferences through Thursday. I have enjoyed meeting with many of you so far, and have gained some great insights about 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 morning conferences. Those will be in K2. If you need to confirm your conference time, click here.

There will be no classroom centers this week, due to conferences and preparations for the Feast. Centers will resume after Thanksgiving. There will also be no blue bags again this week due to the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. Wednesday envelopes will come home as usual. Please send the envelopes back on Thursday or Friday at the latest. Thank you!

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 sight word will continue to be you since last week was so short.

We will be reading many stories about Thanksgiving and learning about the Pilgrims and Native Americans as we prepare for our Friendship Feast on Friday.

Math
We have some fun Thanksgiving-themed math pages to do this week to wrap up our study on numbers, and we will also begin talking about shapes as we create a scarecrow made out of many different 2D shapes.

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 17th. 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 more food is always welcome! You can check out the sign-ups here: https://goo.gl/xgjxJg

Upcoming Events
We are glazing our clay projects this Tuesday, as it was rescheduled from last week. Please don't send your children in any special outfits that day, as the clay glaze does stain. Please contact Tanya if you can help with this. We will be glazing at about 10:00 at the picnic table outside our classroom.

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 22nd 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 week & I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving break!

This Week's Helpers & Activities:

Monday: Return Blue Bags (Touria), Daily 5, Song Practice for Feast

Tuesday: Daily 5, Clay (Tanya, Camille, Surbhi, Anastasia), Song Practice

Wednesday:  Recess 101, No Blue Bags, Song Practice

Thursday: Return Weds. Envelopes, Song Practice 

Friday: Friendship Feast @ 10:00, helpers begin arriving @ 8:45

Upcoming Events:

Monday 11/13-11/16: Parent-Teacher Conferences continue

Friday 11/17: Friendship Feast

Week of 11/20: No School: Thanksgiving Break

Friday 12/22: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performances

Week of 11/6

We have a short week ahead of us with a Staff Development Day on Thursday (no school) and Veteran's Day on Friday. However, please be aware that there is no change to the daily kindergarten schedule due to conferences. The early dismissal only affects grades 1-5. Because of the short week, we will not be sending home Blue Bags this Wednesday. Enjoy a relaxing long weekend!

We had such a busy week last week that I forgot to welcome our student teacher, Miss Soraya, to our class. Soraya is joining us from Santa Clara University and will be with us through Thanksgiving. She will return to us again in the new year and will be more involved in lesson planning and teaching the students at that time. Welcome, Soraya!

I am looking forward to meeting with each of you beginning Monday 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.  Miss Soraya may join in on a few conferences as well. 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.

Language Arts
Our letters this week are Ww and Xx. Our new sight word is you, which we will continue to reinforce next week as well. We are now reading sentences with the words: I, see, my, like, can, go, see, a, the, to, we, you. 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 as well as making some items for our Native American costumes. Our books will center around those themes.

Math
In math this week, we will continue reviewing number concepts. We will reinforce the concept of more & less as well as look at the parts that can make up the number 5 (pre-addition skills).

Upcoming Events
We will be glazing our clay projects this Wednesday! Thank you to Camille & Tanya for organizing this. I'm sure they could use more helping hands! Clay will begin right at the start of the day, when they will be setting up. Please email Tanya if you can assist.

As you know, our next big event is the Friendship Feast on November 17th. 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. Ideally, we would like each family to contribute something from this list. 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: Return Blue Bags (Ying), Daily 5, Centers (Camille & Chris H.)

Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Anastasia & Lawrence)

Wednesday: Clay (Tanya, Camille, Surbhi, ???), Recess 101, No Blue Bags

Thursday: NO SCHOOL

Friday: NO SCHOOL

Upcoming Events:

Monday 11/6: Parent-Teacher Conferences begin

Thursday 11/9: No School: Staff Development Day

Friday 11/10: No School: Veteran's Day

Friday 11/17: Friendship Feast

Week of 11/20: No School: Thanksgiving Break

Friday 12/22: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performances

Week of 10/30

We have an exciting week ahead of us with the Halloween parade & party on Tuesday and our second Art Vistas lesson on Wednesday!

Halloween

Please send your children to school on Tuesday dressed in their Halloween costumes. We will have a school-wide parade at 8:30 on the blacktop in front of rooms 7, 8, and 9. Please remember that children's costumes cannot include weapons of any kind or fake blood, and masks can only be warn for the parade. Afterwards, children will return to K2 for special Halloween-themed centers. We will have pizza at the end of our day, so no need to pack a snack on Tuesday. If your child is going to Champions after the party, you will want to pack an extra bag for party items, especially the pumpkins they will be bringing home that day. 

Art Vistas

We will have our second lesson on Wednesday. Children always have a presentation on an artistic concept first (e.g.. primary colors, lines, foreground, background, etc.) and then they do a hands-on project that goes along with the concept. Thank you to Jason, Tanya, and Surbhi for their help with Art Vistas this year.

Language Arts

Our letters this week are Uu and Vv. Our sight word is we. We have now introduced ten sight words that your children should recognize: I, see, my, like, a, can, to, go, the, and we. Your children should be using these words to both read and write simple sentences like "I can go to the store." or "I see my mom." Please encourage them to read the sentences to you each week that come home in the Wednesday envelope. Our stories this week will be Halloween-themed.

Math

We are spending the next couple of weeks reinforcing number concepts. These include knowing what one more and one less than a number is, recognizing written numbers to 10, recognizing instantly how many dots are on a ten frame, and counting objects.

Science/STEAM

We wrapped up our unit on pumpkins last Friday with pumpkin-themed STEAM centers. Children measured height and circumference of their pumpkins from Spina Farms, and counted the ribs on their pumpkins. They also tested if their pumpkins sank or floated and dissected a pumpkin. Finally, they constructed bridges that could support a small pumpkin. It was a fun day of exploration and learning! In this week's STEAM centers, we will return to coding using the Bee-Bot. 

Upcoming

Conferences:
I am looking forward to meeting with each of you beginning Monday, November 6th 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:

The Friendship Feast will be on Friday, November 17th 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, and sing some songs at the beginning. The children from our class will be dressed as Native Americans, and the children in K1 will be dressed as Pilgrims.  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, Centers (Camille & Lauren)
Tuesday: Halloween Parade & Party, Special Centers (Tanya, Camille, Lynda, Daniela, Anastasia)
Wednesday: Art Vistas (Jason, Tanya, Surbhi), Recess 101, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Tanya & Surbhi)
Friday: Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Touria & Daniela), Story time with Grandma Gail

Upcoming Events:
Tuesday 10/31: Halloween Parade & Party
Monday 11/6: Parent-Teacher Conferences begin
Thursday 11/9: No School: Staff Development Day
Friday 11/10: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday 11/17: Friendship Feast
Friday 12/22: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performances

Week of 10/23

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 walkathon outing. Thanks for coming out and supporting the school, and hopefully, it was the beginning of many walkathons to come for all of you!

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 25th. Check it out!

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

Field Trip
We are so excited for our first field trip to Spina Farms Pumpkin Patch this Wednesday, October 25th!  Please send your children in their Grasshopper t-shirts (mandatory for easy spotting of children) and a disposable snack. We don't want to lose lunch bags or water bottles at the farm, so please just pack the snack in a paper bag with your child's name on it. Please send students in close-toed shoes that are comfortable for walking. The weather for Wednesday is showing sunny & warm right now, but it's always good to dress your child in layers. A long-sleeved shirt under the grasshopper shirt is a good idea so that I can still see that "grasshopper green." Thank you to Lynda, Mary, Tanya, Camille, Pauline, and Elena for chaperoning this trip.

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

Math
We are wrapping up our module on numbers to 10. Some kindergarten year-end standards that you should be aware of are:

• Children should be able to count to 100
• Children should be able to count on from any given number between 1 and 100. For example: 49, 50, 51, 52, 53.
• Children should be able to write numbers to 20
• Children should be able to recognize numbers to 20 and count out objects to 20, no matter what the arrangement of those objects (in a line, scattered, in a circle)

Science/STEAM
We will continue reading non-fiction books about pumpkins. At the end of the week, we will end our pumpkin unit with some pumpkin STEAM activities to further explore pumpkins. We will even be dissecting a pumpkin to check out all the different parts of a pumpkin that we've been studying!

Upcoming
Halloween:
The Halloween Party & parade is on Tuesday, October 31st. 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 Monday, November 6th 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, the Friendship Feast will be on Friday, November 17th 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, and sing some songs at the beginning. The children from our class will be dressed as Native Americans, and the children in K1 will be dressed as Pilgrims.  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 (Touria), Daily 5, Centers (Camille & Ying)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Josie & Celeste)
Wednesday: Field Trip to Spina Farms Pumpkin Patch
Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Tanya & Elena)
Friday: Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Mary & Jackie), Story time with Grandma Gail

Upcoming Events:
Saturday 10/21: Alta Vista Walkathon
Through Wednesday, 10/25: Alta Vista Book Fair
Wednesday 10/25: Field trip to Spina Farms Pumpkin Patch
Tuesday 10/31: Halloween Parade & Party
Monday 11/6: Parent-Teacher Conferences begin
Thursday 11/9: No School: Staff Development Day
Friday 11/10: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday 11/17: Friendship Feast
Friday 12/22: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performances

Week of 10/16

Walkathon
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!

Another 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. Special kindergarten hours will be on Thursday the 19th and Tuesday the 24th, when the book fair will be open at 11:00. 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!

Language Arts
Our letters this week are Qq and Rr. Our sight word is a. Our story this week is Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds.

Our guided reading groups are meeting with a teacher for differentiated, small group instruction four days a week. During this time, children are working on phonics, reviewing sight words, and working on reading fluency & comprehension. There are five different reading groups and children work on different books and activities depending on their reading ability.

Math
We have two weeks left in our first module in Eureka math, and then we'll review a bit before we move onto our next module. We have been learning about numbers to 10, writing those numbers, and 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.

Upcoming
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. 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 (11/17).  Please let me know if you can help!

To give you an opportunity to plan ahead, this Friendship Feast will be on the 17th 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 Native Americans, and the children in K1 will be dressed as Pilgrims.  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:
The planning & organizing for our Halloween party on Tuesday the 31st is well underway. Thank you to Tanya, Camille, and Lynda for heading up this event 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 Monday, November 6th 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.**

This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Return Blue Bags (Ying), Daily 5, Centers (Camille & Lynda)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Anastasia & Lawrence)
Wednesday: Recess 101, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Elena & Surbhi)
Friday: Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Touria & Celeste), Story time with Grandma Gail

Upcoming Events:
Saturday 10/21: Alta Vista Walkathon
Wednesday 10/25: Field trip to Spina Farms Pumpkin Patch
Tuesday 10/31: Halloween Parade & Party
Monday 11/6: Parent-Teacher Conferences begin
Thursday 11/9: No School: Staff Development Day
Friday 11/10: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday 11/17: Friendship Feast
Friday 12/22: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performances

Week of 10/9

Conferences
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. I look forward to meeting with you all in November!

Field Trip
You should have all received a permission slip in last week's 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 to school as soon as possible, if you haven't already.

Walkathon
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.

Clay
We have our first clay project coming up this Wednesday the 11th. Alta Vista is one of the few schools in USD that have a clay program. Children get to do two clay projects per year and glaze those projects. On Wednesday, they will be making pinch pots. Thank you to Tanya, Surbhi, and Camille for helping with the clay program this year.

Cornerstone
We will also have our fist Cornerstone lesson this Wednesday. Project Cornerstone  is a program that helps develop respect and positive messages toward others. Thank you to Celeste & Lawrence for heading up this program.

Substitute
I will be out again this week for more language arts training. The students will have a substitute on Wednesday, so I will miss out on all the fun with Clay & Cornerstone.

Language Arts
This week's letters are Oo and Pp. Our new sight word is go. We have been incorporating these words in our writing and encouraging the children to begin writing a short sentence.  For example, now that we know I, see, my, like, and can, we can write a sentence that starts with "I see...."  or "I like..." 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, writing those numbers, and 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 are continuing our unit on Trees & Leaves this week by taking a closer look at leaves. Please go on a "leaf walk" around your neighborhood with your child and collect a small baggie of leaves.  On Monday, we will investigate and compare those leaves and sort them by their shape. We will also be comparing the different sizes of leaves this week. Last week, we had some fun with leaf rubbings.

Upcoming
Halloween: Just a reminder that we will be celebrating Halloween on Tuesday the 31st. I believe the school-wide parade is at 8:30 and our class party will follow at 9:00, but the timing of the school wide parade has not been confirmed.  Did I share with you that the kindergarten classes were the  top classes in 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.

**Please send in your child's Blue Bag on Monday, and your child's envelope if you haven't already. Please also make sure your child has a small baggie of leaves to share on Monday.

This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Return Blue Bags, Daily 5, Centers (Camille & Lauren)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Anastasia & Josie)
Wednesday: Clay, Recess 101, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Tanya & Pantea)
Friday: Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Jackie & Celeste), Story time with Grandma Gail

Upcoming Events:
Saturday 10/21: Alta Vista Walkathon
Wednesday 10/25: Field trip to Spina Farms Pumpkin Patch
Tuesday 10/31: Halloween Parade & Party
Monday 11/6: Parent-Teacher Conferences begin
Thursday 11/9: No School: Staff Development Day
Friday 11/10: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday 11/17: Friendship Feast
Friday 12/22: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performances

Week of 10/2

Field Trip
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.

Walkathon
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.

Walk to School Day
This Wednesday, October 4th, is National Walk to School Day Please try to participate and walk or scooter or ride a bike to school that day versus driving a car. We are trying to encourage healthier ways of getting to school which also reduce the traffic congestion around schools.

Art Vistas
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.

Center Time
Parent center helpers: I'd like to update the center start time to 10:00. I am finding that we are needing an extra ten minutes or so in the first block of time in the morning to work on our Daily 5 Literacy Program. If you can please plan on 10:00 to 11:15 or so, I think that is more realistic for our classroom schedule. Thanks in advance for your flexibility!

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." Our sight word this week is the. The sight words we've introduced so far are: I, see, my, like, and can. Please also continue reinforcing these words at home and listening to your child read the sight word sentences that come home weekly. These will now be in your child's Wednesday envelope each week.

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, Daily 5, Centers (Camille & Ying)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Anastasia & Celeste)
Wednesday: Walk to School Day, Art Vistas, Recess 101, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Tanya & Surbhi)
Friday: Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Mary & Daniela), Story time with Grandma Gail

Upcoming Events:
Saturday 10/21: Alta Vista Walkathon
Wednesday 10/25: Field trip to Spina Farms Pumpkin Patch
Tuesday 10/31: Halloween Parade & Party
Monday 11/6: Parent-Teacher Conferences begin
Thursday 11/9: No School: Staff Development Day
Friday 11/10: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday 11/17: Friendship Feast
Friday 12/22: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performances

Week of 9/25

Dear Parents,

We had another fun week in K2, culminating in the apple-themed STEAM Day on Friday. I will send out a video of the day-- thank you to Pauline, Ching, and Ousmane for their help with these centers.

This Wednesday is a district-wide "no homework night." 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! Even though our blue bags are not really "homework," we will hold off sending them home for one more day and you will receive them Thursday this week. Wednesday envelopes will go home as usual.

You should all have received your Grasshopper t-shirts on Wednesday in your child's blue bag. From now on, we will try and wear our Grasshopper shirts on Wednesdays for P.E. This is just a fun way to show team spirit, and is totally optional.

Language Arts:
We have been introducing the sight words (also called high-frequency words) for several weeks now. So far, we have introduced I, see, my, and like. This week, we will introduce can. 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 been sending home a list of sentences for your child to read to you that have the sight words. Please listen to your child read these sentences each week when they come home. 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.

We began running all five literacy centers in our "Daily 5" reading program this week. Children will now be meeting with a teacher daily for targeted reading lessons during this time, and will receive differentiated lessons depending on their ability as we continue with this program.

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.

Our stories this week will center around Johnny Appleseed (his birthday is Tuesday) and books about Trees.

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 are beginning our FOSS Science unit on trees. The children will be looking at different trees on the Alta Vista campus this week. They will also 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.

STEAM
In this week's STEAM centers, we will be doing some building with KEVA Planks. We will also further our coding skills with a program called Kodable.

Walkathon
I want to remind you again that the Walkathon is coming up quickly on Saturday, October 21st! The children will do a practice lap with me some time before the 21st.  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.

**Please remember your child's Blue Bag tomorrow.

Helpers & Activities This Week
Monday: Blue Bags returned (Ying), Daily 5, Centers (Camille & Chris H.)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Lawrence & Josie)
Wednesday: Recess 101, Wednesday Envelopes go home, Family Night
Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Tanya & Elena), Blue Bags go home
Friday: Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Lynda & Jackie)

Upcoming Events:
Saturday 10/21: Alta Vista Walkathon
Wednesday 10/25: Field trip to Spina Farms Pumpkin Patch
Tuesday 10/31: Halloween Parade & Party
Monday 11/6: Parent-Teacher Conferences begin
Thursday 11/9: No School: Staff Development Day
Friday 11/10: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday 11/17: Friendship Feast
Friday 12/22: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performances

Week of 9/18

We had a great first week of centers! 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, and I'm so excited to now have two helpers for every Friday STEAM center!

Remember to send in your child's Blue Bag on Monday, with the laminated reading sheet inside. Just leave that in there all year long. You will receive a new book again on Wednesday.

Safety Week
This week, we will be having different types of drills on three different days at Alta Vista. We will practice a fire drill, an earthquake drill, and a shelter in place drill.  I will explain them ahead of time to your children, but if you think your child might have any anxiety about this, please also talk to him/her ahead of time about this. The alarm bells are quite loud, but I tell the students that it's okay to cover their ears. It is obviously important for them to learn how to handle these types of drills so that we can stay safe in the event of an emergency.

Guided Reading Training
On Tuesday the 19th, I will be out of school for the day at a Guided Reading training. The students will have their first substitute teacher. The students are in good hands with an excellent sub, but I just wanted you to be aware of this and let your students know that I will be back again on Wednesday. I am very excited to be part of this training-- I attended the first week of it during the summer, and it is an excellent reading program that addresses the needs of all students.

Walkathon
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 21st, 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's letters are Ii and Jj, and our sight word is see. We will continue to read books about apples, both fiction and non-fiction.

We will also be adding the Guided Reading center to our "Daily 5" literacy centers this week. Children will begin meeting with the teachers to read and talk about a book while other students continue to work on literacy centers that we've been gradually introducing.

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 continue with our apple study this week, learning about the life cycle of an apple tree and doing a taste test of two different apple products (juice and sauce). The apple unit leads nicely into our next unit, a FOSS science unit on Trees & Leaves, which we will begin next 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 working with us on 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!

Please note below: we have added the dates for the Friendship Feast & the Nutcracker performance-- mark your calendars-- you won't want to miss out :)

Helpers & Activities This Week
Monday: Blue Bags returned (Jillian), Daily 5, Centers (Camille & Lauren)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Sarah B. & Josie)
Wednesday: Recess 101, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Tanya & Surbhi)
Friday: Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Touria, Ching, & Pauline)

Upcoming Events:
Saturday 10/21: Alta Vista Walkathon
Wednesday 10/25: Field trip to Spina Farms Pumpkin Patch
Tuesday 10/31: Halloween Parade & Party
Monday 11/6: Parent-Teacher Conferences begin
Thursday 11/9: No School: Staff Development Day
Friday 11/10: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday 11/17: Friendship Feast
Friday 12/22: Kindergarten Nutcracker Performances

Week of 9/11

Dear Parents,

We are excited to have parent helpers start in the classroom this week for centers! We will also send home our first blue bag on Wednesday. Blue bags go home on Wednesdays and are due back on Monday (in case you need the weekend to get in a few good readings of the book). However, the Wednesday envelope, which will now be inside the blue bag, is still due back (empty) on Thursdays, if possible. If you forget, it's ok to send it in on Friday or with the blue bag on Monday.

As a reminder to center helpers, centers run from about 9:50 to 11:00. Please come at 9:50 so that you can sign in & get a visitor's badge in the office. Then just come straight to the classroom-- enter on the playground side (it's unlocked) & 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."

This week is "Walk and Roll" week at Alta Vista, sponsored by a program called Safe Routes to School. The idea is to encourage families to try and walk, bike, scooter, or carpool to school, rather than everyone driving a single vehicle. All children will receive a red bracelet on Monday in class (since our class starts earlier than the rest of the school, no need to go by the table-- I already have the bracelets). Your child can wear the red bracelet all week to show support for safety at Alta Vista. There will also be a daily prize drawing for children who walk/bike/scooter to school, but again, since kindergarten starts earlier, you may not have time to make it to the raffle table. In lieu of the prizes, we will have a popsicle party for all students. Please try and participate if you can-- I'm sure you've noticed how crazy the traffic around the school can be in the mornings!

This week, we will begin a unit on apples. Our math, science, and language arts activities will all revolve around apples. I did not hear that anyone had an apple tree, but if you do happen to have access to apples (non-edible is fine) just send them in on Monday. We have purchased plenty of apples, so no need to make a special trip to the store.

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 both fiction and non-fiction books about apples. We will introduce our third sight word, my. You should have received your child's sentence sheet for the word like last Friday. Please have your child read those to you at home. We will also continue working on name writing. We really want to ensure that children are forming the letters in their names correctly, and using only one capital letter. The sooner they break any bad habits, the better. Any reinforcement you can provide at home with this is appreciated.

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

STEAM: (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Math)
We will have our first STEAM centers on Friday. Children will work with Keva Planks, design a marble run, use Osmo, and program 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.

AUTHOR VISIT: Pete the Cat author Eric Litwin will be visiting Alta Vista at 1:30 on Tuesday the 12th. If you own any Pete the Cat books, you know that he is a big favorite with kids! Although this is outside of our class time, morning kindergartners are invited back to school to come and see him. Please feel free to bring your kindergartner to the cafeteria on Tuesday at 1:30, but please stay with him or her if you plan on attending. I believe Champions will be bringing the students over to see him.

Helpers & Activities This Week
Monday: Daily 5, Centers (Camille & Celeste)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Sarah B. & Josie), Assembly with author Eric Litwin @ 1:30
Wednesday: Recess 101, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Tanya & Elena)
Friday: Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Mary), Alta Vista Movie Night 6:00 pm

Upcoming Events:
Friday 9/15: Alta Vista Movie Night @ 6:00 pm
Saturday 10/21: Alta Vista Walkathon
Wednesday 10/25: Field trip to Spina Farms Pumpkin Patch
Tuesday 10/31: Halloween Parade & Party
Monday 11/6: Parent-Teacher Conferences begin
Thursday 11/9: No School: Staff Development Day
Friday 11/10: No School: Veteran's Day

Week of 9/5

I hope you are having a wonderful long weekend. We will get right back into the swing of things on Tuesday, with another fun week ahead, including picture day on Friday.

Hopefully, you have all had a chance to tell me about any conflicts in the helper schedule. I have tweaked it a tiny bit to reflect some changes due to a few conflicts. You can find the updated version here. Let me know if I need to make any additional changes. 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. We are so excited to have the helpers all join us starting on the 11th!

Language Arts
In language arts, we continue introducing letters and letter sounds with letters Ee and Ff this week. We will have a great read-aloud this week called The Recess Queen, which is about bullying, and ultimately, making friendships and connections by being a good friend.

We also introduced our first sight word, I, last week. The children should have come home with a sheet of sentences using this sight word on Thursday. These sentence sheets will come home weekly, as we add more sight words. I would love for you to take time to listen to your children read through these sentences each week. As they master more and more sight words, they are very proud of all the reading they are doing, and it is great for them to share this with their families. This week's sight word is like. We will send home our "like" sentence sheet at the end of the week.

Math
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. You can find more information about this math topic here. 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.

Science
We are about to begin a whole unit on apples. We will be reading non-fiction apple books and having apple-themed STEAM centers in a few weeks. Does anyone have an apple tree who can bring in a bunch of apples for us to use during this unit? They do not have to be edible, as many of the projects just involve using the apples for crafts. Let me know if you have an apple tree and can share some apples with us!

P.E.
We had our first P.E. lesson with Coach Sierra last week, and the children all seemed to enjoy themselves. Our P.E. program is weekly on Wednesdays. Please send your children in shoes and clothes appropriate for fitness on Wednesdays.

I hope you continue to enjoy your weekend. Stay cool!

Upcoming Events:
Monday 9/4: Labor Day Holiday
Friday 9/15: Alta Vista Movie Night
Saturday 10/21: Alta Vista Walkathon
Wednesday 10/25: Field trip to Spina Farms Pumpkin Patch
Tuesday 10/31: Halloween Parade & Party
Monday 11/6: Parent-Teacher Conferences begin
Thursday 11/9: No School: Staff Development Day
Friday 11/10: No School: Veteran's Day

Week of 8/28

We had a great 2nd week of school & now have eight school days under our belts! The children are doing well with learning the routines and following the rules of kindergarten.

I am working on the parent helper schedule, and hope to have my first draft to you this weekend. I did want to remind you that if you signed up to help with a school wide enrichment program (Art Vistas, Clay, Cornerstone, Room Parent, etc.) that you need to make sure to sign up and indicate that on MSA (MySchoolAnywhere). Those programs all have informational meetings to get you started, and if you only signed up with me in the classroom, you won't receive information about those meetings. To sign up for MSA for the first time, click here: https://www.myschoolanywhere.com/new-family.a5w?fam=AltaVistaElem19550
If you already have an account and just need to sign up to volunteer, click here:  https://www.myschoolanywhere.com/volunteer-new.a5w?vol=AltaVistaElem19550
Thank you in advance for signing up! I believe I have all enrichment activities covered!

Language Arts
In language arts this year, we will be introducing two letters per week, wrapping up our isolated letter & sound study by November. This week, we will be covering letters Cc & Dd.  We will also continue reading familiar fairy tales and nursery rhymes. Additionally, we will introduce our first sight word, I.

This week, we will begin introducing more activities in our "Daily 5" reading program. All the kindergarten teachers attended a week-long training this summer in this program, and we are excited to begin implementing it. You can read a little summary of it here. Last week, we began working on "read to self." This week, we will introduce some word work.

Math
In math, we will continue studying numbers to 5.  We will have some hands-on activities in class as well as several educational YouTubes. More information on this math module can be found here.

Music & Movement
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 "red" song.  I also play the violin and break that out from time to time, mostly to play "Happy Birthday" for birthday celebrations. :)

Additionally, Union School District subscribes to a great educational movement online site called "Go Noodle." We have already used Go Noodle quite a bit for our classroom brain breaks.  Educational research has shown that when we take brain breaks, it refreshes our thinking and helps us discover another solution to the problem, or see a situation through a different lens. In K2, we love getting the children up and moving through music and other brain breaks.

We have this Friday the 1st off school, as well as Monday the 4th. For other important dates specific to kindergarten, please check the class calendar on my website by clicking here. I have added the dates of many of our big events in there for your future planning!

Upcoming Events:
Friday 9/1: Staff Development Day
Monday 9/4: Labor Day Holiday
Friday 9/15: Alta Vista Movie Night
Saturday 10/21: Alta Vista Walkathon
Wednesday 10/25: Field trip to Spina Farms Pumpkin Patch
Tuesday 10/31: Halloween Parade & Party

Week of 8/21

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 about showing respect and following rules, and we did a few fun art projects to go along with those books. Next week, we will begin formally introducing the letters Aa and Bb.

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

On Monday, we will be going outside in small groups with certified solar glasses to view the eclipse. Hopefully, you all received the letter from the school about this. In class, we will watch an informational video about the eclipse as well.

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 (Humpty Dumpty, Hey Diddle Diddle, Twinkle Little Star, etc). 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.

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 (no space). 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, as well as the Google form I had in the classroom at both the orientation and Back-to-School Night. The Google form can be found here . 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. 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. Even if you're only able to help once or twice, I highly recommend it! If you're schedule only allows you to help a few times in class, the best way is to probably serve as a "sub." Often, our regular helpers have conflicts or illnesses that come up and they need somebody to take their spot. They will email the class and if you are available, please sign up-- no prior experience is necessary! :)

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, September 1st or Monday the 4th.

I am looking forward to another fun week with your children!

Week of 8/15

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!
• 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 stories "Do Unto Otters" as well as "No David."  We will also be reading many familiar stories as well as nursery rhymes to create that sense of familiarity for your children.

I hope you are all coming to Back-to-School Night tonight, Tuesday, August 15th.   The schedule is as follows:

• 5:30-6:15 PM Class Presentation in K2
• 6:15-6:45 Home & School Club Presentation in the Cafeteria
• 6:45-7:30 AM 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 after that, please feel free to ask! I am very responsive over e-mail.

At the orientation, I provided you with the Union School District handbook, and the Home & School Club information. Tonight, you will be receiving more paperwork. Please look over both handbooks with your child (as appropriate).  Please return the final page of these booklets as soon as possible, as well as sign up for a My School Anywhere account to receive communications from the Home & School Club.

I am looking forward to an exciting year!

Summer 2017

We are all looking forward to meeting our new kindergartners on Tuesday the 15th!

Kindergarten Orientation is Tuesday, August 15th, from 10:00 to 10:30 (a.m.) and 10:45 to 11:15 (p.m.). Class lists for each session will be posted 15 minutes before the orientation.

Supplies that we usually ask for in kindergarten include glue sticks, tissues, white board markers, baby wipes, and hand sanitizer. These are not mandatory, but just appreciated donations. Check Back-to-School sales for these items-- we appreciate it!!

School begins on Wednesday, August 16, 2017-- 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.

Kindergarten Back-to-School Night, a meeting for parents only, is Tuesday, August 15th at 5:30 p.m.: This is an important informational night where the teachers will go over the curriculum and program for the year and answer any questions you may have. Please plan accordingly and book those babysitters! The schedule is:
5:30-6:15: p.m. class presentation in rooms K1 & K2
6:15:6:45: Home & School Club presentation in the cafeteria
6:45-7:30: a.m. class presentation in rooms K1 & K2

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" or starfall.com 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: "Splash Bash" End of year party: Many snacks (crackers & fruit) will be served, no need to pack a snack for your child on this day. Children will play in the sprinklers, a small wading pool, a water table, and other outside fun. We will also be visited by Kona Ice, the shave-ice truck (paid for by your party fund!) Please send your child with a bathing suit underneath (girls might want to wear a two-piece for ease of bathroom use/boys can wear swim trunks as shorts) a towel, and flip flops/water shoes/crocs, etc. for walking around on the blacktop. If they are going to day care afterward, please send a change of clothes. Please put sunblock on before school. Weather forecast is showing a pleasant day for Tuesday!

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 9:50 and goes on until dismissal.  We will have an early snack time, so please send snacks and backpacks on this day. I have several helpers to walk around with us-- thank you! If you are still interested in helping, here is the link to the school-wide sign-ups: www.SignUpGenius.com/go/30E084CAFAE29A64-alta3  Children who ordered yearbooks will also be receiving them at the end of the day.

THURSDAY:  Promotion Ceremony in K2.  **PLEASE NOTE THE TIME IS NOW 8:45. 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:

• 8:45 to about 9:15: Children perform songs we've learned throughout the year, followed by presentation of memory binders
• 9:15 to 9:50: Video review of our year. If you need to leave after the 8:45 presentation, this would be a good time to leave, as I will be sharing out the video presentation.
• 9:50-10:15 or so: 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 yearbook signing time for the remainder of the day.

A final note about the Promotion Ceremony: Because this event will be in the classroom, space is extremely limited. I really like to keep this event to parents and younger siblings only-- if two parents come and a handful of younger siblings, that's already around 60 people in our classroom. Unfortunately, we simply don't have the space for many more people than that. Thank you for your understanding. Per school policy, older siblings are not to be taken out of class for this event.

FRIDAY: All children in kindergarten on an early schedule (8:05-11:25), so we will have 39 children in the room! Children will clean the classroom, sign yearbooks, and have some last day fun with Mrs. Beadle (Mrs. Barbara is attending her son's 5th grade promotion) and myself. Please send a snack on this day if you think your child will get hungry.

Happy Summer!!!