Week of 5/30

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 9 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 continue to pick ANY share topic-- toy in a bag; book share; song, poem, or nursery rhyme; or homemade item. It is also our last week with Coach Sierra.

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: American Day
WEDNESDAY: Wacky Wednesday
THURSDAY: Color Day (Kindergarten wears red)
FRIDAY: Hawaiian Day

On Thursday the 1st, 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. Thank you again to Susan, Minna, and Eden for getting the art ready for display.

We have our class party coming up on Tuesday the 6th. 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 Susan 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.

Our last big event (parental attendance strongly encouraged) together is next Thursday the 8th at 8:45 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 7th, 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! Right now, I just have one helper. One more would be ideal. 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 Friday 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.

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

Upcoming Events:

Mon. 5/29: Memorial Day Holiday
Thurs. 6/1: Art Vista Art Show @ 5:30
Tues. 6/6: End of Year Party: "Splash Bash"
Weds. 6/7: School-wide Olympic Day
Thurs. 6/8: Promotion Ceremony @ 8:45 a.m.
Fri. 6/9: Last Day of School, all kindergartners attend from 8:05 to 11:25

Week of 5/22

Dear Parents,

We are heading into the final stretch here with many year-end events, so keep your calendars updated! The most important event this week is Open House, which is on Wednesday, May 24th. It starts at 6:30 in the cafeteria with a Home & School Club meeting. Classrooms are open between 7:00 & 8:00. Please bring your entire family to come into the classroom, letting your student be your guide. The kids will be showing off many projects we have been working on, and they are very excited to share all of it with you!

Language Arts
We will be covering the ea and ink sounds this week. Children will be reading and spelling words like read, seal, meal, drink, think, sink, etc.  Our sight word this week is down. We are introducing some sight words that were not on our list because the students have done well at mastering the original 40 words. We continue to do a lot of writing in class and will be doing two pieces for our memory books this week. We will also be writing an opinion piece for our final writing assessment this week.

"Virtual homework" starts this week as the blue bag program is done.  Please take about 15-20 minutes a day to have your child do either Lexia, ixl.com, or raz-kids. If you are not sure how to log into these sites, please email me.

For our final two weeks of sharing, we are letting the students choose their theme. They can do toy in a bag, a book, a homemade item, or a song, poem or nursery rhyme. We hope everyone will bring something for the final two weeks of sharing!

Math
We are continuing with Module 5, Numbers 10-20. This unit covers number names and counting to 100, as well as foundations for place value. Parent tips for this unit can be found here. I have also been and will continue to be administering the final round of assessments to evaluate your children for the 3rd trimester report cards. Those report cards will come home with your children on the last day of school.

Science
We are continuing our unit on the life cycle of a butterfly. The caterpillars all went into chrysalids last week, so we are awaiting their emergence as butterflies!

Upcoming Events

Next week, on Thursday the 1st, 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 water play day/class party coming up on Tuesday the 6th. We will have a pizza lunch and some fun in the sun!  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 sunblock before their arrival. Children who are going to daycare after class should have a change of clothes and shoes.

Wednesday the 7th, we have a school-wide Olympic Day. It starts at 10:00, and I could use a few parent helpers to walk around with us & help organize the kids. Please email me if you can help with that event.

Our last big event together is Thursday the 8th for our Promotion Day celebration. This event is at 9:00. Please plan on joining us as we have a small presentation and will look back on our wonderful year together! This should wrap up before class is out, 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. We are trying to keep this event to immediate family (parents) only due to space limitations, as it is in our classroom. Also, school-aged siblings are not to be pulled out of class to attend. Thank you for your understanding.

There are no events on Friday 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.

Please send in your child's blue bag on Monday for the final time! Thank you for doing such a great job throughout the year with returning the bags on time.

This Week's Helpers & Activities:

Monday: Return Blue Bags (Ting), Sharing
Tuesday: Sharing
Wednesday: Sharing, Recess 101 with Coach Sierra, Open House @ 7:00
Thursday: Incoming K Roundup (all K teachers will not be in class), Sharing
Friday: Last Story Time w/ Grandma Gail (small party), Sharing

Upcoming Events:

Weds. 5/24: Open House 7:00-8:00
Mon. 5/29: Memorial Day Holiday
Thurs. 6/1: Art Vista Art Show @ 5:30
Tues. 6/6: End of Year Party: "Splash Bash"
Weds. 6/7: School-wide Olympic Day
Thurs. 6/8: Promotion Ceremony @ 9:00 a.m.
Fri. 6/9: Last Day of School, all kindergartners attend from 8:05 to 11:25

Week of 5/15

Dear Parents,

Thank you to all the moms for joining us on Friday. It was great to see you all and celebrate. Please let me know if you weren't able to open the video. Happy Mother's Day today!

Thank you also to all of you who came out for the Fantasy Faire. It looked like a great time was had by all at their first Faire as AV students. Thanks to all those who helped with our class booth. Congratulations again to Rez & Safa for their cake decorating wins!

This is our last week of centers.  I'd like to thank all of the volunteers for their commitment to coming in weekly to help us in the classroom.  This was an amazing year for classroom help-- whenever somebody was unable to come in, someone else stepped right up as a sub.  That small-group instruction time is so important, and without all of the helpers, it would not have been possible. Thank you, thank you!

Language Arts
We will introduce another sight word, where. The link to the first grade list of words for those who want to get a jump-start on those, can be found here.We will also introduce the y ending sound that sounds like long e. Our other sound this week is called a trigraph-- three letters together than make one sound-- and it is igh. We will be writing an informational text this week on butterflies. Children will write all they have learned about the life cycle of a butterfly, which will be on display at Open House on the 24th.

The sharing this week will be toy in a bag. Please have your child write three clues about a hidden toy so that the class can try and guess what the toy is.

Math
We are continuing with Module 5, Numbers 10-20. This unit covers number names and counting to 100, as well as foundations for place value. Parent tips for this unit can be found here. I have also been and will continue to be administering the final round of assessments to evaluate your children for the 3rd trimester report cards. Those report cards will come home with your children on the last day of school.

Science
We are continuing our unit on the life cycle of a butterfly. Caterpillars arrived in our class last week, and we will watch the metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly.

Upcoming Events
For your future planning-- please review all dates in the "Upcoming Events" section below. Critical dates (where I'd really like a parent to try to come) are: Open House (May 24th @ 7:00), and the Promotion Ceremony (June 8th @ 9:00). The Promotion Ceremony is our big last "hurrah" together, where we look back on our year & celebrate the children. Also, please be aware that the last day of school, Friday the 9th, all K classes are on a morning schedule (8:05-11:25)-- there are no celebrations or parties as we will have 41 kids in the classroom and don't have room for any extra bodies!  

Please send in your Blue Bags tomorrow.  This Wednesday, we will send home the final blue bag!   Please use the extra time in the remaining weeks to do "virtual homework assignments."  I would like to see the children spending at least 15 minutes a day on either Lexia, ixl.com , or raz-kids for the next few weeks. I would also encourage using the extra time to read, read, read!

This Week's Helpers & Activities:

Monday: Return Blue Bags (Ting), Centers (Annie & Marylu), Sharing
Tuesday: Centers (Claire K. & Minna), Sharing
Wednesday: Recess 101 with Coach Sierra, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Centers (Susan & Chris), Sharing
Friday: STEAM Centers (Gus), Story time with Grandma Gail, Sharing

Upcoming Events:

Weds. 5/24: Open House 7:00-8:00
Mon. 5/29: Memorial Day Holiday
Tues. 6/6: End of Year Party: "Splash Bash"
Weds. 6/7: School-wide Olympic Day
Thurs. 6/8: Promotion Ceremony @ 9:00 a.m.
Fri. 6/9: Last Day of School, all kindergartners attend from 8:05 to 11:25

Week of 5/8

Dear Parents,

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for the wonderful Teacher Appreciation Week.  From the beautiful flowers, all the delicious fruits, the AMAZING cake, to the touching notes-- thank you so much for your thoughtfulness and for entrusting me with your wonderful children. I also wanted to thank so many of you for attending our Cinco de Mayo dance on Friday. It was short but sweet-- thanks for taking time out of your day to attend. A very special thanks to Anna R. for bringing the decorations and making the beautiful headbands that the girls wore.

Onto the next event...I hope to see all the moms at our Mother's Day celebration this Friday the 12th. We are looking forward to celebrating with all the moms or other "representatives" at 10:00. We have a short presentation of a mini-play and a few songs, and then you can enjoy some treats with your child. This is an event the kindergartners always look forward to sharing with their moms/someone special, so please try to have someone come. Let me know if there are any problems. Thank you!

This Friday is also the Alta Vista Fantasy Faire, and you won't want to miss it! This is a very fun school-wide carnival with game booths and bouncy houses, a cake walk, food, face painting, and a balloon twister. The Faire is from 5:00 to 8:30. Be sure to stop by for some fun! On another Fantasy Faire note, if your child enjoys baking, I encourage you to participate in the cake decorating contest. Bring your cakes or cupcakes to school on Friday morning before 8:15 for the contest. It is really fun to see the cakes and participate in this!

We are busily preparing for Open House, on the night of May 24th.  We will have much on display in our room that night, and the kids are very excited to show off their work. Please plan on attending with your child!  There is a Home & School club meeting that evening in the cafeteria at 6:30, followed by the classrooms being open between 7:00 and 8:00.  Stop by any time during that hour to have your child show off all of his/her projects to you!

Language Arts
We will be studying the word endings im and id this week. We will be reading and spelling words such as him, rim, dim, hid, bid, did, etc. Our new sight words is this. I have begun testing children on their sight word recognition and I am very pleased with everyone's progress. Thank you for your help with reinforcing those!

The sharing this week will be book sharing. Children should bring a book they like and be prepared to tell the title, a bit about what it's about, and have a favorite page bookmarked.

Our stories for the next few weeks will center around butterflies as we begin our unit on caterpillars and butterflies. This week, we will focus on The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and begin making our own version of this book in class, which will be on display at Open House.

Math
We are continuing with Module 5, Numbers 10-20. This unit covers number names and counting to 100, as well as foundations for place value. Parent tips for this unit can be found here.

Science
We are beginning our unit on the life cycle of a butterfly. We will have some real caterpillars arrive in class later this week, and we will watch the metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly.

Upcoming Events
One final reminder to order your child's yearbook if you are interested. The kids usually love having a yearbook, and on the last few days of school, we have time to let them go around and sign each other's books. If you are interested, you must order by May 8th by going to this link.

For your future planning-- please review all dates in the "Upcoming Events" section below. Critical dates (where I'd really like a parent to try to come) are: Mother's Day (Friday the 12th @ 10:00), Open House (May 24th @ 7:00), and the Promotion Ceremony (June 8th @ 9:00). The Promotion Ceremony is our big last "hurrah" together, where we look back on our year & celebrate the children. Also, please be aware that the last day of school, Friday the 9th, all K classes are on a morning schedule (8:05-11:25)-- there are no celebrations or parties as we will have 41 kids in the classroom and don't have room for any extra bodies!  

Please return your blue bags tomorrow-- this is our second to last week of homework!! We also have our last Cornerstone lesson this Thursday-- thank you to Claire K. & Alison for providing great lessons throughout the year.

This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Return Blue Bags (Hosun), Centers (Annie & Anna R.), Sharing
Tuesday: Centers (Belinda & Anne-Marie), Sharing
Wednesday: Recess 101 with Coach Sierra, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Centers (Claire K. & Alison), Cornerstone, Sharing
Friday: Mother's Day Celebration, Story time with Grandma Gail, Sharing

Upcoming Events:

Friday 5/12: Mother's Day Celebration @ 10:00
Friday 5/12: Alta Vista Fantasy Faire 5:00-8:30
Weds. 5/24: Open House 7:00-8:00
Mon. 5/29: Memorial Day Holiday
Tues. 6/6: End of Year Party: "Splash Bash"
Weds. 6/7: School-wide Olympic Day
Thurs. 6/8: Promotion Ceremony @ 9:00 a.m.
Fri. 6/9: Last Day of School, all kindergartners attend from 8:05 to 11:25

Week of 5/1

Dear Parents,

We had a great week of creativity last week, starting with a two-part Strawbee lesson with Ms. Puliese on Tuesday & Thursday. Children were challenged to build a cube, then build a larger cube, then build a third cube that the team could fit inside. A few groups did make it through all three challenges! We ended the week with building box structures out of all the donated boxes (thank you!) The children got very creative with these structures-- we had the Titanic, several dog houses, a robot, an airplane, and a castle. Finally, we headed over to the cafeteria to paint life-sized paper dolls. These dolls will be on display in our classroom at Open House on the evening of May 24th. I hope you can attend with your child to see the paper dolls, and many other projects that we will be working on in the upcoming weeks.

We are now getting to that time in the school year where there are several events each week, so please keep your calendar updated & come and enjoy all the school has to offer!  This week, we have our Cinco de Mayo celebration on Friday at 11:15. All kindergarten classes will dance to three different songs for you on the kindergarten yard. Next Friday, we have our Mother's Day celebration at 10:00 in the classroom. Next Friday the 12th is also another great school-wide event, the Fantasy Faire.  This is a super fun school-wide carnival that your child will not want to miss.  I also really encourage you to participate in the cake-making competition that morning (cakes must be submitted by 8:15).  It is really fun to be a part of, and the cakes are so amazing!  Don't be intimidated-- this is definitely a child-friendly competition :) Finally, the Fantasy Fair will need a lot of help, starting with our class booth. You will be hearing more about that this week, but please sign up for a shift to run our carnival booth when you get the link. Thank you to Anna R. for coordinating.

Language Arts
We will be studying the word endings aw and ou this week. We will be reading and spelling words such as paw, saw, crawl, out, shout, our, etc. Our new sight words is they. It is important that you continue working with your children on sight word recognition and fluency, as the children are being asked to used these in the writing that we are doing on a daily basis.  Most importantly, these words are very commonly found in the books and stories that they are reading, so it will help them with their reading fluency and accuracy.

The sharing this week will be Homemade Item. Children can bring in any craft, project, or creation that they've made and they should be prepared to talk about how they made it.

Math
We are continuing with Module 5, Numbers 10-20. This unit will cover number names and counting to 100, as well as foundations for place value. Parent tips for this unit can be found here.

Science
We have ended our unit on Wood & Paper. We are now beginning our unit on the life cycle of a butterfly. We will have some real caterpillars arrive in class next week, and we will watch the metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly. This is a very exciting unit for the children.

Upcoming Events
One final reminder to order your child's yearbook if you are interested. The kids usually love having a yearbook, and on the last few days of school, we have time to let them go around and sign each other's books. If you are interested, you must order by May 5th by going to this link.

For your future planning-- please review all dates in the "Upcoming Events" section below. Critical dates (where I'd really like a parent to try to come) are: Mother's Day (Friday the 12th @ 10:00), Open House (May 24th), and the Promotion Ceremony (June 8th @ 9:00). The Promotion Ceremony is our big last "hurrah" together, where we look back on our year & celebrate the children. Also, please be aware that the last day of school, Friday the 9th, all K classes are on a morning schedule (8:05-11:25)-- there are no celebrations or parties as we will have 41 kids in the classroom and don't have room for any extra bodies!  

This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Return Blue Bags (Asma), Centers (Annie & Anna R.), Sharing
Tuesday: Centers (Claire K. & Chris), Sharing
Wednesday: Recess 101 with Coach Sierra, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Centers (Susan & Alison), Sharing
Friday: STEAM Centers (Ms. Pugliese), Story time with Grandma Gail, Sharing

Upcoming Events:

Friday 5/5: Cinco de Mayo Dance @ 11:15
Friday 5/12: Mother's Day Celebration @ 10:00
Friday 5/12: Alta Vista Fantasy Faire 5:00-8:30
Weds. 5/24: Open House
Mon. 5/29: Memorial Day Holiday
Tues. 6/6: End of Year Party: "Splash Bash"
Weds. 6/7: School-wide Olympic Day
Thurs. 6/8: Promotion Ceremony-- please attend!
Fri. 6/9: Last Day of School, all kindergartners attend from 8:05 to 11:25