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
Saturday, August 26, 2017
Saturday, August 19, 2017
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!
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!
Tuesday, August 15, 2017
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:
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!
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
- 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.
- 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
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!