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