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 blue bags OR white envelopes this Wednesday.
For the Nutcracker
performance, we have Hiromi, Mary, Karla, and Brandie helping with make-up and costuming. If costume parents could
please come at around 12:30 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 a block of four front-row seats for the
Nutcracker. 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 Tuesday. Good
luck!
Language Arts:
We will continue to focus on Gingerbread Man stories. We will also read some holiday books. Our sight word is come. Our word family will be am.
Math:
We are continuing with Module 3 in Eureka Math: Comparison of Weight, Length, Capacity, and Numbers to 10. Parent tips for this unit can
be found here.
Center Help
Thank you for such wonderful parent support in centers for all of 2018. There are just 8 spots left for those who are interested in joining us for centers in early 2019. Please see the Sign-Up Genius to sign up.
This Week's Special Events
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 two weeks ago. Children should come to school dressed in
these items on Thursday. Girls who are wearing leotards 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 several 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. I will send them home with children who want to borrow one on Monday. Please send me a reminder to let me know you'd like to borrow one-- I've had several people ask and I'm afraid I've lost track.
Please
arrive promptly in the cafeteria for the Nutcracker, as we intend to
start the show right at 1:45. 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. It is no fun to watch a performance with a raised camera in front of you blocking your view-- I've had this happen to me at several performances, and I ask that you refrain from this behavior. If you want to take pictures, please go to the back row. Also
remember that school-aged siblings are not to be pulled out of class to watch the performance. Thank you!
On another photography note, I will have my son (17) at the performance recording a video of it on an iPad. He & I will also be taking photographs of the children in their costumes both before & after the performance. You will have access to these photos & the video, so that you can spend your time on Thursday enjoying the performance.
Remember to bring your blue bags tomorrow.
Starting in January, a journal page will be added to the folder inside so
that your children can write a response to the book in the bag each
week. No blue bags this Wednesday due to the upcoming holiday.
Upcoming
When
we return from Winter Break on January 7th, 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. We will be doing some hands-on projects and having time to play to ease our way back into school.
Happy Holidays and enjoy your break!
This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Blue Bags returned (Hiromi), Nutcracker practice on stage, no centers
Tuesday: Nutcracker practice on stage, no centers
Wednesday: Recess 101, Nutcracker practice, no Blue Bags/White envelopes
Thursday: Nutcracker performance at 1:45, come to school in clothes for your part (above), cast party after performance.
Friday: No School
Upcoming Events
Thursday 12/20: Nutcracker Performance @ 1:45
12/21-01/04: Winter Break
Monday 01/07: School Resumes: Smart Start Day
Friday 01/18: Professional Development Day: No School
Monday 01/21: Martin Luther King Day, No School
Thursday 01/31: 100 Day
02/18-02/22: President's Week Vacation
Sunday, December 16, 2018
Saturday, December 8, 2018
Week of 12/10
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 will continue to bring back these activities throughout the year, as
Computer Science Education is critical to developing logical thinking
and problem solving. This week, we will do more creating & problem solving in the MakerSpace by building with the Rigamajig.
This is the last week for parent helpers in 2018! Thank you for making centers run so smoothly and volunteering your time in our classroom. The Sign-Up Genius for early 2019 is filling up fast! There are still about 10 spots left for those who are interested in joining us for centers. Please see the Sign-Up Genius (link in email) to sign up.
Language Arts
This week, we will be 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. Other stories we will be reading include The Ninjabread Man, Gingerbread Baby, Gingerbread Man Loose in the School and many more. We will follow up with several 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 words for the week are look and up, and our word families will be ap and ad.
In this week's Wednesday envelope, I will be sending home information on how to log onto two online reading programs, Kids A-Z and Lexia. These programs are paid for by the district and are great tools to work on various reading skills. They are both available as either an iPad app or via a website. It is important to have your child work independently on these programs, especially Lexia. Lexia adjusts the skills it presents depending on your child's needs. For example, if your child is struggling with medial sounds but has mastered beginning sounds, Lexia will stop presenting beginning sounds and focus on the medial ones. If your child receives too much help, Lexia may stop presenting a skill that your child actually needs to continue working on. Since we use Lexia in class, it is important that children can work independently on this program. Having access to both Lexia and Kids A-Z will be useful over the holidays when your child needs something to do :)
Math
We are continuing with Module 3 in Eureka Math: Comparison of Weight, Length, Capacity, and Numbers to 10. We will be looking at weight this week, as well as comparing numbers using <, >, =. Parent tips for this unit can be found here.
Be Seen & Heard Assemblies
On Thursday, December 13th, Alta Vista will host a series of Be Seen and Heard© assemblies. They are presented in the interest of student safety and will address the dangers of child sexual abuse, the differences between a safe and unsafe touch and a safe and unsafe secret, the importance of voice, and identifying trusted adults. The topics are scaled to be appropriate for each grade level. If you do not want your child to participate, please turn in the opt-out form in the office.
**Please return your child's Blue Bag on Monday. The last Blue Bag for 2018 will go home this Wednesday.
This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Return Blue Bags (Yvonne), Daily 5, Centers (Elena & Nisha)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Sarah & Hiromi)
Wednesday: PE with Coach Sierra, Trip to the MakerSpace, Blue Bags Go Home
Thursday: Daily 5, Be Seen & Heard Assembly (Centers canceled)
Friday: Story time with Grandma Gail, Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Claire & Steve S.)
Upcoming Events
Thursday 12/13: Be Seen & Heard Assembly
Thursday 12/20: Nutcracker Performance @ 1:45
12/21-01/04: Winter Break
Monday 01/07: School Resumes
Friday 01/18: Professional Development Day: No School
Monday 01/21: Martin Luther King Day, No School
Thursday 01/31: 100 Day
02/18-02/22: President's Week Vacation
This is the last week for parent helpers in 2018! Thank you for making centers run so smoothly and volunteering your time in our classroom. The Sign-Up Genius for early 2019 is filling up fast! There are still about 10 spots left for those who are interested in joining us for centers. Please see the Sign-Up Genius (link in email) to sign up.
Language Arts
This week, we will be 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. Other stories we will be reading include The Ninjabread Man, Gingerbread Baby, Gingerbread Man Loose in the School and many more. We will follow up with several 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 words for the week are look and up, and our word families will be ap and ad.
In this week's Wednesday envelope, I will be sending home information on how to log onto two online reading programs, Kids A-Z and Lexia. These programs are paid for by the district and are great tools to work on various reading skills. They are both available as either an iPad app or via a website. It is important to have your child work independently on these programs, especially Lexia. Lexia adjusts the skills it presents depending on your child's needs. For example, if your child is struggling with medial sounds but has mastered beginning sounds, Lexia will stop presenting beginning sounds and focus on the medial ones. If your child receives too much help, Lexia may stop presenting a skill that your child actually needs to continue working on. Since we use Lexia in class, it is important that children can work independently on this program. Having access to both Lexia and Kids A-Z will be useful over the holidays when your child needs something to do :)
Math
We are continuing with Module 3 in Eureka Math: Comparison of Weight, Length, Capacity, and Numbers to 10. We will be looking at weight this week, as well as comparing numbers using <, >, =. 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 20th at 1:45!Be Seen & Heard Assemblies
On Thursday, December 13th, Alta Vista will host a series of Be Seen and Heard© assemblies. They are presented in the interest of student safety and will address the dangers of child sexual abuse, the differences between a safe and unsafe touch and a safe and unsafe secret, the importance of voice, and identifying trusted adults. The topics are scaled to be appropriate for each grade level. If you do not want your child to participate, please turn in the opt-out form in the office.
**Please return your child's Blue Bag on Monday. The last Blue Bag for 2018 will go home this Wednesday.
This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Return Blue Bags (Yvonne), Daily 5, Centers (Elena & Nisha)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Sarah & Hiromi)
Wednesday: PE with Coach Sierra, Trip to the MakerSpace, Blue Bags Go Home
Thursday: Daily 5, Be Seen & Heard Assembly (Centers canceled)
Friday: Story time with Grandma Gail, Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Claire & Steve S.)
Upcoming Events
Thursday 12/13: Be Seen & Heard Assembly
Thursday 12/20: Nutcracker Performance @ 1:45
12/21-01/04: Winter Break
Monday 01/07: School Resumes
Friday 01/18: Professional Development Day: No School
Monday 01/21: Martin Luther King Day, No School
Thursday 01/31: 100 Day
02/18-02/22: President's Week Vacation
Saturday, December 1, 2018
Week of 12/3
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 1:45 on the 20th. 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 12:30 and call children back one-by-one to get them ready for the stage. Please email me if you can help with this!
Thank you for diligently signing up for the helper spots for the beginning of 2019. There are still 20 spots left for those who are interested in joining us for centers. Please see the Sign-Up Genius (link in email) to sign up.
Language Arts
Our sight word this week is you. We will be finishing up our unit on owls by having the children write what they've learned about owls. Children will work with me in the writing center to write a sentence or more of owl facts. This will be our first attempt at informational text. Though it may look something like "An owl is noktrnl." (translation: An owl is nocturnal.) that is the expectation right now. Sight words are spelled correctly, but other words are spelled phonetically. Thank you for encouraging your budding writers in the writing process by not over-emphasizing spelling at this time.
Math
We are finishing with 2D & 3D shapes this week and will begin Module 3: Comparison of Weight, Length, Capacity, and Numbers to 10. We will be looking at length this week. Children will be measuring the height & width of things around the classroom as well as comparing the length of different strips of paper. 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 coding using apps such as Kodable and last week, they did an amazing job with CodeSpark. This week we will be writing code for our Bee Bot, and using the Osmos again to do Osmo Coding Jam. We will also do some "off the grid" programming using a game called "Hopscotch Coding." We are excited to be a part of this global movement!
We have an Art Vista lesson on Wednesday. Please contact Kassie if you can help with this.
**Please remember to send in your child's Blue Bag on Monday.
This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Return Blue Bags (Hiromi), Daily 5, Centers (Jenny & Elena)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Sarah & Kassie)
Wednesday: Art Vistas (Kassie & ???), PE with Coach Justin, Blue Bags Go Home
Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Ellen & Belinda)
Friday: Story time with Grandma Gail, Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Chris H. & Mary)
Upcoming Events:
12/3-12/7: Hour of Code/Computer Science Week
Thursday 12/13: Be Seen & Heard Assembly
Thursday 12/20: Nutcracker Performance @ 1:45
12/21-01/04: Winter Break
Monday 01/07: School Resumes
Friday 01/18: Professional Development Day: No School
Monday 01/21: Martin Luther King Day, No School
Thursday 01/31: 100 Day
02/18-02/22: President's Week Vacation
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 12:30 and call children back one-by-one to get them ready for the stage. Please email me if you can help with this!
Thank you for diligently signing up for the helper spots for the beginning of 2019. There are still 20 spots left for those who are interested in joining us for centers. Please see the Sign-Up Genius (link in email) to sign up.
Language Arts
Our sight word this week is you. We will be finishing up our unit on owls by having the children write what they've learned about owls. Children will work with me in the writing center to write a sentence or more of owl facts. This will be our first attempt at informational text. Though it may look something like "An owl is noktrnl." (translation: An owl is nocturnal.) that is the expectation right now. Sight words are spelled correctly, but other words are spelled phonetically. Thank you for encouraging your budding writers in the writing process by not over-emphasizing spelling at this time.
Math
We are finishing with 2D & 3D shapes this week and will begin Module 3: Comparison of Weight, Length, Capacity, and Numbers to 10. We will be looking at length this week. Children will be measuring the height & width of things around the classroom as well as comparing the length of different strips of paper. Parent tips for this unit can be found here.
This week, our class will participate in an exciting movement called Hour of Code. Students have become very proficient at coding using apps such as Kodable and last week, they did an amazing job with CodeSpark. This week we will be writing code for our Bee Bot, and using the Osmos again to do Osmo Coding Jam. We will also do some "off the grid" programming using a game called "Hopscotch Coding." We are excited to be a part of this global movement!
We have an Art Vista lesson on Wednesday. Please contact Kassie if you can help with this.
**Please remember to send in your child's Blue Bag on Monday.
This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Return Blue Bags (Hiromi), Daily 5, Centers (Jenny & Elena)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Sarah & Kassie)
Wednesday: Art Vistas (Kassie & ???), PE with Coach Justin, Blue Bags Go Home
Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Ellen & Belinda)
Friday: Story time with Grandma Gail, Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Chris H. & Mary)
Upcoming Events:
12/3-12/7: Hour of Code/Computer Science Week
Thursday 12/13: Be Seen & Heard Assembly
Thursday 12/20: Nutcracker Performance @ 1:45
12/21-01/04: Winter Break
Monday 01/07: School Resumes
Friday 01/18: Professional Development Day: No School
Monday 01/21: Martin Luther King Day, No School
Thursday 01/31: 100 Day
02/18-02/22: President's Week Vacation
Saturday, November 24, 2018
Week of 11/26
Dear Parents,
I hope you all enjoyed 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 20th, as well as continue with all the academics & exciting literature!
Language Arts
We have now 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 review at home using the letters & sounds songs we used in class, which can be found here. 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 words this week are no and am. At the side of this webpage, there is a tab for "High Frequency Words." Those have now been updated, with asterisks added to all words we've introduced. It would be good to check in on this list with your child to see if s/he recognizes all the starred words.
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 17th. Please check the helper schedule. In the upcoming week, I will send out a link to Sign-Up Genius to create the helper schedule. Going forward in 2019, you can select the best days for you to help by using this link. I will continue to add reminders about who is helping each week to the bottom of the email.
Math
We are continuing 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, and we are looking forward to Hour of Code next week. In preparation, we will be using a new coding program in the Makerspace this week called CodeSpark. On Friday, we will use a center that we purchased 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
Please be setting aside time out of your busy holiday schedules to join us for our presentation of The Nutcracker on December 20th at 1:45 p.m.!
This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Daily 5, Centers (Nisha & Jenny)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Hiromi & Yvonne)
Wednesday: Recess 101, CodeSpark in the Makerspace, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Brandie & Belinda)
Friday: Story time with Grandma Gail, Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Claire & Pablo)
Upcoming Events:
12/3-12/7: Hour of Code/Computer Science Week
Thursday 12/20: Nutcracker Performance @ 1:45
12/21-01/04: Winter Break
Monday 01/07: School Resumes
Friday 01/18: Professional Development Day: No School
Monday 01/21: Martin Luther King Day, No School
Thursday 01/31: 100 Day
02/18-02/22: President's Week Vacation
I hope you all enjoyed 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 20th, as well as continue with all the academics & exciting literature!
Language Arts
We have now 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 review at home using the letters & sounds songs we used in class, which can be found here. 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 words this week are no and am. At the side of this webpage, there is a tab for "High Frequency Words." Those have now been updated, with asterisks added to all words we've introduced. It would be good to check in on this list with your child to see if s/he recognizes all the starred words.
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 17th. Please check the helper schedule. In the upcoming week, I will send out a link to Sign-Up Genius to create the helper schedule. Going forward in 2019, you can select the best days for you to help by using this link. I will continue to add reminders about who is helping each week to the bottom of the email.
Math
We are continuing 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, and we are looking forward to Hour of Code next week. In preparation, we will be using a new coding program in the Makerspace this week called CodeSpark. On Friday, we will use a center that we purchased 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
Please be setting aside time out of your busy holiday schedules to join us for our presentation of The Nutcracker on December 20th at 1:45 p.m.!
This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Daily 5, Centers (Nisha & Jenny)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Hiromi & Yvonne)
Wednesday: Recess 101, CodeSpark in the Makerspace, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Brandie & Belinda)
Friday: Story time with Grandma Gail, Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Claire & Pablo)
Upcoming Events:
12/3-12/7: Hour of Code/Computer Science Week
Thursday 12/20: Nutcracker Performance @ 1:45
12/21-01/04: Winter Break
Monday 01/07: School Resumes
Friday 01/18: Professional Development Day: No School
Monday 01/21: Martin Luther King Day, No School
Thursday 01/31: 100 Day
02/18-02/22: President's Week Vacation
Saturday, November 10, 2018
Week of 11/12
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 afternoon 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 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!
Please remember to return your Blue Bags on Tuesday, with your child's special turkey project in the bag. We are going to make a book out of the turkey project to circulate around so everyone can see the fun ways that the turkeys were disguised!
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 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!
Please remember to return your Blue Bags on Tuesday, with your child's special turkey project in the bag. We are going to make a book out of the turkey project to circulate around so everyone can see the fun ways that the turkeys were disguised!
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 his week is is.
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 will continue Module 2, which covers both 2D and 3D shapes. Shapes we cover in kindergarten are: square, circle, triangle, rectangle, and hexagon as well as sphere, cylinder, cube, and cone. Parent tips for this module can be found here.
Social Studies/Friendship Feast
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 16th. 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 those of you who have signed up to help with the event. We do have some "holes" in our sign-ups. You can check out the sign-ups here.
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 his week is is.
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 will continue Module 2, which covers both 2D and 3D shapes. Shapes we cover in kindergarten are: square, circle, triangle, rectangle, and hexagon as well as sphere, cylinder, cube, and cone. Parent tips for this module can be found here.
Social Studies/Friendship Feast
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 16th. 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 those of you who have signed up to help with the event. We do have some "holes" in our sign-ups. You can check out the sign-ups here.
Upcoming Events
We are glazing our clay projects this Wednesday. Please don't send your children in any special outfits that day, as the clay glaze does stain. Please contact Brandie 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 Thursday, December 20th at 1:45pm-- 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:
We are glazing our clay projects this Wednesday. Please don't send your children in any special outfits that day, as the clay glaze does stain. Please contact Brandie 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 Thursday, December 20th at 1:45pm-- 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: No School, Veteran's Day
Tuesday: Return Blue Bags (Yvonne), Daily 5, Song Practice for Feast
Wednesday: Clay, Recess 101, Song Practice, No Blue Bags
Thursday: Return Weds. Envelopes, Daily 5, Song Practice
Friday: Friendship Feast @ 1:30, helpers begin arriving @ noon
Upcoming Events:
11/5-11/15: Parent-Teacher Conferences
Monday 11/12: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday 11/16: Friendship Feast @ 1:30
11/19-11/23: Thanksgiving Break
12/3-12/7: Hour of Code/Computer Science Week
Thursday 12/20: Nutcracker Performance @ 1:45
12/21-01/04: Winter Break
Upcoming Events:
11/5-11/15: Parent-Teacher Conferences
Monday 11/12: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday 11/16: Friendship Feast @ 1:30
11/19-11/23: Thanksgiving Break
12/3-12/7: Hour of Code/Computer Science Week
Thursday 12/20: Nutcracker Performance @ 1:45
12/21-01/04: Winter Break
Saturday, November 3, 2018
Week of 11/5
I am looking forward to meeting with each of you beginning Monday for your child's conference. Remember that the kindergarten schedule does not change at all during conference weeks. All conferences will be held in the office conference room, except for the after school conferences, 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: 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 and. We are now reading sentences with the words: I, see, my, like, can, go, see, a, the, to, we, me, at, in and now and. 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 Pilgrim costumes. We will also be reading the book, Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano. We have a few projects around this book, including a special homework assignment (more on this below).
Math
In math this week, we will begin Module 2, which covers both 2D and 3D shapes. Shapes we cover in kindergarten are: square, circle, triangle, rectangle, and hexagon as well as sphere, cylinder, cube, and cone. Parent tips for this module can be found here.
Special Homework
This week, we will have some special homework based on the book Turkey Trouble, which is a funny story about a turkey who wants to avoid becoming Thanksgiving dinner, so he disguises himself as different animals on the farm. Our homework this week includes a fun project where your child will have the opportunity to disguise a turkey, just as the turkey in Turkey Trouble disguises himself. Feel free to get creative with these disguises! Add some dimension to the pictures with construction paper, stickers, etc. Finished turkeys will need to be cut out and glued down on a 9X12 piece of construction paper, which will be provided. Here is a picture of a sample project I found on Pinterest:
Upcoming Events
As you know, our next big event is the Friendship Feast at 1:30 on November 16th. 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:
Language Arts
Our letters this week are Ww and Xx. Our new sight word is and. We are now reading sentences with the words: I, see, my, like, can, go, see, a, the, to, we, me, at, in and now and. 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 Pilgrim costumes. We will also be reading the book, Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano. We have a few projects around this book, including a special homework assignment (more on this below).
Math
In math this week, we will begin Module 2, which covers both 2D and 3D shapes. Shapes we cover in kindergarten are: square, circle, triangle, rectangle, and hexagon as well as sphere, cylinder, cube, and cone. Parent tips for this module can be found here.
Special Homework
This week, we will have some special homework based on the book Turkey Trouble, which is a funny story about a turkey who wants to avoid becoming Thanksgiving dinner, so he disguises himself as different animals on the farm. Our homework this week includes a fun project where your child will have the opportunity to disguise a turkey, just as the turkey in Turkey Trouble disguises himself. Feel free to get creative with these disguises! Add some dimension to the pictures with construction paper, stickers, etc. Finished turkeys will need to be cut out and glued down on a 9X12 piece of construction paper, which will be provided. Here is a picture of a sample project I found on Pinterest:
Upcoming Events
As you know, our next big event is the Friendship Feast at 1:30 on November 16th. 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 (Hiromi), Daily 5, Centers (Elena & Nisha)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Sarah & Kassie)
Wednesday: Recess 101, Trip to Makerspace, Blue Bags w/Special Project go home
Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Ellen & ???)
Friday: Storytime with Grandma Gail, Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Brad & Barry)
Upcoming Events:
11/5-11/15: Parent-Teacher Conferences
Monday 11/12: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday 11/16: Friendship Feast @ 1:30
11/19-11/23: Thanksgiving Break
12/3-12/7: Hour of Code/Computer Science Week
Thursday 12/20: Nutcracker Performance
12/21-01/04: Winter Break
Upcoming Events:
11/5-11/15: Parent-Teacher Conferences
Monday 11/12: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday 11/16: Friendship Feast @ 1:30
11/19-11/23: Thanksgiving Break
12/3-12/7: Hour of Code/Computer Science Week
Thursday 12/20: Nutcracker Performance
12/21-01/04: Winter Break
Saturday, October 27, 2018
Week of 10/29
We have an exciting week ahead of us with the Halloween parade &
party on Wednesday!
I am looking forward to meeting with each of you beginning Monday, November 5th for your child's conference. All conferences will be held in the office conference room, except for the after-school ones, 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.
This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Return Blue Bags (Yvonne), Daily 5, Centers (Jenny & Elena)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Yvonne & Hiromi), Blue Bags go Home
Wednesday: Halloween Parade & Party, Pizza lunch
Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Brandie & Belinda)
Friday: Story time with Grandma Gail, Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Pablo & Claire)
Upcoming Events:
Wednesday 10/31: Halloween Parade & Party
11/5-11/15: Parent-Teacher Conferences
Monday 11/12: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday 11/16: Friendship Feast @ 1:30
11/19-11/23: Thanksgiving Break
Thursday 12/20: Nutcracker Performance
12/21-01/04: Winter Break
Halloween
Please
send your children to school on Wednesday dressed in their Halloween
costumes. We will have a school-wide parade at 10:00 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 pizza lunch and special
Halloween-themed centers. I believe we still need one more volunteer for a Halloween center. Please see the Sign-Up Genius. If your child is going to Champions
or other day cares after the party, you will want to pack an extra bag for party items,
especially the pumpkins they will be bringing home that day (we are decorating the pumpkins they brought for our STEAM day).
Blue Bags
So that the children do not have too much to carry with them after Wednesday's party, I will be sending home the Blue Bags on Tuesday. Please make every effort to return the Blue Bags on Monday so that I can turn them around in one day. Thank you for your cooperation!!
Blue Bags
So that the children do not have too much to carry with them after Wednesday's party, I will be sending home the Blue Bags on Tuesday. Please make every effort to return the Blue Bags on Monday so that I can turn them around in one day. Thank you for your cooperation!!
Language Arts
Our letters this week are Uu and Vv. Our sight words are at and in. Including this week's words, we have now introduced thirteen sight words that your children should recognize: I, see, my, like, a, can, to, go, the, we, me, at and in. 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.
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, and counted the ribs on their pumpkins. They also
tested if their pumpkins sank or floated and dissected a pumpkin. Additionally, they constructed bridges that could support a small pumpkin. Perhaps the biggest hit on Friday was the "pumpkin volcano." Children filled a carved-out pumpkin with baking soda and vinegar, and were thrilled with the results! It
was a fun day of exploration and learning!
Upcoming
Conferences:I am looking forward to meeting with each of you beginning Monday, November 5th for your child's conference. All conferences will be held in the office conference room, except for the after-school ones, 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 16th at 1:30. 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 Pilgrims, and the children in K1 will be dressed as Native Americans. 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 (Yvonne), Daily 5, Centers (Jenny & Elena)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Yvonne & Hiromi), Blue Bags go Home
Wednesday: Halloween Parade & Party, Pizza lunch
Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Brandie & Belinda)
Friday: Story time with Grandma Gail, Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Pablo & Claire)
Upcoming Events:
Wednesday 10/31: Halloween Parade & Party
11/5-11/15: Parent-Teacher Conferences
Monday 11/12: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday 11/16: Friendship Feast @ 1:30
11/19-11/23: Thanksgiving Break
Thursday 12/20: Nutcracker Performance
12/21-01/04: Winter Break
Saturday, October 20, 2018
Week of 10/22
Here's what's going on in the classroom this week:
Language Arts
Our letters this week are Ss and Tt. Our sight word is we. We will read a variety of pumpkin-themed books this week, both fiction and non-fiction. We will start off with Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbell. We also have been learning how to read and spell color words with some songs we sing for each color. This week, we will wrap up our color songs with the color white.
We continue to post work to our See Saw accounts. Last week, we posted a Chatterpix project of your child voicing a "Creepy Carrot." This is based on the book Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds. If you haven't had a chance to check this out, please do! The children did such a great job with their animated voices.
Math
We are wrapping up our module on numbers to 10. Some kindergarten year-end standards that you should be aware of are:
We will be 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! I already have Mary & Karla helping with these centers, but could use one more helper. Please email me if you could come in on Friday from 1:30 to about 2:40 or so.
Art Vistas
Our second Art Vista lesson will be this Wednesday the 24th. Thank you to all the Art Vista volunteers for presenting these lessons.
Upcoming Events
Halloween:
The Halloween Party & parade is on Wednesday, 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 is at 10:00, on the primary blacktop (near rooms 7, 8, and 9). Come out and watch the fun! Our classroom party will follow after a break for pizza at about 11:45. It will be center-style, with four party stations.
Conferences:
I am looking forward to meeting with each of you beginning Monday, November 5th for your child's conference. All conferences will be held in the office conference room, except for the afternoon conferences, 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.
This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Return Blue Bags (Hiromi), Daily 5, Centers (Jenny & Nisha)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Kassie & Sarah), District-wide no homework night
Wednesday: Art Vistas, Recess 101, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Brandie & Ellen)
Friday: Story time with Grandma Gail, Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Mary & Karla)
Upcoming Events:
Wednesday 10/31: Halloween Parade & Party
11/5-11/15: Parent-Teacher Conferences
Monday 11/12: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday 11/16: Friendship Feast
11/19-11/23: Thanksgiving Break
Thursday 12/20: Nutcracker Performance
12/21-01/04: Winter Break
Language Arts
Our letters this week are Ss and Tt. Our sight word is we. We will read a variety of pumpkin-themed books this week, both fiction and non-fiction. We will start off with Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbell. We also have been learning how to read and spell color words with some songs we sing for each color. This week, we will wrap up our color songs with the color white.
We continue to post work to our See Saw accounts. Last week, we posted a Chatterpix project of your child voicing a "Creepy Carrot." This is based on the book Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds. If you haven't had a chance to check this out, please do! The children did such a great job with their animated voices.
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)
We will be 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! I already have Mary & Karla helping with these centers, but could use one more helper. Please email me if you could come in on Friday from 1:30 to about 2:40 or so.
Art Vistas
Our second Art Vista lesson will be this Wednesday the 24th. Thank you to all the Art Vista volunteers for presenting these lessons.
Upcoming Events
Halloween:
The Halloween Party & parade is on Wednesday, 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 is at 10:00, on the primary blacktop (near rooms 7, 8, and 9). Come out and watch the fun! Our classroom party will follow after a break for pizza at about 11:45. It will be center-style, with four party stations.
Conferences:
I am looking forward to meeting with each of you beginning Monday, November 5th for your child's conference. All conferences will be held in the office conference room, except for the afternoon conferences, 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 16th at 1:30. 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 Pilgrims, and the
children in K1 will be dressed as Native Americans. Thank you to Janette, Hiromi, and Eden for cutting these costumes for us.This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Return Blue Bags (Hiromi), Daily 5, Centers (Jenny & Nisha)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Kassie & Sarah), District-wide no homework night
Wednesday: Art Vistas, Recess 101, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Brandie & Ellen)
Friday: Story time with Grandma Gail, Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Mary & Karla)
Upcoming Events:
Wednesday 10/31: Halloween Parade & Party
11/5-11/15: Parent-Teacher Conferences
Monday 11/12: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday 11/16: Friendship Feast
11/19-11/23: Thanksgiving Break
Thursday 12/20: Nutcracker Performance
12/21-01/04: Winter Break
Saturday, October 13, 2018
Week of 10/15
We had a very busy week last week! It started with a wonderful trip to the Campbell Heritage Theater to see a darling play, Elephant & Piggie, then we had our first clay project & Cornerstone lesson, and the week culminated with the walkathon. It was so awesome to see nearly all Grasshoppers out on the course today. It was a great day & huge kudos & thanks go to our own Grasshopper parent, Kassie Gray, for chairing the entire event.
The school book fair continues this week through Wednesday. It opens at 11:00 on Monday if you want to go before class, and is open after school (2:30 to 3:30) on both Monday & Tuesday.
Language Arts
Our letters this week are Qq and Rr. Our sight word is to. Our story this week is Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds, and his follow-up book, Creepy Pair of Underwear.
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
Halloween:
The planning & organizing for our Halloween party on Wednesday the 31st is well underway. Thank you to Erika, Mary, Ruby & Claire for heading up this event The school-wide parade is at 10:00, on the primary blacktop (near rooms 7, 8, and 9.) Come out and watch the fun! We will have pizza at around 10:45, and then our classroom party will follow at approximately 11:45. It will be center-style, with four party stations.
Conferences:
I am looking forward to meeting with each of you beginning Monday, November 5th for your child's conference. All conferences will be held in the office conference room, except for the after school slots, 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.
Thanksgiving Feast: I have purchased pillow cases for our upcoming Thanksgiving Feast. These will be turned into Pilgrim costumes with some simple cutting (no sewing is involved). 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 (which is on 11/16). Please let me know if you can help!
To
give you an opportunity to plan ahead, this Friendship Feast will be on
the 16th at 1:30. 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 Pilgrims, and the children in K1 will be dressed as Native Americans. The children will sing a couple of songs when they arrive in the cafeteria. 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!
**Please send in your child's blue bag Monday.**
This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Return Blue Bags (Yvonne), Daily 5, Centers (Elena & Nisha)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Damon & Sarah)
Wednesday: Recess 101, Trip to the Makerspace, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Brandie & Pablo)
Friday: NO SCHOOL, Staff Professional Development Day
Upcoming Events:
Friday 10/19: No School: Professional Development Day Wednesday 10/31: Halloween Parade & Party
11/5-11/15: Parent-Teacher Conferences
Monday 11/12: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday 11/16: Friendship Feast
11/19-11/23: Thanksgiving Break
Thursday 12/20: Nutcracker Performance
12/21-01/04: Winter Break
The school book fair continues this week through Wednesday. It opens at 11:00 on Monday if you want to go before class, and is open after school (2:30 to 3:30) on both Monday & Tuesday.
Language Arts
Our letters this week are Qq and Rr. Our sight word is to. Our story this week is Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds, and his follow-up book, Creepy Pair of Underwear.
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.
Halloween:
The planning & organizing for our Halloween party on Wednesday the 31st is well underway. Thank you to Erika, Mary, Ruby & Claire for heading up this event The school-wide parade is at 10:00, on the primary blacktop (near rooms 7, 8, and 9.) Come out and watch the fun! We will have pizza at around 10:45, and then our classroom party will follow at approximately 11:45. It will be center-style, with four party stations.
Conferences:
I am looking forward to meeting with each of you beginning Monday, November 5th for your child's conference. All conferences will be held in the office conference room, except for the after school slots, 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.
Thanksgiving Feast: I have purchased pillow cases for our upcoming Thanksgiving Feast. These will be turned into Pilgrim costumes with some simple cutting (no sewing is involved). 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 (which is on 11/16). Please let me know if you can help!
**Please send in your child's blue bag Monday.**
This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Return Blue Bags (Yvonne), Daily 5, Centers (Elena & Nisha)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Damon & Sarah)
Wednesday: Recess 101, Trip to the Makerspace, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Brandie & Pablo)
Friday: NO SCHOOL, Staff Professional Development Day
Upcoming Events:
Friday 10/19: No School: Professional Development Day Wednesday 10/31: Halloween Parade & Party
11/5-11/15: Parent-Teacher Conferences
Monday 11/12: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday 11/16: Friendship Feast
11/19-11/23: Thanksgiving Break
Thursday 12/20: Nutcracker Performance
12/21-01/04: Winter Break
Saturday, October 6, 2018
Week of 10/8
We have a lot going on this week, so bear with me for this long update!
Field Trip
We are so excited for our field trip this Tuesday! Please arrive at 11:15 so that we can be leaving school before 11:30. The play starts at noon, so we need to get right over to Campbell. Thank you for your assistance with this. Please send your children in their Grasshopper t-shirts on Tuesday-- this is mandatory. It helps make your children visible and identifiable as part of our group at all times.
Walkathon
It's Walk-a-thon week!! Right now, we have 14 Grasshoppers participating-- let's make it 21!! 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 charm. 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 charm 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 five 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 with your children. 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!
Spirit Week
Leading up to the walkathon, we have a whole week of spirit days next week. Remember that participation is entirely optional, but a fun way to show Alta Vista pride. Here is the rundown:
MONDAY: Mustache Monday: Either draw on a mustache or stick one on and join in the fun!
TUESDAY: Kindergartners wear orange, but we won't be able to participate due to the field trip. We will all be wearing our Grasshopper t-shirts (not optional).
WEDNESDAY: Crazy Hair Day: Style your hair in silly pony tails or spikes or whatever makes your hair look a little crazy!
THURSDAY: Look-alike Day: Another good day to wear your Grasshopper shirt and match with all your friends OR if you have other similar clothing items that a friend has, wear that.
FRIDAY: Alta Vista Spirit Wear Day: Break out your Alta Vista t-shirts, past walkathon t-shirts (if you have older siblings) or just wear blue & gold.
Conferences
Thank you for all signing up for a conference time. I think I just need a couple more sign-ups before everyone is on the schedule. The conference schedule can be viewed here. I look forward to meeting with you all in November!
This week's letters are Oo and Pp. Our new sight word is a. 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.
We will be focusing on the author, Mo Willems, this week. Not only is he the author of the book that the play we are seeing is based on, Elephant and Piggie, but he is also the author of Knuffle Bunny, which we will be reading and responding to in class.
Math
We 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.
Upcoming
Halloween: Just a reminder that we will be celebrating Halloween on Wednesday the 31st. The school-wide parade is at 10:00, when we arrive at school, and our class party will follow at about 11:45, after our pizza lunch. 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. Thank you to Claire, Ruby, Mary, and Erika for coordinating the Halloween party.
**Please send in your child's Blue Bag on Monday, and your child's envelope if you haven't already.
This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Return Blue Bags (Hiromi), Daily 5, Centers (Jenny & Barry)
Tuesday: FIELD TRIP: Please arrive @ 11:15, wearing Grasshopper shirts
Wednesday: Clay, Recess 101, Cornerstone, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Belinda & Ellen)
Friday: Story time with Grandma Gail, Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Pablo & Claire)
Upcoming Events:
Tuesday 10/9: PM Class attends "Elephant & Piggie" Play
Saturday 10/13: Alta Vista Walkathon
Friday 10/19: No School: Professional Development Day
Wednesday 10/31: Halloween Parade & Party
11/5-11/15: Parent-Teacher Conferences
Monday 11/12: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday 11/16: Friendship Feast
11/19-11/23: Thanksgiving Break
Thursday 12/20: Nutcracker Performance
12/21-01/04: Winter Break
Field Trip
We are so excited for our field trip this Tuesday! Please arrive at 11:15 so that we can be leaving school before 11:30. The play starts at noon, so we need to get right over to Campbell. Thank you for your assistance with this. Please send your children in their Grasshopper t-shirts on Tuesday-- this is mandatory. It helps make your children visible and identifiable as part of our group at all times.
Walkathon
It's Walk-a-thon week!! Right now, we have 14 Grasshoppers participating-- let's make it 21!! 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 charm. 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 charm 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 five 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 with your children. 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!
Spirit Week
Leading up to the walkathon, we have a whole week of spirit days next week. Remember that participation is entirely optional, but a fun way to show Alta Vista pride. Here is the rundown:
MONDAY: Mustache Monday: Either draw on a mustache or stick one on and join in the fun!
TUESDAY: Kindergartners wear orange, but we won't be able to participate due to the field trip. We will all be wearing our Grasshopper t-shirts (not optional).
WEDNESDAY: Crazy Hair Day: Style your hair in silly pony tails or spikes or whatever makes your hair look a little crazy!
THURSDAY: Look-alike Day: Another good day to wear your Grasshopper shirt and match with all your friends OR if you have other similar clothing items that a friend has, wear that.
FRIDAY: Alta Vista Spirit Wear Day: Break out your Alta Vista t-shirts, past walkathon t-shirts (if you have older siblings) or just wear blue & gold.
Conferences
Thank you for all signing up for a conference time. I think I just need a couple more sign-ups before everyone is on the schedule. The conference schedule can be viewed here. I look forward to meeting with you all in November!
Clay
We have our first clay project coming up this Wednesday the 10th. 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 Brandie for being our clay lead, and everyone who is helping out. I believe she now has enough helpers-- thanks for the quick response!
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 the MANY people we have helping with Cornerstone, and to Nisha Parson for leading the upcoming lesson.
Language ArtsWe have our first clay project coming up this Wednesday the 10th. 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 Brandie for being our clay lead, and everyone who is helping out. I believe she now has enough helpers-- thanks for the quick response!
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 the MANY people we have helping with Cornerstone, and to Nisha Parson for leading the upcoming lesson.
This week's letters are Oo and Pp. Our new sight word is a. 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.
We will be focusing on the author, Mo Willems, this week. Not only is he the author of the book that the play we are seeing is based on, Elephant and Piggie, but he is also the author of Knuffle Bunny, which we will be reading and responding to in class.
Math
We 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.
Upcoming
Halloween: Just a reminder that we will be celebrating Halloween on Wednesday the 31st. The school-wide parade is at 10:00, when we arrive at school, and our class party will follow at about 11:45, after our pizza lunch. 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. Thank you to Claire, Ruby, Mary, and Erika for coordinating the Halloween party.
**Please send in your child's Blue Bag on Monday, and your child's envelope if you haven't already.
This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Return Blue Bags (Hiromi), Daily 5, Centers (Jenny & Barry)
Tuesday: FIELD TRIP: Please arrive @ 11:15, wearing Grasshopper shirts
Wednesday: Clay, Recess 101, Cornerstone, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Belinda & Ellen)
Friday: Story time with Grandma Gail, Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Pablo & Claire)
Upcoming Events:
Tuesday 10/9: PM Class attends "Elephant & Piggie" Play
Saturday 10/13: Alta Vista Walkathon
Friday 10/19: No School: Professional Development Day
Wednesday 10/31: Halloween Parade & Party
11/5-11/15: Parent-Teacher Conferences
Monday 11/12: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday 11/16: Friendship Feast
11/19-11/23: Thanksgiving Break
Thursday 12/20: Nutcracker Performance
12/21-01/04: Winter Break
Saturday, September 29, 2018
Week of 10/1
Happy October! Here's what's coming up in class and at Alta Vista...
STEAM Night
Alta Vista will be hosting STEAM Night in the Makerspace this Tuesday, October 2nd, from 5:30 to 7:00. A flyer for this event can be viewed here. The whole family is invited to come to the Makerspace for an evening of STEAM fun! I really encourage you to come out for this exciting and educational evening full of hands-on STEAM activities.
Walkathon
Please continue signing your children up for the walkathon on October 13th, which is only two 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.
Language Arts:
Science/STEAM:
We will be taking a closer look at spiders this week. We will be reading both fiction and non-fiction books about spiders. Children will be creating their own spider webs and spiders as a craft this week. We will also visit the Makerspace on Wednesday to work with Ozobots, which are programmable robots that follow along lines drawn by the students. We will be creating a story map for the story, The Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything, for the Ozobot to follow along.
**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 (Yvonne), Daily 5, Centers (Nisha & Jenny)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Kassie & Yvonne)
Wednesday: Recess 101, Makerspace, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Brandie & Ellen)
Friday: Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Mary & Claire), Story time with Grandma Gail
Upcoming Events:
Tuesday 10/2: Alta Vista STEAM Night
Tuesday 10/9: PM Class attends "Elephant & Piggie" Play
Saturday 10/13: Alta Vista Walkathon
Friday 10/19: No School: Professional Development Day
Wednesday 10/31: Halloween Parade & Party
11/5-11/15: Parent-Teacher Conferences
Monday 11/12: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday 11/16: Friendship Feast
11/19-11/23: Thanksgiving Break
Thursday 12/20: Nutcracker Performance
12/21-01/04: Winter Break
STEAM Night
Alta Vista will be hosting STEAM Night in the Makerspace this Tuesday, October 2nd, from 5:30 to 7:00. A flyer for this event can be viewed here. The whole family is invited to come to the Makerspace for an evening of STEAM fun! I really encourage you to come out for this exciting and educational evening full of hands-on STEAM activities.
Walkathon
Please continue signing your children up for the walkathon on October 13th, which is only two 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.
Language Arts:
We have now launched all of our Daily 5 activities, including meeting with the teacher for a guided reading lesson. Your child will be receiving lessons targeted for his/her ability level in a small group instruction setting. Our Daily 5 aides will begin this week, working with the children in the literacy centers while we are giving guided reading lessons to small groups. It is a very hands-on program, and we are very pleased with the results from last year.
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.
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 sight word this week
is go. The sight words we've introduced so far are: I, see, my, like, can, and the. Please
also continue reinforcing these words at home and listening to your
child read the sight word sentences that come home weekly. These are 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. Additionally, students have a math journal in class. We pose a weekly problem and solve it in the math journal. On Friday, we reviewed our work so far on numbers to 10 using an iPad app called Quizziz. The children were very motivated and excited to participate in this gamified review of math concepts.Science/STEAM:
We will be taking a closer look at spiders this week. We will be reading both fiction and non-fiction books about spiders. Children will be creating their own spider webs and spiders as a craft this week. We will also visit the Makerspace on Wednesday to work with Ozobots, which are programmable robots that follow along lines drawn by the students. We will be creating a story map for the story, The Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything, for the Ozobot to follow along.
**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 (Yvonne), Daily 5, Centers (Nisha & Jenny)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Kassie & Yvonne)
Wednesday: Recess 101, Makerspace, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Brandie & Ellen)
Friday: Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Mary & Claire), Story time with Grandma Gail
Upcoming Events:
Tuesday 10/2: Alta Vista STEAM Night
Tuesday 10/9: PM Class attends "Elephant & Piggie" Play
Saturday 10/13: Alta Vista Walkathon
Friday 10/19: No School: Professional Development Day
Wednesday 10/31: Halloween Parade & Party
11/5-11/15: Parent-Teacher Conferences
Monday 11/12: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday 11/16: Friendship Feast
11/19-11/23: Thanksgiving Break
Thursday 12/20: Nutcracker Performance
12/21-01/04: Winter Break
Saturday, September 22, 2018
Week of 9/24
We had another fun week in K2,
culminating in the apple-themed STEAM Day on Friday. Children got to dissect an apple, experiment with force & motion by seeing how far different sizes of apples can roll, stamp with apples, and measure and weigh apples. It was a great day of hands-on learning.
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, like, can and the. This week, we will have a review week. Sight words 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. 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 50 words that we will be covering this year. 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.
We will begin 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 Wednesday).
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.
Art Vistas:
We will have our first Art Vista lesson this Wednesday. This is a program that is paid for by the Home & School Club through your generous donation to the CCP and 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 the many parents who are assisting with Art Vistas this year, and to Kassie Gray for leading.
Walkathon
I want to remind you again that the Walkathon is coming up quickly on Saturday, October 13th! The children will do a practice lap with me some time before the 13th. 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 Right now, we have more than half our class participating! 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, with the folder and book inside.
Helpers & Activities This Week
Monday: Return Blue Bags (Hiromi), Daily 5, Centers (Elena & Nisha)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Hiromi & Sarah)
Wednesday: Art Vistas, Recess 101, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Brandie & Belinda)
Friday: Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Pablo & Claire)
Upcoming Events:
Tuesday 10/2: Alta Vista STEAM Night
Tuesday 10/9: PM Class attends "Elephant & Piggie" Play
Saturday 10/13: Alta Vista Walkathon
Friday 10/19: No School: Professional Development Day
Wednesday 10/31: Halloween Parade & Party
11/5-11/15: Parent-Teacher Conferences
Monday 11/12: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday 11/16: Friendship Feast
11/19-11/23: Thanksgiving Break
Thursday 12/20: Nutcracker Performance
12/21-01/04: Winter Break
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, like, can and the. This week, we will have a review week. Sight words 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. 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 50 words that we will be covering this year. 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.
We will begin 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 Wednesday).
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.
Art Vistas:
We will have our first Art Vista lesson this Wednesday. This is a program that is paid for by the Home & School Club through your generous donation to the CCP and 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 the many parents who are assisting with Art Vistas this year, and to Kassie Gray for leading.
Walkathon
I want to remind you again that the Walkathon is coming up quickly on Saturday, October 13th! The children will do a practice lap with me some time before the 13th. 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 Right now, we have more than half our class participating! 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, with the folder and book inside.
Helpers & Activities This Week
Monday: Return Blue Bags (Hiromi), Daily 5, Centers (Elena & Nisha)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Hiromi & Sarah)
Wednesday: Art Vistas, Recess 101, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Brandie & Belinda)
Friday: Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Pablo & Claire)
Tuesday 10/2: Alta Vista STEAM Night
Tuesday 10/9: PM Class attends "Elephant & Piggie" Play
Saturday 10/13: Alta Vista Walkathon
Friday 10/19: No School: Professional Development Day
Wednesday 10/31: Halloween Parade & Party
11/5-11/15: Parent-Teacher Conferences
Monday 11/12: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday 11/16: Friendship Feast
11/19-11/23: Thanksgiving Break
Thursday 12/20: Nutcracker Performance
12/21-01/04: Winter Break
Saturday, September 15, 2018
Week of 9/17
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. Everything went so smoothly last week!
**Remember to send in your child's Blue Bag on Monday, with the book, reference folder, and its contents inside. Just leave that in there all year long. You will receive a new book again on Wednesday.
Walkathon
Alta Vista's Walkathon is coming right up, and I hope to see everyone out there! The students had a kickoff assembly last Wednesday, and registration opened Thursday night. Please mark your calendars for Saturday, October 13th, 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 words are can and the. Keep reading & reviewing the sight word sentences as they come home each week in the Wednesday envelope. Our books this week will continue to be about apples, both fiction and non-fiction.
We will also be adding the writing center to our "Daily 5" literacy centers this week. Children will begin a new writing activity called "write the room." We are now up to 4 of our Daily 5 centers!
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.
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) as well as tasting different colors of apples to see which we prefer.
STEAM:
We will take a trip to the Makerspace this Wednesday to participate in a sandwich cookie challenge! Children will be stacking sandwich cookies as well as building with them.
This week's STEAM centers will be apple-themed, and we have some exciting investigations lined up. We will be stamping with apples for art, dissecting apples, weighing & measuring 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: Daily 5, Centers (Elena & Jenny)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Yvonne & Sarah)
Wednesday: Recess 101, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Brandie & Pablo)
Friday: Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Mary & Karla)
Upcoming Events:
Tuesday 10/2: Alta Vista STEAM Night
Tuesday 10/9: PM Class attends "Elephant & Piggie" Play
Saturday 10/13: Alta Vista Walkathon
Friday 10/19: No School: Professional Development Day
Wednesday 10/31: Halloween Parade & Party
11/5-11/15: Parent-Teacher Conferences
Monday 11/12: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday 11/16: Friendship Feast
11/19-11/23: Thanksgiving Break
Thursday 12/20: Nutcracker Performance
12/21-01/04: Winter Break
**Remember to send in your child's Blue Bag on Monday, with the book, reference folder, and its contents inside. Just leave that in there all year long. You will receive a new book again on Wednesday.
Walkathon
Alta Vista's Walkathon is coming right up, and I hope to see everyone out there! The students had a kickoff assembly last Wednesday, and registration opened Thursday night. Please mark your calendars for Saturday, October 13th, 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 words are can and the. Keep reading & reviewing the sight word sentences as they come home each week in the Wednesday envelope. Our books this week will continue to be about apples, both fiction and non-fiction.
We will also be adding the writing center to our "Daily 5" literacy centers this week. Children will begin a new writing activity called "write the room." We are now up to 4 of our Daily 5 centers!
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.
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) as well as tasting different colors of apples to see which we prefer.
STEAM:
We will take a trip to the Makerspace this Wednesday to participate in a sandwich cookie challenge! Children will be stacking sandwich cookies as well as building with them.
This week's STEAM centers will be apple-themed, and we have some exciting investigations lined up. We will be stamping with apples for art, dissecting apples, weighing & measuring 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: Daily 5, Centers (Elena & Jenny)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Yvonne & Sarah)
Wednesday: Recess 101, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Brandie & Pablo)
Friday: Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Mary & Karla)
Tuesday 10/2: Alta Vista STEAM Night
Tuesday 10/9: PM Class attends "Elephant & Piggie" Play
Saturday 10/13: Alta Vista Walkathon
Friday 10/19: No School: Professional Development Day
Wednesday 10/31: Halloween Parade & Party
11/5-11/15: Parent-Teacher Conferences
Monday 11/12: No School: Veteran's Day
Friday 11/16: Friendship Feast
11/19-11/23: Thanksgiving Break
Thursday 12/20: Nutcracker Performance
12/21-01/04: Winter Break
Saturday, September 8, 2018
Week of 9/10
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 1:30 to the end of the day (basically). When you arrive, please go to the office to sign in & get a visitor's sticker. Then just come straight to the classroom-- enter on the playground side (it's propped open partially) & 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, I'd appreciate it. Thank you so much-- the schedule for centers each week will always be posted below, in addition to the link on the right, "Helper Schedule."
LANGUAGE ARTS
We will introduce letters Gg & Hh. We will read both fiction and non-fiction books about apples. We will introduce two more sight words, my and see. You should have received your child's sentence sheet for the word I in last week's Wednesday envelope. Please have your child read those to you at home. No need to send them back-- those are for you to keep. 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.
"Fun Pages:" Often on Friday, we start, but do not finish, a "fun page" of alphabet review. These have the letters of the week on each side. There is a letter maze and some coloring to do. We send these home with the kids to complete if they'd like. They are just a fun way to review the letters, but it is not necessary to send those back to us. If your child is not yet recognizing letters Aa-Ff (those that we've introduced), I would suggest that you have your child complete the page or at least review it with them.
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/Dot Day (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Math)
We will have our first STEAM centers on Friday. Coincidentally, Friday is also "Dot Day." Dot Day is named in honor of the book The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. It is a day "celebrating all that creativity inspires and invites." In one of our STEAM centers Friday, children will be designing their own dot and then viewing it using the augmented reality app Quiver. I will post their images from that project on SeeSaw, which you should've received a message about today.
In addition to that, children will also be programming a Bee-Bot. We will be using a number grid to build our familiarity with numbers while we program the Bee-Bot to go to different numbers on the grid.
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.
Helpers & Activities This Week
Monday: Daily 5, Centers (Nisha & Jenny)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Hiromi & Kassie)
Wednesday: Recess 101, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Brandie & Ellen)
Friday: International Dot Day, Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Pablo & Claire)
Upcoming Events:
Week of 9/10: Classroom Centers Begin
Wednesday 9/12: First Blue Book Bag goes home
Tuesday 10/2: Alta Vista STEAM Night
Tuesday 10/9: PM Class attends "Elephant & Piggie" Play
Saturday 10/13: Alta Vista Walkathon
Wednesday 10/31: Halloween Parade & Party
As a reminder to center helpers, centers run from about 1:30 to the end of the day (basically). When you arrive, please go to the office to sign in & get a visitor's sticker. Then just come straight to the classroom-- enter on the playground side (it's propped open partially) & 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, I'd appreciate it. Thank you so much-- the schedule for centers each week will always be posted below, in addition to the link on the right, "Helper Schedule."
MATH
We will continue with our math topic on numbers to 10. 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. We will read both fiction and non-fiction books about apples. We will introduce two more sight words, my and see. You should have received your child's sentence sheet for the word I in last week's Wednesday envelope. Please have your child read those to you at home. No need to send them back-- those are for you to keep. 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.
"Fun Pages:" Often on Friday, we start, but do not finish, a "fun page" of alphabet review. These have the letters of the week on each side. There is a letter maze and some coloring to do. We send these home with the kids to complete if they'd like. They are just a fun way to review the letters, but it is not necessary to send those back to us. If your child is not yet recognizing letters Aa-Ff (those that we've introduced), I would suggest that you have your child complete the page or at least review it with them.
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/Dot Day (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Math)
We will have our first STEAM centers on Friday. Coincidentally, Friday is also "Dot Day." Dot Day is named in honor of the book The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. It is a day "celebrating all that creativity inspires and invites." In one of our STEAM centers Friday, children will be designing their own dot and then viewing it using the augmented reality app Quiver. I will post their images from that project on SeeSaw, which you should've received a message about today.
In addition to that, children will also be programming a Bee-Bot. We will be using a number grid to build our familiarity with numbers while we program the Bee-Bot to go to different numbers on the grid.
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.
Helpers & Activities This Week
Monday: Daily 5, Centers (Nisha & Jenny)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Hiromi & Kassie)
Wednesday: Recess 101, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Brandie & Ellen)
Friday: International Dot Day, Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Pablo & Claire)
Week of 9/10: Classroom Centers Begin
Wednesday 9/12: First Blue Book Bag goes home
Tuesday 10/2: Alta Vista STEAM Night
Tuesday 10/9: PM Class attends "Elephant & Piggie" Play
Saturday 10/13: Alta Vista Walkathon
Wednesday 10/31: Halloween Parade & Party
Saturday, September 1, 2018
Week of 9/4
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 & Movie Night on Friday.
Hopefully, you have all had a chance to tell me about any conflicts with the helper schedule. I haven't heard from anyone, so I am assuming we are all good. Thank you to Yvonne & Hiromi for volunteering to organize the Blue Bags. I have added that rotation to the schedule. All helpers can find the schedule 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 10th!
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 will come home with a sheet of sentences using this sight word on Wednesday (in their envelope). 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 in next week's Wednesday envelope.
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/STEAM
Thank you for the donations of toilet paper tubes. We used them for a STEAM challenge of building a new bridge for the Three Billy Goats Gruff. It had to support the goats, and then we added some heavier animals, including dinosaurs. You can see pictures of this activity here.
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 three 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 & experiments. 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 Justin 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!
Upcoming Events:
Monday 9/3: Labor Day Holiday
Friday 9/7: Picture Day
Friday 9/7: Alta Vista Movie Night
Week of 9/10: Classroom Centers Begin
Wednesday 9/12: First Blue Book Bag goes home
Tuesday 10/2: Alta Vista STEAM Night
Tuesday 10/9: PM Class attends "Elephant & Piggie" Play
Saturday 10/17: Alta Vista Walkathon
Wednesday 10/31: Halloween Parade & Party
Hopefully, you have all had a chance to tell me about any conflicts with the helper schedule. I haven't heard from anyone, so I am assuming we are all good. Thank you to Yvonne & Hiromi for volunteering to organize the Blue Bags. I have added that rotation to the schedule. All helpers can find the schedule 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 10th!
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 will come home with a sheet of sentences using this sight word on Wednesday (in their envelope). 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 in next week's Wednesday envelope.
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/STEAM
Thank you for the donations of toilet paper tubes. We used them for a STEAM challenge of building a new bridge for the Three Billy Goats Gruff. It had to support the goats, and then we added some heavier animals, including dinosaurs. You can see pictures of this activity here.
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 three 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 & experiments. 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 Justin 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!
Upcoming Events:
Monday 9/3: Labor Day Holiday
Friday 9/7: Picture Day
Friday 9/7: Alta Vista Movie Night
Week of 9/10: Classroom Centers Begin
Wednesday 9/12: First Blue Book Bag goes home
Tuesday 10/2: Alta Vista STEAM Night
Tuesday 10/9: PM Class attends "Elephant & Piggie" Play
Saturday 10/17: Alta Vista Walkathon
Wednesday 10/31: Halloween Parade & Party
Saturday, August 25, 2018
Week of 8/26
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. We also will be reading and having activities around the story Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. 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 last summer in this program. It was highly successful last year, and we are excited to continue 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 we have a song and movement for each individual letter as well. We also will be learning how to spell color words through singing some catchy tunes. We are introducing a new song each week. Last week we learned the "red" song, and this week it will be the "yellow" 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.
STEAM
Hopefully, your children shared with you our Fairy Tale STEAM activity last week where we had them building a house for the Three Pigs using KEVA Planks. Then we tested the house to see if it could withstand "huffing & puffing" (a hair dryer). As you can imagine, there was lots of excitement around this! I posted a short video of one test on my Twitter account. This week, we will continue with the Fairy Tale STEAM by building a new bridge for the Three Billy Goats. We will be using the toilet paper tubes you've been sending in for this activity. Thank you again for continuing to send those in through Wednesday.
Reminder: We have this Friday the 31st off school, as well as Monday the 3rd.
Upcoming Events:
Friday 8/31: Staff Development Day
Monday 9/3: Labor Day Holiday
Friday 9/7: Picture Day
Friday 9/7: Alta Vista Movie Night
Week of 9/10: Classroom Centers Begin
Wednesday 9/12: First Blue Book Bag goes home
Tuesday 10/2: Alta Vista STEAM Night
Tuesday 10/9: PM Class attends "Elephant & Piggie" Play
Saturday 10/17: Alta Vista Walkathon
Wednesday 10/31: Halloween Parade & Party
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. We also will be reading and having activities around the story Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. 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 last summer in this program. It was highly successful last year, and we are excited to continue 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 we have a song and movement for each individual letter as well. We also will be learning how to spell color words through singing some catchy tunes. We are introducing a new song each week. Last week we learned the "red" song, and this week it will be the "yellow" 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.
STEAM
Hopefully, your children shared with you our Fairy Tale STEAM activity last week where we had them building a house for the Three Pigs using KEVA Planks. Then we tested the house to see if it could withstand "huffing & puffing" (a hair dryer). As you can imagine, there was lots of excitement around this! I posted a short video of one test on my Twitter account. This week, we will continue with the Fairy Tale STEAM by building a new bridge for the Three Billy Goats. We will be using the toilet paper tubes you've been sending in for this activity. Thank you again for continuing to send those in through Wednesday.
Reminder: We have this Friday the 31st off school, as well as Monday the 3rd.
Upcoming Events:
Friday 8/31: Staff Development Day
Monday 9/3: Labor Day Holiday
Friday 9/7: Picture Day
Friday 9/7: Alta Vista Movie Night
Week of 9/10: Classroom Centers Begin
Wednesday 9/12: First Blue Book Bag goes home
Tuesday 10/2: Alta Vista STEAM Night
Tuesday 10/9: PM Class attends "Elephant & Piggie" Play
Saturday 10/17: Alta Vista Walkathon
Wednesday 10/31: Halloween Parade & Party
Sunday, August 19, 2018
Week of 8/20
Apologies in advance for the long post, but I know that many of you
are new parents to Alta Vista, and as I mentioned, I tend
to err on the side of over-communication ;)
We had a great first week reading back-to-school themed books and alphabet books, as well as "No David" books. We did a fun art project to go along with No David. Next week, we will begin formally introducing the letters Aa and Bb. We will also begin our first math topic on numbers to five.
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, Little Miss Muffet, Twinkle Little Star, etc) and doing some STEAM activities that go along with these stories & poems. 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 fine motor skills, including 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 this week by tracing our names in a Rainbow Book, 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.
To strengthen fine motor skills, this week, we will start "Morning Tubs." These tubs will be out for the first 10 minutes of class and will have fun hands-on activities for strengthening hand-eye coordination and muscles. You will want to be on time because the children won't want to miss their turn at each tub!
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 for school-wide programs, 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 10th. 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, August 31st or Monday, September 3rd.
I am looking forward to another fun week with your children!
We had a great first week reading back-to-school themed books and alphabet books, as well as "No David" books. We did a fun art project to go along with No David. Next week, we will begin formally introducing the letters Aa and Bb. We will also begin our first math topic on numbers to five.
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, Little Miss Muffet, Twinkle Little Star, etc) and doing some STEAM activities that go along with these stories & poems. 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 fine motor skills, including 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 this week by tracing our names in a Rainbow Book, 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.
To strengthen fine motor skills, this week, we will start "Morning Tubs." These tubs will be out for the first 10 minutes of class and will have fun hands-on activities for strengthening hand-eye coordination and muscles. You will want to be on time because the children won't want to miss their turn at each tub!
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 for school-wide programs, 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 10th. 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, August 31st or Monday, September 3rd.
I am looking forward to another fun week with your children!
Tuesday, August 14, 2018
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 pm kindergarten daily schedule on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays is:
At the orientation, I provided you with the Union School District handbook, the District Parent's Rights Handbook, and the Home & School Club information. Tomorrow night, 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 pm kindergarten daily schedule on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays is:
- 11:30 to 2:50 M, Tu, Th, F
- 10:00 to 1:20 (Wednesdays)
- 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 all pick-up times. This is due to traffic congestion problems. Please plan on walking or parking on Westchester between the hours of 2:30 to 3:15 p.m, as well as on early Wednesdays. At drop-off time (11:30 and 10:00), 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 many Back-to-School stories, as well as "No David" to familiarize your students with school routines.
- 6:15-6:45 Home & School Club Presentation in the Cafeteria
- 6:45-7:30 PM Class Presentation in K2
At the orientation, I provided you with the Union School District handbook, the District Parent's Rights Handbook, and the Home & School Club information. Tomorrow night, 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!
Saturday, June 9, 2018
Summer 2018
***PLEASE NOTE: There was an error in the letter that went home regarding the first day of school for the p.m. classes. THE FIRST DAY IS A MODIFIED SCHEDULE. Please arrive at 10:00 if your child is in the p.m. class.
We are all looking forward to meeting our new kindergartners on Tuesday, August 14th!
Kindergarten Orientation is Tuesday, August 14th, 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, 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 15, 2018-- morning session is 8:05 to 11:25 and we begin with a modified Wednesday in the afternoon session: 10:00 to 1:20. Child care for both sessions is available at Champions (408) 356-3178 or Holy Cross (408) 356-6828.
**Please note that this school year, the afternoon session will have weekly modified Wednesdays. The schedule on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday is 11:30 to 2:50.
Kindergarten Back-to-School Night, a meeting for parents only, is Wednesday, 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: a.m. class presentation in rooms K1 & K2
6:15:6:45: Home & School Club presentation in the cafeteria
6:45-7:30: p.m. class presentation in rooms K1 & K2
You will receive a letter the week of August 5th 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:
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!
We are all looking forward to meeting our new kindergartners on Tuesday, August 14th!
Kindergarten Orientation is Tuesday, August 14th, 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, 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 15, 2018-- morning session is 8:05 to 11:25 and we begin with a modified Wednesday in the afternoon session: 10:00 to 1:20. Child care for both sessions is available at Champions (408) 356-3178 or Holy Cross (408) 356-6828.
**Please note that this school year, the afternoon session will have weekly modified Wednesdays. The schedule on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday is 11:30 to 2:50.
Kindergarten Back-to-School Night, a meeting for parents only, is Wednesday, 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: a.m. class presentation in rooms K1 & K2
6:15:6:45: Home & School Club presentation in the cafeteria
6:45-7:30: p.m. class presentation in rooms K1 & K2
You will receive a letter the week of August 5th 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
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!