Week of 2/5

Now that we've celebrated the 100th day of school (and a few more after that), we have 77 days left to go to reach all of our end-of-year kindergarten standards. Please continue supporting your children's educations by reading daily with them, working with them on their writing, and reinforcing math concepts. The year goes by quickly and we still have a lot of work to do! Spring conferences are rapidly approaching (March) and I sent out those sign-ups in a separate e-mail a couple of weeks ago. Thank you to so many of you for already signing up-- if you haven't done so already, please select a time. Let me know if you are having any trouble accessing the sign-up.

Language Arts

This week, we will focus on the word families "ad" and "ap."Children will read and spell words like mad, bad, and sad as well as tap, lap, and cap. We will be learning a new sight word this week, little.  We are now up to 20 sight words.  Please check the sight word link on the website and make sure that your child knows the words we've introduced, as this is a heavy emphasis at this time.  If your child is struggling with these words, a good website to go to is: http://www.spellingcity.com/k2grist and check the "40 Word List" of all the sight words we're covering this year.  The list is also in your child's homework folder to help them with journal writing.

Our story this week will be The Mitten by Jan Brett. We will also read a similar story, The Hat. We will study some of the animals in these stories, especially the hedgehog, to do some non-fiction reading and writing.

Math
We will continue working on number bonds and ten frames to familiarize ourselves with fact families to 10.  Parent tips for helping your child with this unit can be found here. Please continue reinforcing the concept at home using apps on iPhones & iPads or logging into their ixl.com account.  Although ixl isn't a "game," it does provide solid reinforcement of the facts & concepts covered in kindergarten.  If you need a reminder of how to log into your child's ixl account, please email me.

Art Vistas/Global Play Day
We have an Art Vista lesson this Wednesday, and it's an exciting one-- fish prints! Children will use an actual fish to paint and create fish prints. Also on Wednesday is Global School Play Day. Due to Art Vistas and p.e. with Coach Sierra, we will be a little tight on time that day, but between those activities, we will play some non-electronic games in the classroom.

Upcoming Events
On Wednesday, February 14th, we will be celebrating Valentine's Day in class.  This is not a party, but we will be passing out valentines.  Just a reminder (since I know your children will be eagerly shopping for valentines soon!) in kindergarten, we have the kids sign their valentines, but we do not have them write who the valentine is "to." This makes distribution much easier.  Please send in 21 valentines so that there are enough for each child in the class. I know that many store-bought valentines come with candy attached. However, please consider candy-free valentines due to allergies in the class as well as candy overload. Valentines with stickers or tattoos, etc., are greatly preferred and homemade cards and messages are wonderful. Thanks!

See you all tomorrow, Blue Bags in hand!

This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Blue Bags returned (Jillian), Daily 5, Centers (Camille)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Celeste & Josie)
Wednesday: Art Vistas (Jason, Tanya, Camille, Surbhi), Global School Play Day, Recess 101, Blue Bags w/ Journals go home

Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Ying & Emily)
Friday: Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Camille & Lynda)

Upcoming Events:

Wednesday 2/7: Global Play Day & Art Vista Fish Prints
Friday 2/9: Valentine's Dance @ 6:30 pm
Wednesday 2/14: Valentine's Day Celebration
2/19-2/23: President's Week Vacation
Saturday 3/3: Back to the 80s Auction @ 6:00-11:00
3/8-3/15: Parent-Teacher Conferences