Week of 10/29

We have an exciting week ahead of us with the Halloween parade & party on Wednesday!

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!!

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.

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

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:

• Children should be able to count to 100
• Children should be able to count on from any given number between 1 and 100. For example: 49, 50, 51, 52, 53.
• Children should be able to write numbers to 20
• Children should be able to recognize numbers to 20 and count out objects to 20, no matter what the arrangement of those objects (in a line, scattered, in a circle)

Science/STEAM
We will 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

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

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!

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 Arts
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