Week of 3/2

Thank you for answering the call for boxes and items that we can use for our leprechaun traps on March 13th. We will keep collecting up until the 13th. Again, we are looking for cereal boxes, shoe boxes, cracker boxes, pasta boxes, empty tissue boxes, other small boxes, toilet rolls, and paper towel rolls. Thank you!

Language Arts

This week, we are beginning to take a look at r-controlled vowels, or, ar, er, ir, and ur, also called, "Bossy r." This week, I will focus mainly on ar and or. Our sight word this week is here. Keep reinforcing the sight words-- they really help with reading fluency. We are now up to 33 sight words. For a list of all the sight words, please see the "High Frequency Word" tab on this website.

Math
We are continuing with Eureka Math Module 4. This week, we will be diving further into subtraction. This module lasts all the way until late March, since it covers some of the core kindergarten math concepts. Parent tips for helping your child with this unit can be found here. Please continue reinforcing the concept at home.

Upcoming Events
Conferences:
Parent-teacher conferences begin this week on Thursday, March 5th. If you have forgotten your date/time, please check this link. I have now made this document viewable only (cannot be edited). If you need to change your time, please email me. Just a reminder that we will not have centers during conference weeks EXCEPT on 3/13 for the leprechaun trap building STEAM centers at 10:25. Thank you to Carole, Agnieszka, and Tiffany H. for volunteering to help with the traps.

Spring Fling:
On Friday, April 3rd, we will have a special event called Spring Fling. Fun spring-themed centers will be a part of the day to celebrate the kick-off to our Spring Break. We will have planting, face painting, spin art, outside games & activities, outdoor painting easels, garden stake painting, and more! Please email me if you can help out on the 3rd between about 12:20 and 1:30-- we will need many helpers to make this event a success.

Mother's Day:
Please note that I have added a new event to the calendar below. On Friday, May 8th, we will be celebrating Mother's Day in class. There is a special presentation and some light refreshments are served. I would really love every mom to be there to be celebrated, so I give lots of notice on this event. Please mark your calendars for 5/8!

Please remember to send in your child's Blue Bag Monday.

This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Return Blue Bags, Daily 5
Tuesday: Daily 5
Wednesday: Trip to the Makerspace for Hexbugs (rescheduled), P.E., Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Daily 5, Conferences Begin
Friday: Daily 5, Conferences Continue

Upcoming Events:

3/5-3/13: Parent-Teacher Conferences
Friday, 3/13: Leprechaun Trap Making in class
Monday 3/16: Professional Development Day: No School
3/25-4/01: Spring Book Fair
Friday 4/03: Spring Fling
4/06-4/10: Spring Break
Friday 5/01: Multicultural Night
Friday 5/08: Mother's Day Celebration

Week of 2/24

I hope your children have had a fabulous week off & that you were able to enjoy some family time. The upcoming month will be very busy as we celebrate the stories of Dr. Seuss, St. Patrick's Day, and prepare for conferences. I am looking forward to discussing your child's progress with you soon.

For St. Patrick's Day, we will be doing a special leprechaun trap project in class on March 13th. Please send in small boxes (cracker, tissue, cereal, etc.) and toilet paper/paper towel rolls and any other materials you think could be useful for trap building during the next few weeks! Also, I could use a few helpers on this day. We don't have centers planned on the 13th due to parent-teacher conferences, so this is a separate sign-up. We will be creating the traps from 10:25 to 11:30 on the 13th. Please email me if you'd be interested in helping with our trap building event!

Language Arts
This week, we will be looking at "silent e." We will be reading and spelling words such as rope, cube, tape, and like.  Our sight word is come. Continue reviewing those high frequency words posted on the website with your children.

Our stories this week will be books by Dr. Seuss in honor of his birthday on March 2nd. We have some fun activities and writing projects around these classic stories.

Math
We are returning to Eureka Math Module 4 to now introduce and focus on subtraction. Parent tips for helping your child with this unit can be found here. Please continue reinforcing both addition and subtraction at home.

STEAM
This Wednesday, we will make a trip to the Makerspace to work with Hexbugs. We will be building mazes out of Legos and sending the Hexbugs through the mazes to see if they can get through.

Upcoming Events
Conferences:
Parent-teacher conferences begin Thursday, March 5th.  If you have forgotten your date/time, please check this link.  Just a reminder that we will not have centers during conference time, and class dismissal is 1:15 daily through Friday the 13th.  

This Week's Helpers & Activities:Monday: Daily 5, Centers (Adam & Dave T.)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Claire & Gomathi)
Wednesday:Trip to the Makerspace, P.E., Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Lisa & Hema)
Friday: Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Sara & Carlene)

Upcoming Events:

3/5-3/13: Parent-Teacher Conferences
Friday, 3/13: Leprechaun Trap Making in class
Monday 3/16: Professional Development Day: No School
3/25-4/01: Spring Book Fair
Friday 4/03: Spring Fling
4/06-4/10: Spring Break

Week of 2/10

Thank you for the wonderful games you sent in on Wednesday for Global School Play Day. It was truly one of the best GSPDs we've celebrated in K2! We had just enough games that everyone could play a game and rotate around the room to other games. The children who brought games were great experts at teaching others how to play. We had so much fun!

This week, we have another full week with Art Vista Fish Prints, Cornerstone, and Valentine's Day. We will also be learning about the presidents in celebration of our upcoming President's Week holiday.

Thank you so much for quickly filling so many dates in the helper schedule through April! I am so amazed by the parent support in this class. There are still many openings on the calendar, most immediately for this Tuesday the 11th. If anyone can fill that, I'd appreciate it. We will be doing two different posters of presidents on that day-- an Abraham Lincoln poster/craft, as well as a George Washington poster/craft. Please join us if you can!

Assessments
Thank you to all my non-USD Extended Care families for signing up for the assessment schedule this week. I look forward to meeting with your children from 1:40 to 2:40. Pick up will be at the door at 2:40 (the gates are open at that time). Thanks again.

Fish Prints
On Monday, we will be doing a favorite lesson in Art Vistas-- fish prints! Hopefully, you all received the email from Agnieszka asking for any additional helpers, as well as reminding you to please send children in clothes that are not "favorites" as they may get paint on them in the process. Thank you very much to the Wintrup family for providing t-shirts for the class so that they can have a fish print t-shirt to take home with them (after drying). It should be a very fun lesson!

Cornerstone
We have a Cornerstone lesson on Tuesday. Thank you to Jessica for presenting these valuable lessons which help build caring and inclusive schools.

Valentine's Day:
We will celebrate Valentine's Day on Friday in class.  Remember to only have your child sign the 20 valentines and leave the "to" box blank.  This helps us save time during the distribution of valentines as it is less confusing for the children during the passing out process.  Although this is not a formal party, we will be passing out valentines and having some valentine-themed activities.

Language Arts:
This week's sound will be the vowel team oo. Students will be reading and spelling words such as too, food, book, and cool. 

Our stories this week will be books around Valentine's Day and non-fiction selections about former presidents, especially Lincoln and Washington. Our sight words this week are little and love. Keep reinforcing the sight words at home to work toward greater reading fluency. I have noticed while assessing the students that many of those who know all the sight words we've introduced are jumping up in reading levels and fluency.

Math:
We are continuing with Module 5 this week: Numbers 10-20; Count to 100 by 1s and 10s. We will be breaking teen numbers into "a ten and some ones," continuing to use number bonds and ten frames to model teen numbers as a ten and some ones, and continuing to reinforce counting to 100 by 10s and 1s, which we've been doing on a daily basis during calendar time. Parent tips for this module can be found here.

Social Studies/Science:
We will be learning about Abraham Lincoln and George Washington all week. We have many biographies to share with the children about their lives, as well as some videos on Brainpopjr.com.

We continue with STEAM Fridays. Much of the focus in STEAM has been working and collaborating with groups. Children often have to design and build things as a team. We have had many discussions in class about the importance of teamwork and sharing the materials to produce one product. On Wednesday, we will take a trip to the Makerspace to create and test zipline cars out of Legos! This Friday, we will have an activity involving the Lincoln penny in honor of President's Day.

**Please remember your child's Blue Bag on Monday. Blue Bags will not be sent home this Wednesday due to the upcoming President's Week holiday.

This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Blue Bags returned, Daily 5, Art Vistas, Centers (Tiffany H. & Hema)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Claire & ??????--help needed!)
Wednesday: Daily 5, Makerspace, P.E., Music, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Sara & Ashwin)
Friday: Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Tiffany G. & Kerby)

Upcoming Events:

Friday 2/14: Valentine's Day Family Dance 2/17-2/21: President's Week Vacation
3/5-3/13: Parent-Teacher Conferences
Monday 3/16: Professional Development Day: No School
3/25-4/01: Spring Book Fair
Friday 3/27: Alta Vista Spring Family Picnic
Friday 4/03: Spring Fling
4/06-4/10: Spring Break

Week of 2/3

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 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. Finally, I have also sent out the next round of center sign-ups that go through Spring Break. I hope to see many of you in the classroom between now and then!

Great Kindness Challenge
Last week was the "Great Kindness Challenge" in Union School District, and I was so impressed by how fully our kindergartners embraced the challenge. I encouraged the children to report the kind acts they had done during the week and then take a "kindness loop." We built a chain in our classroom as children continued adding loops through the week. Our goal was to get the chain all the way across the whiteboard, and I am pleased to say we went way beyond that! The week was very inspirational  and I hope you saw (and will continue to see) many kind acts being completed at home.

Language Arts

This week, we will focus on the sound ee as in tree, see, and bee. We will be learning the sight word are. We are now up to 30 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.

Our story this week will be The Mitten by Jan Brett. We will study some of the animals in these stories, and do some non-fiction reading and writing about them.

Math
We are continuing with Module 5 this week: Numbers 10-20; Count to 100 by 1s and 10s. We will be breaking teen numbers into "a ten and some ones," continuing to use number bonds and ten frames to model teen numbers as a ten and some ones, and continuing to reinforce counting to 100 by 10s and 1s, which we've been doing on a daily basis during calendar time. Parent tips for this module can be found here.

Upcoming Events
Alta Vista STEAM Night:
This Tuesday, February 4th, bring the whole family out to the Alta Vista Makerspace from 6:00 to 7:30 pm for an evening of STEAM! There will be many different activities both in and around the Makerspace. It is always a great evening of learning and fun.

Global Play Day:
This Wednesday is Global School Play Day. This is an opportunity for children to enjoy playing some non-electronic games together. Similar to our holiday party, please have your child bring in a game (if they'd like to-- we really only need a few games) that is easy for them to teach to other children and can be played in around 15 minutes or less.

Valentines Day:
On Friday, 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 again that 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 20 valentines so that there are enough for each child in the class. We have 9 girls and 11 boys. 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 Monday, Blue Bags in hand!

This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Blue Bags returned, Daily 5, Centers (Tiffany & Doreen)
Tuesday: Daily 5, Centers (Claire & Jessica)
Wednesday: Daily 5, P.E., Global School Play Day, Music, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Daily 5, Centers (Gomathi & Ashwin)
Friday: Daily 5, STEAM Centers (Carlene & Hema)

Upcoming Events:

1/28-2/01: Frozen Play presented by AV Drama Club
Tuesday 2/04: STEAM Night @ 6:00
Wednesday 2/05: Global Play Day
Friday 2/14: Valentine's Day Family Dance
2/17-2/21: President's Week Vacation
3/5-3/13: Parent-Teacher Conferences
Monday 3/16: Professional Development Day: No School