Week of 11/2

I hope you all had a nice Halloween weekend and found some way to enjoy it with your children. Thank you to Faye for preparing the craft for our Halloween Zoom party on Friday! It was a hit, as were the cute ghost lollipops. It was a fun week, and the party was a great send-off to Halloween weekend.

Sharing

This week will be a little more quiet! The main thing to prepare for this week is the start of sharing time. For this week, I'd like the children to hide a toy in a bag (or it can just be out of view of the Zoom screen) and come prepared with 3 clues about what is in the bag. For example, if I had a teddy bear, I might say: "It is brown. It has a bow on its neck. It has paws." Then, the class gets to try and guess what is in the bag. Have your child write clues that make it possible for us to guess, ie: not all color clues (It's brown, it's black, it's white-- could be almost anything.) Here is our sharing schedule for this month. Zahra, William, Vivi, Declan, and Shubham should be prepared to share on Monday.

Curriculum This Week

Letters of the Week: Ww and Xx

Sight Words: it & look

Math Concept: Addition/Decomposing (5 is made up of 3 & 2, 1 & 4, etc.)

Small Groups

It is extremely important for your child to be ready to go once their small group time begins. We only have 15 minutes and it goes by quickly. We waste a lot of time waiting for children to go get their materials. Please prepare your child ahead of time for their small group instruction by having their materials at their table. The reading items rarely change-- the warm-up pack (When I Come to a Tricky Word I Can.... is on the cover), the sight word pack, and a whiteboard & marker are always needed. The math materials do change, so please check for what your child will need. 

Math Small Groups

Monday & Tuesday: Students will need this page (originally found in left-hand pocket of math folder. Has ten frames on back). Please have the page in a sleeve so we can use it with a dry erase marker. Students will also need this page, which is in a pack in last Monday's bag. This page also needs to be in a sleeve (can be on the reverse side of the above page, on top of 10 frames). Please also have a paperclip, dice, a dry erase marker, and the bag of flat marbles.

Wednesday & Thursday: Continue to have this page, a dry erase marker, dice, flat marbles, a paperclip, and also add this page.

Upcoming Events

Friday 11/6: End of trimester

Tuesday 11/10: Report cards emailed

Wednesday 11/11: Veteran's Day, No School

11/23-11/27: Thanksgiving Break

12/21-1/3: Winter Break

Week of 10/26

Happy Halloween week! There is a lot going on this week, including a school-wide Spirit Week, so I have broken this email up by day so that you know what materials your child will need each day, and what special activities there are. Please keep this email handy (or check the website) because it truly is a packed week! 

FYI on Spirit Weeks: they are totally optional, but a fun way to show your Alta Vista spirit. I encourage your children to participate if they can.

Letters of the week: Uu & Vv

Sight Words: see & he

Math Concepts: Counting on, counting by 10s

Monday, AV Spirit Day: Silly Hat Day

ELA Small groups: need sight word pack, reading warm-up pack, whiteboard & marker, dice

Math Small Groups: need this page which can be found in this pack. You may want to tear it out of the pack, as we will be doing both sides.

Materials Pick-Up at 12:30-1:00: Update: due to roadwork around the school, please check your email before you come to school. There is a chance that we may need to move the location from the kindergarten parking lot (corner of Westchester & Blossom Valley, where our last pick-up was), depending on which streets are closed due to roadwork. We will keep you posted. Please have your child's name in the passenger-side windshield-- it really helps us to keep the line moving. Please bring these items to turn in:

• The above math assessment that they will be doing on Monday, or did on Friday. (I already collected from children who attend DLSC)
• The October self-portrait, which they will also be doing Monday morning
• The September self-portrait (says, "This is me in September" at the top)
• The two math assessments that we did in September: one on this page and the number writing assessment that we do monthly on this page.
• Two different pieces of writing (your child's choice) that they've done during writing time. The one that starts: I can go to... and the one that we did last week (I like...) are good choices.

After you pick up the bag, this video will help you see what should be in the bag, and how to organize it. **If your child attends the DLSC, I will give them their bags when they are leaving the DLSC & save you a trip back to AV, however, please bring the above items to turn in when you pick up your child. 

Tuesday, AV Spirit Day: Crazy Hair Day

ELA Small Groups: same as Monday

Math Small Groups: canceled due to special presentation

Special Presentation at 10:30: California Academy of Science livestream of "Mission to the Moon." The link for this presentation is can be found on your child's SeeSaw activities board. If there are any problems getting into this presentation, like the Pierre the Penguin program, I will also be on Zoom streaming it as a screen share. Children can either join my Zoom at 10:30, or click on their link in SeeSaw. Hopefully, it works this time!

11:00 Zoom: We will be doing a craft together on Zoom that goes with the story, Creepy Carrots. The materials for the craft will be in Monday's bag, and look like this. Please have them bring the paper pack to the 11:00 Zoom.

Wednesday, AV Spirit Day: Pajama Day

ELA Small Groups: same as Monday

Math Small Groups: Please bring this paper for our monthly number writing assessment and their whiteboard & marker.

11:00 Zoom: Bring a small, decorative pumpkin and a large bowl of water for a science observation on what will sink & float. We will test the pumpkin and anything else your child would like to test in the water such as: an apple, an orange or tangerine, Legos, coins, etc. **Children who go to the DLSC should just bring their pumpkin. The DLSC will provide the tub for sinking & floating.

Thursday, AV Spirit Day: Pumpkin Decorating

ELA Small Groups: same as Monday

Math Small Groups: Please bring this paper for our monthly number writing assessment plus whiteboard & marker

11:00 Zoom: OPTIONAL: bring a pumpkin that is cut open to explore the parts of the pumpkin. Otherwise, just observe on Zoom as I dissect a pumpkin. Please bring this page (will be in Monday's bag) to the Zoom so that you can follow along and write down the parts of a pumpkin. If you do bring an actual pumpkin to the Zoom, you can decorate or carve it afterward and send your pumpkin picture to Mrs. Bailey for the Spirit Week album.

Friday, AV Spirit Day: Halloween Costume (send pics to Mrs. Bailey's album)

ELA Small Groups: same as Monday

No Math Small Groups

11:00 Zoom: Come in your costume or paint your face & be prepared to do a craft! We will be making a bat hat together, and the craft supplies are in Monday's materials bag.  **The googly eyes for this craft are in the goody bag tied to the craft. Please be careful when your child opens the goody bag so the eyes don't get lost. See the video about the contents of the bag (linked above) to see what you are looking for. This Zoom will go into the lunch hour so that we can share our costumes, hear a Halloween story, do the craft, and have some Halloween fun!

**Please note that I had said previously that we would start sharing this week. Due to our packed week, we will not start sharing until next week.

Upcoming Events
Monday 10/26: Materials Pick-Up 12:30-1:00
Friday 10/30: Halloween Zoom @ 11:00. Wear your costume or paint your face & we'll do a craft together!                   

 Friday 11/6: End of trimester
Wednesday 11/11: No School: Veteran's Day
11/23-11/27: Thanksgiving Break

Week of 10/19

I hope you have been enjoying a nice long weekend. We have a couple of busy weeks upon us, so I hope your children are able to enjoy some screen-free time.

Pumpkin Week

For the next two weeks, we will be studying pumpkins in class. We will take a look at the life cycle of a pumpkin and also the parts of the pumpkin. We have many wonderful pumpkin books to share, both fiction and non-fiction. Similar to apple week, if you could purchase one small-sized pumpkin (pumpkin pie sized or the small, decorative pumpkins) for an activity we are doing on Zoom the week of 10/26, I'd appreciate it. 

Lunch Bunch

The lunch bunch meetings went well last week in the small group format. I look forward to our second week of lunch bunch this week. We will take a break from lunch bunch after this week for a couple of weeks, as I will be doing some more assessments for report cards. When lunch bunch returns, your child will be with a new group of children.

Writing

For the past month-plus, we have been having weekly writing lessons 2-3 times per week. In class, this would be a writing center that the children also would go to 2-3 times per week. Writing is a very difficult skill to teach, especially virtually, and the key to getting better (as with all things) is practice. Please have your children watch the videos that are attached to the writing assignments. They are different every time, and they often are a 2 or 3 part lesson. What we are working toward is writing 2-3 sentences to a prompt. Each time we have a writing assignment, they should be adding more to their story or picture. The lesson usually entails starting a prompt that has many sight words in it, and writing that right along with me. Then, children must end their sentence with a word they select AND spell on their own. I have said this many times at parent meetings and in previous emails-- please encourage your children to spell phonetically, even if they are only able to write a beginning sound at this point. If you are always spelling for them, they will not learn how letter sounds apply to spelling, nor will they practice blending, and these are both important skills in reading and writing. If your child is struggling with writing independently and completing these writing assignments, I highly recommend that you have them come to office hours for additional assistance.

Cornerstone

We have another Cornerstone lesson this week! This week's story is Giraffes Can't Dance, which is about a giraffe who desperately wants to dance. When encouraged by a friend, he is finally able to get out there and dance to his own tune. The children will hear the story on Tuesday in SeeSaw & discuss it on Wednesday at our 11:00 meeting. Thank you Matt & Danielle for presenting.

Small Group Supplies This Week

ELA small groups (insect-named groups between 8:50 and 9:45) will continue to need:

• the reading warm-up pack (with "When I come to a tricky word, I can... on the cover)
• the sight word sentences pack-- we will be doing both "can" and "go" this week
• whiteboard, marker, and eraser

Math small groups (shape-named groups between 10:05 and 10:55) will need:

• the baggie of flat marbles
  
• whiteboard, marker, and eraser
  

This Week in Class

• We will be learning about pumpkins
• We will learn the letters Ss and Tt
• We will introduce two sight words: is & like
• We will continue working on the concept more, less, and equal in math
• A reminder that there is no school on Monday 10/19

Office Hours
Office Hours are on Tuesdays & Thursdays from 12:00 to 1:00. If your child is having difficulty with a particular assignment, you need a question answered, or any other reason that you'd like some one-on-one time, please feel free to pop in. The Zoom link is open, and there is no need to schedule in advance. You may have to wait in the waiting room if I am with another student, but if someone is waiting, I will try to make sure it's not for more than 10 minutes. 

Materials Pick-Up
We will have another materials pick-up on Monday, October 26th, from 12;30 to 1:00. Please come to the kindergarten parking lot (close to the corner of Westchester & Blossom Valley), just like last month, and swing through the parking lot to pick up another bag of supplies. Having your child's name in the passenger-side windshield really helps to keep the line moving so that I can grab the bag in advance of approaching the car. At that time, I'd also like for your child to turn in:

• Their "This is Me in September" self-portrait
• The two math assessments that we did in September: one on this page and the number writing assessment that we do monthly on this page.
• Two different pieces of writing (your child's choice) that they've done during writing time. The one that we did last week (I can go to...) and the one that we're doing this week (I like...) are good choices.
  

Upcoming Events
Monday 10/19: No School                                                                                                             Wednesday 10/21: Cornestone presentation
Monday 10/26: Materials Pick-Up 12:30-1:00
Friday 10/30: Halloween Zoom @ 11:00. Wear your costume or paint your face & we'll do a craft together!                                                                                                                                                  Friday 11/6: Report cards emailed home
Wednesday 11/11: No School: Veteran's Day
11/23-11/27: Thanksgiving Break

Week of 10/12

Thank you again for sharing how things are going with Distance Learning with me and collaborating with me to help make the most out of this for your children. Based on our meetings, here are some things that have changed or will be added to the program:

• YouTube links are now embedded and as ad-free as possible
• SeeSaw assignments are sent out earlier in the morning (6 a.m.)
• A document was emailed as a quick reference to how to access apps
• Assigned sharing days will begin the week of October 26th, where children will have an opportunity to share on Zoom about a given topic (more to come as we get closer to the date).
• We will have daily lunch bunch groups this week & next in smaller groups vs. the whole class. The schedule for the next two weeks can be found here. This will give children a chance to socialize in a smaller group, and hopefully get to know one another better. When I do the next rotation of small groups, I will change around the groups.

Small Group Supplies This Week
ELA small groups (insect-named groups between 8:50 and 9:45) will continue to need:

• the reading warm-up pack (with "When I come to a tricky word, I can... on the cover)
• the sight word sentences pack-- we will be doing both "can" and "go" this week
• whiteboard, marker, and eraser

Math small groups (shape-named groups between 10:05 and 10:55) will need:

• this packet: There is some advanced prep with this! Please cut the numbers out that are attached to the pack over the weekend. Please also place the top page in the plastic sleeve that is in the left-side of the math folder. You can just place it over the top of the pages that are already in the sleeve.
• Playdoh

This Week in Class

• We will be learning about firefighters and fire safety
• We will learn the letters Qq and Rr
• We will introduce two sight words: can & go
• We will be working on the concept more & less in math
• A reminder that there is no school on Friday, 10/16 or Monday 10/19

Office Hours
Office Hours will return this week on Tuesdays & Thursdays from 12:00 to 1:00. If your child is having difficulty with a particular assignment, you need a question answered, or any other reason that you'd like some one on one time, please feel free to pop in. The Zoom link is open, and there is no need to schedule in advance. You may have to wait in the waiting room if I am with another student, but if someone is waiting, I will try to make sure it's not for more than 10 minutes. 

Materials Pick-Up
We will have another materials pick-up on Monday, October 26th, from 12;30 to 1:00. Please come to the kindergarten parking lot (close to the corner of Westchester & Blossom Valley), just like last month, and swing through the parking lot to pick up another bag of supplies. Having your child's name in the passenger-side windshield really helps to keep the line moving so that I can grab the bag in advance of approaching the car. We will ask you to turn some things in again, like last time. I will send out the list as we get closer to the 26th. 

Upcoming Events
Friday 10/16: No School, Staff Professional Development Day
Monday 10/19: No School
Monday 10/26: Materials Pick-Up 12:30-1:00
Friday 10/30: Halloween Zoom @ 11:00. Wear your costume or paint your face & we'll do a craft together!
Wednesday 11/11: No School: Veteran's Day
11/23-11/27: Thanksgiving Break

Week of 10/5

I have enjoyed meeting with many of you, and it has been very informational for me. I look forward to meeting with the rest of you throughout this week.

Schedule Change

Due to parent-teacher conferences, there are no small group meetings this week between 10:05 & 11:00 (math groups). The ELA small groups between 8:50 and 9:45 will continue with no change. 

Virtual Field Trip

I am excited to share that we will have our first virtual field trip this Friday! We are "heading" to the California Academy of Sciences for a program called Pierre the Penguin. This will be a YouTube livestream at 10:00 to 10:30. The link will be posted to their SeeSaw activity board on Friday. It should be a wonderful program! Please note that the penguin featured in the livestream story, Pierre, died in 2016. Children will be informed during the presentation that Pierre lived a long and full life at the Academy of Sciences, but that he has passed away.

Leaf Study

We will be studying leaves this week, and reading some great books about leaves and Fall, both fiction and non-fiction. We will also be viewing some great science videos about leaves. We have a few activities this week where children will collect leaves for a project. Just giving you a heads-up in case you'd like to collect some leaves in advance. The first project will be on Monday.

In Class This Week

We will be:

• learning the letters & sounds of Oo & Pp
• learning the sight word am
• continuing to work on counting, numeral writing, and 10 frames in math
• studying leaves

Upcoming Events

Monday 10/5-Friday 10/9: Parent-Teacher Goal Setting Meetings

Friday 10/16: No School: Staff Professional Development Day

Monday 10/19: No School

Wednesday 11/11: No School: Veteran's Day

11/23-11/27: Thanksgiving Break