Week of 11/30

 I hope you've all been enjoying a wonderful week off & took advantage of some time away from the screens! We have a few special things this week, including the launch of our Art Vistas program and a Cornerstone lesson. Because of these different activities, which we will do during our 11;00 meeting, we will not have sharing this week.

Grasshopper Spirit Day

Our last Grasshopper t-shirt Spirit Day was a success! It was great to see everyone on Zoom wearing their class t-shirts. Let's do another one this Wednesday the 2nd.

Curriculum This Week

Word Family: ap

Sight Words: big & in

Math: Continuing with addition

Science: Studying owls & squirrels

STEAM: Hour of Code: Introduction to coding using Kodable app

Word Families

This week's word family is ap.  We will use this ending to build words such as: sap, cap, rap, gap and lap. **If your child has still not mastered all letter sounds, please provide additional reinforcement by using apps such as Starfall and Khan Kids, and additional minutes on Lexia outside of class time.

Sight Words

We have now learned 19 of our 40+ sight words. The words we have introduced are: I, see, my, like, at, to, the, a, go, is, me, look, he, no, it, up, can, big, in. If you feel your child needs additional sight word reinforcement, all the words we will be covering this year and more are in the big plastic bag from the original materials. They are on pink card stock. We will be learning all words through level D (the level is at the top of each card). You can also find all words we've introduced so far this year on my website, in the tab titled "High Frequency Word List."

ELA Small Group Materials

• Sight word sentence pack-- "up" is the last word in the first pack & we will start the 2nd pack after the break.
• Warm Up Pack (When I Come to a Tricky Word I Can...is on the front) Butterfly group needs the "Sound Up" chart
• Whiteboard, marker, eraser
• This week, we will continue to use the "Sound Boxes" page in the sleeve in your child's language arts folder.

Math Small Group Materials

• Monday & Tuesday: This page, for our monthly number writing assessment. Please remember to have your child upload the page after our lesson into their SeeSaw slides.
• Wednesday & Thursday: This page, called "Find Friends of 10," which should be in a stapled together pack of similar-looking pages. Please note that there are 2 pages like this & this one says "Reinforce" under the title and has numbers on one side of the boxes. Children will also need a pencil and paperclip for this. No plastic sleeve needed. 
• All Days: Flat marbles, whiteboard, marker, eraser

Hour of Code

This week, we will begin using a coding app called Kodable to introduce students to the concept of coding in preparation for Hour of Code, a worldwide movement that officially launches next week. Many of the iPads already have been logged into Kodable with my classroom code, but many haven't. Our class code is: pmu3y9b. If your child's Kodable app is not connected with our classroom code, you can find a tutorial on how to do that (the same one your children will be viewing on Monday) here. Please get your child set up with Kodable in advance so that they can use this app on Monday. 

Art Vista

As mentioned previously we will begin the Art Vista program this week on Friday! Children will view a recorded lesson in SeeSaw presented by our fabulous docents, who will be showing famous prints depicting trains. Students will be looking for a particular feature (primary colors, lines, foreground, background, etc.) in each painting. Then they apply what they've learned in the lesson to an art project we will do at our 11:00 Zoom on Friday, so please make sure they watch the video in the morning on SeeSaw. Our first lesson involves using a variety of shapes to create a train. A HUGE thank you again to Faye, who prepared shapes for everyone in the class to use for this project!! If you'd like to cut some additional shapes ahead of the lesson with your child, feel free to do so. 

Materials Pick-Up

We will be doing another materials pick-up on Tuesday, December 8th from 12:00 to 12:30 in the Alta Vista kindergarten parking lot.

Upcoming Events

Wednesday, 12/2: Grasshopper t-shirt day

Tuesday, 12/8: Materials pick-up at noon

12/21-1/3: Winter Break

Week of 11/16

I am looking forward to seeing all the wonderful turkey projects this week during sharing. From what I've seen so far in SeeSaw, I am very excited to hear about all the turkeys your children decorated! Please see the sharing schedule to make sure your child is prepared for his/her sharing day.

Lunch Bunch

Lunch bunch is back this week! I have reorganized the groups so that everyone can get to know a few new people in this small, informal atmosphere. Children who attend the DLSC can join us as soon as they arrive home.

Grasshopper Spirit Day

Now that we have those great class t-shirts, let's all wear them this Wednesday the 18th! Show your Grasshopper spirit by wearing your t-shirt on Zoom!

Curriculum This Week

Word Family: at

Sight Word: up

Math: Continuing with addition

Social Science: Learning about Diwali & Thanksgiving

Science: Studying turkeys

STEAM: Design your own game (assigned Friday)

Word Families

We have now learned all letters and letter sounds. Although we will continue to review them, we are now moving onto blending the sounds to read words. We will start this week with the word family at. We will use this ending to build words such as: sat, cat, rat, mat. **If your child has still not mastered all letter sounds, please provide additional reinforcement by using apps such as Starfall and Khan Kids, and additional minutes on Lexia outside of class time.

Sight Words

We have now learned 17 of our 40+ sight words. The words we have introduced are: I, see, my, like, at, to, the, a, go, is, me, look, he, no, it, up, can. If you feel your child needs additional sight word reinforcement, all the words we will be covering this year and more are in the big plastic bag from the original materials. They are on pink card stock. We will be learning all words through level D (the level is at the top of each card). You can also find all words we've introduced so far this year on my website, in the tab titled "High Frequency Word List."

ELA Small Group Materials

• Sight word sentence pack-- "up" is the last word in the first pack & we will start the 2nd pack after the break.
• Warm Up Pack (When I Come to a Tricky Word I Can...is on the front) Butterfly group needs the "Sound Up" chart
• Whiteboard, marker, eraser
• This week, please add the "Sound Boxes" page in the sleeve in your child's language arts folder.

Math Small Group Materials

• Monday & Tuesday: This page, which I believe is at the front of the stapled pack of math pages from the last pick-up. Please note that the number path at the top goes to 12. Please have it in a plastic sleeve. Also have dice.
• Wednesday & Thursday: This page, which was in the same pack. Please have this page in a plastic sleeve, as well as a paperclip.
• All Days: Flat marbles, whiteboard, marker, eraser

Art Vista

As mentioned in an email last week, we will begin the Art Vista program the week after Thanksgiving. For those of you new to Alta Vista, Art Vista is a wonderful art program where children look at prints of famous paintings, looking for a particular feature (primary colors, lines, foreground, background, etc.). Then they apply what they've learned in the lesson to an art project we will do at our 11:00 Zoom. Our first lesson involves using a variety of shapes to create a train. A HUGE thank you to Faye, who prepared shapes for everyone in the class to use for this project!! Please keep the shapes in a safe place until the week of 11/30.

Upcoming Events

Wednesday, 11/18: Grasshopper t-shirt day

11/23-11/27: Thanksgiving Break

12/21-1/3: Winter Break

Monday, 1/4: Begin in-person learning

Week of 11/9

Sharing was a success last week! Thank you for helping your children get ready for their presentations. This is a four day week, with a break in the middle of the week for Veterans Day on the 11th. We will adjust the sharing schedule accordingly:

Monday: Zahra, William, Shubham, Declan, Vivi, Maxwell

Tuesday: Sia, Shannon, Louisa, Neev, Natalie, Marco

Thursday: Katerina, Graysen, Ethan, Bree, Avery, Maya

Friday: Alton, Andy, Angelo, Arya, Lucas, Kaeya

This week's sharing topic is sharing a favorite book. Please have children prepared to tell the title of the book, a bit about what it's about, and have a page bookmarked for them to show a favorite part of the story.

Schedule Change

Due to the holiday on Wednesday, those math groups that normally meet with me on that day (Spheres, Cubes, and Cylinders) will meet with me at the same time as they do on Wednesday, but on Friday instead.

Special Project

In your last materials pick-up, there was a project titled "Turkey Disguise Project" and had three pages clipped together. This project will be officially assigned on Thursday on the SeeSaw board, but you may want to review the directions over the weekend that are on the front page of the project, because you may wish to purchase additional materials for the turkey disguise. This project is 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. 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 the 9X12 piece of orange construction paper, which was provided. Here are some pictures of  sample projects I found on Pinterest:

This project is an annual favorite, and is always an at-home assignment. The project will be officially assigned over two days-- children will do the craft on Thursday and the writing on Friday. The following week (week of 11/16), children will share their turkeys on their sharing day. Have fun disguising those turkeys!

Curriculum This Week

Letters of the Week: Yy & Zz-- we are done with the alphabet & will now be moving onto blending sounds to read & write words, starting with CVC words (consonant-vowel-consonant like cat, pig, dog, etc.

Sight words: no & my

Math Concept: Continuing with addition 

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 still 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 was in the most recent materials bag. Please note that there are two similar pages, and this one has 7, 8, 9, 10 at the top. 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.

Thursday & Friday: Continue to have this page, a dry erase marker, dice, the yellow/red foam counters, and remove the page we used on Monday & Tuesday so that the Ten Frames are on the back again.

Upcoming Events

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