Week of 8/29

We made it through our first 5-day week in kindergarten! Everyone is adjusting to the new routines well and making new friends.

Language Arts
We launched the Fundations program last week, and the children are doing so well with learning the routines and language of Fundations. As stated last week, a big focus is learning the correct formation of letters, hand-in-hand with learning their sounds. Handwriting serves to link visual processing with motor experience, facilitating subsequent letter recognition skills. The expectation is that by the end of the first trimester (early November) students know all their letters & sounds.

We worked on a book last week where we practiced correct name-writing every day. Continue to encourage your children to write their name using only one upper-case letter.

Math
Over the next few weeks, we will introduce numbers 1-10. We will learn how to write them correctly, and learn different ways to represent their value. For more information on this math module, please see the parent tips here.  

Afternoon Assessments
In order to best support your children in their learning, I will be assessing them in the upcoming weeks so that I can group them appropriately for both reading groups and math groups. In order to do this, I will need you to bring your child back to school after dismissal for a one-on-one assessment. However, if your child attends USD Extended Care, please do not sign up for these assessments, because I will be working with students over there. For everyone else, please see the sign-up I sent via email to choose a time during the weeks after Labor Day to bring your children back to school for a brief assessment. 

Wednesday Envelopes

This Wednesday, you will receive your child's first "Wednesday Envelope." Since most communications from the school are now online, this will mostly contain completed work from the classroom. Please look this over to see any areas where your child may need additional support. Every Thursday, please return the empty envelope to school so that we can send their work home each Wednesday in that envelope.

Snacks
I am still noticing several students with too many snack items to manage during our 10 minute snack time. This week, we will start really tightening up our timeline, so please pack a snack that can be consumed in 10 minutes. Please also work with your children on opening snack wrappers and snack boxes independently. Some of them have really fancy bento boxes that they are unable to open on their own and will need to learn how to do this, especially once we start staying for lunch.

AVHSC CAGE Drive

As presented at Back-to-School Night, the Alta Vista Home & School Club needs you! All the enrichment programs at our school need parent volunteers, as well as financial support. The kindergarten classes have a long-standing tradition of winning the CAGE Drive competition by getting the most families to join & support the AVHSC. Please support the wonderful enrichment programs at our school by going to this link. In looking over our volunteers so far, we have a lot of holes! We need a head room parent, more Art Vista Docents, a Clay program leader, a library reader coordinator (this can be done from home & just involves scheduling parents to come in weekly to read a story to us at library time), and Cornerstone volunteers. Please check out the link above & volunteer if you can! If you need more information about any of the volunteer positions, feel free to email me. 

 

Class Book 

We just started circulating a new class book, where each child contributed a page in a Chicka Boom Boom-themed book. When your child brings it home, it will be in a large white envelope. Please read the book with your child, write a short comment in the back of the book, and return it to school the next school day so that every child can have a turn with the book as soon as possible.  

 

Upcoming Events

Friday, 9/2: Staff Development Day, no school

Monday, 9/5: Labor Day, no school

Friday, 9/9 @ 6:00: Alta Vista Outdoor Movie Night

Week of 8/22

We had a great first week reading books about showing respect and following rules, and we did a few fun art projects to go along with those books. On Friday, we enjoyed the stories, The King of Kindergarten and The Queen of Kindergarten, and made crowns afterward so that we could all be Queens/Kings of Kindergarten. That means that we brighten up every room we enter, we are always caring and kind, and we are helpful. This group seems to be off to a great start as Kings & Queens of kindergarten!

Fundations 

This week, we will begin the Fundations reading program. This will be an orientation week, where we will learn about some of the tools in Fundations. The program has a big focus on handwriting, and we will learn about letters that touch the sky line, the plane line, the grass line, and the worm line. We will also meet Echo the Owl, who helps promote student responses. A bit more about the program can be found here.

Handwriting/Name Writing This week, we will begin focusing on names and letters. We will be creating a book where children will practice writing their names correctly using different tools, One of our kindergarten standards is writing a name with one capital letter and the rest lower-case. I encourage you to reinforce this at home-- we try to drop the all-capital letter name writing as quickly as possible. The faster children can write their names correctly, the easier it is for them to get going on assignments, as we encourage them to write their names first. I appreciate your help with this.

We will also be reading the book, Chika Chika Boom Boom and doing some crafts and a STEAM project around this theme.

Scissor Skills/Fine Motor Tubs
Next week, we will launch our "fine motor tubs," which we work on first thing in the morning. Starting Monday, children will go straight into the classroom (no need to line up after I open the door-- just come right in) and start working on their tubs. Your children will want to come early so that they can get started on these tubs, as these are always very popular! They are a great way for us to sneak in some fine motor strengthening activities while having fun. One skill we will be focusing on is scissor skills. We have noticed that this is another skill that has been quite difficult for a number of students. Continue practicing scissor skills at home by drawing lines on papers to have your children cut on different types of lines, and insuring your child is holding scissors the correct way.

School Gates
Starting on Monday, all gates into the school will no longer be open before 8:05. This means that if you arrive before 8:05, you will have to wait at the front of the school or in the parking lot. The gates will be open from 8:05 to 8:15, and then they will be closed until dismissal time. If you arrive after the gates are closed, you will need to go into the office for a tardy slip before you can get onto campus. For security reasons, please do not prop the gate open or hold the gate for others coming in after the 8:15 bell has rung. 

 **For your upcoming scheduling: There is no school on Friday, September 2nd or Monday the 5th.

I am looking forward to another fun week with your children!