Week of 11/29

I hope everyone is enjoying a nice week off, and you were able to enjoy some time with friends and family. We will be getting back to our regular schedule again, and are excited to have parents back in the classroom for the next two weeks for classroom centers. We have just three short & busy weeks before we will be headed off for winter break-- it will go by quickly! 

Language Arts 

We have now introduced all letters and letter sounds. As mentioned during conferences, we will now be moving onto using our phonics skills to sound out words. We will begin right away this week with what we call CVC words (consonant-vowel-consonant). We will be blending different CVC words daily in our Fundations lessons. There are some really great resources and ideas for working with your children in this week's Fundations Family Letter. We will also begin a quick review of upper case letter formation, with several letters covered per day. This week, we will cover the formation of letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H. Our sight words this week are into and ran. 

 

We will also begin focusing much more on sentence writing in the upcoming trimester. We have completed our drawing unit, and we will begin a labeling unit. Children will draw pictures and label things in the picture using phonetic spelling. They will learn to slowly stretch out words by listening to the individual sounds. Please encourage your children in their efforts to spell phonetically.

Our literature this week will focus on owls. We will read both fiction and nonfiction stories about owls, and put together our own sentence and booklet about owl facts.

Math
In math, we will begin a short unit on measurement that will take us up to Winter Break. We will be comparing length, weight, and capacity. Parent tips for this module can be found here.

Kimochis

Thanks to the generous donation of a family in our class, we have two new Kimochis joining our class this week, Bella Rose and Clover. Bella Rose is sensitive and sweet. Being sensitive can be a blessing, but sometimes it can be a challenge. When Bella Rose’s feelings get hurt, she tends to close up. Clover is a four-leafed clover with bad luck. He’s a bit absent-minded, but always means well and has a great sense of humor. We look forward to getting to know these two new Kimochis!

 

Nutcracker

Looking ahead on your calendars at this busy time of year, I wanted to make sure that you are all marking your calendars for Wednesday, December 14th at 9:15 a.m.-- our performance of The Nutcracker. This is something that you will not want to miss. This week, you will receive a note in your child's Wednesday envelope, telling you what their part will be in the show, and what items you may need to round up for your child to wear for the performance. We don't want you to have to buy anything. If you are in need of a leotard, I have many leotards from when my daughter was a kindergartner that you are welcome to borrow. Please contact us if you are having trouble getting any of the clothes for the performance.

 

Reminders

**P.E. is every Monday-- please send your children in shoes & clothes appropriate for fitness.

**Library is every Wednesday. Please send your child's book back to school by Tuesday each week.

**Grasshopper t-shirt day is Friday each week.

 

This Week's Helpers & Activities 

Monday: PE in the OT Room (wear shoes you can easily take on & off)

Tuesday: Centers (Fadime & Mallory)

Wednesday: Library (Bora & Brittny), dismissal @ 1:15

Thursday: Return Weds. envelopes, centers (Marina & Shereen)

Friday: Art Vistas (Lauren D., Michael I., Shereen, Natharin), Centers (Azra & Jessica)

 

Upcoming Events 

Wednesday, 12/14: Nutcracker Performance @ 9:15

12/19-1/2: Winter Break

Monday, 1/16: No School: MLK Day

Monday, 1/30: No School: Professional Development Day

Week of 11/14

I hope you are all enjoying a long weekend. In the upcoming week, we will continue parent-teacher conferences through Thursday. I have enjoyed meeting with many of you so far, and have gained some great insights about your children from you. Thank you for meeting with me and being such active participants in your child's education. I look forward to meeting with the rest of you this week. For this week, early dismissal at 1:15 continues through Friday.

There will be no classroom centers again this week, due to the early dismissal. Centers will resume on Tuesday the 29th.

Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day

Monday is Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day. This is a schoolwide event. Please help us acknowledge the difference made by this young kindergartener by wearing purple and/or walking to school. 

Friendship Feast

We are looking forward to seeing everyone at our Friendship Feast on 11/18 at 10:00.  A few reminders:

• Similar to the Halloween parade, you must go through the office & scan your license to enter campus. You may want to come in early when you're on campus in the morning or during conferences to pre-register. Although the line won't be as long as for Halloween, since only kindergarten is involved in this event, you still want to allow plenty of time to get through the office (if not pre-registered) since we will be doing a brief performance right at 10:00.
• Please do not enter the cafeteria before we bring the children in. They will be forming a large open rectangle for their performance of a couple of songs. It will be best for you to wait until we get in position so that you can choose where you stand around the outside of that rectangle, based on the location of your child.
• Please remember to label all dishes & servingware that you bring to this event, especially if you have to leave early. If you stay until the end, please take your dishes with you when you leave. Thank you!
• Please do not send in any dishes with peanuts or tree nuts. Thank you!

Language Arts

This week, we will wrap up the introduction of all letters with Qq and Zz. If you notice that your child does not recognize all upper & lower case letters, as well as know all letter sounds, please provide additional reinforcement at home. To help your child form this week's letters correctly, please see the Fundations Family Letter. In this week's newsletter, there is also an activity to review all letters and their sounds. Our sight words this week are run and big. For a list of the 21 sight words (also called high frequency words) we've introduced so far, as well as all words we'll be studying this year, please see the class website. Again, if you notice that your child is not able to read these sight words, please continue working on them at home.

This week, children will be sharing the turkeys that they disguised. They will do a little presentation in front of the class where they will talk about their turkey. After Thanksgiving, we will begin circulating a book of all the turkey projects so that you can enjoy them at home with your child.

Math
In math this week, we will continue reviewing all concepts we've covered so far. We will begin a new unit on measurement after Thanksgiving.

Cornerstone & Clay

We have two activities from Alta Vista's enrichment programs scheduled for this week. On Tuesday, we will have a Project Cornerstone lesson. This program helps foster the development of SEL skills such as inclusion, diversity, tolerance, problem solving, respect, and conflict resolution. Thank you to Shereen for presenting these lessons this year. On Thursday, we will be glazing our clay projects that we made in early October. Please do not send your children in any "favorite" clothes on Thursday, as the clay glaze stains. Thank you to Marina, Yufi, Ruby, and Mike M. for helping with the clay program. 

Nutcracker
Looking ahead on your calendars at this busy time of year, I wanted to make sure that you all mark your calendars for Wednesday, December 14th at 9:15 a.m.-- our performance of The Nutcracker. This is an annual kindergarten favorite. If you are heading out of town that week and your child won't be at school on the 14th, please let me know so that I can plan parts accordingly.

Reminders
**P.E. is every Monday-- please send your children in shoes & clothes appropriate for fitness. (PE is canceled this week due to the shortened days)
**Library is every Wednesday. Please send your child's book back to school by Tuesday each week

**Grasshopper t-shirt days are every Friday.

This Week's Helpers & Activities:

Monday: Dismissal @ 1:15

Tuesday: Cornerstone (Shereen), No centers, dismissal @ 1:15

Wednesday: Library (Bora & Katy), dismissal @ 1:15

Thursday: Clay (Marina, Yufi, Mike M., Ruby), No centers, dismissal @ 1:15

Friday: Friendship Feast @ 10:00, no centers, dismissal @ 1:15

Upcoming Events

1/14-11/17: Parent-Teacher Conferences continue

Friday, 11/18: Friendship Feast @ 10:00

11/21-11/25: Thanksgiving Break

Wednesday, 12/14: Nutcracker Performance @ 9:15

12/19-1/2: Winter Break

Week of 11/7

I am looking forward to meeting with everyone in the upcoming two weeks! Remember that for the next two weeks, dismissal will be at 1:15 daily. If you need to check your conference time, you can find it in your email. Please note that this sign-up can no longer be edited. If you need to reschedule your conference, please email me.  

Special Family Project

I am excited to see all the decorated turkeys this week! You can start sending those in on Monday, but no later than Wednesday. Remember that Wednesday envelopes will go home on Tuesday the 8th this week, so if you'd like to send your child's turkey back in the envelope on Wednesday, that would be perfect.

Classroom Help

I've added a few more dates on the Sign-Up Genius for centers in December. I've decided to do an additional week of centers in December, the week of 12/5. Please see the Sign-Up Genius if you are interested.

Friendship Feast

Thank you for signing up so quickly to help out and bring items for our Friendship Feast on 11/18 at 10:00. Several people were very generous with their time and food donations! If anyone who signed up for multiple things would like to drop out of an item, that would be totally fine. The Sign-Up Genius is for the entire grade level, so there are plenty of people to fill the slots. Please let me know if you are unable to join us for the Feast so that I can pair your child with another family to get help with going down the buffet line. Thank you!

In Class This Week

Language Arts

We are about to wrap up the introduction of all letters when we introduce the letters Xx and Yy this week. The only letters remaining are Qq and Zz. If you notice that your child does not recognize all upper & lower case letters, as well as know all letter sounds, please provide additional reinforcement at home. To help your child form this week's letters correctly, please see the Fundations Family Letter. Our sight words this week are yes and no. For a list of the 19 sight words (also called high frequency words) we've introduced so far, as well as all words we'll be studying this year, please see the class website. Again, if you notice that your child is not able to read these sight words, please continue working on them at home.

Math

This will be a review week in math. Children should continue working on counting to 100 by 1s and 10s, counting on from any given number, and writing numbers legibly and correctly to 20.

**Library is every Wednesday. Please return your child's library book by Tuesday each week.

**Remember to wear shoes and clothes appropriate for fitness on Mondays.

**Grasshopper t-shirt days are every Friday.

This Week's Helpers & Activities:

Monday: PE-- wear shoes & clothes appropriate for fitness, dismissal @ 1:15

Tuesday: No centers, White envelopes go home, dismissal @ 1:15

Wednesday: Library (Bora & Katy), dismissal @ 1:15

Thursday: NO SCHOOL: Professional Development Day

Friday: NO SCHOOL: Veteran's Day

Upcoming Events

1/7-11/17: Parent-Teacher Conferences

Wednesday, 11/9: Return completed turkey project to school

Thursday 11/10: NO SCHOOL: Staff Development Day

Friday, 11/11: NO SCHOOL: Veteran's Day

Friday, 11/18: Friendship Feast @ 10:00

11/21-11/25: Thanksgiving Break