Week of 4/3

We are heading into our last week before Spring Break. I always feel like after we return from Spring Break, the weeks just fly by! We have a lot to pack in during our remaining 44 school days, so keep supporting your children at home by reinforcing concepts and doing lots of reading & writing.  

 

The Union School District Health & Wellness Fair will be today, April 1st, from 2:00 to 4:00 at Union Middle School. I hear there are therapy dogs and a bike safety course. Stop by and join the fun!

Classroom Help
There are just a few openings left on the Sign-Up Genius for parent volunteers in April, including openings this week for a library reader on Wednesday and an additional helper for Spring Fling on Thursday. Check it out & come join us!

This Week In Class

Language Arts
Our sight word this week is are. This sight word goes along with our continued phonics focus on the r-controlled sounds: ar, er, ir, ur, and or. We will continue reading books with a Spring-theme this week, and share some new books from the book fair.

This is our final week of Unit 4 of Fundations. We actually do have one more unit after this one (I was mistaken before when I stated this was our final unit). We continue to focus on using the phonics patterns we've studied to write words and sentences with correct spelling.

 

Math

We will continue with Module 4: Number Pairs, Addition & Subtraction to 10. We will spend the remainder of this school year on subtraction, then move to addition & subtraction word problems and fluency. Parent tips for this module can be found here.

STEAM
We had another fun visit to the Makerspace last Wednesday, where we worked with Strawbees again. We had a 3D shape challenge, and built shapes such as a cube, rectangular prism, square pyramid and hexagonal prism. I added a few more pictures to the Strawbees album, which can be found in your email link. This week, our STEAM activities will be at Spring Fling, and we will head back to the Makerspace after Spring Break.

Clay Glazing & Spring Fling

We have an exciting day on Thursday! We will glaze our clay projects between 10:30 & 11:30 (extra help is always appreciated!) and have our special Spring-themed indoor/outdoor centers. We will be painting, using sidewalk chalk, planting seeds, and doing a couple of STEAM projects. There is one more opening to help at Spring Fling-- the more the merrier!

 

Reminders 

**P.E. is every Monday-- please send your children in shoes & clothes appropriate for fitness. This week we have outdoor PE with Miss Amy.

**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 with Miss Amy

Tuesday: Centers @ 12:25 (Fadime & Barbara)

Wednesday: Library @ 9:10 (??? & Bora), dismissal @ 1:15

Thursday: Return Weds. envelopes, Clay Glazing @ 10:30 (Marina, Yufi, Mike M., Ruby) Spring Fling @ 12:25 (Barbara, Fadime, Brittny, ????)

Friday: Music

 

Upcoming Events

Saturday, 4/1: USD Health & Wellness Fair 2:00-4:00 at UMS

Thursday, 4/6: Clay Glazing

Thursday, 4/6: Spring Fling

4/10-4/14: Spring Break

Friday, 4/21: Kindergarten Movie Night 5:00-7:30 (tickets needed)

Friday, 5/19: Multicultural Fair

Wednesday, 5/24: Open House

Week of 3/27

New Gates

As I'm sure you've all seen by now, we have new gates across both the entrance and exit to the kindergarten playground. For the safety of your children, we ask a few things:

• Please use the pedestrian walkway when coming to get your children and when departing with your children. This walkway is located next to the school garden, with yellow metal bollards protecting the walkway.

• Please do not encourage children to walk through the parking lot and use the area by the vehicle entrance as a walkway. There is no pedestrian walkway here, forcing children to walk through bushes and brambles. Avoid this area, and please use the walkway mentioned above at all times.

• Please do not allow children to climb on or under the gates.

• Finally, even if the entrance gate happens to be open after 8:00, DO NOT ENTER THIS PARKING LOT! This lot is closed between 8:00 a.m. and 2:50 p.m. in the interest of student safety and traffic flow. Unfortunately, due to continued violations, the district had to add these gates. Thank you for everyone's efforts to protect the safety of the school community.

Book Fair

The Book Fair is this week! A flyer about it was sent home in last Wednesday's envelope. There are special kindergarten hours on Tuesday the 28th from 1:30 to 2:30. You can stop by with your child at that time to make book purchases. I believe Extended Care will take students over, but you should confirm with Mr. Victor. If your child will be going with Extended Care, please set up an e-wallet for the safest way for them to make purchases if you're not there. A percentage of all book fair sales goes to support both the Alta Vista library and classroom libraries of all teachers at the school. Thank you for your support. 

 

Classroom Help

There are just a few openings left on the Sign-Up Genius for parent volunteers in April. Check it out & come join us!

This Week In Class
Language Arts
Our sight word this week is for. This sight word goes along with our continued phonics focus on the r-controlled sounds: ar, er, ir, ur, and or. We will be reading books with a Spring-theme this week, and even writing a sensory poem about Spring. 

We will continue with Unit 4 of Fundations, which is our final unit. A big focus of this unit is incorporating digraphs (sh, th, wh, ch, ck) into our reading and spelling. There are many valuable parent resources in Unit 4's Home Support Letter.

Math
We will continue with Module 4: Number Pairs, Addition & Subtraction to 10. We will spend the remainder of this school year on subtraction, then move to addition & subtraction word problems and fluency. Parent tips for this module can be found here.

STEAM

We had another fun visit to the Makerspace last Wednesday, where we worked with Strawbees again. I added a few more pictures to the Strawbees album, and the link to these can be found in your email.  This week, we will head back to the Makerspace to work with Snap Circuits.

Kimochis
This week, we will talk about how the feeling “happy” helps children remember to take turns. When children take turns, everyone feels happy. Taking turns can be difficult for young children because they need to regulate their impulses and have patience. Young children are just learning to master this as they move from the egocentric “me” stage to the more group-conscious “us” stage. Gentle reminders in the moment and acknowledgement when children take turns will help them learn about this democratic principle. Your child has learned that taking turns works best when we each name our turn. For example, when it’s your child’s turn, they can say, “My turn” and pat their hand on their chest to indicate this. You can do the same for your turn. This can also work with a sibling or friend. The hand movements (patting your own chest and pointing to your play partner) help to guide the back-and-forth action of taking turns. Your child also learned some communication scripts that can help decide who will go first during play. We practiced being kind and saying, “Would you like to go first?” and “Can I please go first next time?” 

Reminders 

**P.E. is every Monday-- please send your children in shoes & clothes appropriate for fitness. This week we have indoor PE in the OT room. Please send your children in shoes they can take on & off independently.

**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

Tuesday: Centers @ 12:25 (Fadime & Barbara)

Wednesday: Makerspace @ 8:30 (Uygar & Yufi) Library @ 9:10 (Katy & Bora), dismissal @ 1:15

Thursday: Return Weds. envelopes, Centers @ 12:25 (Barbara & Betsy)

Friday: Music

 

Upcoming Events

Tuesday, 3/28: Special Kindergarten Book Fair Hour: 1:30-2:30

Saturday, 4/1: USD Health & Wellness Fair 2:00-4:00 at UMS

Thursday, 4/6: Spring Fling

4/10-4/14: Spring Break

Friday, 4/21: Kindergarten Movie Night 5:00-7:30 (tickets needed)

Week of 3/13

We are looking forward to returning to centers this week! Center time allows me to instruct children in a small group setting, while other students are doing crafts, projects, and educational games with parent helpers. There are a few future openings for centers and library readers, and I'd love for everyone to join us at least once this year! Please check the schedule here. Thank you!

Language Arts 

Our sight word this week is little. We will focus on the le ending, which is often its own syllable.

This week, we begin Unit 4 of Fundations, which is our final unit. A big focus of this unit is incorporating digraphs (sh, th, wh, ch, ck) into our reading and spelling. There are many valuable parent resources in Unit 4's Home Support Letter.

Math

This is our final week of Module 5: Numbers 10-20; Count to 100 by 1s and 10s. Parent tips for this module can be found here. We will return to Module 4 for the subtraction portion of that module next week. In class, we have also done a lot of work on subitizing. To subitize is to instantly recognize the amount shown without counting every single item. It is an important foundational math skill. I have been working on building students' subitizing skills by flashing slides on the screen with various patterns/amounts of dots. I only show the slides for about 1-2 seconds. Children then have to write down how many dots they saw on a whiteboard. The children have really enjoyed this activity!

 

Kimochis 

This week, your child will learn about kindness and the Kimochis® kotowaza—or Japanese proverb—that accompanies this feeling. “Take the time to be kind” is this week’s kotowaza to encourage kindness. This kotowaza inspires people to say and do kind things. Research has shown that there is a close association between kindness and happiness. Kind people experience more happiness and have happier memories. Kindness also helps children make and keep friends. Kindness builds patience and tolerance because we can learn to think kind thoughts when others make mistakes or hurt feelings.

 

Upcoming Events & Activities 

Leprechaun Traps: At centers this Thursday, 3/16, children will be designing and creating their own leprechaun traps! This is an annual favorite, so we are excited to see the designs students come up with this year. Children will leave the traps at school to see what happens on the 17th. On Friday, they will bring their traps home.

School Spirit Day Friday: There is a schoolwide spirit day on Friday-- wear green to school. For us, this works out perfectly since it's also Grasshopper T-shirt day!

Reminders 

**P.E. is every Monday-- please send your children in shoes & clothes appropriate for fitness. This week we are in the OT room for PE. PLEASE send children in shoes they can take on & off themselves

**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
Tuesday: Centers (Azra & Barbara)
Wednesday: Library @ 9:10 (Brittny & Bora), dismissal @ 1:15
Thursday: Return Weds. envelopes, Leprechaun trap building (Fadime, Barbara, Brittny, Jen T.)
Friday: Music, Dismissal @ 1:15

Upcoming Events 

Thursday, 3/16: Special Event: Leprechaun Trap Making 

Wednesday, 3/22: Trip to the Makerspace @ 8:30

4/10-4/14: Spring Break

Week of 3/6

I have enjoyed meeting with half of you already for parent-teacher conferences, and I am looking forward to meeting with the rest of you this week-- it's great to share your child's successes with you. It's hard to believe that we are already in our last trimester of kindergarten. The time will pass quickly in these last 3 months, and before you know it, we will be moving on to first grade! After we meet, please be sure to praise your children for the progress they've made, and also continue to support them in areas where they still need reinforcement to meet end-of-year standards. If you need to confirm your time next week, click here. Remember that the 1:15 dismissal time will continue through Friday the 10th.

There will continue to be no centers this week due to parent-teacher conferences. We do have a clay project on Monday, and we will also be heading to the Makerspace on Wednesday, along with going to the library. Thank you to all the parents helping with these activities: Marina, Aparna, Azra, Fadime, Lauren M., Stephen R., Uygar, and Bora! 

There are a few future openings for centers and library readers. Please check the schedule here. Thank you! 

Language Arts 

Our sight word this week is they. We will focus on the ey/ay ending.  

 

We will wrap up Unit 3 of Fundations this week, and we will move onto Unit 4 next week. 

 

Math 

We are continuing Module 5: Numbers 10-20; Count to 100 by 1s and 10s. We've already covered the counting portion of this module, so our focus will be writing and decomposing numbers in the teens. Parent tips for this module can be found here. We will return to Module 4 for the subtraction portion of that module after we finish with numbers in the teens.

 

Upcoming Events & Activities 

Clay: We have another Clay project coming up on Monday, 3/6. Children will be creating a special keepsake handprint in clay.

Leprechaun Traps: At centers on Thursday, 3/16, children will be designing and creating their own leprechaun traps! Most of the materials for this activity are provided by the district's STEAM funds, but if you are out and about and see something that looks like a fun addition to our leprechaun traps, we will gladly take your donations for our supply of trap "accessories!" Thank you in advance! 

Reminders 

**P.E. is every Monday-- please send your children in shoes & clothes appropriate for fitness. (PE is canceled this week due to the minimum day schedule)

**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: Clay (Marina, Lauren M., Aparna, Azra, Fadime), Dismissal @ 1:15

Tuesday: NO CENTERS

Wednesday: Makerspace @ 8:30 (Uygar & Stephen R.) Library @ 9:10 (Aparna & Bora), dismissal @ 1:15

Thursday: Return Weds. envelopes, dismissal @ 1:15

Friday: Music, Dismissal @ 1:15

 

Upcoming Events

3/2-3/10: Spring Conferences: Dismissal at 1:15 daily

Wednesday, 3/8: Strawbees in the Makerspace @ 8:30

Thursday, 3/16: Special Event: Leprechaun Trap Making

Wednesday, 3/22: Trip to the Makerspace @ 8:30

4/10-4/14: Spring Break