This week, you will receive a note telling you what your child's part will be in the Nutcracker, and what items you may need to round up for your child to wear for the performance. After reviewing what clothes your child needs to wear, please let me know if there are any problems with gathering up the various clothes needed-- most parts call for either leotards or dark pants and either a light or dark shirt. Hopefully, if there is a clothing item you do not have, you can borrow it, as we do not intend for you to have to buy anything. We have several leotards that have been donated over the years that can be borrowed, and a few pairs of ballet slippers. Again, the performance of the Nutcracker will be at 9:15 on the 19th. As with the Halloween Parade, you will have to go through the office and scan your driver's license into the Visitor Management System & get a visitor's badge. You will want to allow plenty of time to do this so that you are in the cafeteria when the performance starts at 9:15. There are plenty of seats, and the doors will not open before 9:00, so there is no need to line up early. If you are really hoping for a front-row seat, there will be an online auction for front row tickets that will be held next week. Look out for an email from the Home & School Club about that!
On another Nutcracker note, I am in need of a few people who can help with make-up and costuming on the day of the show. You will come into the classroom at the start of the day and call children back one-by-one to get them ready for the stage. Please email me if you can help with this.
Language Arts
This week's letters are
Xx and
Yy. For the letter
Xx, we focus on the ending sound, as in
fox and
box. The home support letter can be found
here. Our sight words this week are
yes and
big. For the next two weeks, we will be reading different versions of
The Gingerbread Man. I have a collection of many fun variations on this book that are perfect for this time of year.
Math
We are continuing with Module 3 in Eureka Math:
Comparison of Weight, Length, Capacity, and Numbers to 10. Parent tips can be found
here. This week, we will be looking at weight and volume of things. We will get to use the balance scales during centers to weigh various objects.
This is our final week of centers before the holidays, as next week we will be focusing on Nutcracker rehearsals. Thank you so much to our classroom helpers in 2023, and thank you for your continued support in 2024! There are only a couple of spots left on the Sign Up Genius for January/February-- thank you for signing up so quickly!
Art Vista
We have our 3rd Art Vista lesson this Friday. Thank you to Snigdha, Shelley, Sahana, Gazal, and Sandy for presenting these lessons. This week's lesson will be about animals. Children will use air-dry clay to create 3D animals.
**Library is every Wednesday. Please return your child's library book by Tuesday each week.
**School spirit days are every Wednesday. Wear your Alta Vista t-shirts or your Grasshopper t-shirts to show your school pride.
This Week's Helpers & Activities
Monday: Centers (Sandy & Jackie)
Tuesday: Centers (Anna & Vikram)
Wednesday: Library @ 9:10 (Niki & Vanessa), Dismissal @ 1:15
Thursday: Centers (Sara & Anna)
Friday: Art Vista at 10:30 (Snigdha, Shelley, Sahana, Sandy, Gazal), Music
Upcoming Events
Tuesday, 12/19 @ 9:15 am: Nutcracker Performance
Wednesday, 12/20: Classroom Holiday Party
12/21-1/3: Winter Break
Thursday, 1/4: School resumes
Monday, 1/15: No School: MLK Holiday
Monday, 1/29: No School: Teacher Work Day
