Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful break & are rested and ready to get back into the swing of things on Monday! I wanted to thank you all so much for the generous gifts I received before break. I shopped, ate meals out, and had some delicious treats thanks to the Grasshopper families!
Smart Re-Start
We will ease into our first few days back with some hands-on activities and classroom fun. On Monday and Tuesday, we will make some playdough, and do a collaborative art project. We have a few directed drawings in store as well. Later in the week, we will start learning about owls.
Language Arts
We will begin Unit 2 of the Fundations program. The main focus of this unit is blending sounds to read words. We start with CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) three-letter words. We encourage the children to "tap" or "chop" these words into their individual sounds (see the parent letter for explicit directions on how to reinforce this), and then blend those sounds together to both read and spell the words. In this unit, we will also be reviewing the formation of several upper case letters each week. There is only one parent letter for all of Unit 2, which can be found here. There are many valuable resources and ideas for supporting the reading of CVC words in the Unit 2 parent letter, and I encourage you to check it out.
In 2026, we will also begin focusing more on sentence and story writing. This week, your children will begin using their Fundations Journals, where we will write each week to various prompts. You will be quite amazed at their writing development when you look back at this journal in June and see all their writing from January onward.
We will be reading some New Year-themed books, as well as begin reading non-fiction books about owls in preparation for our owl unit next week.
Math
We will continue with Module 3 on measurement. For the next two weeks, the focus will be on comparisons: comparing both sets and numbers. Parent tips for this topic can be found here.
**Library is every Wednesday. Please return your child's library book by Tuesday each week (most of you returned your library books before we left for winter break, but if you didn't you received an email).
**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: Smart Restart
Tuesday: Smart Restart
Wednesday: Library @ 9:10 (Reader: Brian; Checkout:Mary), Dismissal @ 1:15
Monday: Smart Restart
Tuesday: Smart Restart
Wednesday: Library @ 9:10 (Reader: Brian; Checkout:Mary), Dismissal @ 1:15
Thursday: Music @ 12:50
Upcoming Events
Monday, 1/5: Welcome Back to School!
Monday, 1/19: No School: MLK Holiday
Tuesday, 1/20: "Snow Day" (dress in snow gear & have special snow-themed centers)
Wednesday, 1/28: 100 Day
2/16-2/20: No School: President's Week
