It was great hearing about all the kind acts of our Grasshoppers during Kindness Week last week. I was so impressed with the things students were doing to be kind! It was wonderful emphasizing kind acts in the classroom, as well as at home. I hope you benefitted from plenty of kind acts in your home last week! I told the kids that I'm going to keep the kindness chain going this upcoming week as well. Keep encouraging your children to tell me about their kind acts at home.
Language Arts
Last week, we finished our "Cat Book" in Fundations, and I sent it home with your children. We have now instructed the formation of all lower & upper case letters! We will begin Unit 3 of Fundations this week. Blending sounds to read and spell words is now the main focus in our reading curriculum. There are some great resources in the Unit 3 Fundations Home Support letter. Our sight words this week are you and or.
This week, we will return to the snow theme with our literature, reading a few snowy classics, Sneezy the Snowman and Snowmen at Night. We will do some writing activities with crafts to go with each of these stories.
Math
We will wrap up Topic B of Module 4 this week. There will be some new vocabulary for those of you who do not have older students who have done the Eureka math program. Of particular importance are the words "compose" (finding numbers that add up to a given number-- like 3 & 2 compose 5) "decompose" (take apart a number-- like 5 can be 4 & 1 OR 3 & 2) and number bonds (a model to show mathematical thinking). Family Math ideas can be found here. (Please note that this is the same as last week, since this was a longer topic).
We have an Art Vista lesson on Friday at 12:30. This time, we will be looking at houses and designing our own "dream house." Thank you to Eva, Kay, Nadia, Anda, and Fatemeh for your help with Art Vistas.
Upcoming Events
Valentines Day: We will exchange cards in class on February 14th, but this is not a "party." We have a fun celebration of friendship, exchange valentines, and take them home to show our families. So that you can prepare for this event, I wanted to share some information:
- Please send in a card for each child. There are 24 total students in our class.
- Please ONLY sign the card & put nothing in the TO box. It is challenging enough for kindergartners to pass out valentines to all their classmates. Having the "to" part filled out makes this extremely challenging and it takes far too long. Thank you for your help with this!
- Please try to purchase valentines that do not have candy attached. I know those can sometimes be hard to find, but there are good choices with stickers, play tattoos, and other non-food goodies.
Spring Conferences: Spring parent-teacher conferences are coming up on March 12 through March 20. These are optional conferences, but are available to anyone who would like an update on their child's progress. However, if your child had several areas marked with a "B," I would like to meet with you to ensure that your child is making good progress toward year-end standards.
**Library is every Wednesday. Please return your child's library book by Tuesday each week.
**School spirit days are every Wednesday. Wear your Grasshopper t-shirt or Alta Vista gear to show your school pride!
This Week's Helpers & Activities
Monday: Centers @ 12:20 (Karen & Anda)
Tuesday: Centers @ 12:20 (Eva & Mary)
Wednesday: Library @ 9:10 (Reader: Kay, Checkout: Mary), Dismissal @ 1:15
Monday: Centers @ 12:20 (Karen & Anda)
Tuesday: Centers @ 12:20 (Eva & Mary)
Wednesday: Library @ 9:10 (Reader: Kay, Checkout: Mary), Dismissal @ 1:15
Thursday: Music with Mr. Jason
Friday: Art Vistas @ 12:30 (Eva, Anda, Kay, Nadia, Fatemeh)
Upcoming Events
Wednesday, 2/11: Ice Cream Sales after school
Friday, 2/13: Valentines exchange in class
2/16-2/20: No School: President's Week
Monday, 3/9: No School: Professional Development Day
3/12-3/20: Parent-Teacher Conferences
