Saturday, November 12, 2022

Week of 11/14

 Panda Parents, 

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. If you need to check your conference time, you can find it on this document. Please note that this sign-up can no longer be edited. If you need to reschedule your conference, please email me. 
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. There are volunteer spots available for December!

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 earlier this week when you're on campus in the morning or during conferences to pre-register and get your sticker. 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, unless you volunteered to help with setup! 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!
  • It's a Friday so students can wear their class panda t shirt!
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 bigFor 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.

I LOVED seeing all the disguised turkeys turned in. They are so great! 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.

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 Friday-- please send your children in shoes & clothes appropriate for fitness. (PE is canceled this week due to the shortened days, but will resume after Thanksgiving Break)
**Library is every Wednesday. Please send your child's book back to school by Tuesday each week
**Panda t-shirt days are every Friday.

This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Art Vista at 10:20-11:30 (Lia, Mariola and space for one more helper on the sign up!) Dismissal @ 1:15
Tuesday: No centers, dismissal @ 1:15
Wednesday: Library (Bora & Mariola), dismissal @ 1:15
Thursday: No centers, dismissal @ 1:15
Friday: Friendship Feast @ 10:00, no centers, dismissal @ 1:15 
*** A couple of parents have asked if they can check their student out for the day after the Feast and that is fine. Please let me know ahead of time and you will also need to sign them out at the office on the day of.

Upcoming Events
1/14-11/17: Parent-Teacher Conferences continue
Friday, 11/18: Friendship Feast @ 10:00
11/21-11/25: Thanksgiving Break
12/12: Art Vista
Wednesday, 12/14: Nutcracker Performance @ 9:15
12/19-1/2: Winter Break