Week of 10/3

 Our extended days begin on Monday! Our schedule for the remainder of the year will be:

• Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays: 8:15 to 1:40
• Wednesdays AND modified days during conference weeks: 8:15 to 1:15.**Please plan accordingly on these days as the rest of the school releases at this time, so parking will not be available on the street in front of our classroom.

I am looking forward to the additional time with your children. The first week or two will probably be very tiring for your students. Please make sure they get to bed early so they are well-rested and ready for their longer day.

Lunch will be from 11:30 to 12:15.  Children will be supervised by yard duties at that time, and will play on the playground before eating. When they are done with their lunch, we pick them up from the lunch tables and take them back to class. Please help us with this transition to lunch at school by reviewing all the tips in my previous email.

Drop-Offs & Pick-Ups

• Please DO NOT park in the parking lot by Gate F. This lot is closed every day between 7:45 am and 2:50 pm. The cones blocking the exit will be there daily during those hours, as this lot is a staff-only lot for safety reasons.
• Please DO NOT bring dogs onto the Alta Vista campus during school hours. The campus includes the parking lot and all areas near entry and exit gates. Several children are fearful of dogs, and this is preventing them from feeling comfortable coming to school.
• Please arrive on time. The gates close at 8:15 in the morning. After that, you will need to escort your child to the office, get a tardy slip, and enter campus through the office.
• If you exit campus after the gates have closed, please make sure the gates latch behind you. This is for the safety of our entire campus.

Rhythm & Moves P.E./Indoor P.E.
Beginning Friday, students will have weekly P.E. with either Rhythm & Moves or indoor P.E. in the Occupational Therapy (OT) Room, which is room 2 right next to us!

• Children should wear shoes and clothing appropriate for fitness on Mondays. 
• Shoe choice is extremely important, since when we go to the OT room, children will be removing their shoes and putting them back on again.
• Children need to be able to do this independently. I highly recommend slip-on/velcro sneakers every Friday, unless your child already knows how to tie shoes on their own (a great skill to start working on!)

Wednesday envelope help

I would love to have some help with filing student work and stuffing into the Wednesday envelopes. Ideally if that could be done while students are playing during Choice time on Tuesdays around 11:00. You would file student work into hanging file folders and then put all the work into their Wednesday envelope. You could even stick around to do playground/lunch yard duty (contact Salina in the office if interested in that nelsons@unionsd.org). I understand that it's hard to commit to an every week thing, so I could always put it on the classroom volunteer sign up sheet. Please email me if you would be interested in helping with this. I'm open to other days if that's better for your schedule, but Tuesday is ideal for them to be ready to pass out Wednesday. Thank you!

Language Arts
This week, we will introduce our final Reading Centers activity, the Work on Writing Center. The goal is that within the next couple of weeks, we will be able to fully launch Reading Centers (also called Daily 5, but I figured that name is confusing to kindergarteners). Once that happens, a small group of students will be meeting with me each day while the rest of the class is engaged in various other independent literacy centers. Your children will be receiving lessons targeted for their ability level in a small group instruction setting when with me.
 
Our letters this week are Dd and Ss. These are more difficult letters to form in handwriting, and it's really important to form both letters correctly to prevent reversals. Please check the Fundations formation guide for these letters, and reinforce this as much as possible at home.

Our sight words this week are am and can. You can find the sight words we've introduced on the classroom website. Go to the tab called "High Frequency Word List."

Math
In math, we will continue working with numbers to 10. This week, we will focus on the concept of "more" and "fewer."
 
Kimochis
This week, the Kimochis® Character named Cloud will join our classroom to teach your child about the feelings happy, sad, and mad. Cloud is the Kimochis® Character who can be moody, so sometimes it is hard for him to get along with his friends. When Cloud is happy, he spreads sunshine everywhere, which makes everyone feel fantastic! But when Cloud feels mad or sad, he might snap or yell. Because he has a hard time controlling his anger, he might do things that hurt feelings, even though he doesn’t mean to. Cloud helps children develop patience, tolerance, and understanding for friends who are still learning how to express upset feelings in positive, healthy ways.

Classroom Centers

We are excited to welcome parents into the classroom for center time beginning Monday! If, for some reason, you are unable to join us on your scheduled day (illness in the family, etc.), please email me as soon as possible so that I can put an email out to the class and get a substitute for you. Please arrive early (5-10 minutes before centers start) to allow time to check in at the office and have your driver's license scanned. Discuss with your child ahead of time that when you are in the classroom, you are another teacher, and will need to be helping all the students-- in fact, sometimes parents may not even be at a center that their child goes to on that day. Thank you for your help at centers-- this allows me to offer small group instruction in the afternoon.

This Week's Helpers & Activities:

Monday: Centers (Aspara & Jedy)

Tuesday: Return library books, centers (Mariola & Maree)

Wednesday: First Clay Lesson @ 8:30  (Aspara, Yufi, Martina, Dana, Lior), Library (Stephen & Bora), dismissal @ 1:15

Thursday: Return white envelopes, centers (Danielle & Chu Chu)

Friday: P.E.-- wear shoes & clothes appropriate for fitness

Upcoming Events

Monday, 10/3: First Day of our Extended Day

Friday 10/7: First Day of Rhythm & Moves PE Program

Wednesday, 10/19: Field trip to Emma Prusch Farm (permission slips will sent home in this week's Wednesday Envelope please return asap in the white envelope on Thursday or students can place it in the envelope bin on Friday)

Friday, 10/29: Alta Vista Walkathon

Nov. 7-18 Parent Teacher Conferences dismissal at 1:15 each day. Please plan your pickups accordingly. A sign up for conferences will be sent later in the next week or two.

Week of 9/26

Thank you for your help with donating toilet paper rolls, paper towel rolls, and egg cartons. We have enough, so no more are needed at this time. Thank you for helping with this.

We are just one week away from extending our kindergarten day! For those of you with students who currently go home at 11:35, I recommend that you practice with them on opening any lunch items that will be sent, as well as keeping them busy during the time period after lunch to build their stamina in staying focused all the way until 1:40. It is an adjustment for them at the beginning, but they are ready for it!

Parent Volunteers

With just one week left before we launch classroom centers, I just want to remind everyone the importance of completing the Volunteer Code of Conduct Form. It would be a great idea to do this now, if you have not already, so that you are ready to go whenever you are first volunteering (even if it's not for another month+). If you have not completed this form when you arrive in the office, you will not be permitted to enter campus. Remember, it must be completed a minimum of one week before volunteering so that it can be processed at the District Office level. Thank you for your cooperation with this. I've added a volunteer page on the class website for you to find the library and classroom volunteering. We could still use another adult or two for clay on Oct. 5th.

Library

Last Wednesday, we took our first trip to the Alta Vista Library! Every week at the library, children will hear a story read by a parent volunteer and then have time to choose and check out one book. Your children will bring home that book they select each Wednesday. This book is due back by next Tuesday at the latest. If it's easier for you to remember to send things on Monday, I can take the books on Monday as well. It's important to return the books by Tuesday at the latest so that they will be able to check out a new book at the library when we go each Wednesday.

If you signed up to read in the library, please choose a book that takes no more than about 10 minutes to read. Your or your child's favorite book, author or or series are always fun.

Language Arts

We are beginning the 5th week of the Fundations program this week. So far, we've introduced the letters and sounds of: Tt, Ff, Bb, Mm, Nn, Ii, Uu, Cc, and Oo. Capital letters were visually introduced, but we are only working on writing lowercase of the letters mentioned above. This week we will introduce another vowel, and another consonant: Aa and Gg. Please check in with your children and make sure they recognize all the letters we've introduced so far, as well as know their sounds. For helpful resources to reinforce learning at home, please check out the activities mentioned each week in the Fundations Family Letter. In this week's letter, there are some great ideas about how to build comprehension and story retelling skills, which we've also been working on in class. Ask your children to retell the story of Echo the Owl in the forest. This is a story we've been working on for the past 3 weeks, and hopefully, your children will be able to tell it to you in their own words. 

This week, we will continue with sight words on and not from last week. The sight words we've introduced so far are all composed of letters that we've introduced. This is intentional-- the science behind teaching reading shows that children need to be able to orthographically map these words (form letter-sound connections to spell/read) to truly retain them. You can point out sight words as you come across them when you read together. So far we have learned I, in, it. 

Math

In math, we will continue with the topic Numbers to 10. More information on this topic can be found here. I have noticed that many children need additional reinforcement on writing numbers to 10. Check out how your children are forming their numbers. All numbers should be written by starting at the top and moving downwards. Encourage them to practice correct number formation-- the quicker you break bad habits, the easier writing will become. 

Be Seen & Heard Assembly

As you have heard in communications from Union School District, the district will be hosting the "Be Seen & Heard" assembly virtually (we will view the livestream in the classroom) this Thursday. If you were not able to attend the parent information night they hosted, more information about the assembly can be found here. Here is a brief summary about the K/1st grade content: This assembly will address the dangers of child sexual abuse, the differences between a safe and unsafe touch and a safe and unsafe secret, strategies to stay safe, and how to identify trusted adults. The phrase “sexual abuse” is not used. Please refer to the message sent through ParentSquare on 9/18 if you have any further questions about this assembly.

**Remember to return your child's library book each week by Tuesday at the latest so that they can check out a new book on Wednesday.