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 big. For 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

Week of 11/7

Panda Parents,

Anyone else's kids wake up at 5 am today?!  I hope you are enjoying the weekend and I hope you enjoyed an extra hour of sleep or the status quo.   

I am looking forward to meeting with everyone in the upcoming two weeks! I really enjoy parent teacher conferences and connecting with families. Remember that for the next two weeks, dismissal will be at 1:15 daily. 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. 

You may have heard that one of the Pandas will be joining the TK class starting this Monday. The class and I had a brief discussion about this. Your children will still see the former classmate on the playground during snack recess and lunch recess. We discussed that we will NOT ask the former classmate questions about her move to TK. I answered that question for them in a simple manner during our class conversation. We WILL continue to say hello and play with this classmate at school and at extended care. Some of the classmates were sad about this on Friday and a couple pandas were absent. Our discussion revolved around how her birthday makes her almost a whole year younger than many of the pandas and that the school made a mistake. To fix the mistake, the school decided it would be best for her to join the TK class.  Thank you for your help in coaching your child to be kind and to move forward regarding this matter. 

Special Family Project

I am excited to see all the decorated turkeys this week! You can start sending those in on Monday, but no later than Wednesday. Remember that Wednesday envelopes will go home on Tuesday the 8th this week, so if you'd like to send your child's turkey back in the envelope on Wednesday, that would be perfect.

Classroom Help

After some discussion with the Kinder team, I've added a few more dates on the Sign-Up Genius for centers in December. We've decided to do an additional week of centers in December, the week of 12/5. Please see the Sign-Up Genius if you are interested. As always, thank you so much for volunteering at centers and making small group instruction possible.

Friendship Feast

Thank you for signing up so quickly to help out and bring items for our Friendship Feast on 11/18 at 10:00. Several people were very generous with their time and food donations! If anyone who signed up for multiple things would like to drop out of an item, that would be totally fine. The Sign-Up Genius is for the ENTIRE grade level, so there are plenty of people to fill the slots. Please let me know if you are unable to join us for the Feast so that I can pair your child with another family to get help with going down the buffet line. Thank you!

In Class This Week

Language Arts:

We are about to wrap up the introduction of all letters when we introduce the letters Xx and Yy this week. The only letters remaining are 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. Our sight words this week are yes and no. For a list of the 19 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. Note - this can be done with flashcards but not necessarily as a flashcard thing. You want to discuss what the letters say (refer to better alphabet song). All the sight words taught so far are decodable. 

Math

This will be a review week in math. Children should continue working on counting to 100 by 1s and 10s, counting on from any given number, and writing numbers legibly and correctly to 20.

**Library is every Wednesday. Please return your child's library book by Tuesday each week.

**Remember to wear shoes and clothes appropriate for fitness on Fridays.

**Panda t-shirt days are every Friday.

This Week's Helpers & Activities:

Monday: dismissal @ 1:15

Tuesday: No centers, White envelopes go home, dismissal @ 1:15

Wednesday: Library (Lia & Jose), dismissal @ 1:15

Thursday: NO SCHOOL: Professional Development Day

Friday: NO SCHOOL: Veteran's Day

Upcoming Events

1/7-11/18: Parent-Teacher Conferences

Wednesday, 11/9: Return completed turkey project to school

Thursday 11/10: NO SCHOOL: Staff Development Day

Friday, 11/11: NO SCHOOL: Veteran's Day

Friday, 11/18: Friendship Feast @ 10:00

11/21-11/25: Thanksgiving Break

Week of 10/31

Hello parents, 

I hope those pandas got some good rest last night after the walk-a-thon. I know I did!

In case you would like to volunteer in the class, there are some openings for the end of November. I will add dates for 2023 in December before the winter break.

If you read this in time and need something to do later today, check out the Helping Harvest Community Event that Union School District is hosting at Dartmouth Middle School today from 3-6PM. Here is more information about it. My family and I will be there. 

We had a great time at the walkathon on Friday and I was so impressed by the walking, running, skipping stamina of our Pandas! Thank you to our room parent Lia for putting together our walkathon banner. You can find photos of our walkers and the banner in the shared google album I emailed Friday after school. 

We are looking forward to more fun on Monday at both the all school parade at 11:00 and our class Halloween party at 12:15. Big thank yous to Jennifer, Jedy, and Lia for planning a fun party. Jedy and Jennifer were in the classroom after school on Friday decorating! And thank you to those who have donated items/funds and their time to the party. The pandas will have so much fun!  Hopefully, you were all able to register in advance for the parade, because the line may be quite long on Monday. Everyone at the parade must have a visitor's badge, and must come through the office to access campus. Thank you for keeping our campus safe.

More Halloween Info

Children should come to school in their costumes, as we won't have time to get 24 children changed into their costumes for the parade. After the parade, children will be going straight to lunch. At this point, costumes should be removed to avoid spilling on or damaging costumes during lunch, and I encourage you to take costumes home with you if you are on campus for the parade. Please have your children wear a layer under their costume that they will be comfortable wearing for the remainder of the day. I do understand that your child may want o wear their costume all day to be festive for the party. That is ultimately up to you/your child. I would consider wearing some Halloween festive clothing under their costume to wear to the party and maybe just a costume accessory for after the parade.

**Thanks to Olive's family in Mrs. Grist's class in K2, there will be a balloon arch in the kindergarten yard (by the gate where we exit) for Halloween photos. If you'd like to take a photo of your child under the balloon arch, you can do that in the morning before school (I'll extend morning tub time and be lenient with marking students tardy on this day) or you can take pictures right after the parade. I will also take pictures of the children during the party. 

Conferences

This is the last week of our regular school schedule before conferences begin on November 7th. During the two weeks beginning 11/7 and ending on 11/18, dismissal will be at 1:15 daily. 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. 

Special Family Project

In this week's Wednesday envelope, we will be sending home a turkey for your child to "disguise." This project goes along with a book we will read in class called Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano. In this funny tale, the turkey does not want to become Thanksgiving dinner, so he disguises himself in many different costumes to avoid getting caught. Your children will receive their own turkey to disguise, along with directions for this project, in their envelope. Examples of this project can be found here and here, but please let your child lead this project with their ideas on how to disguise the turkey. We love seeing these projects year after year and look forward to this year's editions!

Please note, the projects are due back in the following week's envelope, which will go home on a Tuesday due to the staff development day and holiday on 11/10 & 11/11. Therefore, you will return the project in your child's envelope on WEDNESDAY 11/9.

In Class This Week:

Language Arts:

We will introduce the letters Vv and Ww. To help your child form these letters correctly, please see the Fundations Family Letter. Our sight words this week are be and we.

Math

We will wrap up our module on shapes this week, and we will continue to review all concepts introduced so far as we near the end of the trimester. Children should continue working on counting to 100 by 1s and 10s, writing numbers legibly and correctly to 20, and counting on from any given number (ask your child to sing the I Can Count song that we do in class).

Kimochis

We still need to finish up our introductions of Cat from last week. Then we will move on to learning the first Kimochis® Key to Communication: Get someone’s attention. Your child will learn that when we want to get someone’s attention, it is important to call that person’s name. This alerts the person to look. If your child waits for the person to look or make eye contact before speaking, it increases the odds that the people communicating will really listen to each other. Sometimes calling someone’s name is not enough. Your child will learn to use a gentle tap on the shoulder to get attention. When your child knows that the listener is ready to listen, the likelihood of having a positive connection is increased. These are the three communication habits your child will learn: 1. Call the person by name. 2. Wait for eye contact before speaking. 3. Use a Communication Tap (a gentle tap on the shoulder two or three times) to gain attention or eye contact. Now it’s time to speak because we are both focused on the communication interaction.

**Library is every Wednesday. Please return your child's library book by Tuesday each week.

**Remember to wear shoes and clothes appropriate for fitness on Fridays.

This Week's Helpers & Activities:

Monday: Halloween Parade at 11:00 and party at 12:15 (hosts: Jedy & Jennifer. Center leaders and crowd control specialists: Lia, Mariola, Amy, Chu, Jessica, Antonio) 

Tuesday: Long Centers (Danielle & Andrea)

Wednesday: Library (Lia & Apsara), dismissal @ 1:15

Thursday: Return white envelopes, long centers (Jose & Vidya)

Friday: PE with Ms. Amy, wear comfy clothes and shoes!

Upcoming Events

Friday, 11/14: Art Vista Lesson 10:20-11:30 There is still an open slot to help on the sign up genius.

11/7-11/18: Parent-Teacher Conferences, dismissal at 1:15

Tuesday, 11/8: White envelopes sent home a day early

Wednesday, 11/9: Return completed turkey project to school inside white envelope

Thursday 11/10: NO SCHOOL: Staff Development Day

Friday, 11/11: NO SCHOOL: Veteran's Day

Friday, 11/18: Friendship Feast @ 10:30 Families welcome!