Hooray! We made it through our first 5-day week in kindergarten last! Everyone is adjusting to the new routines well and making new friends. I hope your family had fun at the pizza and ice cream social last Friday if you were able to make it!
A reminder that even though the rest of the school has Back-to-School Night this Wednesday the 30th, we do not since we already held our night on the Monday before school started.
Apologies in advance for this long email-- there is a lot of new information at the beginning of the school year. Thank you for taking the time to read through it. I try to send out the emails on the weekend before the week, but the weekend got away from me!
A couple of logistics:
- Birthdays - I have updated my birthday policy on my website. We are celebrating our first birthday tomorrow!
- Elbow Pockets - I am teaching students to sneeze & cough into their "elbow pocket" instead of directly into their hands. We already wash our hands a lot throughout the day, so sneezing/coughing into elbow pockets saves a trip. It would be so helpful if you could help reinforce this at home.
- Absences - Remember, parents can apply for an independent study when their child will be absent 3 days or more. The teacher and office needs to be informed of this at least two weeks ahead of time. When your child is sick or absent for other reasons, you need to call the school's attendance line: 408-356-3679. Emailing the teacher is definitely a courtesy, but optional. I do like to know because I care about your kiddo. :) A lot of kindergarten work is participation, so there won't be any makeup work sent home. I will get your child caught up on any projects, if necessary, upon their return. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Framed Family Photos - I would love for every student to bring in a framed photograph of their family. This should be a 4x6 inch size, as there's not a lot of room in the classroom! This really helps with community building. I would also like for your child to practice a quick, informal presentation with their photograph. In this short presentation, they will tell us who is in the picture. I'm OK with the picture including grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. or it can just be parents and siblings. Here is a video of my example. Please bring a framed 4x6 family photo by next Friday, September 8th.
Afternoon Assessments
In order to best support your children in their learning, I will be assessing them in the upcoming weeks so that I can group them appropriately for both reading groups and math groups. In order to do this, I will need you to bring your child back to school after dismissal for a one-on-one assessment. However, if your child attends USD Extended Care, please do not sign up for these assessments, because I can assess students at Extended Care next week.
In order to best support your children in their learning, I will be assessing them in the upcoming weeks so that I can group them appropriately for both reading groups and math groups. In order to do this, I will need you to bring your child back to school after dismissal for a one-on-one assessment. However, if your child attends USD Extended Care, please do not sign up for these assessments, because I can assess students at Extended Care next week.
For everyone else, please see this sign-up to choose a time during the weeks after Labor Day to bring your children back to school for a brief assessment. Meet me at Gate E (morning gate). While your child is being assessed, parents are welcome to wait on the lawn in front of the school, under the redwood trees, or wherever you are most comfortable waiting for approximately 30 minutes.
Language Arts
We will begin launching the Fundations program in the upcoming weeks, which is a language arts curriculum that the kindergarten teachers at Alta Vista piloted for the district last year. It was such a success that the district has now rolled it out in grades K-2 throughout the district. A big focus of this program is learning the correct formation of letters, hand-in-hand with learning their sounds. Handwriting serves to link visual processing with motor experience, facilitating subsequent letter recognition skills. The expectation is that by the end of the first trimester (early November) students know all their letters & sounds. Please refer to the pencil grip posters and hand writing tips. You could even print them out and post them at home where your child writes and/or does art and coloring.
We will begin launching the Fundations program in the upcoming weeks, which is a language arts curriculum that the kindergarten teachers at Alta Vista piloted for the district last year. It was such a success that the district has now rolled it out in grades K-2 throughout the district. A big focus of this program is learning the correct formation of letters, hand-in-hand with learning their sounds. Handwriting serves to link visual processing with motor experience, facilitating subsequent letter recognition skills. The expectation is that by the end of the first trimester (early November) students know all their letters & sounds. Please refer to the pencil grip posters and hand writing tips. You could even print them out and post them at home where your child writes and/or does art and coloring.
We had several projects and games last week around learning each other's names. Continue to encourage your children to write their name using only one upper-case letter at the beginning, the rest lowercase.
Math
Over the next few weeks, we will introduce 2D (flat) shapes. Our focus in kindergarten is on the circle, square, rectangle, triangle, and hexagon. Not only do we learn to identify them, but we also learn about their attributes (a triangle has three sides and three corners). Parent tips for this module can be found here.
Math
Over the next few weeks, we will introduce 2D (flat) shapes. Our focus in kindergarten is on the circle, square, rectangle, triangle, and hexagon. Not only do we learn to identify them, but we also learn about their attributes (a triangle has three sides and three corners). Parent tips for this module can be found here.
Kimochis
This week, we introduced our first Kimochi (Kimochi means "Feeling" in Japanese), Lovey Dove, who taught your child about the feelings: proud, kind, and friendly. Lovey is the Character who is sweet and nurturing. She is very wise and calm. She likes to cuddle and make everyone feel better when they are upset. But sometimes Lovey Dove worries. Children who have a temperament like Lovey’s can benefit from staying compassionate and learning to worry less. Lovey taught your child how important it is to greet people using their name and a “Friendly Signal.” Friendly Signals are communication tools, such as a smile, wave, head nod, or saying hello. Being friendly is a rewarding habit that children can learn to develop and use throughout their lifetime.
This week, we will be discussing "Zones of Regulation." We'll talk about how at different times, we feel different ways, but that all feelings are ok. We'll also discuss how if we get in the "red zone" (angry) or "blue zone" (sad) or "yellow zone" (silly) that our goal is to get back to the "green zone" as soon as we can. Again, it is ok to be in other zones, but we want our body to be feeling good in the green zone. On Friday, your children will be bringing home a poster with these 4 zones/feelings illustrated on the poster. I'd love it if you'd have them hang the poster somewhere in your house and use the same language at home. For example: "It looks like you're in the red zone. It's ok to be mad, but we can't be mean. What would bring you back to the green zone?" By working together and using a common language, I think it will help the students get a handle on their range of emotions and more easily be able to get back to the green zone.
Wednesday Envelopes
This Wednesday, you will receive your child's first "Wednesday Envelope." Since most communications from the school are now online, and most work in the classroom is hands-on, this will often only contain a few paper items of completed work from the classroom. Some Wednesdays I may not even send it home if there is not much to send. Please look over your child's paperwork to see any areas where your child may need additional support. Every Thursday, please return the empty envelope to school so that we can send their work home each Wednesday in that envelope.
Snacks
I am noticing several students with too many snack items to manage during our 10 minute snack time. This week, we will start really tightening up our timeline, so please pack a snack that can be consumed in 10 minutes. Please also continue to work with your children on opening snack wrappers and snack boxes independently. Some of them have really fancy bento boxes that they are unable to open on their own and will need to learn how to do this, especially once we start staying for lunch. Cafeteria Snack - The school does provide a morning snack. Students walk to the cafeteria with the aide, Mrs. Brehmer, to get their snacks. On Wednesdays when Mrs. Brehmer is not here students can choose from any of the cafeteria cereal packages (or other shelf stable food) from the cafeteria that I keep in the classroom.
AVHSC CAGE Drive
As presented at Back-to-School Night, the Alta Vista Home & School Club needs you! All the enrichment programs at our school need parent volunteers, as well as financial support. The kindergarten classes have a long-standing tradition of winning the CAGE Drive competition by getting the most families to join & support the AVHSC. Please support the wonderful enrichment programs at our school by going to this link.
We will start having parents in the classroom for classroom centers beginning the week of October 3rd, when we extend our day. Look out for a separate sign-up for classroom centers when we get closer to that time. In order to volunteer on campus, you will need to be aware of and do the following. You may want to take care of this now so that you are ready to go in October!
- All volunteers need to complete the 2023-2024 Volunteer Code of Conduct. This has to be done once each year (but only once). It takes about one week to process, at which time your name will be added to our Volunteer Database.
- Every time you are coming onto campus, you will need to bring a photo ID, such as a drivers license or passport. This is used to check the Megan's Law database before any visitors are allowed on campus.
Yard Duties Needed
Another way to help us (either as a volunteer or paid position) is to help out with our lunch time yard duty. We are in need of yard duties for TK and Kindergarten on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. We are all out on the playground together). TK/K lunch time runs from 11:30 to 12:15, so if you can spare 45 minutes to help at lunch, we need you!
Upcoming Events
Monday, 9/4: No School: Labor Day
Monday, 9/4: No School: Labor Day
Friday, 9/15: Picture Day
Friday, 9/22: Alta Vista Movie Night
