Thursday, January 5, 2023

Week of 1/3

 Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful vacation & are rested and ready to get back into the swing of things on Tuesday! Before I get into the newsletter, I want to say thank you so much for the thoughtful and generous class gift. My family uses amazon frequently, so it's so appreciated. The candle smelled so good... my older son is obsessed with candles right now for some reason, so he loved it too. :) And the hand lotion is always appreciated, especially during these cold and dry months. Thank you so much for thinking of me. 


Welcome!
Please join me in welcoming the Kulkarni Family to our Kindergarten class. Ved will join the class on Tuesday. Ved's parents are Pavan (Dad) and Pallavi (Mom). I hope you have a chance to say hello in the morning before school or after school and we can all work together to help them get familiar with the Alta Vista community. Thank you!

Smart Re-Start
We will ease into our first week back with some fun projects such as making and playing with play-doh, playing with puzzles, using some building toys like MagnaTiles and KEVA planks, and working with our coding app called Kodable. The district calls this week a "Smart Re-Start" to get the kids excited about returning to school after the two weeks off. Feel free to share this with your child to get them excited for the return to school. 

Language Arts
This week, we will introduce two new sight words, the and up. We will ease back into Fundations with more review while continuing to work on the formation of upper case letters I through P. The parent letter for Unit 2 remains the same as in Unit 2 weeks 1 & 2 and can be found here. There are many valuable resources in the Unit 2 parent letter, and I encourage you to check it out. 

Math
We will begin Module 4, Number Pairs, Addition & Subtraction to 10. This is a core module in kindergarten, as it provides all the foundational skills to be successful at addition & subtraction. This module will continue for many weeks. Parent tips for this module can be found here.

Centers/Music Program
We have just received exciting news that the AV Home & School Club has funded a new music program! Thanks to your generous donations, the AVHSC is able to provide weekly music instruction through an organization called The Music Place. While we are very excited about this new program, it will most likely impact our classroom center volunteer schedule. Please wait for an update from me about this, as the music schedule is not firm yet, so please do not adjust your calendars YET. I will notify you and then delete helper spots off the Sign-Up Genius as soon as this is confirmed. 

Enjoy your final days of vacation, and I look forward to seeing your children on Tuesday!

Reminders
**P.E. is every Friday-- please send your children in shoes & clothes appropriate for fitness.
**Library is every Wednesday. Please send your child's book back to school by Tuesday each week (nearly everyone returned their books before the holidays, but some forgot or were absent-- please send in your child's library book if you haven't already)
**Grasshopper t-shirt day is Friday each week.

Upcoming Events
Tuesday 1/3: Smart Re-start begins
Monday 1/16: No School: MLK Day
Monday, 1/30: No School: Professional Development Day
Thursday, 2/2: 100 Day
Week of 2/20: President's Week Vacation