Week of 10/2

 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 because on these 1:15 dismissal days 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+ 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. A retired kindergarten teacher gave me the advice of not adding any new after school, extra-curricular activities during the first few weeks of extending the day, as kiddos will need to come home and decompress. If you've never heard of The After School Restraint Collapse, click on the link to read more. It's hard work for children of all ages to "hold it together" all day and meet academic demands, so of course when they get home to their safe space and safe people, *some* students may be exhausted and have some BIG feelings. They might need a little bit of space before telling you about their day. 

Lunch will be from 11:30 to 12:15.  Children will be supervised by yard duties at that time, and will eat first and then play on the playground. A few take-aways from our lunch on Friday:

1. Please make sure your child knows which items are for snack and what is for lunch. Separate boxes within the lunch bag would be helpful OR two separate bags entirely.  Some students today were out of food at lunch, and then we had to send them through the hot lunch line.
2. Please understand that microwaves are NOT available if your child packs a lunch from home.
3. If your child packs a lunch or snack from home that needs utensils, please provide those in your child's bag.
4. In general, students still need a lot of practice at opening their own snacks and food wrappers and containers. When children are at home with you, please let them attempt to open snacks & show them how to do this, rather than doing it for them. There is a lot of pride in children when they are able to do things on their own!

For those who are getting hot/school lunch:

1. Please go over the menu (found on the "Nutrition" tab on the Alta Vista website) with your child, and have them make their choice with you so that they know what they are getting once they are in line. 
2. Practice "ordering" an item, using a clear and confident voice. At the very least, your child needs to be able to point to what they would like. Have children practice at home, restaurants, and even when pretending they're at a restaurant.
3. Children have a choice between white milk, chocolate milk, or their own water bottle. Please go over this choice with them as well. If choosing milk, you should have them practice opening a carton on their own. This was very difficult for many today.

Language Arts
Last week, we started practicing one of our Daily 5 reading center activities- Read to Self. This week we will introduce 2 more Daily 5 activities: Lexia Core5 &  "Word Work." Word Work is a variety of literacy games that we use to reinforce phonics, sight word recognition, and comprehension skills. In the next couple of weeks, we will be able to fully launch Daily 5. 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 literacy centers. Your children will be receiving lessons targeted for their ability level in a small group instruction setting. Lexia Core5 is a district sponsored reading app done on the iPad. Students will take an assessment on the app this week that will place them at a level appropriate for their learning. Students will meet the prescribed amount of minutes throughout the week during Daily 5 centers. 

In Fundations, we will introduce the letters Cc and Oo. The letter c is important in handwriting, because many letters start with the "magic c," as we call it. The letters a, d, g, o, and q are all "Magic C" letters. Parent tips for this week's letters and concepts can be found here.
 
We will introduce our first sight words this week! Your children will be exposed to over 40 sight words this year. Using the phonics knowledge they already know, sight words will be taught through "orthographic mapping." This means that children will listen to how many sounds they hear in a word and then apply their phonics skills to "map" out those sounds. Each week, when we introduce new sight words, they will only contain sounds that we've already learned through the Fundations curriculum. This week's words are it and in. You can find the sight words we will be introducing 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 numbers 6-10 and doing various activities practicing PRECISION when counting.

Music & Art

Our music program begins this week! Thanks to your generous donations to the Home & School Club, they are able to support our enrichment activities such as funding the music program. We have music class every Friday with Miss Emory.

We had our first Art Vista lesson last week. We started with looking at prints from professional artists, followed by a lesson on the aspects of shapes and lines of those prints. Thank you to Asma (Ibrahim's mom) and Shereen (Lily's mom) for coordinating these lessons.

*Remember to return your child's library book by Tuesday each week

*Classroom centers start next week! The Sign-Up Genius can be found here.

We need a library check in/out person this week 9:30-9:55 on Wednesday!
 

This Week's Helpers & Activities:

Monday: first day of our extended day schedule

Tuesday: Return library books!

Wednesday: Library (Roshan & check in/check out needed!), dismissal @ 1:15

Thursday: Return white envelopes

Friday: Music with Miss Emory

Upcoming Events

Monday, 10/2: First Day of our Extended Day: 1:40 dismissal begins

Friday, 10/6: First Music Class

Friday, 10/6: First Art Vista lesson

Thursday, 10/12: Author Visit Assembly - Trudy Ludwig

Friday, 10/13: Alta Vista Walkathon ---> Register here!

10/19-10/22: Fall Break

Week of 9/25

 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 (containers, packing, lunch boxes, etc), 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 many kiddos at the beginning, but they are ready for it!

We are also looking forward to our "practice lunch" day, this Friday the 29th. I haven't heard from anyone that they aren't able to come, so I look forward to having everyone stay until 12:20 on Friday. Remember that if your child is trying out a school lunch, please go over the menu choices with them ahead of time, which can be found here. 

Parent Volunteers

*** Library book reader and book check in/check out needed this week! Here is the link to our class sign up. Thank you so much! There are some instructions on the signup genius link above, but feel free to reach out if you have any questions. Library is 9:30-10. 

With just two weeks left before we launch classroom centers, I also 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!

In addition to future library spots, there are still many center helper spots still available. Your help with centers allows me to work with a small group of children at a time, on specific skills at their level. I know it's hard with busy schedules, work conflicts, childcare for younger children, etc. but if each parent can make arrangements to come into the classroom to help at least once or twice this year, we should be all set! I appreciate your help! Grandparents are welcome too!

Language Arts

We are beginning the 3rd week of the Fundations program this week. So far, we've introduced the letters and sounds of: Tt, Ff, Bb, Mm, and Nn. This week we will introduce our first vowels: Ii and Uu. 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 print awareness and rhyming skills, which we've also been working on in class. 

Math

In math, we will begin the topic Numbers to 10. More information on this topic can be found here

 eureka_math_grade_k_module_3_parent_tip_sheet.pdf

"Students will begin to observe and analyze the world around them mathematically. They will count, order, and draw up to ten objects. They will eventually work toward an understanding that each successive number names a
quantity that is 1 more, and that the number before is 1 less."

**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.

Upcoming Events

Wednesday, 9/27: Trip to the Library (helpers needed)

First Art Vista Lesson at 10:30 

Friday, 9/29: "Practice Lunch" dismissal at 12:20

Monday, 10/2: First Day of our Extended Day: 1:40 dismissal begins

Friday, 10/6: First Music Class

Friday, 10/6: First Art Vista lesson

Friday, 10/13: Alta Vista Walkathon

10/19-10/22: Fall Break