Week of 10/30

We are looking forward to some Halloween fun on Tuesday! I hope you were able to make it into the Alta Vista office last week to get a visitor's pass for the parade, if you are planning on coming. If not, I highly recommend that you go into the office on Monday, either before school or after school (until 3:00). If you do not get a visitor's pass prior to Tuesday morning, you will most likely miss the parade. Please plan accordingly! 

More Halloween Info

Children should come to school in their costumes, as we won't have time to get 23 children changed into their costumes for the parade at 9:00. After the parade, children will be going straight to recess. At this point, costumes should be removed to avoid spilling on or damaging costumes during recess & lunch, and I encourage you to take costumes home with you if you are on campus for the parade. If you are not coming for the parade, please send your child with a bag for their costume, especially if it won't fit inside their backpack. Please have your children wear a layer under their costume that they will be comfortable wearing for the remainder of the day. 

Conferences

This is the last full week of our regular school schedule before conferences begin on Tuesday, 11/7. During the two weeks beginning 11/7 and ending on 11/17, 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 called Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano. In this book, 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 be 11/9. We will be making this project into a class book to share with all the families, so encourage your children to take their time on the project and have fun with it!

What We're Learning this Week

Language Arts:

We will introduce the letters Ee and Rr. To help your child with correct letter formation, please see this week's Fundations Family Letter. Our sight words this week are at and and. 

Math:

We are wrapping up Module 1, Numbers to 10. Students should be able to recognize and write numbers 0-10. They should be able to count, order, and draw up to 10 items.

**Library books are due by Tuesday each week

This Week's Helpers & Activities

Monday: Centers (Lydia & Aida)

Tuesday: Halloween parade at 9:00, Halloween Party at 12:20 (Rachna & Rebecca organized parent volunteers for this event, thank you!)

Wednesday: Library @ 9:30 (Kristi & check in/out needed), Dismissal @ 1:15

Thursday: Centers (Lauren & Yuni)

Friday: Music class, ***Friday afternoons we have been going to the Occupational Therapy room, room 2, next door. This is a fun space for children to get their wiggles out and play on the equipment. Students do need to be able to remove and put back on their shoes, so please have your child wear shoes they can take off and put back on independently.

Upcoming Events

Tuesday, 10/31: Schoolwide Halloween Parade @ 9:00 (get your visitor's pass ahead of time!!) and class party in p.m.

11/7-11/17: Parent-Teacher Conferences-- dismissal @ 1:15 daily

Thursday 11/9: Return Turkey Trouble project in Weds. envelope

Friday 11/10: NO SCHOOL: Veteran's Day

11/20-11/24: Thanksgiving Break

Tuesday, 12/19 @ 9:15 am: Nutcracker Performance

12/21-1/3: Winter Break

Week of 10/23

 Hello families, 

Thank you for your kindness with the substitute teacher. I am looking forward to getting back into the classroom! There are several events this week, so please take a look at the daily activities. 

Please check the sign up genius for classroom volunteering. There are still spots available and we need additional helpers this week! 

Book Fair

The Book Fair begins next week! There are special kindergarten hours on Tuesday the 24th at 1:40-2:30. Only kindergartners and TK students will be in the book fair (with parents) at that time, since the rest of the school is still in session. If you can't make it on Tuesday, you'll have to brave the crowds on Wednesday, or return to school on Thursday or Friday at 2:40. The children do not go to the fair during class time, since they need to be with a parent to purchase books.

YSI Presentation

Our Spiders, Insects, and Other Arthropods presentation will happen on Tuesday morning. We are excited for this hands-on presentation, and look forward to adding to what we've already learned about spiders, as well as learning more about different arthropods.

Picture Make-Ups

If you were not satisfied with your child's school pictures, or if they missed picture day, Generations School Photography will be back on Friday the 27th for make-ups. Please let me know if you'd like your child to take a make-up picture so that I send them down.

Halloween Parade

The Halloween parade will be on 10/31 at 9:00 am. ALL PARENTS MUST ENTER CAMPUS THROUGH THE OFFICE AND OBTAIN A VISITOR'S BADGE. As you can imagine, there will be many people on campus that morning (over 400) and the best way to enter campus seamlessly would be to get a visitor's badge ahead of time. You can do this by going to the office between 7:30 am and 3:00 pm, beginning on Monday, 10/23. Bring your driver's license and ask Chitra for a visitor's badge for the Halloween parade. If you do not get a visitor's badge ahead of time, you risk missing the parade, since the line will be very long on Tuesday morning. Our class party will be in the afternoon, separate from the parade, and we only need a very limited number of parents to join for that, since it will be just like our classroom centers, but Halloween-themed! Thank you to our room parents Rachna and Rebecca

Conferences

Thank you for signing up for conferences so quickly! I think we have nearly everyone on the schedule now. Within a few days, I will turn the conference sign-ups into a "view only" document. After I do that, if you need to make any changes to your time, please contact me. 

In Class This Week

Last week we reviewed and practiced letters, sounds and printing, due to the short week with a sub. This week we will study Dd and Ss in Fundations. It's a good idea to spend a little extra time with your child on these letters, since they are some of the most commonly reversed letters. Tips to help your child with letter formation can be found here. We do have three new sight words: a, I, and go. When studying the words a and I, it's important that children clearly understand the difference between a word and a letter. I tell them that a word has a space before it and a space after it, so you can use this same language at home 

In math, we will also continue working with the numbers 0-10. This week's focus is on more than, less than, and equal.

This week, we will be studying pumpkins. We will weigh, measure, and dissect pumpkins in math & science, and read both fiction and non-fiction books about pumpkins. We will also read the book Creepy Carrots and design our own Creepy Carrots. 

**Please return library books every Tuesday

This Week's Helpers & Activities

Monday: Centers (Hseu-Hwang & one more parent needed!), Begin getting your passes for Halloween parade

Tuesday: Return library books, Centers (Rachna & Roshan), Special TK/Kindergarten Book Fair Hours (1:40-2:30)

Wednesday: Library (Reader-Srudhy & need a check in/out person!), Dismissal @ 1:15

Thursday: Centers (Lauren & Yuni)

Friday: Music class

Upcoming Events

10/23-10/27: Book Fair

Monday, 10/23: Begin getting visitor's pass for Halloween Parade

Tuesday, 10/24: Special Kindergarten hours @ Book Fair: 1:40-2:40

Tuesday, 10/24: YSI Presentation: Insects, Spiders, and other Arthropods

Tuesday, 10/31: Schoolwide Halloween Parade @ 9:00 (get your visitor's pass ahead of time!!) and class party in p.m.

11/7-11/17: Parent-Teacher Conferences- whole school dismissal is at 1:15

Friday 11/10: NO SCHOOL: Veteran's Day

11/20-11/24: Thanksgiving Break

Week of 10/16

I hope you all enjoyed your first walkathon. I was so impressed by the walking stamina of the Pandas! I took some photos of the school day event. They are in our shared google photo album for the class. 

This is a short week due to our Fall Break on Thursday and Friday. I hope you are able to enjoy some family time. Remember, I have a substitute teacher, Mrs. Kimber, for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week. 

Conferences

If you haven't had an opportunity to do so yet, please see this document to sign up to meet with me for your child's conference. Just a reminder that conferences are for parent(s) only so that we can talk openly about your child’s progress, and there is one conference per child. 

Language Arts

Due to the short week, we will be reviewing our Fundations letter names, sounds, and handwriting. 
We will also study two new sight words this week: am and can. You can find the sight words we've introduced on the classroom website. Go to the tab called "High Frequency Word Listg."

Math

We will continue working on numbers 0-10. Children should be able to recognize, understand the value, and write these numbers.

Centers

Our first week of classroom centers went so well! Thank you for supporting small group instruction by coming in to join us at center time. I've added a few new dates to the center/library schedule to bring us up to the end of 2023. Check out the Sign Up Genius here. 

Halloween

Alta Vista will be celebrating Halloween with a costume parade that includes ALL of our TK through fifth grade students. The Halloween Parade will be on Tuesday, October 31st at 9:00 AM. During the school day, all visitors (Grandma and Grandpa too) must check into our office through our Visitor Management System. Safety remains a top priority for our school and district and the check in process takes a couple of minutes for each guest. The Halloween Parade has always been a popular event and we are expecting quite a crowd. To help expedite the check in process on Halloween, please help us by pre-registering into our Visitor Management System prior to the 31st. It's a simple process:

1. Stop by the office with your driver’s license anytime beginning the week of Monday, October 23rd, between 8:00 and 3:00. Let Chitra know that you would like a visitor’s sticker for the Halloween Parade.

2. Keep the sticker in a safe place until the day of the event. You will need to wear the sticker in a visible place on your shirt when you come for the parade on the 31st.

3. There will be two lines on the morning of the event. One will be for those who have pre-registered and have their sticker on. They will have their stickers checked and let in through the gate closest to the office. The other line will be for those that have not pre-registered for the event.

Please note, if you are unable to pre-register and pick up a sticker during the week prior to the parade, we anticipate a long line the morning of the event. It can take up to 2 minutes in some cases to check in each person. We highly suggest you come early so that you don’t miss the fun. No adult will be allowed on campus without a visitor’s sticker from the office. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we prioritize keeping students safe during school-wide events.

**Library books are due on Tuesday each week

This Week's Helpers & Activities:

Monday: Centers (Nikta & Hseu-Hwang)

Tuesday: Return library books, Centers (Rebecca & Sara Frances)

Wednesday: Library (Rachna & Sara Frances), dismissal @ 1:15

Thursday: NO SCHOOL: Fall Break

Friday: NO SCHOOL: Fall Break

Upcoming Events

10/19-10/22: Fall Break

10/23-10/27: Book Fair

Tuesday, 10/24: Special Kindergarten hours @ Book Fair: 1:40-2:40

Tuesday, 10/24: YSI Presentation: Insects, Spiders, and other Arthropods

Tuesday, 10/31: Schoolwide Halloween Parade & Class Party

11/7-11/17: Parent-Teacher Conferences 1:15 Dismissal for entire school

Friday 11/10: NO SCHOOL: Veteran's Day

week of 10/9

 This is a jam packed newsletter. Please read all the way through. Thank you. :)

Our first week of extended days went well! A few suggestions:

• Continue reminding your child what is for snack, and what is for lunch
• Go over the hot lunch menu with them in advance
• Make sure your child knows if they have snack from home or need a school snack.
• Make sure your child knows if they have lunch from home or need a school lunch. 
• Make sure your child is getting plenty of sleep! They were all very tired by the end of last week.

A big thank you to the volunteers who coordinated and assisted in our first clay project last Friday! The class enjoyed getting their hands dirty and are excited to glaze their sweets tray next month. 

I wanted to let you all know about some days I will be out of the classroom. Your child may have mentioned earlier this year that they had a substitute because I was at "teacher school". They were right! One day I was at an all day training with other Alta Vista staff members for PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions for Success). It is a three year roll out to the school and community and we are in year 1. I will be out 4-5 days for PBIS training this school year.Of course there will also be days this year when my own children are sick and I need to stay home, in addition to teacher assessment/report card days. By contract, teachers are alloted a certain amount of days during which we can get a substitute teacher so that we can assess students and/or do report cards. Just FYI. :) 

I will also be out of the classroom next week, Oct. 16,17,18. My father passed away a week before the school year started. There are some family events and appointments I need to tend to during those days. The class will be in good hands with an Alta Vista parent as the substitute teacher, Rebecca Kimber. She offered to come by the classroom this Friday afternoon to meet the class, so that they feel more comfortable with her the following week. Mrs. Brehmer, our wonderful classroom aide will still be in class as usual on Monday and Tuesday (she is off Wednesdays). Thank you.

Centers Begin

We are excited to welcome parents into the classroom for centers this week! If, for some reason, you are ever 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 plan to come to campus at about 12:15 so that you can check in at the office first. Remember to bring your driver's license so that you can be scanned through the Raptor system to get your visitor's badge. Then head down to Room 1, and just enter the classroom through either door and wait at the back while I explain the centers to the students (and you). 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. I try to make it work so that you work with your child, but sometimes it doesn't work out! We look forward to seeing you on your center day!

Walkathon

We are so excited for the Spooky Sprint on Friday! This is Alta Vista's biggest fundraiser, and a true community event. We will start the walking at school between 9:00 and 10:00, but any kindergartners who would like to come back and continue walking are invited to do so after school on Friday (2:40pm) with an adult (parent or friend's parent) accompanying them. The event continues until 6:00, and there will be additional booths and fun at that time, such as the Haunted Hangout and Crazy Hair. Come out and join in on this fun & worthwhile event, which supports Alta Vista's enrichment programs. If you are free and would like to walk with the class during our morning walk time 9-10am it's always nice to have more adults stationed along the track or walking with kiddos. I'll take the first 5 parents who email. :)

Spirit Day

Thursday the 12th, we will have our first school wide Spirit Day, in advance of the walkathon. Participation in these days is totally optional, but always a fun way to show your Alta Vista spirit. This Thursday's Spirit Day is a "Rainbow of Spirit." Kindergartners should wear red for our part of the rainbow. 

Author Visit

Also on 10/12, we have author Trudy Ludwig coming to Alta Vista to read one of her stories and have a Q & A session with students. For more information about her and her books, visit trudyludwig.com

Conferences

Parent-teacher conferences are coming up quickly. Kindergarten conferences will begin on November 7th and end on  November 17th. All conferences will be in-person in the classroom. Please note that during conference weeks, dismissal is at 1:15 daily, instead of 1:40. Conferences are for parent(s) only so that we can talk openly about your child’s progress, and there is one conference per child. Please see this document to sign up to meet with me for your child's conference.

Language Arts 
After this week, we will have introduced 11 letters and sounds. The letters your child should recognize & know the sounds of are: Aa, Bb, Cc, Ff, Gg, Ii, Mm, Nn, Oo, Tt, and Uu. This week, we are introducing another vowel, Aa, as well as another consonant, Gg. If you notice that your child is having difficulty recognizing letters and knowing letter sounds, please provide additional reinforcement at home. Watching and singing The Better Alphabet Song is a great way to continually review letters and sounds. It is also important to keep checking your child's letter formation in handwriting. Reading the weekly Fundations Family Newsletter is a great way to support your child's learning. I print them out and have them in a binder at home to work with my Kindergartener. 

Our sight words this week are on and not. This week we will begin studying spiders and arthropods in preparation for our YSI Presentation on October 24th. We will read both fiction and nonfiction books about spiders. 

Math
On Monday, we will have now introduced all numbers 0-10 and seen how they look on a 10 Frame. We will continue counting and writing numbers this week. I have noticed that many children need additional reinforcement on correct number formation. All numbers should be written by starting at the top and moving downward. Please work with your children to ensure they are forming their numbers correctly. Tips for this Module can be found here. 

Kimochis

This week, the Kimochis® Character named Bug will join our classroom to teach children about the feelings left out, shy, brave, and scared. Bug is the Kimochis® Character who is thoughtful and very careful. He is very smart and loves to talk. But Bug is afraid of change, and because he is a caterpillar, this is hard for him. Although Bug is afraid, he secretly dreams of flying, but it is hard for him to try new things. Children who have a temperament like Bug’s, benefit from learning how to be brave in order to manage shy and scared feelings and try new things. It is helpful to tell your child that bravery means you might feel afraid, shy, or unsure, but you can still get yourself to say and do something that is right or try something new. In our lesson, your child learned to use positive self-talk to help Bug take his wings out and fly. This self-talk tool will help your child manage emotions and develop confidence and resilience.

**Remember to send in your child's library book by Tuesday each week so that s/he can check out a new book on Wednesday

This Week's Helpers & Activities:

Monday: Centers (Yuni & Joe)

Tuesday: Return library books, centers (Asma & Rebecca)

Wednesday: Library (Lydia & Kristi), dismissal @ 1:15

Thursday: Rainbow Spirit Day (wear red), Return white envelopes, author visit @ 1:00

Friday: Spooky Sprint from 9:00 to 10:00, Music class, Spooky Sprint continues after school (2:40 to 6:00)

Upcoming Events

Friday, 10/13: Alta Vista Walkathon

10/19-10/22: Fall Break

Tuesday, 10/24: YSI Presentation: Insects, Spiders, and other Arthropods

Tuesday, 10/31: Schoolwide Halloween Parade & Class Party

11/7-11/17: Parent-Teacher Conferences ENTIRE school is 1:15 dismissal

Friday 11/10: NO SCHOOL: Veteran's Day