Week of 2/13/2023

 We will celebrate Valentine's Day in class on Tuesday. One final reminder about the guidelines:

1. Please send in a card for each child. There are 24 total students in our class: 13 girls and 11 boys.
2. Please ONLY sign the card & put nothing in the TO box. It is challenging enough for kindergartners to pass out valentines to all their classmates. Having the "to" part filled out makes this extremely challenging and it takes far too long. Thank you for your help with this!
3. Please try to purchase valentines that do not have candy attached. I know those can sometimes be hard to find, but there are good choices with stickers, play tattoos, and other non-food goodies.

I have added a few more March dates on our Sign-Up Genius, If you're interested in either helping with Centers or Library, please check it out! Center time is such an important time in our classroom, because I am able to teach core curriculum in a small group setting. Thank you for making small group instruction possible by helping in the classroom on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We still need volunteers for Valentines Day Centers. One of the centers is overseeing students as they pass out their valentines to their classmates' bags. It will be so fun! The other is overseeing students make a simple craft. 

Spring parent-teacher conferences are coming up on March 2 through March 9. Check the sign-ups if you'd like to meet with me. These are optional conferences, but are available to anyone who would like an update on their child's progress.

Language Arts

Our sight words this week is love. This is another tricky word because the sounds don't follow the traditional phonics rules. We will also review all the digraphs we've learned so far.

We will continue with Unit 3 of Fundations this week. Blending sounds to read and spell words is now the main focus in our reading curriculum. There are some great resources in the Unit 3 Fundations Home Support letter. 

Math

We will continue with Module 4 this week. In class, I have noticed that some children are struggling when we move away from physical counters. Encourage your children to use their fingers to find the answers. Any reinforcement you can provide at home on solving addition problems is appreciated. 

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.

** Alta Vista Spirit wear day is Wednesday each week. Students can also just wear blue & yellow/gold

**Panda t-shirt day is Friday each week

 

This Week's Helpers & Activities:

Monday: no centers

Tuesday: Centers (???)

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

Thursday: Return Weds. envelopes, centers (Bora & Vidya)

Friday: Music Class, PE in the OT Room (wear shoes you can take on & off independently)

Upcoming Events 

Tuesday, 2/14: Valentines Exchange

Thursday, 2/16: Cornerstone Lesson (Apsara & Danielle), Substitute teacher (Mrs. P will be on campus but out of the classroom working on student assessments/report cards)

Week of 2/20: Presidents Week Vacation

3/2-3/10: Spring Conferences, early dismissal at 1:15

3/16: Special Event: Leprechaun Trap Making - parent helpers needed for this one!

Week of 2/6/2023

We have "Snow Day" this week on February 9th. See below for details on this winter-themed school day. 1 more center helper is needed on this day so we can do all of the fun activities. We also need 2 volunteers for Valentines Day Centers on 2/14. Here is the sign up genius. Thank you!

Spring parent-teacher conferences are coming up on March 2 through March 10. Check the sign-ups if you'd like to meet with me. These are optional conferences, but are available to anyone who would like an update on their child's progress.

Language Arts

Our sight words this week are my and you. These are more tricky words because the sounds don't follow the traditional phonics rules. We will also look at the digraph wh. The students enjoyed learning about the digraphs th, sh, and ch. During reading time with your child you could "hunt" and look for words with those digraphs. 

We will continue with Unit 3 of Fundations this week. Blending sounds to read and spell words is now the main focus in our reading curriculum. There are some great resources in the Unit 3 Fundations Home Support letter. 

Math

We will continue with Module 4 this week. In class, I have noticed that some children are struggling when we move away from physical counters. Encourage your children to use their fingers to find the answers. Parent tips for this module can be found here.

UPCOMING

Snow Day:
Snow Day will be this Thursday the 9th. This is a day when the children come to school all dressed in their snow gear-- whatever items you have. Mittens, knit hats, jackets, snow boots, scarves, goggles, etc. are all welcome! Please do not buy anything special for this day, just use what you have or borrow from a friend. They wear their gear, and then we will be having a "snowball fight" among all our K classes using wadded up recycled paper just after our 10:00 recess. Children should bring a separate bag for their snow gear for taking on and off, as it gets too warm wearing some of those items all day. They also tend to get lost if we don't have a place to put them. If they fit in your child's backpack, that is fine too. Our centers that day will all be snow-themed. It is always lots of fun.

Valentines Day: 

I know that valentines are now available in most stores, and children will be asking about our celebration. We will exchange cards in class on February 14th, but this is not a "party." We have a fun celebration of friendship, exchange valentines, and take them home to show our families. So that you can prepare for this event, I wanted to share some information:

1. Please send in a card for each child. There are 24 total students in our class: 13 girls and 11 boys.
2. Please ONLY sign the card & put nothing in the TO box. It is challenging enough for kindergartners to pass out valentines to all their classmates. Having the "to" part filled out makes this extremely challenging and it takes far too long. Thank you for your help with this!
3. Please try to purchase valentines that do not have candy attached. I know those can sometimes be hard to find, but there are good choices with stickers, play tattoos, and other non-food goodies.

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.

**Alta Vista tshirt day is Wednesday

**Panda t-shirt day is Friday each week.

 

This Week's Helpers & Activities:

Monday: Centers (thank you Jedy and Chu)

Tuesday: return library books!

Wednesday: Library (Andrea & Bora), dismissal @ 1:15

Thursday: Return Weds. envelopes, Snow Day centers (thank you Yufi & 1 more volunteer needed!)

Friday: Music Class & PE

Upcoming Events 

Thursday, 2/9: Snow Day

Tuesday, 2/14: Valentines Exchange

Week of 2/20: Presidents' Week Vacation

3/2-3/10: Spring Conferences   

Week of 1/31/23

 It was wonderful hearing about all the kind acts of our Pandas during Kindness Week last week. I was so impressed with the things students were doing to be kind! It was wonderful emphasizing kind acts in the classroom, as well as at home. I hope you benefitted from plenty of kind acts in your home last week! 

There are still some openings on our Sign-Up Genius, including tomorrow Tuesday the 31st. There are special 100 Day centers this week, so it would be very helpful to have parent helpers so students can do the fun activities planned. Please check it out if you have any availability this week. Thank you!

Spring parent-teacher conferences are coming up on March 2 through March 10. I sent the sign-ups out for those earlier today. These are optional conferences, but are available to anyone who would like an update on their child's progress.

Language Arts

This week is 100 Day! This is a fun celebration of the number 100 and being at school together for 100 days. We have many fun stories to read and center activities to do! Our sight word this week is his. We will also look at the ending digraph, ck. 

We began Unit 3 of Fundations last week. Blending sounds to read words is now the main focus in our reading curriculum. If your child has not mastered letter sounds yet, it is really important to continue reviewing those since we are now spending the majority of our time working on blending skills and building fluency. There are some great resources in the Unit 3 Fundations Home Support letter. 

Another big emphasis right now is using our knowledge of letter sounds, digraphs, word families, and sight words to write simple sentences. Children need to be able to put together a readable sentence on their own by the end of kindergarten. Encourage your children to write and spell phonetically as often as possible to build their abilities as independent writers. Try to resist the temptation to spell words for them if they ask, rather, encourage them to "stretch the word out" and put down all the sounds they hear themselves. They can write notes to you, grocery lists, cards for family members, etc.

Math

We will continue with Module 4 this week; just the addition portion of this module will last up until President's Week Break. Parent tips for this module can be found here. We will also have lots of number & counting fun this week in celebration of 100 Day.

Music

We begin our new music program this Friday. We are excited to have music class each Friday after lunch from now on. Thanks to your generous donations and fundraising for the AVHSC, there were enough enrichment funds to support this program.

Kimochis

This week, your child will learn the fifth Kimochis® Key to Communication: Redo hurtful moments. This key helps us remember to own and name our mistakes by apologizing and making things right. Although younger children may not always realize when they have said or done something wrong, they need to understand why it’s important to say they’re sorry. Learning the words “I’m sorry” comes faster than the genuine feeling behind it.1 As children develop the ability to take the perspective of someone else (between ages 3 and 4), their apology skills will improve. Kimochis® Cat comes with bandages that can help young children understand that hurt feelings are like an injury that needs attention. Children who can learn to redo communication mistakes will have healthier and more successful social relationships. 

Upcoming Events

Valentines Day: I know that valentines are now available in most stores, and children will be asking about our celebration. We will exchange cards in class on February 14th, but this is not a "party." We have a fun celebration of friendship, exchange valentines, and take them home to show our families. So that you can prepare for this event, I wanted to share some information:

1. Please send in a card for each child. There are 24 total students in our class: 13 girls and 11 boys.
2. Students can make homemade valentines or buy from the store.
3. Please ONLY sign the card & put nothing in the TO box. It is challenging enough for kindergartners to pass out valentines to all their classmates. Having the "to" part filled out makes this extremely challenging and it takes far too long. Thank you for your help with this!
4. Please try to purchase valentines that do not have candy attached. I know those can sometimes be hard to find, but there are good choices with stickers, play tattoos, and other non-food goodies.

Reminders

**P.E. is every Friday-- please send your children in shoes & clothes appropriate for fitness. This week, we have a make-up PE session with Coach Amy on Friday morning, we might go to room 2 in the afternoon if we need some wiggle time.

**Library is every Wednesday. Please send your child's book back to school by Tuesday each week.

**Panda t-shirt day is Friday each week.

 

This Week's Helpers & Activities:

Monday: NO SCHOOL: Professional Development Day

Tuesday: Centers (need 2 volunteers!)

Wednesday: Library (we need a reader volunteer! & Bora), dismissal @ 1:15

Thursday: Return Weds. envelopes, centers (need 1 volunteer & Vidya)

Friday: Make-Up PE session, Music Class

Upcoming Events 

Thursday, 2/2: 100 Day

Thursday, 2/9: Snow Day

Tuesday, 2/14: Valentines Exchange

Week of 2/20: Presidents Week Vacation

3/2-3/10: Spring Conferences

Week of 1/23/2023

 Hello parents, it was so great to see so many of you celebrating Vidhayini's birthday! As you may have seen in Mrs. Bailey's weekly update, we are kicking off "The Great Kindness Challenge" this week at school. This is an opportunity to really focus as a family on how our kind acts can help make everyone's day a little better. In kindergarten, we will be keeping track of kind acts with a "kindness chain." Children can come in each morning and tell me about a kind act they did at home, and we will also celebrate kind acts done at school. When children tell me about a kind act, they will receive a loop for our kindness chain. They write their name on the loop, and we will add it to our classroom chain. We are hoping that by the end of the week, our chain gets all the way across the classroom! You can support children at home by reminding them to tell me about a kind act you saw them do and brainstorming ways that they can be kind & helpful, both at home and at school. You can find a list of some simple ideas here. 

There are still some openings on our classroom volunteering Sign-Up Genius, including this week. Please check it out if you have any availability. Volunteers are needed for Tuesday and Thursday centers please!

Spring parent-teacher conferences are coming up on March 2 through March 9. I will send the sign-ups out for those this week. These are optional conferences, but are available to anyone who would like an update on their child's progress.

Language Arts

We will continue reading snow-themed stories and do writing projects and crafts around this theme. This week we will focus on the book, Snowmen at Night. The culmination of this theme will end with "Snow Day" on February 9th. Children can come to school dressed up in any winter gear they have, and we'll have some snow-themed fun! Our sight words this week are this and that. We have also been introducing digraphs. So far, we have focused on the digraphs sh and th. This week, we will take a look at ch. 

We are beginning Unit 3 of Fundations. Blending sounds to read words is now the main focus in our reading curriculum. If your child has not mastered letter sounds yet, it is really important to continue reviewing those since we are now spending the majority of our time working on blending skills and building fluency. There are some great resources in the Unit 3 Fundations Home Support letter. 

Math

We will continue with Module 4 this week; just the addition portion of this module will last up until President's Week Break. Parent tips for this module can be found here. 

Kimochis

This week, your child will learn the fourth Kimochis® Key to Communication: Choose helping words. This key helps us to both think before we speak and consider our word choices. Typically, children acquire a basic ability to understand another’s perspective between 3 and 4 years of age.This allows them to become caring people. However, they will need modeling and practice to do so. In our lesson, we will talk about words that make hearts feel good and words that hurt feelings and your hearts. Your child knows that everybody makes mistakes and can accidentally use words that hurt. Your child will learn to use the following communication tool when hurting words are used: 1. Place your hand over your heart. 2. Show a gentle, but hurt facial expression. 3. Make eye contact with the person who hurt you. 4. Say, “Ouch” in a soft, but hurt tone. The children now know that this is a safe, kind way to express hurt feelings. If a mistake is made, family members can use this tool so they can apologize and make things better.

Upcoming Events

100 Day: We will be celebrating our 100th day of school on February 2nd! Next week, our center activities will be around the number 100. The 100th day celebration is just a fun way to celebrate 100 days of school after we've been counting up to this day during calendar time. 

Valentines Day: I know that valentines are now available in most stores, and children will be asking about our celebration. We will exchange cards in class on February 14th, but this is not a "party." We have a fun celebration of friendship, exchange valentines, and take them home to show our families. So that you can prepare for this event, I wanted to share some information:

1. Please send in a card for each child. There are 24 total students in our class: 13 girls and 11 boys.
2. Please ONLY sign the card & put nothing in the TO box. It is challenging enough for kindergartners to pass out valentines to all their classmates. Having the "to" part filled out makes this extremely challenging and it takes far too long. Thank you for your help with this!
3. Please try to purchase valentines that do not have candy attached. I know those can sometimes be hard to find, but there are good choices with stickers, play tattoos, and other non-food goodies.

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.

** Alta Vista shirt or blue/yellow on Wednesdays

**Panda t-shirt day is Friday each week.

 

This Week's Helpers & Activities:

Monday:  Math centers (Amy and need one more!)

Tuesday: Centers (need 2 volunteers!)

Wednesday: Library (Amorette & Bora), dismissal @ 1:15

Thursday: Return Weds. envelopes, centers (need 2 volunteers!)

Friday: PE with Ms. Amy, Music Program begins next week

Upcoming Events 

Monday, 1/30: No School: Professional Development Day

Thursday, 2/2: 100 Day

Thursday, 2/9: Snow Day

Tuesday, 2/14: Valentines Exchange

Week of 2/20: Presidents Week Vacation

3/2-3/9: Spring Conferences

Week of 1/17/2023

 I hope you are all enjoying your long weekend, despite the rain. We have another four day school week ahead. Due to the start of the music program, the kindergarten team is cutting one day of centers since we all plan together, use the same materials, etc. If you were signed up for a canceled center date, you should have received a notification. Please see the updated Sign-Up Genius that reflects these changes. This week there is an option for Wednesday morning math centers (due to Monday's holiday). 

This week, we will hit the half-way mark (90th school day) in our kindergarten year. This is where the kindergarten curriculum really takes off, and your continued support with the curriculum will be especially important at this time. Reading to your children and asking them questions about what they are reading, helping them blend and read/write short vowel words (eg: hop, can, rat, etc.) and reinforcing math facts and sight words is really important at this time. 

Language Arts

We will begin reading many snow-themed stories for the next couple of weeks, and do writing projects and crafts around this theme. The culmination of this theme will end with "Snow Day" on February 9th. Children will come to school dressed up in any winter gear they have, and we'll have some snow-themed fun! Our sight words this week are she and back. We will wrap up Unit 2 in Fundations this week, which will conclude the instruction of upper-case letters. Our emphasis in Fundations will continue to be blending sounds to read and write words with fluency. 

Math

We will continue with Module 4 this week; just the addition portion of this module will last up until President's Week Break. Parent tips for this module can be found here. I do recommend that you look these over, because there will be some new vocabulary for those of you who do not have older students who have done the Eureka math program. Of particular importance are the words "compose" (finding numbers that add up to a given number-- like 3 & 2 compose 5) "decompose" (take apart a number-- like 5 can be 4 & 1 OR 3  & 2) and number bonds (a model to show mathematical thinking).

Kimochis

This week, your child will learn the third Kimochis® Key to Communication: Use a Talking Face and Body. We will practice strategies for maintaining a positive facial expression and body language when experiencing upset emotions and conflicts instead of a mean or hurtful facial expression (Fighting Face) and body language. When your child can keep his/her face and body from looking aggressive or hurtful, others will be more willing to listen. Your child will learn how to notice and read the facial expressions and body language of others as a way to understand the emotion behind the words. Your child will also learn a communication tool called the Talking Hand. This is a positive and effective strategy your child can use to respond to peers or siblings when they grab. 

Art Vista

We have an Art Vista lesson this week, and we will get to do fish prints! We will use a fake fish for these prints, and this is always a fun lesson for the students.

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.

**Panda t-shirt day is Friday each week.

 

This Week's Helpers & Activities:

Tuesday: Centers (need volunteers!)

Wednesday: Math Centers (Lior & 1 more volunteer needed), Library (Bora and library reader available), dismissal @ 1:15

Thursday: Return Weds. envelopes, centers (need volunteers!)

Friday: Art Vista (Jedy, Andrea, Yuko, Apsara), PE teacher

Upcoming Events 

Monday 1/16: No School: MLK Day

Monday, 1/30: No School: Professional Development Day

Thursday, 2/2: 100 Day

Thursday, 2/9: Snow Day

Week of 2/20: Presidents Week Vacation

Week of 1/9/2023

We had a great first week back for Smart Re-Start week last week. I was pleased with how well students jumped back into the routines!

Center Update

While it is looking nearly 100% sure that the Kinder team will need to cancel one day of centers to accommodate the new music program, the start date of the music program has still not been set, so there are no changes to the volunteer schedule YET. In the meantime, there are still 5 center openings next week!  If you are available, please sign up here. THANK YOU!

Language Arts

This week will be all about bears! We will read both fiction and non-fiction books about bears, watch scientific videos, and do some writing and art around the bear theme. Our sight words this week are see and like. We will continue working on reading CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words and practicing upper-case letter formation in Fundations. 

We are really working on our independent writing skills as we approach the second semester of kindergarten. Children will put together a book of facts about bears using the sentence stems: Bears can_____. Bears have _______. Bears are_______. We will also be working on a labeling unit. Children will be encouraged to add labels to their illustrations to practice working on their phonetic spelling. 

Math

As stated last week, we have launched Module 4 of Eureka Math: Number Pairs, Addition, and Subtraction to 10. This module has a lot of new vocabulary and tools that you may not have been exposed to when you were learning math. I have attached a different parent letter to this email which explains some of this. This week, we will introduce and focus on the number bond.

Kimochis

This week, your child will learn the second Kimochis® Key to Communication: Use a Talking Voice. This key helps children stay aware of how they use the tone and volume of their voice. Sometimes when we have upset feelings, it is easy to yell or use a tone of voice that makes the situation worse instead of better. The lesson this week will teach your child how to use a Talking Voice rather than a defensive, aggressive, or Fighting Voice (see definitions on back). When we feel upset and are able to use a Talking Voice, we raise the odds that others will want to understand our feelings and resolve conflicts. Your child will also learn how to pay attention to the tone of voice of others as a way to understand the emotion behind the words. 

Reminders

**P.E. is every Friday-- please send your children in shoes & clothes appropriate for fitness. We will be in room 2, the OT room.

**Library is every Wednesday. Please send your child's book back to school by Tuesday each week.

**Panda t-shirt day is Friday each week.

 

This Week's Helpers & Activities:

Monday: Centers (volunteers needed!)

Tuesday: Centers (volunteers needed!)

Wednesday: Library (Reader needed! & Bora for book check in & out)), dismissal @ 1:15

Thursday: Return Weds. envelopes, centers (??? & Mari)

Friday: PE in room 2

Upcoming Events 

Monday 1/16: No School: MLK Day

Monday, 1/30: No School: Professional Development Day

Thursday, 2/2: 100 Day

Week of 2/20: Presidents Week Vacation

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