Week of 9/6

 Hello room 1 parents, I hope you are continuing to enjoy your long weekend and are finding a way to stay cool! We will get right back into the swing of things on Tuesday, with another fun week ahead, including Movie Night on Friday the 9th, hosted by the home and school club.

Thank you for signing your child up on my assessment schedule. This will help me to best meet the differing needs of the students in my class during small group instruction. I was able to complete many of the assessments of extended care students last week, and I look forward to meeting with the rest of the students in the upcoming weeks. If you still need to sign up or check your scheduled day/time, you can edit/view it here. Please note that you can no longer edit this document. If you need to reschedule your child's time, please email me.

Language Arts 

In language arts, we continue introducing letters and letter sounds, along with the handwriting of those letters, using the Fundations program. We have introduced Tt, Bb, and Ff, which are all "sky-line letters" and this week, we will introduce Mm and Nn, which are "plane-line letters." If you'd like more information about the formation of these letters to support your student at home, as well as posters that are similar to the ones we use in the classroom, please read this week's home support letter. The posters can be assembled into a book that you and your child can reference at home throughout the year.

 

We will also introduce our first sight word, I, this week. We will introduce 1 to 2 sight words per week now, and children are expected to master the reading of 40+ sight words by the end of kindergarten. The complete list (there are more than 40 words listed here, but they will be exposed to all of them) can be found on the "High Frequency Words" tab of my website.

 

Collaboration/STEAM Projects

This week, we will be reading several different fairy tales & nursery rhymes, and then doing follow-up STEAM challenges. These challenges will be done in small groups, so we will discuss big subjects like collaboration, teamwork, and compromise. We will be testing which materials will protect Humpty Dumpty from breaking, building houses that will stand up to the Big Bad Wolf, building bridges for the Three Billy Goats, and making webs to keep the spiders away from Little Miss Muffett. We look forward to learning how to collaborate as a group to solve these challenges.

Math
In math, we will continue with the topic Numbers to 10. This week, we will continue looking at each number and different ways to represent them (numeral, 10 frames, etc.) More information on this topic can be found here. 

Wednesday Envelopes

Thank you so much for returning the envelopes on Thursday, If you were not able to return your envelope on Thursday, please return it on Tuesday, when it will already be time to pack them again.

P.E.
Beginning the week of October 3rd, we will get to have P.E. lessons with the Rhythm & Moves P.E. program. This program is funded by your donations to the AVHSC C.A.G.E. drive. Children will participate twice a month in P.E., and this program is a huge hit! Thank you for your continued donations to the C.A.G.E. drive for programs like this. If you haven't had a chance to donate yet, please consider donating by going to this link: https://altavistahsc.membershiptoolkit.com/home

Enrichment Update

Thank you for signing up to volunteer for our enrichment programs, however we are still in need of a couple volunteer assignments:

- 1 or 2 more Art Vista helpers

- clay lead parent, we could also use 

- 1 more library reader (this would be shared with another parent so would be every other week). Library visits are every Wednesday, beginning September 21st, and our scheduled time each week is 9:30 to 9:50. 

- 1 more cornerstone parent

- and most importantly room parent! This position is REALLY helpful for me. 

*** If you are thinking about a position and have questions after reading about them on the home and school club site: https://altavistahsc.membershiptoolkit.com/home, feel free to reach out to me. 

New Bike Rack

A few parents have asked about locking bikes that their children ride to school. We love to encourage children to ride bikes to school, and we are happy to share that Mr. Manny moved a bicycle rack into our playground! If your child rides a bike to school, please feel free to wheel it in when we open Gate F in the morning and park it on the rack located right next to the gate.

I hope you continue to enjoy your weekend!

Upcoming Events

Monday, 9/5: Labor Day, no school

Friday, 9/9: Movie Night

Friday, 9/16: Picture Day!

Week of 8/29

We made it through our first 5-day week in kindergarten!  Everyone is adjusting to the new routines well and making new friends.

Apologies in advance for this long email-- there is a lot of new information at the beginning of the school year.

Language Arts
We launched the Fundations program last week, and the children are doing so well with learning the routines and language of Fundations. As stated last week, a big focus 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.

We worked on a book last week where we practiced correct name-writing every day. Continue to encourage your children to write their name using only one upper-case letter. 

Math
Over the next few weeks, we will introduce numbers 1-10. We will learn how to write them correctly, and learn different ways to represent their value. For more information on this math module, please see the parent tips here.

  

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 will be working with students over there.

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. Please sign up for two different times (one math, one reading). However, I often finish both assessments in one sitting, so you likely will only have to come once. I will tell you after I complete your child's first assessment whether I need you to come back again. While your child is being assessed, you 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.  

Wednesday Envelopes
This Wednesday, you will receive your child's first "Wednesday Envelope." Since most communications from the school are now online, this will mostly contain completed work from the classroom. Please look this over 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. Your child will put it in a bin on Thursday mornings, so please remind them to take it out of their backpack on Thursdays after they hang it on their hook. Of course, I will remind them too. :)

Snacks

We are still 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 work with your children on opening snack wrappers and snack boxes independently. They will need to learn how to do this, especially once we start staying for lunch.

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. In looking over our volunteers so far, we have a lot of holes! We need a head classroom parent, more Art Vista Docents, a Clay program leader, a library reader coordinator (this can be done from home & just involves creating a signup schedule for parents to come in weekly to read a story to us at library time), and Cornerstone volunteers. Please check out the link above & volunteer if you can! If you need more information about any of the volunteer positions, feel free to email me. 

Upcoming Events
Friday, 9/2: Staff Development Day, no school
Monday, 9/5: Labor Day, no school

Friday, 9/9 @ 6:00: Alta Vista Outdoor Movie Night

Week of 8/22/22

We had a great first week reading books about showing respect and following rules, and we did a few fun art projects to go along with those books. On Friday, we enjoyed the stories, The King of Kindergarten and The Queen of Kindergarten, and made crowns afterward so that we could all be Queens/Kings of Kindergarten. That means that we brighten up every room we enter, we are always caring and kind, and we are helpful. This group seems to be off to a great start as Kings & Queens of kindergarten!

Playdates!

Keertan's mom Sharanya made a whatsapp group so parents can stay in touch throughout the school year and organize play dates and such. I think this is such a great way for your children to play outside of school and for parents to meet one another. Here is the link to join if you'd like: 

https://chat.whatsapp.com/F2GCUJknIitBTQc684PRye

Fundations

This week, we will begin the Fundations reading program. This will be an orientation week, where we will learn about some of the tools in Fundations. The program has a big focus on handwriting, and we will learn about letters that touch the sky line, the plane line, the grass line, and the worm line. We will also meet Echo the Owl, who helps promote student responses. A bit more about the program can be found here. Each week I will include a digital parent letter reviewing the Fundations curriculum we learned so that you can reinforce at home.

Handwriting/Name Writing
This week, we will begin focusing on names and letters. We will be creating a book where children will practice writing their names in different ways, One of our kindergarten standards is writing a name with one capital letter and the rest lower-case. I encourage you to reinforce this at home-- we try to drop the all-capital letter name writing as quickly as possible. The faster children can write their names correctly, the easier it is for them to get going on assignments, as we encourage them to write their names first. I appreciate your help with this. 

In addition, we will also practice saying each other's names in order to get to know one another a little better. On that same note, I would like every child to bring in a framed 4x6 family photo for us to display in the classroom. That way we can start to get to know each other's families too! You will get the framed picture back at the end of the year. :) I am happy to provide a frame if you are unable to. Please bring these in by this Friday August 26.

We will also be reading the book, Chika Chika Boom Boom and doing some crafts and a STEAM project around this theme.

Scissor Skills/Fine Motor Tubs
Next week, we will launch our "fine motor tubs," which we work on first thing in the morning. Starting Tuesday, children will go straight into the classroom when the door is open (no need to line up after I open the door-- just come right in) and start working on their assigned tubs. Your children will want to come a little before 8:15 so that they can get started on these tubs and havec as much time as possible, as these are always very popular! They are a great way for us to sneak in some fine motor strengthening activities while having fun. One skill we will be focusing on is scissor skills. We have noticed that this is another skill that has been quite difficult for a number of students. Continue practicing scissor skills at home by drawing lines on papers to have your children cut on different types of lines.

School Gates

Starting on Monday, all gates into the school will no longer be open before 8:05. This means that if you arrive before 8:05, you will have to wait at the front of the school or in the parking lot. The gates will be open from 8:05 to 8:15, and then they will be closed until dismissal time. If you arrive after the gates are closed, you will need to go into the office for a tardy slip before you can get onto campus. For security reasons, please do not prop the gate open or hold the gate for others coming in after the 8:15 bell has rung.                                                                                                                                                               **For your upcoming scheduling: There is no school on Friday, September 2nd or Monday the 5th.

I am looking forward to another fun week with your children!

Wednesday, August 10, 2022

 Summer 2022

Kindergarten Orientation is Monday, August 15th at 11:00 - 11:30 in rooms K1, K2, and room 1. Class lists will be posted outside the classrooms shortly before.

Kindergarten Back-to-School Night, a meeting for parents only, is Wednesday, August 17th at 5:30. Following the presentation is an important Home and School Club Meeting. This event is for adults only please.

Supplies that I usually ask for in kindergarten include tissues, glue sticks, white board markers (*fine line, no chisel tip), liquid hand soap, unscented baby wipes, and Clorox Wipes/similar. These are not mandatory, but just appreciated donations. Check Back-to-School sales for these items-- we appreciate it! 

School begins on Wednesday, August 17, 2022-- ALL KINDERGARTEN SESSIONS WILL RUN FROM 8:15 to 11:35, until October 3rd. Extended care is available at Union School District Extended Care

You will receive a letter, welcoming you to Alta Vista via email, that will give you more information about the school year.

For kindergarten readiness, the AV kindergarten team highly recommends that your child comes into kindergarten:

• recognizing most letters
• writing his/her name legibly, using one upper-case & the rest lower-case letters
• recognizing numbers to 10 & beyond
• knowing names of basic shapes
• having good cutting/scissor skills
• able to sit attentively for the duration of a picture book

Here is another great list of kindergarten readiness ideas.

We highly recommend reviewing letter sounds with videos such as this or apps/sites such as starfall.com for a good review of letter recognition and letter sounds.