Week of December 18th

We have several events during this short week, so this email is mostly reminders to keep you organized during these hectic final three days!

Holiday Spirit Week
This is another schoolwide Spirit Week. Participation is always optional, but the children really enjoy seeing each other dressed up:
Monday: Snow Day: Wear beanies, mittens, scarves and anything else that keeps you warm on a "snow day."
Tuesday: We won't be able to participate due to needing to wear our Nutcracker clothes, but if your child wants to pack something in their backpack for after the show, the theme is Holiday Spirit Day: Wear anything festive that goes along with a winter holiday that you celebrate.
Wednesday: Pajama Day (both the schoolwide theme day, plus what we're wearing for our holiday breakfast party).

Nutcracker
A reminder about clothing for the Nutcracker: please remember to dress your children in the clothes suggested in the letter sent home in the Wednesday envelope two weeks ago. Children should come to school dressed in these items on Tuesday. Girls who are wearing leotards can wear something over the top of their leotards when they arrive and change into their ballet shoes for the performance. As a reminder, here is the list:

MARIE/FRITZ: Bathrobe/pajamas & slippers
NUTCRACKER/SOLDIERS/TROPAK DANCERS: White Shirt & Dark Pants w/ dark shoes
MICE/MOUSE KING/CHOCOLATE DANCER BOYS: Dark Shirt & Dark Pants & dark shoes
CHOCOLATE DANCER GIRLS: Black leotard or t-shirt, black tights or leggings (skirt provided)
SUGAR PLUM, RIBBON CANDY, FLOWERS: Light colored leotard/light colored tights/ballet slippers or light colored shoes-- leotards with tutus attached are fine & encouraged for Sugar Plum Fairies & Flowers, especially. Ribbon tutu provided for Ribbon Candies.
COFFEE DANCERS: Light colored fitted shirt w/ leggings or more form-fitting pants OR leotard w/ no tutu (we provide the Harem pants)
TEA DANCERS: Shirt doesn't matter so much (will be wearing jacket we provide) dark pants or leggings, dark shoes.

Please borrow whatever you need to borrow-- we don't intend for anyone to have to buy anything. We still have several leotards and a few pairs of ballet slippers in the classroom that are also available-- let me know if you need to borrow. I will send them home with children who want to borrow one on Monday. Please email me to let me know you'd like to borrow one.

Please arrive promptly in the cafeteria for the Nutcracker, as we intend to start the show right at 9:15. Also, please do not try to come early and save seats. We will be keeping the doors locked until about 10 minutes before the performance. If you do not have a visitor's badge from the office, you will need to get one before entering the cafeteria for the performance. As a reminder, you can check in with the office to get a visitor's badge anytime during school hours beginning on Monday. Once you have your badge, everyone will be directed to line up behind the marked cone that will be placed near the front entrance of the school until the doors are open. There are plenty of seats for everyone, so no need to stress!

Photography
We want everyone to enjoy the performance, so please refrain from standing and blocking the aisles. It is no fun to watch a performance with a raised camera in front of you blocking your view-- I've had this happen to me at several performances, and I ask that you refrain from this behavior. If you want to take pictures, please go to the back row or off to the side.

On another photography note, we will have Mrs. Grist's daughter at the performance recording a video of it on an iPad. I will also be taking photographs of the children in their costumes before the performance. You will have access to these photos & the video, so that you can spend your time on Thursday enjoying the performance. The only tripod that will be set up for videos is ours-- there simply isn't space in the cafeteria for multiple tripods, so please leave your tripods at home.

Front Row Tickets Auction
Congratulations to the winners of the auction! There will be eight seats marked in the front row marked "Reserved for Auction Winners." You & your party can sit in any of those eight seats.

Make-Up and Costuming
Thank you to Aida, Francesca, Fumi, and Kristen for offering to help with getting the children ready for the performance. Please come into the classroom with the kids on Tuesday morning and we will start right away.

Holiday Party
We will have our holiday party and gift exchange on Wednesday the 20th. This is a pajama party! Children are encouraged to wear their pajamas as we enjoy a fun breakfast and crafts. If you are helping for this party, please come in with the kids and get all the food set up while they are doing their morning tubs. Thank you!

Upcoming
When we return from Winter Break on January 4th, we are having a special district-wide two days called "Smart Restart." Basically, it's a couple of days of activities to get children excited about returning to school. We will be doing some fairy tale STEAM projects and having time to play to ease our way back into school.

Happy Holidays and enjoy your break!

Upcoming Events
Tuesday, 12/19 @ 9:15 am: Nutcracker Performance
Wednesday, 12/20: Classroom Holiday Party
12/21-1/3: Winter Break
Thursday, 1/4: School resumes, Smart ReStart
Monday, 1/15: No School: MLK Holiday
Monday, 1/29: No School: Teacher Work Day

Week of December 11th

Nutcracker

This week, the focus will be on all things "Nutcracker." We will be practicing daily for our show with the other kindergarten classes, so there will be no centers this week or next. We will still have library time on Wednesday, and that will be the last time we go to the library in 2023.

Please let me know if you did not receive the purple note in your child's Wednesday envelope with their Nutcracker role. If you have any difficulty rounding up the "base clothes" that we mentioned in the letter, please let me know. Remember that all costume accessories and many costume pieces are supplied by us. We also have a number of leotards available to borrow that have been donated over the years. Thank you for your help in getting the children prepared for the show on the 19th.

You will be able to start getting visitor's badges to attend the performance, on Monday the 18th. Please bring your driver's license to the office and tell Chitra that you'd like a badge for the Nutcracker performance on the 19th. All people attending the show must go through the office first and get a visitor's badge. It's a good idea to get it on Monday so that you don't have to worry about getting caught up in a line on Tuesday morning and missing some of the show. The show will start promptly at 9:15. A few other things:

• The cafeteria doors will open at about 9:00. Please do not enter the cafeteria earlier and attempt to save seats. Anything on the seats before the doors open will be moved.
• We will record a video of the performance on an iPad and will share that video with all the families. Our iPad will be set up on a tripod for this purpose, and this is the only tripod that will be allowed in the cafeteria. Please do not bring your own tripod since there simply isn't enough room in the cafeteria for multiple tripods.
• We want everyone to enjoy the performance, so please refrain from standing and blocking the aisles. It is no fun to watch a performance with a raised camera in front of you blocking your view-- I've had this happen to me at several performances, and I ask that you refrain from this behavior. If you want to take pictures, please go to the back row or off to the side.

Front Row Tickets Auction
Finally, we wanted to remind you that the Home & School Club will be auctioning off 4 pairs of front-row tickets to the show. I believe the online auction will open on Wednesday and close on Friday. All money will go to the enrichment programs that HSC supports. It's a win-win! Get front row seats AND support Alta Vista's enrichment programs. Look for the link to the auction on Wednesday.

Holiday Party
We will have our holiday party and gift exchange (socks) on Wednesday the 20th. Look out for an email from Gina, who will be coordinating a pancake breakfast. This is a pajama party! Children are encouraged to wear their pajamas as we enjoy a fun breakfast and crafts. Please also remember to send in a wrapped pair of socks, with a label showing who it is "from" (so your child doesn't get their own sock gift) by this Friday the 15th. Thank you!

Language Arts
This week, we will wrap up the introduction of all letters and sounds with Qq and Zz! If you notice that your child does not recognize all upper & lower case letters, as well as know all letter sounds, please provide additional reinforcement at home. To help your child form this week's letters correctly, please see the Fundations Family Letter. In this week's newsletter, there is also an activity to review all letters and their sounds. Our sight words this week are run and ran. These words are perfect for our Gingerbread Man unit, which we will continue this week. We have several activities and many more stories to read!

Math
This week, we have an exciting collaboration with some 8th graders who are math tutors at Union Middle School. They are going to come over and present some centers that will strengthen the kindergartners' number sense skills. We are excited to have the 8th graders join us on Tuesday.

**Library is every Wednesday. Please return your child's library book by Tuesday each week.
**School spirit days are every Wednesday. Wear your Alta Vista t-shirts or your Bulldog t-shirts to show your school pride.

**Volunteering Sign-Ups

This Week's Helpers & Activities
Monday: No Centers-- Nutcracker Practice
Tuesday: UMS students come for math centers
Wednesday: Library @ 8:30, Dismissal @ 1:15
Thursday: No Centers-- Nutcracker Practice
Friday: Music

Upcoming Events
Tuesday, 12/19 @ 9:15 am: Nutcracker Performance
Wednesday, 12/20: Classroom Holiday Party
12/21-1/3: Winter Break
Thursday, 1/4: School resumes
Monday, 1/15: No School: MLK Holiday
Monday, 1/29: No School: Teacher Work Day

Week of December 4th

This week, you will receive a note telling you what your child's part will be in the Nutcracker, and what items you may need to round up for your child to wear for the performance. After reviewing what clothes your child needs to wear, please let me know if there are any problems with gathering up the various clothes needed-- most parts call for either leotards or dark pants and either a light or dark shirt. Hopefully, if there is a clothing item you do not have, you can borrow it, as we do not intend for you to have to buy anything. We have several leotards that have been donated over the years that can be borrowed, and a few pairs of ballet slippers. Again, the performance of the Nutcracker will be at 9:15 on the 19th. As with the Halloween Parade, you will have to go through the office and scan your driver's license into the Visitor Management System & get a visitor's badge. You will want to allow plenty of time to do this so that you are in the cafeteria when the performance starts at 9:15. There are plenty of seats, and the doors will not open before 9:00, so there is no need to line up early. If you are really hoping for a front-row seat, there will be an online auction for front row tickets that will be held next week. Look out for an email from the Home & School Club about that!

On another Nutcracker note, I am in need of a few people who can help with make-up and costuming on the day of the show. You will come into the classroom at the start of the day and call children back one-by-one to get them ready for the stage. Please email me if you can help with this.

Language Arts
This week's letters are Xx and Yy. For the letter Xx, we focus on the ending sound, as in fox and box. The home support letter can be found here. Our sight words this week are yes and big. For the next two weeks, we will be reading different versions of The Gingerbread Man. I have a collection of many fun variations on this book that are perfect for this time of year.

Math
We are continuing with Module 3 in Eureka Math: Comparison of Weight, Length, Capacity, and Numbers to 10. Parent tips can be found here. This week, we will be looking at weight and volume of things. We will get to use the balance scales during centers to weigh various objects.

This is our final week of centers before the holidays, as next week we will be focusing on Nutcracker rehearsals. Thank you so much to our classroom helpers in 2023! I will send out the sign-up for the new year later this month.

**Library is every Wednesday. Please return your child's library book by Tuesday each week.
**School spirit days are every Wednesday. Wear your Alta Vista t-shirts or your Bulldog t-shirts to show your school pride.

This Week's Helpers & Activities
Monday: Centers (Fiorella & Sean)
Tuesday: Centers (Janelle & Gina)
Wednesday: Library @ 8:30 (Amanda & Ryan), Dismissal @ 1:15
Thursday: Centers (Naira & Grace)
Friday: Music

Upcoming Events
Tuesday, 12/19 @ 9:15 am: Nutcracker Performance
Wednesday, 12/20: Classroom Holiday Party
12/21-1/3: Winter Break
Thursday, 1/4: School resumes
Monday, 1/15: No School: MLK Holiday
Monday, 1/29: No School: Teacher Work Day

Week of November 27th

I hope everyone enjoyed a nice week off, and you were able to enjoy some time with friends and family. We will be getting back to our regular schedule again, and are excited to have parents back in the classroom for the next two weeks for classroom centers. We have just three and a half busy weeks before we will be headed off for winter break-- it will go by quickly!

Language Arts
This week, we will introduce two "plane line slide" letters: Vv and Ww. Handwriting tips for these letters can be found here. By the end of 2023, we will wrap up the introduction of all letters and will move onto blending sounds to read words in 2024. Our sight words this week are we and up.

Our literature this week will focus on owls. We will read both fiction and nonfiction stories about owls, and put together our own sentences and a booklet about owl facts.

Math
In math, we will begin a short unit on measurement that will take us up to Winter Break. We will be comparing length, weight, and capacity. Parent tips for this module can be found here.

Nutcracker
Looking ahead on your calendars at this busy time of year, I wanted to make sure that you are all marking your calendars for Tuesday, December 19th at 9:15 a.m.-- our performance of The Nutcracker. This is something that you will not want to miss. I have only heard from one family that they will be missing the performance. If you have not done so already, please let me know whether you will be traveling on the 19th. I will be assigning parts this week and need to know if your child will not be joining us on the stage so that I can balance out all the parts. Thank you!

**Library is every Wednesday. Please return your child's library book by Tuesday each week.
**School spirit days are every Wednesday. Wear your Alta Vista t-shirts or your Bulldog t-shirts to show your school pride.

This Week's Helpers & Activities
Monday: Centers (Brian & Aida)
Tuesday: Centers (Michelle & Amanda)
Wednesday: Library @ 8:30 (Kaela & Aida), Dismissal @ 1:15
Thursday: Centers (Marianne & Sean)
Friday: Music

Upcoming Events
Tuesday, 12/19 @ 9:15 am: Nutcracker Performance
12/21-1/3: Winter Break
Thursday, 1/4: School resumes
Monday, 1/15: No School: MLK Holiday
Monday, 1/29: No School: Teacher Work Day

Week of November 13th

I hope you are all enjoying a long weekend. In the upcoming week, we will continue parent-teacher conferences. I have enjoyed meeting with many of you so far, and have gained some great insights about your children from you. Thank you for meeting with me and being such active participants in your child's education. I look forward to meeting with the rest of you this week. For this week, early dismissal at 1:15 continues through Friday.

There will be no classroom centers again this week, due to the early dismissal. Centers will resume on Monday the 27th.

Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day
Tuesday, 11/14 is Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day. This is a schoolwide event. Please join Alta Vista in recognizing this historic event by wearing purple and walking to school on Tuesday.

Language Arts
This week's letters are Ll, Hh, and Kk. Parent tips for helping with the formation of these letters can be found here. Did you know that there is a strong link between handwriting and literacy? Studies show that kids who practice handwriting do better at reading and spelling. Forming letters by hand while learning sounds activates brain circuits that promote literacy. If you notice that your child has not yet mastered the 20 letters & sounds we've introduced so far, please print out the letter pages in Fundations that are linked in the weekly update and have your child trace over them with their finger, while repeating their sounds, watching that they are forming them correctly. The pace of kindergarten is very fast, and by the end of 2023, children should know all letters & sounds. When we return from Winter Break, we will be moving onto sounding out words to read decodable texts.

Our sight words this week are he and no. For a list of the 15 sight words (also called high frequency words) we've introduced so far, as well as all words we'll be studying this year, please see the class website, under the tab "Kinder Words." Again, if you notice that your child is not able to read these sight words, please continue working on them at home.


We will continue our labeling unit in writing this week. Children will work on stretching out sounds in words to label a person, and things in a setting.

This week, children will be sharing the turkeys that they disguised. They will each get to present their turkeys in front of the class. After Thanksgiving, we will begin circulating a book of all the turkey projects so that you can enjoy them at home with your child.

Math
In math this week, we will continue reviewing all concepts we've covered so far. We will begin a new unit on measurement after Thanksgiving.

Kimochis
This week, your child will learn the first Kimochis® Key to Communication: Get someone’s attention. Your child will learn that when we want to get someone’s attention, it is important to call that person’s name. This alerts the person to look. If your child waits for the person to look or make eye contact before speaking, it increases the odds that the people communicating will really listen to each other. Sometimes calling someone’s name is not enough. Your child learned to use a gentle tap on the shoulder to get attention. When your child knows that the listener is ready to listen, the likelihood of having a positive connection is increased. These are the three communication habits your child will learn: 1. Call the person by name. 2. Wait for eye contact before speaking. 3. Use a Communication Tap (a gentle tap on the shoulder two or three times) to gain attention or eye contact. Now it’s time to speak because we are both focused on the communication interaction.

Nutcracker
Looking ahead on your calendars at this busy time of year, I wanted to make sure that you all mark your calendars for Tuesday, December 19th at 9:15 a.m.-- our performance of The Nutcracker. This is an annual kindergarten favorite. If you are heading out of town that week and your child won't be at school on the 19th, please let me know so that I can plan parts accordingly.

Also, a reminder as the holidays are approaching, if you are taking a trip that will result in your child missing at least 3 days of school, please see the office ASAP to get an Independent Study Packet. You must notify the office at least 2 weeks in advance of your trip to be eligible. When you take out an Independent Study, your child will get some school work and the school will get credit for your child's attendance, securing ADA money, so it's a win-win.

**Library is every Wednesday. Please return your child's library book by Tuesday each week.
**School spirit days are every Wednesday. Wear your Alta Vista t-shirts or your Bulldog t-shirts to show your school pride.

This Week's Helpers & Activities
Monday: Dismissal at 1:15
Tuesday: Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day, Dismissal at 1:15
Wednesday: Library (Phil & Gina), Dismissal @ 1:15
Thursday: Dismissal at 1:15
Friday: Music, Dismissal at 1:15

Upcoming Events

11/7-11/17: Parent-Teacher Conferences-- dismissal @ 1:15 daily
Tuesday, 11/14: Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day-- wear purple
11/20-11/24: Thanksgiving Break
Tuesday, 12/19 @ 9:15 am: Nutcracker Performance
12/21-1/3: Winter Break

Week of November 6th

I am looking forward to meeting with everyone in the upcoming two weeks! Remember that for the next two weeks (except Monday, 11/6), dismissal will be at 1:15 daily. If you need to check your conference time, you can find it here. Please note that this sign-up can no longer be edited. If you need to reschedule your conference, please email me.

Special Family Project
I am excited to see all the decorated turkeys this week! You can start sending those in on Monday, but no later than Thursday, when you return your child's Wednesday envelope. Please allow your child to lead this project. We are not looking for Pinterest-perfect turkeys and would much prefer to see child-created projects.

Parking Lot Gate
Did you know that there is a protected walkway up to the kindergarten gates? When you are walking both to and from school, it is much safer to use this walkway, which is protected by yellow bollards, and is right next to the school garden. Rather than having your children walk through a parking lot behind cars that may be backing out, encourage a safe habit by using the protected walkway. If the parking lot gate is closed, please do not open it so that you can walk in this way. Please go to the protected walkway.

In Class This Week

Language Arts
This week, we will begin the labeling unit in our writing program. Children will be encouraged to draw pictures and add labels to them to help facilitate independent writing. As children develop as writers, we ask for your support in allowing them to sound out words on their own. If they spell a word phonetically and end up writing "morkr" for "marker," this is the first phase of learning to write and spell independently, and please encourage those attempts!

Our letters this week are Pp and Jj. These are both letters that drop down to the "worm line." To help your child with correct letter formation, please look at the Home Support letter. Our sight words this week are me and be.

Math
This will be a review week in math. Children should continue working on counting to 100 by 1s and 10s, counting on from any given number, and writing numbers legibly and correctly to 20, as well as counting objects up to 10.

Kimochis

This week, the Kimochis® Character named Cat will join our classroom to teach children about the feelings curious, cranky, and sorry. Cat is the Kimochis® Character who knows what she wants, when she wants it, and why she wants it! When Cat makes up her mind, there is no stopping her. When the group needs a leader, Cat is always ready to help. She loves to be in charge, but she can be a little bit bossy. Cat may seem mean on the outside, but on the inside, she is very sweet.

**Library is every Wednesday. Please return your child's library book by Tuesday each week.
**School spirit days are every Wednesday. Wear your Alta Vista t-shirts or your Bulldog t-shirts to show your school pride.

This Week's Helpers & Activities
Monday: No centers, dismissal at 1:40
Tuesday: Conferences begin. Dismissal at 1:15
Wednesday: Library @ 8:30 (Janelle & Naira), Dismissal @ 1:15
Thursday: Turkey Project due, Conferences, Dismissal at 1:15
Friday: NO SCHOOL: Veteran's Day


Upcoming Events11/7-11/17: 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 October 31st

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 24 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 (Grace & Fio)
Tuesday: Halloween parade at 9:00, Halloween Party at 12:20
Wednesday: Library @ 8:30 (Kaela & Fio), Dismissal @ 1:15
Thursday: Centers (Brian & Michelle)
Friday: Music class

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 October 23rd

I hope you are all enjoying some extra time with your children. There are several events this week, so please take a look at the daily activities.

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 is just Halloween-themed classroom centers.

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
We will mostly continue where we left off last week, since it was such a short week. We are still studying the letters Dd and Ss in Fundations. It's good to have the extra time with 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 (Kristen & Aida), Begin getting passes for Halloween parade
Tuesday: Return library books, Centers (Juilet & Sean), Special Book Fair Hours (1:40-2:30)
Wednesday: Library (Ryan & Naira), Dismissal @ 1:15
Thursday: Centers (Raji & Michelle)
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
Friday 11/10: NO SCHOOL: Veteran's Day
11/20-11/24: Thanksgiving Break

Week of October 16th

I hope you all enjoyed your first walkathon. I was so impressed by the walking stamina of the Bulldogs!

This is a short week due to our Fall Break on Thursday and Friday. I hope you are able to enjoy some family time.

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 shortened week, we will not be introducing any new letters. Instead we will be having a review week.

Our sight words this week are am and can. You can find the sight words we've introduced on the classroom website.

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.

Great Shake-Out
This Wednesday, 10/18, Union School District is participating in the Great Shake-Out. This is an event where people across California will be practicing earthquake safety. We will have an earthquake drill and practice exiting the building safely. I encourage you to talk with your children about earthquake safety at home and develop a plan in the event of an earthquake while in your home.

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 (Aida C. & Raji)
Tuesday: Return library books, Centers (Judy & Michelle)
Wednesday: Library (Kaela & Marianne), dismissal @ 1:15
Thursday: NO SCHOOL: Fall Break
Friday: NO SCHOOL: Fall Break

Upcoming Events
Wednesday, 10/18: The Great Shake-Out
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
Friday 11/10: NO SCHOOL: Veteran's Day

Week of October 9th

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 is getting plenty of sleep! They were all very tired by the end of last week.

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 come to campus at about 12:15 so that you can check in at the office. 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 K1, and just enter the classroom through the front door (redwood tree side) 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. 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 (2:40) 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.

Spirit Day
Thursday the 12th, we will have our first schoolwide 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.

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
We 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 resiliency.

**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 (Aida & Brian)
Tuesday: Return library books, centers (Judy & Grace)
Wednesday: Library (Ryan & Sean), 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, Spooky Sprint continues (2:40 to 6:00)

Upcoming Events
Friday, 10/13: Alta Vista Walkathon

Wednesday 10/12: First Art Vistas Lesson
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
Friday 11/10: NO SCHOOL: Veteran's Day

Week of October 2nd

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 on these days as 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.

Lunch will be from 11:30 to 12:15. Children will be supervised by yard duties at that time, and will eat 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
This week, we will introduce another Daily 5 activity, "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.


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. 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 "Kinder Words."

Math
In math, we will continue working with numbers to 10. This week, we will focus on the numbers 6-10.

Music 
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.

*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. I have also added more dates to the calendar.
  
This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: first day of our extended day schedule
Tuesday: Return library books
Wednesday: Library (Kristen & Marianne), 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, 10/13: Alta Vista Walkathon
Wednesday, 10/18: First Art Vista lesson
10/19-10/22: Fall Break

Week of September 29th

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, 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 them 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
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!

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 (Kaela & Sean)
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, 10/13: Alta Vista Walkathon
Friday, 10/18: First Art Vista lesson
10/19-10/22: Fall Break

Week of September 18th

Thank you for bringing your children back for the afternoon assessments. I will use this information to group children according to their academic needs.

Be Seen & Heard Assemblies
As you have heard in communications from Union School District, the district will be hosting the "Be Seen & Heard" assembly virtually (we will view the livestream in the classroom) this Wednesday, 9/20. If you were not able to attend the parent information night they hosted, more information about the assembly can be found here. Here is a brief summary about the K/1st grade content: This assembly will address the dangers of child sexual abuse, the differences between a safe and unsafe touch and a safe and unsafe secret, strategies to stay safe, and how to identify trusted adults. The phrase “sexual abuse” is not used. Please refer to the message sent through ParentSquare if you have any further questions about this assembly.

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.

We will wrap up our drawing unit this week. Once we extend our day, we will begin moving onto labeling our pictures using phonetic spelling. We encourage children to sound out words on their own using their knowledge of phonics, and we encourage you to do the same. Rather than spelling words for beginning writers, have them listen for the sounds they hear in that word. If they spell "goat" as "got" at first, that is ok! This is a stage in writing, and we want the focus right now to be on developing their independence as writers.

We will also begin rolling out our Daily 5 literacy centers this week. Daily 5 "is a literacy framework that instills behaviors of independence, creates a classroom of highly engaged readers, writers, and learners, and provides teachers with the time and structure to meet diverse student needs." Children are placed in differentiated groups and cycle through different literacy centers each day, which includes meeting with me for small group instruction.

Math
We will continue reviewing both 2D and 3D shapes. Children should be able to name and describe these shapes: square, rectangle, triangle, circle, hexagon, cube, sphere, cone, cylinder.

Kimochis
This week, the Kimochis® Character named Huggtopus will join our classroom to teach your child about the feelings: silly, frustrated, excited, and proud. Huggtopus (or Huggs) is our Kimochis® Character who is strong and affectionate, but she sometimes gets a little carried away with her big, friendly personality. She might hug too tightly or play too roughly, which upsets her friends. This can be confusing and frustrating to Huggs because she doesn’t know why her friends say, “Don’t bother me.” With Huggtopus, your child is learning to read social cues, such as facial expressions, body language, and sounds from peers. Huggtopus also teaches children how to celebrate our differences. Huggs is a six-legged octopus and is proud that she is so unique!

Library Books
Remember to return your child's library book on Monday, so that they can check out a new book when we go to the library again on Wednesday. This week, we have Caitlin helping out in the library.

Upcoming Events
Wednesday, 9/20: Be Seen & Heard Assembly
Friday, 9/22: Alta Vista Movie Night
Friday, 9/29: "Dry Run" of lunchtime procedures (more info to come)
Monday, 10/2: First Day of Extended Day (Dismissal at 1:40)
Friday, 10/13: Alta Vista Walkathon
10/19-10/22: Fall Break

Week of September 11th

Thank you everyone for bringing your children for their afternoon assessments. This will help me to best meet the differing needs of the students in my class during small group instruction. I am continuing to meet with students this week. If you need to check the schedule, you can view it here. Please note that you can no longer edit this document. When you arrive for your assessment, please wait by Gate F (the gate we enter through in the morning). I will see you out there and let you in when you arrive. If you need to reschedule your child's time, please email me.

Picture Day
Picture Day is this Friday the 15th. There is no need to pre-order-- you will receive a QR code in your child's backpack on Friday which will link you to the proof and let you know how to order.

Language Arts
We launched the Fundations program last week, and the children are doing so well with learning the routines and language of Fundations. 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 used our Fundations journals last week to practice correct name-writing. Continue to encourage your children to write their name using only one upper-case letter. Check that they are holding their pencils correctly, as well as forming their letters correctly, by looking at the resources in this Fundations Home Support letter. We will share these home support letters weekly with you-- they are definitely worth checking out.

We will also continue with our drawing unit. This week, we will be working on drawing a school, park, and some different vehicles.

Math
This week, we will be introducing and working with 3D shapes. The 3D shapes we focus on in kindergarten are the cube, cone, cylinder, and sphere. Just like with the 2D shapes, students will be expected to name and describe the attributes of these shapes. Parent tips for this module can be found here.

Classroom Centers & Library Time
Thank you for answering the call for center and library help! There are still a few openings if you're interested in helping out, and more dates will continue to be added as the year goes on. Please click here to sign up. Please make sure you fill out the Volunteer Code of Conduct at least a week prior to the first time you volunteer. You only have to fill this out once. Every time you come to volunteer, you must check in at the office. Please bring your driver's license. Miss Chitra will scan your driver's license and issue you a badge to be on campus. You can then come either straight to the library, or straight to K1, depending on what you are volunteering for.

I am looking forward to starting up in the library this Wednesday! If you are a library reader, please bring a story with you that you'd like to share with the class that is no longer than about 5-10 minutes. Check-out helpers have instructions at the computer for checking in/checking out books. If you've never done this before, allow enough time to read through the directions so that you can be ready when the kids are checking out their books. Thank you!

This Week's Helpers
Wednesday: Library (Ryan)

Upcoming Events:
Friday, 9/15: Picture Day
Friday, 9/22: Alta Vista Movie Night
Friday, 10/13: Alta Vista Walkathon
10/19-10/22: Fall Break

Week of September 5th

I hope you are having a nice long weekend. We will get right back into the swing of things on Tuesday, with after school assessments continuing next week, as well as the continuation of our drawing unit.

Afternoon Assessments
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 the assessments of all extended care students last week, and I look forward to meeting with the rest of the students in the upcoming weeks. Please come to Gate F (our morning entry gate) at the time of your child's assessment. I can see you out there from the classroom and will come out and open the gate for you. If you need to check the schedule, you can 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 have been working on a drawing unit as a way to ease into the process of building kindergarten story writers. The kindergarten team started using this program last year, and we found that by teaching students how to draw, their written stories for the entire year were so much better. Often, we ask children to map out their stories first by drawing. If they get stuck in the drawing step, they can't fully express themselves in writing. Studies show that explicitly teaching drawing in conjunction with writing contributes to better literacy skills.

Kimochis
This week, the Kimochis® Character named Cloud will join our classroom to teach your child about the feelings happy, sad, and mad. Cloud is the Kimochis® Character who can be moody, so sometimes it is hard for him to get along with his friends. When Cloud is happy, he spreads sunshine everywhere, which makes everyone feel fantastic! But when Cloud feels mad or sad, he might snap or yell. Because he has a hard time controlling his anger, he might do things that hurt feelings, even though he doesn’t mean to. Cloud helps children develop patience, tolerance, and understanding for friends who are still learning how to express upset feelings in positive, healthy ways.

Wednesday Envelopes
Thank you so much for returning all the envelopes on Thursday. This routine will continue for the remainder of the year-- envelopes go home on Wednesday & children bring back the empty envelope on Thursday and put it in the basket on the picnic table. If you forget the envelope on Thursday, please try to send it back by the following Monday at the latest, so that I can pack the envelopes again for the following week.

Enrichment/Classroom Help Update
Thank you for answering the call for supporting our enrichment programs! We still have some positions open and the informational meetings for launching Art Vistas, Room Parents, and the Clay program start next week. If you signed up for these programs, please look out for the emails about training sessions, and try to attend those. Later this week, I will also send out a Sign Up Genius for classroom center help and library helpers. Classroom centers begin the week of October 2nd, but library visits start next Wednesday, September 13th. Our library time is every Wednesday, from 8:30-8:50. We will have sign-ups for both a check-out person and a story reader. I hope to see many of you in the library! It's a fun way to help out with a very small time commitment. Parents and grandparents/other family members are all welcome as center and library helpers! If you plan on helping at all in the classroom, please fill out the Volunteer Code of Conduct at your earliest convenience, especially if you're thinking of helping in the library next week.

Thank you also for your continued donations to the C.A.G.E. drive to support our enrichment programs. If you haven't had a chance to donate yet, please consider donating by going to this link: https://altavistahsc.membershiptoolkit.com/home


Yard Duties Still Needed
We are still in need of yard duties for TK and Kindergarten (we are all out on the playground together) on Tuesdays, and Thursdays. TK/K lunch time runs from 11:30 to 12:15, so if you can spare 45 minutes to help at lunch, we need you! Please see Chitra in the office if you are interested.

Upcoming Events
Monday, 9/4: No School: Labor Day
Friday, 9/15: Picture Day
Friday, 9/22: Alta Vista Movie Night

Week of August 28th

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

A reminder that even though the rest of the school has Back-to-School Night this Wednesday the 30th, we do not since we already held our night on the Monday before school started.

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 next week.

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. 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.

Language Arts
We will begin launching the Fundations program in the upcoming weeks, which is a language arts curriculum that the kindergarten teachers at Alta Vista piloted for the district last year. It was such a success that the district has now rolled it out in grades K-2 throughout the district. A big focus of this program 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 had several projects and games last week around learning each other's names. Continue to encourage your children to write their name using only one upper-case letter.

Math
Over the next few weeks, we will introduce 2D (flat) shapes. Our focus in kindergarten is on the circle, square, rectangle, triangle, and hexagon. Not only do we learn to identify them, but we also learn about their attributes (a triangle has three sides and three corners). Parent tips for this module can be found here.

Kimochis
This week, we introduced our first Kimochi (Kimochi means "Feeling" in Japanese), Lovey Dove, who taught your child about the feelings: proud, kind, and friendly. Lovey is the Character who is sweet and nurturing. She is very wise and calm. She likes to cuddle and make everyone feel better when they are upset. But sometimes Lovey Dove worries. Children who have a temperament like Lovey’s can benefit from staying compassionate and learning to worry less. Lovey taught your child how important it is to greet people using their name and a “Friendly Signal.” Friendly Signals are communication tools, such as a smile, wave, head nod, or saying hello. Being friendly is a rewarding habit that children can learn to develop and use throughout their lifetime.

This week, we will be discussing "Zones of Regulation." We'll talk about how at different times, we feel different ways, but that all feelings are ok. We'll also discuss how if we get in the "red zone" (angry) or "blue zone" (sad) or "yellow zone" (silly) that our goal is to get back to the "green zone" as soon as we can. Again, it is ok to be in other zones, but we want our body to be feeling good in the green zone. At the end of the week, your children will be bringing home a poster with these 4 zones/feelings illustrated on the poster. I'd love it if you'd have them hang the poster somewhere in your house and use the same language at home. For example: "It looks like you're in the red zone. It's ok to be mad, but we can't be mean. What would bring you back to the green zone?" By working together and using a common language, I think it will help the students get a handle on their range of emotions and more easily be able to get back to the green zone.

Wednesday Envelopes
This Wednesday, you will receive your child's first "Wednesday Envelope." Since most communications from the school are now online, and most work in the classroom is hands-on, this will often only contain a few items of 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.

Snacks
I am 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 continue to work with your children on opening snack wrappers and snack boxes independently. Some of them have really fancy bento boxes that they are unable to open on their own and 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.

We will start having parents in the classroom for classroom centers beginning the week of October 3rd, when we extend our day. Look out for a separate sign-up for classroom centers when we get closer to that time.

Yard Duties Needed
Another way to help us (either as a volunteer or paid position) is to help out with our lunch time yard duty. We are in need of yard duties for TK and Kindergarten (we are all out on the playground together) on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. TK/K lunch time runs from 11:30 to 12:15, so if you can spare 45 minutes to help at lunch, we need you!

Upcoming Events
Monday, 9/4: No School: Labor Day
Friday, 9/15: Picture Day
Friday, 9/22: Alta Vista Movie Night

Week of August 21st

We had a great first week reading books and getting to know one another and our classroom. This group is off to a wonderful start!

Handwriting/Name Writing
This week, we will begin focusing on names and letters. 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.

We will also be reading the books, No David! and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and doing some crafts and a STEAM project following these stories.

Scissor Skills/Fine Motor Tubs
Next week, we will launch our "fine motor tubs," which we work on first thing in the morning. Starting Monday, children will go straight into the classroom (no need to line up after I open the door-- just come right in) and start working on their tubs. Your children will want to come early so that they can get started on these tubs, 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, which can be difficult for kindergartners. 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 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 (that is the only entry point to campus after the gates are closed) for a tardy slip before you can get onto campus. For security reasons, please do not prop the gate open and please ensure that it has fully latched if you leave campus after 8:15. Thank you for your help with this.

CAGE Drive/AVHSC Membership 

Alta Vista Home & School Club membership drive (CAGE drive) is going on right now! The AVHSC funds many of our enrichment activities such as our music classes, Art Vistas, and Clay. We are so thankful that we have these wonderful activities at Alta Vista, and ask for your help to continue supporting them, both financially and as volunteers. If you'd like to sign up to be a volunteer for any of these programs, this is where you do it! Plus, by creating a membership account, you'll be sure to get all the updates on schoolwide activities. Please see this link for further information and to join the AVHSC.

Kinder Summer Updates

Kindergarten Orientation is Tuesday, August 15th, 11:00

Kindergarten Back-to-School Night, a meeting for parents only, is Monday, August 14th at 5:30.

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

School begins on Wednesday, August 16, 2023-- ALL KINDERGARTEN SESSIONS WILL RUN FROM 8:15 to 11:35, until October 2nd. 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.

We look forward to meeting you all in August!