Saturday, September 30, 2023

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