Room 2s Kindergarten Newsletter

General News
The class did well for the most part last Friday when I had my sub, Ms. Garcia. There were slight issues, but nothing that Ms. Garcia couldnt handle. So, I thank those students that were on their best behaviors! Kudos to them! Thursday, October 10th will be our first assembly, which is brought to us by our generous PTA! We will have visitors from the San Francisco opera. Im very excited and I hope your child shares how it goes with you. Also, we will have our first movie night on Friday, October 11th. Please remember that if your child is going to attend that an adult must stay with him/her. It is not just an event that you drop your child off to watch the movie by him/herself. I hope that those of you that attend have a wonderful time! Thank you to those that have made a donation to our upcoming field trip. I have yet to see if we have enough funds to go on our trip. If you see the permission lsip go into this weeks Wednesday envelope, then we have enough to cover the class. If you do not see the permission slip on the purple paper, then the trip will be cancelled. So far, these are my chaperones: Mr. and Mrs. Counsil, Mrs. Su, Mrs. Salinas, and Mrs. Regua. I can take 5 more if needed. Each active chaperone will have 4 students in their group and if I have 10 chaperones, then there can be up to 2 adults per group. Remember, TB tests need to be on file even for field trips. Please let me know if you have any questions. If we do go on this trip, chaperones can meet us there as there will not be room on the bus. All children will need to be on the bus and the chaperones can even carpool in one car if possible. Please let me know if your child needs to sit at the front of the bus due to motion/car sickness. Thank you! him/her to the office for a tardy slip. This can be extremely embarrassing and stressful to your child, so please help your child learn to be responsible. This way, your child knows that learning time is valuable. I really appreciate your help on this matter! Similarly, your child should be waiting quietly on the white line in front of our classroom no earlier than 15 minutes prior to the start of class. Remind your students that he/she is to stand in line rather than run around the blacktop area. This also holds true for after school as kindergarten students are the first to get out of school and classes in our quad area are still in session. Please have your child follow school rules while on campus. Thank you for your help on this matter!

Homework
This week, your childs homework revolves around patterns. We are focusing on patterns in math and we are about to take our Chapter 3 test. Please have your child write his/her name on it first using a pencil. Then, your child is to follow the pattern based on the color words. Your child can choose to either trace the shapes in color or color it in. However, if your child chooses to color the shapes in, please remind him/her to do his/her best coloring by staying in the lines. In addition, there is a second sheet that involves quite a bit of writing of the letter B. Your child will always have a writing sheet to practice the formation of the letter of the week were working on and to improve neatness. The writing paper may require more time, so this sheet can be turned in on the following Monday if needed. Again, your child will always have a letter writing practice sheet every week when we learn a new letter, yet you can take the weekend to complete it if necessary. The homework assignment that is stapled to the writing sheet needs to be turned in on Thursday, though. Please help emphasize neatness and quality rather than just rushing through the assignment. If necessary, I will have your child redo it if it is too messy. I want to promote a good work ethic. Remember that homework is an extension of what were learning in class, so it is important to review concepts if you see that your child is having difficulty.

Punctuality
Please be sure that your child arrives to school on time every day. I have been noticing a lot more students walking into class late. Please plan ahead and keep in mind that it is busier on Thursdays so you must leave enough time to park your vehicle and walk to the classroom. One or two minutes make a difference and I typically have to stop instruction and start over. Once I close the door class begins and if your child walks in, I must send

Room 2s Kindergarten Newsletter

Curriculum
We are on Theme 3, week 2 in Language Arts. We will read a fun rhyming book that has a lot of repeating words. The title is Shoes From Grandpa and the main character is Jenny. Jennys grandfather buys her new shoes, everyone in her family buys her something else to wear, but not what she truly wants. Talk about clothes your child likes to wear. Does he/she have a favorite piece of clothing, or a favorite outfit? Ask your child what colors he/she likes to wear. Have your child draw a pictrure of him/herself with an older relative. Encourage your child to sign the drawing and write or dictate simple labels, such as Grandma and Me and display the illustration. We are continuing writing each letter of the alphabet and practicing the sounds that correlate with each. Remember to continue to practice using DNealian writing at home so that your child gets in the habit of writing this way all the time. The letters that your child should know for sure as we have learned them in class are: S, M, R, T, and B. I have noticed that some students are forgetting some of the letters, which just means that I need an adult at home to work on the letters! Our sight words that we have learned and will be learning this week: I, see, my, & like. Please keep practicing! Education is an ongoing endeavor and it would be great if I have your help! In math, we are just wrapping up patterns and will take both the chapter test and the listening test this week. We will go back to chapter 2, which focuses on numbers 0-5. Your child will learn to read and write the numbers and match them to groups of things. Your child will also learn to order numbers to tell which of two numbers is greater and which is less. To help guide your childs thinking, give directions and ask questions such as these: How many _____ are there? Then your child should be able to compare it to another group and be able to tell which has more or which group has less. Also, your child should be able to tell you which number comes next or even before a given number. Remember that the Common Core Standards will require your child to justify his/her answer. You can use models with activities at home and encourage your child to do various activities with members of your family! Key vocabulary words for this chapter are: more than, less than, equal, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. I will also be beginning our kindergarten vocabulary curriculum this week called Curious Words. I will introduce the words to the class on Monday and they will practice throughout the week and take the test on Friday. This week, the theme for our Curious Words will be How good something is: better, good, great, pretty and wonderful.