Speech & Language:  This week we will practice the blend of /ch/.  We will make paper chains and our snack of cherries will be provided by Elia!

Sharing:  We have a new sharing topic so be sure to look at it under the "more" tab on this site.  This week the Tiggers will share.

Color Days:  This week is Pink Week and we will have Pink Day on Thursday.

This week we will meet Ms. E, who loves to exercise!  She is a "letter light" letter, meaning she is a vowel letter.  We will practice both the long and short sound of the letter E.  The children are doing very well with our language arts routine of our Letter People pages, rhyming book, Handwriting Without Tears printing practice, alphabet picture-word journal, listening center and the Starfall activities.   We also work in our Benchmark reading series workbooks and have begun our leveled readers and now are adding sight words.  This week we will have the following words:  a, is, it, this.  You can practice these words at home with your child and also look for them in the environment.

This week we will begin our October math journal and our number 7 book.  We enjoy adding math games, sorting activities and Starfall math activities.  In science we are learning about the sense of touch this week.  I hope you were able to discuss the Second Step lesson with your children.  They really enjoyed it and your reinforcement of this at home helps your child develop strong social skills.

Our schedule this week:
Monday:  Big Buddies, Dance
Tuesday:  Speech & Language
Wednesday:  Let's Find Out! magazine, Yoga, Council P.E.
Thursday:  Pink Day!, Second Step
Friday:  Morning Assembly, Homework Review, Sharing, Science, P.E., Treasure Box

Thank you all for the amazing support you provide for Room K both in and out of the classroom!
Mrs. W.

Speech & Language:  This week we will practice the sound of initial /L/.  Our craft project will be "leaves on trees" and our snack of lemonade will be contributed by Hasan!

Sharing:  This week the Pigglets will share.

School Pictures:  Room K school pictures will be on Tuesday.  We will most likely go first so please be on time to school.  We take our school pictures in the garden.

Coyote Run:  Please get lots of pledges for our annual Coyote Run that helps to fund our P.E. program.  We will be running at 8:45 on Friday and we need at least 4 volunteers.  Please either sign up on our Shutterfly account or talk to Laura. 

Purple Day:  This week we will make our purple books and we will wear purple on Thursday!

Mid-Semester Progress Reports will be sent home this week.  Please sign and return the letters to acknowledge receipt.  Many students will receive letters as we are required to give parents advanced notice of children not meeting grade level standards prior to report cards.  This information will be useful to parents and support at home has a big impact on student learning.  TK and K have different report cards.  We will have parent conferences the week of November 5th.

This week we will meet Mr. D.  He is very dashing in his dancing suit.  We will practice writing Dd using our Handwriting Without Tears model, one big line and one big curve, one big line and one small curve.  Please continue to practice all letters we have covered at home.

During our Language Arts time we practice "perfect printing" using the materials from our Handwriting Without Tears program.  We use special pencils, pencil grips, crayons, magnetic boards, wood lines and curves and sing songs reminding us to start our letters at the top.  It is very important to reinforce these skills at home as your child develops and solidifies the brain to hand synapses that create life-long printing/handwriting skills.  This is extremely important as your child must learn to writing quickly and legibly and will be writing more every year as they progress in school.  Early habits are important habits!

We are exploring new activities on our Starfall program including letter recognition, letter sounds, listening to stories, sounding out three letter (CVC-consonant-vowel-consonant) words, vowel sounds, math activities (patterns, sorting, counting, addition, subtraction)  We also use sorting tubs, pattern blocks, play math games, learn to write and count with a new number each week, and work in our monthly math journal.

This week we will begin Art Trek.  A huge thanks to Sarah for attending the training, and to Ana and Lisa for stepping up to volunteer to co-teach the lessons.  This is a parent driven program and we are so grateful for our Art Trek parents.  This weeks lesson is on shapes (such a great tie-in to our math program) and the artist Kandinsky.

Last week we went on our first Science "hike" to our garden.  We explored with magnifying glasses and talked about plants, trees, and objects in the garden.  We did not have a parent helper for this activity, but we really do need at least 2 parents to assist, especially if we want to hike up to the amphitheater.  Please let me know, or sign up on the Shutterfly site, if you can assist with these monthly hikes.

Second Step will begin this week.  It is an empathy program focusing on social-emotional skills and the lessons have a weekly theme.  The program uses three puppets:  Impulsive Puppy, Slow Down Snail and Be Calm Bunny, to teach the lessons.  Also included are picture cards with photos of situations discussed as a group.  I will send home a letter for each theme so you can reinforce the behaviors at home.  Take a look at the website for more information.

The children are enjoying their Big Buddies and I have posted some photos on our class Shutterfly share site.  We will be reading together and doing reading related activities each week.

We have a very busy schedule with so many fun activities in Room K.  I am very grateful to the parent volunteers who help facilitate small group instruction and prepare materials.  Thank you!

Best wishes,
Amy Weisberg

Speech & Language:  This week we will practice the sound of initial /F/.  We will make fish bowls and our snack of figs will be contributed by Lucia!

Sharing:  This week the Eeyores will share.

Color Days:  This week we will make our green book and wear green on Thursday.

Meet Mr. C who wears a colossal cap.  We will practice the sound and writing of the letter Cc this week using our Letter People pages and our Alphabet Dictionary books.  We will also work in our rhyming books, and writing journals.  This week we will complete an informal monthly assessment assessing letter writing, number writing and a self-portrait.  I will also assess the children monthly using ESGI (Educational Software for Guided Instruction).  This helps me guide instruction to meet the students' needs. 

At math time we will complete our number 5 book and work in our September math journals.  We have also begun using sorting tubs to practice classification and continue puzzles and the favorite pattern blocks.

Science:  This week we will begin our science hikes which occur monthly.  Our first hike will be to our school garden where we will have an activity with Ms. Benor, our science teacher.  We encourage parent participation.  The time will be from 12:40-1:10.

Speaking of the garden....each class has a garden space at our school and we have a lovely garden plot for room K.  We need a garden parent (s) to coordinate this and I will be more than happy to explain our garden program to anyone interested.  The children love to work in the garden and plant (eat) vegetables.

I am mentoring a student from Pepperdine University, Ms. Lee, who is enrolled in an education class, and she will be coming into our class once a week on Friday to help during small groups.

This week's schedule:
Monday:  Big Buddies, Dance
Tuesday:  Let's Find Out! Magazine
Wednesday:  No school
Thursday:  Green Day
Friday:  Morning Assembly, Sharing (Eeyores), Homework Review, Science hike, P.E.

Speech & Language-This week we will practice the sound of final /g/.  Our craft will be making flags and our snack of "green logs" (celery sticks).

Sharing:  This week the Tiggers will share.

Color Day-This week we will wear the color yellow on Thursday.

,This week we will meet Mr. B and his beautiful buttons.  We will work in our Rhyming Books, Alphabet Dictionary and journals.  We will continue working in our Benchmark books.

We will work in our #4 books in math and continue in our math journal.  We will use our sorting tubs and pattern blocks.

Hopefully the students are getting used to their new homework and settling into the routine of school.  We have a full week with many fun activities and opportunities for the children to demonstrate their interests and abilities.  We are enjoying getting to know the children and watching them become a classroom family.

Our schedule:
Monday-No School
Tuesday-Speech & Language, Buddies (make-up due to holiday)
Wednesday-Let's Find Out! magazine, yoga, council, P.E.
Thursday-Yellow Day
Friday-Morning Assembly, Homework Review, Sharing, Science, P.E.

Thank you for all you do to make Room K such a great classroom family!
Mrs. W.