K/1 Sample Newsletter
Dear Awesome Octopi Families,
This week the kiddos created head-to-toe self-portraits using Sharpie markers and liquid watercolor paints. They are absolutely awesome, and they will be hanging in the hallway next week. Make sure to come check them out! While we keep the very first self-portraits the students make during the first week of school for portfolios, these portraits will be coming home soon.
We are excitedly gearing up for next field trip and ferry ride to San Francisco's Aquarium of the Bay. Don't forget your child will need to be at school by 8:30 a.m., as we will be catching morning ferry departing from Jack London Square. We will not be able to wait for students who are running late. Also, since we will be missing next week's regular Hot Lunch, Heidi will be serving homemade soups to the K/1 students who are signed up for Hot Lunch on Monday instead. Thank you Heidi!
With Care,
Nick and Regina
Your K/1 teachers
Aquarium, Get Ready!
We are jazzed to be embarking on next week's field trip. Thanks again to the 8 adults who are driving and/or chaperoning on this trip. We wouldn't be able to take such meaningful field trips without your support. Drivers please make sure you are at school and in Room 3 by 8:30am, and please bring a backpack that can carry a few of the kid's lunches. We will ask for your help in greeting the kids, carrying their car seats, and assisting them into your car. We will have assigned car groups, but once we are on the Ferry our whole class will be together for the majority of this trip. Each student will need to bring to school a labeled car seat and a snack and lunch in one bag. No metal or plastic lunch boxes please. We will be back to school around 2:45pm.
Grandparents and Special Friends Day
Grandparents and Special Friends Day is coming up soon. This is an exciting day where each class puts on a performance at 11:00am in the auditorium. Each student may invite no more than two guests (this does not apply to siblings). If you have family members visiting from out of town this may be a perfect time for them to come and visit Aurora! Choosing only two guests in often tricky. Talk to your Octopi about who they would like to invite. You can also explain to them that they are only allowed two guests because Aurora's auditorium can't possibly hold any more people... it can become a math problem
Please note that this is a minimum day and ends at 1:00pm. After the performance guests are welcome to come to the classrooms to celebrate. While we will have a regular lunch period, many people leave early to have a special lunch together outside of school. If this is the plan please let your guests know to check in with the teachers before they leave.
Mmm-mmm, Pumpkin Pie
Every year Room 3 mixes up, bakes, and serves pumpkin pie to our loved ones on Grandparents and Special Friends Day. We will be making 6 pumpkin pies in class on Tuesday, November 24th. Yum! We are in search of 6 families who can each take home a pie on Tuesday, bake it in their oven (directions to be provided), and bring the pie back to school on Wednesday to serve. If you can assist the Awesome Octopi with this please let Regina or Nick know.
Mathematics
Ask your Octopi to tell you about this month's growing pattern on our calendar. Also ask: What is a growing pattern? What is a repeating pattern?
Our Kindergarteners have been busy learning a handful of new and exciting math workplaces. These include bucket of frogs, beat you to ten, pattern block designs, and hungry caterpillars. These workplaces have your child working on important skills such as counting and grouping, comparing quantities, addition to ten, naming and exploring relationships between shapes, and solving spatial problems. Ask your child to explain to you how she uses a couple of these workplaces!
Our first graders have begun a new unit titled, "From Land to Sea: Understanding Addition and Subtraction." In this unit the kiddos will be learning about counting, estimating, computation, patterning, and forming equations. Right now we are having lots of conversations about addition and subtraction concepts, as well as learning many new math workplaces. New workplaces include button addition, bugs in the garden addition, odd and even pieces, spin and write 0-9, pattern block puzzles and patterns, and bugs in the house subtraction. Ask your child to explain to you how he uses a couple of these workplaces!
Writing
We started Writers' Workshop this week with a read aloud of the book "Tuesday" by David Wiesner. This story is told mostly through illustrations. After the book the Awesome Octopi talked about the importance of details in their drawings. Each child was able to spend their Writer's Workshop time creating detailed images that then led to detailed writing.
Ask your Octopi:
What detailed drawing did you create in Writers' Workshop?
What details did you include?
What did you write to go along with your illustration?
What details did you use in your writing?
Africa
Thank you to Charity for coming in to talk to the class about her trip to Mali! Charity and Desmond were able to share many stories through artifacts, photos, and video. And what an incredible experience they shared. "Aw ni ce" (thank you) so much for taking the time to talk to the Awesome Octopi!
Classroom Gifts
We also wanted to thank all of the families who donated books to Room 3 from the book fair! Books are such a wonderful gift and we truly appreciate them. Thank you also to Nico's family for the extra back up snacks, Sofia's family for the wipes, Desmond's family for the hand sanitizer, and Ian's family for sewing up our gigantic teddy bear!!