Room 4 Kindergarten News
Week 15: November 27 - December 1
19 school days left in 2023!
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving Break. There was much talk amongst the kids about visiting with family and I could tell that brought them much joy. I joined in their excitement as my daughter returned for a full week and it was so nice to have almost our whole family all together again.
Thank you to everyone who was able to participate in the Multicultural Feast! The kids had a wonderful time and enjoyed performing for you all. We talked about how it felt to perform in front of families and their responses were sweet to hear. There was some nervousness, excitement, calm, and lots of happy! I am gathering some recordings to send out to you all.
The teachers very much appreciated you sharing your food with them in the teachers' lounge.
As we continue to explore How We Express Ourselves, we are now looking into cultures and traditions as we celebrate this holiday season. Please review with your child if there are specific foods, clothes, activities, songs, etc. that your family does as a tradition as we enter this celebratory season. We will be sharing out during a Friendship Circle this coming Thursday.
The sentence starter will be, "Every holiday season, my family and I __________."
This Friday, December 1 and Monday, December 4, I will be out of town cheering my daughter on in her first home college basketball games of the season. Ms. Saft, who is a retired ASD primary teacher, will come to be our guest teacher. She has worked in my class multiple times and I know your kiddos will be in good hands with Ms. Saft and Ms. Anna while I am away.
I know I just mentioned my own absences, but in these last 19 school days attendance will be critical. We will be continuing our exploration of our foundational literacy and math skills as well as assessing mastery levels in more kindergarten standards. Throughout these 19 days we also have Lions' Club coming in for a vision screening, a winter literacy benchmark, a winter concert to attend, and other fun and educational crafts and projects. Please be sure that your kiddo comes to school daily as many of these 19 days as possible. Thank you in advance.
On our last day of 2nd quarter, Thursday, December 21, I will be holding my annual Christmas Breakfast. We will turn the lights down low, turn our Christmas lights and music on, and eat waffles in our jammies. I would love to have a couple of parents come in to help serve breakfast. We will eat our breakfast and watch the 1966 cartoon version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Health Week
Star Student this week: Lillian
Mark Your Calendar
Monday, November 27: Lions' Club vision screening
Friday, December 1: Messy Paint Friday
Friday, December 1: Ms. Saft will be our guest teacher
Monday, December 4: Ms. Saft will be our guest teacher
Wednesday, December 13: mClass winter benchmark testing
Friday, December 15: Messy Paint Friday
Thursday, December 21: Mrs. Vaaia's Annual Christmas Breakfast & PJ Day
Happy Birthday to WHO?
November Birthdays:
November 2: Lillian
November 20: Sam
Just a quick note:
Birthday treats are welcome. We will be eating them at our snack time around 3:15. You are welcome to drop them off in the front office anytime and I will pick them up to bring them to my room.
Be aware that we have a nut allergy and a gluten allergy in class. Please plan for treats that all can enjoy. Thank you!
Learner Profile Attribute of the Month: Inquirer
We nurture our curiosity, developing skills for inquiry and research. We know how to learn independently and with others. We learn with enthusiasm and sustain our love of learning throughout life.
Winter mClass Benchmark: Wednesday, December 13
The Winter Benchmark will be a series of one-minuted timed fluency assessments in the following four literacy skills:
1. Letter Naming Fluency
2. Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (assessor: "cat"; student: "/c/ /a/ /t/")
3. Nonsense Word Fluency (examples: sep, tib, vab)
(This assessment shows your child's fluency in letter sounds as well as word reading).
4. Word Reading Fluency (words like the, by, and, of, one)
Please do your best to be sure that your child is present and on time on Wednesday, December 13th since we will have a full testing team present to administer the assessments and our class is scheduled to go first.
Thank you in advance for your support.
Star Student
Sentence strips will be sent home the Thursday before your child's week.
Here is the proposed schedule for our Star Students for the next few weeks:
November 27: Lillian
December 4: Peyton
December 11: Emory
December 18: Sam
Snack Time
We have a student with a nut allergy and one that has a gluten allergy. Please provide a nut-free and/or gluten free snack for the class . There are lots of healthy nut-free/gluten-free snack ideas online.
Some typical nut-free favorites are Goldfish, PopCorners, graham crackers, pretzels. Some gluten-free options are popcorn and rice cakes (but please check labels). Other snacks that are both nut-free and gluten-free are bananas, applesauce pouches, clementines, Fruit Leather, and cheese sticks or cheese rounds (Babybel).
Will the following families please donate a classroom snack for the next assigned weeks:
November 20 - 22: No snack assignment
November 27 - December 1: Joni, Lillian
December 4 - December 8: No snack assignment
Our Second Unit of Inquiry
Central Idea: Creative expression can inspire people to better themselves and the world
Lines of Inquiry:
- Feelings are important and can be expressed in safe, diverse, and appropriate ways
- People use their bodies and forms of media to express their feelings
- Creative expression helps people to manage emotions and inspire others
I am always within reach!
Email: vaaia_michelle@asdk12.org
Website: https://www.asdk12.org/inletview
Location: 1219 N Street, Anchorage, AK, USA
Phone: 907-742-7630