September 11, 2009

Upcoming Dates

Sunday, September 13th: Scholastic Book Orders Due
I’ve extended the September book order deadline to Sunday so you have time to order books over the weekend.

Friday, September 18th: No School – Staff Learning Day
The Cupertino School District will have a day to introduce teachers to the new math program this year.

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Dear Families,

This was a short week. Everyday we are working on following our carpet rules, working rules, and lining up rules. We are also talking about how to treat others in the classroom and on the playground with respect. We are learning to share and we are learning to use our words to communicate with each other. I hope that this year the children will learn how to be kind to one another. Here are some highlights for the week:

• Language Arts: We worked on the letters J, K, L, M, and N this week. Please review all of our alphabet letters at home, and have your child practice writing their own name properly. We also read the story, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, which is about alphabet letters trying to climb up a coconut tree. We made a project that showed the letters of our name climbing up a coconut tree and counted how many made it up!

• Social Studies: Congratulations to Sahithi, who was chosen as our first Star of the Week! You can read about her in the “Classwork” section of our website, and clicking under “Star of the Week.” I will update information about our new Star each week. Also, in Friday Centers, we completed a mini-book that illustrates Eaton School’s Peacebuilder Pledge that we recite everyday. This book will be added to our shoebox collection.

• Math: We completed the third chapter in the first unit of our math book. This week was all about graphing. We learned how to read graphs and figure out which is more or less popular. We also had a chance to make our own graphs and interview classmates to fill in the data. Now we are reviewing all of our vocabulary words and concepts from the past three chapters. In Friday Centers, we also used red and blue squares, as well as stamps, to make patterns.

• Computer Lab: This was our second time in the computer lab. We continued to explore the drawing and painting tools in KidPix. Our task this week was to create a picture and add details in the background.

• Art: On Thursday, we painted our shoeboxes! We used warm colors (red, orange, and yellow) to paint all the sides of our boxes any way we liked! It was a bit of a mess, but we had a great time! Shoeboxes will be coming home soon!
Thank you for returning all the paperwork from Back-to-School night so promptly. If you haven’t yet, please return at least the website permission form, the library permission form, and the behavior agreement. Thank you to all of our volunteers so far:

- Room Parent’s: Shaunak and Colleen’s mom
- Art Helpers: Sean, Caroline, Shaunak, and Michael’s mom
- Computer Helper: Caroline’s mom
- Friday Helpers: AM – Kumiko’s mom, PM – Daniel’s mom, and Prep – Yuma’s mom

If you are available, we still need extra help in Computer Lab every Wednesday from 11:40am-12:20pm and we need a library helper every Monday from 11:00am-12:00pm. Please let me know if you will be able to volunteer during these times.

Thank you also to everyone who signed up to help with traffic duty in October. I will send a reminder as we get closer to our traffic duty week. Again, if you haven’t signed up for a slot, please consider doing so and return the pink sign up sheet from Back to School night. Thank you for your help!

Have a wonderful weekend! Next week will also be a short week!