October 2, 2009

Upcoming Dates

* Next Week’s Sharing: Something that starts with the letter M.

* Monday, October 5th: October Book Orders Due
Last week, we sent home the October Book Orders. Please look over the books and if you would like to purchase books, please return the form to me with ONE check payable to Scholastic Book Clubs, or purchase them online at www.scholastic.com/bookclubs (User Name: Beebear, Password: MrsYu – no spaces or period).

* Monday, October 5th – Tuesday, October 13th: Parent Conferences
Please be on time! I only have 20 minutes with each of you, so I will try my best to start and end on time. Please note that I may have to stop in the middle of a conversation if our time is reached. Thank you for your understanding. Remember, I will be meeting with each of you in the UPPER GRADE WING – CONFERENCE ROOM (Next to Room 17). I will keep the door closed while I am conferencing, so please wait outside if you are early. I will open the door when it is your time to meet. Thank you!

* Friday, October 16th: Bring a Red T-shirt to School
We will be decorating our Kindergarten Field Trip Red Shirts. Please note: If your child does not bring a shirt on this day, he or she will not be able to make up the activity (he/she will just wear a plain red t-shirt on future trips).

1) Please get a plain, red T-shirt (no words or pictures on the front or back, and make sure it is a regular cotton T-shirt, not a polo or fancy material shirt).

2) Write your child’s name on the tag inside (label, label, label)!

3) Please pre-wash your child’s shirt. It will be easier to decorate on if it has already been through the wash.


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Dear Families,

I purchased a domain name for my classroom website, so now you can just go to:
WWW.MRSYU.COM (easy to remember!)

Thank you for turning in the large homework envelopes today! Remember homework will go home every Monday and has to be returned inside the envelope on Friday. I apologize that this week, the AM class didn’t take their homework home until Tuesday (Mrs. Yu forgot on Monday!). Usually, it will be sent home Mondays. Also, your child should have brought home the October Homework checklist this week. Please complete the activities with your child sometime during the month. Thank you for turning in the September homework!

Here are some highlights for the week:
o Letter of the Week: S
o Listening Center: Chicka Chicka Boom Book
o Story of the Week: I Went Walking, What’s My Favorite Color?
o Phonemic Awareness: Beginning Sounds, Words in Oral Sentences
o Strategy Focus: Predict and Infer
o Comprehension: Sequence Events
o High-Frequency Word: I
o Concepts of Print: Capitalize First Word in Sentence, End Punctuation

• Language Arts: This week, we started our literacy centers with the first letter of the week, S. Literacy centers include reviewing the S sound, how to write a proper uppercase and lowercase S, vocabulary words starting with S, rhyming words, songs with the sss sound, puzzles, hidden pictures, and illustrating S words on the computer. We also rotate through listening center where we listen to the story of the week and write or draw about our favorite part. Another activity we do is writing journals. The topic for this week was “Your Favorite Color.” Every week, your child will bring home extra pages from our workbook similar to homework pages (these are finished activities). They may or may not be finished, so you can do them at home.

• Science: We continued learning about apples this week. We learned a poem about an apple core, and we made an art project using tearing. This is a good skill, especially for those children who have snacks they need to tear open everyday! Also, we began talking about the seasons. We are learning a song about the seasons, and exploring Fall.

• Math: We continued patterns this week and finished Chapter 6. We also completed a pattern and counting activity during Friday Centers where the students made a colored pattern using apple cut outs. We practiced writing our numbers too.

• Computer Lab: We continued our apple tree illustrations this week. Most students finished their pictures and we were able to print them out. We improved on independently opening up our files from our folders on the computer!

• Music: We saw Ms. Disney again this week! Thank you to Shaunak and Woojin’s mothers, as well as
Leah’s father, who are volunteering to help with management during music time.

• Library: During the next two weeks (Oct. 5 – Oct. 14), we will not have library time because Mrs. Glass will be setting up the library for the Book Fair. You are welcome to stop by the book fair anytime before or after school with your child to browse for books. There will also be a family night on October 13th from 6:00-8:00pm. This is a great opportunity for you to purchase books for your child (especially if you want to look at the books beforehand). On October 19th, we will begin checking out books during our weekly library visits. The library books will be added into your child’s homework envelope, along with their Take Home Journals.

Next week, our substitute teacher will be Mrs. Kotite on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. I am always nervous about being away from the kids, but I am hopeful that they will all be on their best behavior each day. Please remind your children to follow the same classroom rules and to try their best. I will ask Mrs. Kotite to leave a note for me each day about how the day went. Hopefully, it will be all great news! In addition, I will still have her follow my normal routine, but please be aware that she is unfamiliar with our classroom procedures and some evaluations may not be directly from me (i.e. sharing evaluation or classwork). Thank you for your understanding!

PTO is still looking for Enrichment Day volunteers on Thursday, October 22nd from 9:00am-12:25pm. Please contact PTO if you are interested in helping with the Kindergarten activities.