Sunday, April 26, 2015

Kindergarten Newsletter for April 27th - May 1st, 2015

Recap Of The Week: We studied symmetry by making shapes on Geo-Boards and finding different lines of symmetry and made some symmetrical butterflies by cutting folded papers and then putting paint and pressing it together. We have been watching our caterpillars grow and can’t wait until they get big enough to make their chrysalises so we can see their life cycle in action. We got to watch a movie showing how the caterpillar makes a chrysalis made by the sister and grandfather of one of our classmates. You can watch it at home by clicking on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7zcMG1MTgU

Math: This week we continue to look at symmetrical shapes. We will sort shapes that can be divided symmetrically from those that cannot, and do some more explorations of different lines of symmetry with our geo-boards.

Literacy: Our sight words for this week ‘for,’ ‘make,’ ‘me,’ ‘two,’ and ‘up.’ Throughout the week students make flash cards, figure out which words go in which shape box, make word pyramids, match words in different fonts, and create their very own word search to give to a friend to solve. During reading groups, we are focusing on finger tracking. Students are beginning to realize that not all people track when they read, so we are talking about how it helps our brain know where to look when we are learning to read.

Writing: This week we will finish up the prompt “My favorite animal is …” on Monday and Tuesday. Our story starter for the rest of the week will be “What shall I do tomorrow?” This is a little different because it is asking students to answer a question, not just complete a ‘story starter’ idea.

Science, Social Studies & Art: Our caterpillars are growing, eating and moving around in their container!! We are waiting with great excitement for them to build their chrysalises so that we can move them into the butterfly net. We are also going to learn about seeds and do some planting this week. We will make a Flowers Growing scene in Spanish to go along with a song we are learning, Somos Como Las Flores (Each of Us is A Flower.) You can watch a little video of the song on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNS2uloUydQ

Seussical Jr. Play: Our school field trip to see the Seussical Jr play presented by the Journey Theater Company is coming up soon! We will be going to the 9:30 performance on Tuesday May 19th at the theater in Fort Vancouver High School. If you are planning on coming, please sign up on the form outside the classroom by Monday (April 27th). Tickets are $6 and can be paid to me or in the office by Friday (May 1st.) As always with field trips, parents are responsible for transportation and supervision of their child. There will be no school on this day. For more information about the show, check out this link: http://www.journeytheater.org/shows/seussical-tya/

Other Fundraisers:
- Box Tops for Education,
- Fred Meyer (you can support our school by going to https://www.fredmeyer.com/topic/community-rewards-4 and adding Little Acorn to your rewards account),
- Scholastic Book Orders (http://www.scholastic.com/ our school code is GX4F3),
- Shoparoo: Little Acorn is now a member of Shoparoo (shoparoo.com). You can download the Shoparoo App to earn points for our school.

Volunteering: If you would like to volunteer in class and come see what your Kindergartner is doing, we would love to have you on Fridays. Your time in class is very helpful. You get a chance to see what our day is like and how your child is interacting. A new sign-up sheet is outside the classroom for this trimester. If Fridays don’t work for you and you would like to volunteer in the classroom, just let me know and let’s see if we can find a time that does work with your schedule.

Little Acorn Mascots: Our school has two new furry friends! Sam and Sally are sweet stuffed squirrels who love to travel. If you would like to take Sam or Sally to travel with you on your next trip just ask Katie in the office!

Sickness: If your Kindergartener is sick, please call the school office, or you can send me an email or a text so we can keep track of illnesses.

Please feel free to contact me if you have questions or concerns. Send a text, give me a call, or you can email. I am here to help you and your child have a great kindergarten year!

Thank you for sharing your child with us,
Teacher Sinead & Teacher Caroline

Dates to remember:
May
19th
Seussical Jr Play at 9:30
June
9th
Kindergarten Graduation at 10:00 upstairs in Jason Lee
10th
All School Picnic / Last Day of School

Tuition Prices 2014-2015 School Year
2 days a week $190.00 a month
3 days a week $245.00 a month
4 days a week $300.00 a month
5 days a week $355.00 a month
Kindergarten $405.00 a month

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Kindergarten Newsletter for April 20-24, 2015

Recap Of The Week: We had an exciting week with lots of visitors and special snacks. The students were very good audience members for each one of the presenters. It allowed us to ease back into our school routines after the break and we are ready to get back to more learning this week!

LAPSK Auction Night: We want to say a big Thank You to our Kindergarten families for supporting the Auction/Dinner at Big Al’s on Saturday. It was a fun-filled night with lots of food, drink and bidding on some great auction items. We would love to hear any feedback you have about the event, especially if you have any suggestions to help us make it even better for next year.

Math: With all our visitors during our busy week last week we did not get to Fact Families, so we will be working on those on Monday and Tuesday. Later in the week we will be studying symmetry by making symmetrical shapes with rubber bands on geo-boards and completing a detailed drawing to make it symmetrical.

Literacy: Our sight words for this week ‘down,’ ‘find,’ ‘look,’ ‘three,’ and ‘to.’ Throughout the week students make flash cards, figure out which words go in which shape box, make word pyramids, match words in different fonts, and create their very own word search to give to a friend to solve.

Writing: During writing time we will be concentrating on correct letter formation, in addition to encouraging students to add more details to their stories. Some students will finish up the prompt “If I could fly …” on Monday. Our story starter prompts for the rest of the week will be “My favorite snack is ...” and “My favorite animal is …”

Science, Social Studies & Art: Our caterpillars have arrived!! So we will be watching closely as they grow and form their chrysalises. We will make symmetrical butterfly art projects and a daffodil spring scene too.

Seussical Jr. Play: Our school will be attending the Seussical Jr play presented by Journey Theater Company on Tuesday May 19th at 9:30, at the Fort Vancouver High School theater. Tickets will be $6. Please sign up on the form outside the classroom.

Other Fundraisers:
- Box Tops for Education,
- Fred Meyer (you can support our school by going to https://www.fredmeyer.com/topic/community-rewards-4 and adding Little Acorn to your rewards account),
- Scholastic Book Orders (http://www.scholastic.com/ our school code is GX4F3),
- Shoparoo: Little Acorn is now a member of Shoparoo (shoparoo.com). You can download the Shoparoo App to earn points for our school.

Volunteering: If you would like to volunteer in class and come see what your Kindergartner is doing, we would love to have you on Fridays. Your time in class is very helpful. You get a chance to see what our day is like and how your child is interacting. A new sign-up sheet is outside the classroom for this trimester. If Fridays don’t work for you and you would like to volunteer in the classroom, just let me know and let’s see if we can find a time that does work with your schedule.

Little Acorn Mascots: Our school has two new furry friends! Sam and Sally are sweet stuffed squirrels who love to travel. If you would like to take Sam or Sally to travel with you on your next trip just ask Katie in the office!

Sickness: If your Kindergartener is sick, please call the school office, or you can send me an email or a text so we can keep track of illnesses.

Please feel free to contact me if you have questions or concerns. Send a text, give me a call, or you can email. I am here to help you and your child have a great kindergarten year!

Thank you for sharing your child with us,
Teacher Sinead & Teacher Caroline

Dates to remember:
April
23rd
Kindred
May
19th
Seussical Jr Play at 9:30
June
10th
All School Picnic / Last Day of School

Tuition Prices 2014-2015 School Year
2 days a week $190.00 a month
3 days a week $245.00 a month
4 days a week $300.00 a month
5 days a week $355.00 a month
Kindergarten $405.00 a month

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Kindergarten Newsletter for April 13-17, 2015

Welcome Back!!! I hope you all had a fun and relaxing Spring Break.

Week of the Young Child / Spirit Week: This week our school is celebrating the Week of the Young Child with special visitors, special snacks and spirit days:
Monday 4/13
Event – Storytime with Ryan Ellis
Snack – Rice Crispy Treats
Theme – Silly Hair Day
Tuesday 4/14
Event – Science Fun with Christina Wheeler
Snack – Apples & Caramel Dip
Theme – Silly Hair Day & Silly Sock Day
Wednesday 4/15
Event – CalPortland Truck with Driver Darrell
Snack – Chicken Nuggets
Theme – Hat Day
Thursday 4/16
Event – Taikwondo Demo with Scott Browning & Students
Snack – Vanilla Wafers, Bananas & Milk
Theme – Stripes and Dots
Friday 4/17
Event – Firefighter Visit with Schott Meuci
Snack – Cheese Pizza
Theme – Wear Your Favorite Color

*Important: The elevator in the building will be out of order this week as they wait on the replacement part to repair it. Please remember that the elevator is for strollers, wheelchairs or folks that cannot do the stairs. Kids should never be on it without an adult and we would encourage you to have your kids with you, using the stairs before and after school. Thanks for your help and sorry for the inconvenience during repairs this week.

Recap Of Last Week: Before our Spring Break we did some ‘egg-speriments’ with a Floating Egg and a Rubber Egg. The students had so much fun predicting, observing and exploring what happens when you put eggs in vinegar, water, salt water and a mixture of water & salt water. Check out our Facebook page to see pictures of the experiments!

Math: We are going to introduce the relationship between addition and subtraction with some activities about Fact Families. For example the following equations make up a fact family: 2+3=5; 3+2=5; 5-2=3; 5-3=2.

Literacy: Our sight words for this week ‘can,’ ‘come,’ ‘jump,’ ‘little,’ and ‘the.’ Throughout the week students make flash cards, figure out which words go in which shape box, make word pyramids, match words in different fonts, and create their very own word search to give to a friend to solve.

Writing: During writing time we will be talking more about when we use capital letters. Our story starter prompts this week will be “I looked in the mirror and I saw ...” and “If I could fly …”

Science, Social Studies & Art: We will be finishing up our class’ art project for the Auction. During the week we will learn about a concrete truck and get to do some science fun with our special guests. We will also begin learning about the life cycle of butterflies.

Seussical Jr. Play: Our school will be attending the Seussical Jr play presented by Journey Theater Company on Tuesday May 19th at 9:30, at the Fort Vancouver High School theater. Tickets will be $6. Please sign up on the form outside the classroom.

LAPSK Auction Night: Tickets for this fun event are on sale now. With your ticket you will get dinner/drink and a coupon for bowling (to be used with your family at the next visit.) This is a grown-up only evening. This year our auction will be raising funds for a new outdoor sign, a fantastic piece of equipment for the playground, as well as supporting our scholarship program.
There are so many items/baskets up for silent auction. The class baskets will be on display this week outside the office. Watch out for ours - “Kindergarten’s Favorite Things.” There will also be a canvas that our class created that will be up for silent auction all week until Friday at Noon. It will be outside our classroom. 

Other Fundraisers:
- Box Tops for Education,
- Fred Meyer (you can support our school by going to https://www.fredmeyer.com/topic/community-rewards-4 and adding Little Acorn to your rewards account),
- Scholastic Book Orders (http://www.scholastic.com/ our school code is GX4F3),
- Shoparoo: Little Acorn is now a member of Shoparoo (shoparoo.com). You can download the Shoparoo App to earn points for our school.

Volunteering: If you would like to volunteer in class and come see what your Kindergartner is doing, we would love to have you on Fridays. Your time in class is very helpful. You get a chance to see what our day is like and how your child is interacting. A new sign-up sheet is outside the classroom for this trimester. If Fridays don’t work for you and you would like to volunteer in the classroom, just let me know and let’s see if we can find a time that does work with your schedule.

Sickness: If your Kindergartener is sick, please call the school office, or you can send me an email or a text so we can keep track of illnesses.

Please feel free to contact me if you have questions or concerns. Send a text, give me a call, or you can email. I am here to help you and your child have a great kindergarten year!

Thank you for sharing your child with us,
Teacher Sinead & Teacher Caroline

Dates to remember:
April
13th-17th
Week of the Young Child
18th
Auction/Dinner at Big Al’s 5:00-8:00pm
23rd
Kindred
May
19th
Seussical Jr Play 9:30
June
10th
All School Picnic / Last Day of School

Tuition Prices 2014-2015 School Year
2 days a week $190.00 a month
3 days a week $245.00 a month
4 days a week $300.00 a month
5 days a week $355.00 a month
Kindergarten $405.00 a month