Week 5- Caps for Sale

Story of the week: Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina

Phonics: Oo /o/, Cc /k/

Math: Sorting, #s  1-5

Science: Primary and secondary colors

Social Studies: Georges Seurat

HFW: can, be, he, she, we

Reminders:

·         Please complete O and C in our Alphabet Books. For directions, please read the first page.

·         Open House is Tuesday night from 6-7.

·         Wednesday is Cap Day! Bring a hat to school.

·         Chick-Fil-A spirit night is Thursday from 4-8 PM.

·         Hearing screenings will be Friday.

Dear Parents,

                This week our focus is on Colors. Students will explore the world of color as they learn color words, listen to stories about color, meet Goerges Seurat and learn about his unique painting technique, pointillism, and experiment with mixing colors of their own. This week we will learn about O and C, learn about syllables and how to count them in words, discuss primary and secondary colors, and discover what happens with colors are mixed together. For more information about our literature selections, please see below. Wednesday will be cap day. Feel free to send your child to school with a hat! Please have your child’s name written in their hat.

                 In Math, we will be sorting and starting to learn numbers. We will learn to make, count, and write numbers 1-5 in the next few weeks. We will also begin our testing for our report cards. I understand that we are only half-way finished with the grading period, but our testing process is extremely time consuming. Each assessment is performed one-on-one. This will be completed during our math small group time.

                I know that I have not updated our class website consistently in the last few weeks. Please be patient with me as the start to this year has been one full of change. We have new curriculum, new standards, and a new teacher. As I get more into my routines, please expect announcements, photos of class activities, and reminders on our website. There is a complete list of our rainbow words and a few other resources as well.

                There is a very cool program that I would like to begin using called Remind101. This program allows me to text you reminders from my phone without all of us sharing personal phone numbers. While I love my students dearly, its not my first preference to receive calls on my personal cell phone. I have an email address (gavirett@clevelandschools.org) and a phone number at school (423-479-8063) where I am happy to be available to communicate. I will remind you about field trips, assignments, assessments, and more. Standard message rates apply. You can sign up with your phone by texting @mrsavi to 422-222-3801. You will then be prompted to provide your full name so I can approve you on the roster.

Sincerely,  

Mrs. Avirett      

Literature Selections

Mouse Paint —Ellen Stoll Walsh is an author who loves shapes such as circles, squares, ovals and triangles. She also likes colors and numbers, but her most favorite things are books. It all started when her mother would read to the children snuggled in bed. Before long, there were 10 children in all. Ellen was the second-oldest. She loved reading and visiting the public library. That’s when she started helping her mother by telling stories to all the younger children. Later, when she was reading to her three-year-old son Ben, she decided to invent characters of her own and write books. You will find some very clever characters in her books. She was born in Baltimore, Md., and lives near Rochester, N.Y., with her son Ben.

Caps for Sale —Esphyr Slobodkina (pronounced ess-FEER sloh-BOD-kee-nah, 1908-2002) was an author and artist who liked to “paint” with scissors and cut-out papers. She began her career by painting lamp shades and giant murals. Later, she illustrated books for other authors and eventually wrote and illustrated her own books. As a child, her favorite activities were making handmade dolls and designing dresses for herself and her sister. As an adult, she had an unusual talent for creating jewelry from tiny parts she found in old typewriters and computers. Many of her art works are more like sculptures. They are frequently collages or constructions of wood, wire, paper cutouts and paint. Her books are famous for their lighthearted verbal and

visual patterns of behavior. She was born in Siberia, Russia, and also lived with her family in Manchuria, China. At the age of 29, she moved to New York City to fulfill her dream of becoming an artist.

Announcements

I apologize for not sending the Alphabet Books home on Monday. Mrs. Howard has just returned to us from a short leave of absence and we are still working out all of the kinks in our "machine." Thank you to those who brought that to my attention. With that being said, if you find that doing all three letters by Friday is too difficult, you may keep the Alphabet books at home over the weekend to finish.

This week we went on a Shape Hunt! Each student chose a shape to find inside our school building. I took pictures of what all we found. I found some very proud Kindergarteners. I am saving the pictures for a slideshow at Open House (which is next Tuesday night from 6-7) but afterwards, I will post them for viewing on our website.

There seems to be a virus making its way through our classroom. The great news is that its not a stomach virus! yay! But the symptoms are a high-grade fever and a sore throat. It presents itself as "strep" but tests come back negative for strep. Please do take your child to the doctor's office at your discretion, but please do not send your child to school if they are running a fever.

Have a great Thursday!
G. Avirett

Week 4 Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Story of the week: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Phonics: Ss /s/, Mm /m/

Math: 2-D and 3-D Shapes

Science: Weather and Seasons

Social Studies: Benjamin Franklin

Reminders:

·         Alphabet books are ready. Please complete P, S, and M. For directions, please read the first page.

·         We have Art with Mrs. Buffington this week.

·         Congratulations to Brett Oxford. He is our student of the month for Respect for our Character Education Program

·         Vision Screenings will be Friday.

Dear Parents,

            We are moving right along as we enter September. This week our focus is on the Weather and Seasons. Students will become familiar with different types of weather and seasonal changers through books, poems, songs and American Sign Language. We will also learn and practice the letters S and M, discuss cause and effect, learn inventive spelling (kidwriting), and get to know Benjamin Franklin.

            If you did not already know, we have a class mascot named Backpack Bear. Backpack Bear shares a message with us every morning. This week he will share his favorite book about rainbows. Backpack Bear comes from a website that pairs with the curriculum we are using this year. If you have internet access at home, your student can access the free portion of the website Starfall.com. Your child can practice letters online! The website is very child-friendly and they are free to explore it. Please practice letter formation and letter sounds with the letters P, S, and M in our Alphabet Books. It is VERY important that this be completed each week. We are introducing letters quite quickly and practice will greatly help.

             In Math, we will be reviewing our unit on shapes. Your student will be responsible to identify and describe the attributes of a square, rectangle, triangle, circle, hexagon, trapezoid, cube, cone, sphere, and cylinder. This is a huge undertaking. Your child might not be able to perform this on the first report card, but this is a skill that builds and allows for mastery as the year progresses. Please practice counting sides and corners and identifying shapes at home. The sooner this is mastered, the better. Kindergarten is more work than one might think!

            You might have noticed that I have sent home all of your students work without marks on it. As the year progresses, this work will begin to be “graded”. Typically I will correct handwriting issues first. For now, congratulate your child on their hard work at school. If you find something that is incorrect, coach your student through it to help them do a better job next time. I want each child to be proud of their work and strive to find ways to improve. With my help and yours, we can grow these Kindergarteners into magnificent students.

Please Excuse Us!

Please pardon my lack of communication so far this week. The printer at school has been "down" and I haven not been able to print a thing! Mrs. Howard has also been out of the classroom so it has been a one-woman show around here. When I pack up bags and write behavior in folders, it takes so much time. I also do not have someone to watch my class while I make copies. Keep checking in!

Week 2

Story of the week: I Am Your Flag

Phonics: Aa /a/

Math: Shapes and Geometry

High-Frequency words: is, for

Reminders:

·         Please turn in any missing paperwork

·         I am in need of some headphone splitters so that more than one student can use our computers at a time. I will need 3 of them.

·         Thank you for the wonderful snacks! Keep them coming!

·         Let your student enter and leave school INDEPENDENTLY!

Dear Parents,

            We have our fourth Kindergarten teacher! Students met her today and will be in her class full time tomorrow. Mrs. Natalie Killian is a Cleveland native. She is very excited about working with us in Kindergarten and we are so happy that she is finally here!

            This week in reading we will be covering a few topics. At this point in the school year we are still setting up routines and understanding how and why we do certain things at school. We will be matching the letter A with its sound. We will further discuss the rules and how they keep us safe through a book that we access online through Starfall.com. This story is called, Backpack Bear Learns the Rules. We will also learn about dictionaries. Each child will have and keep a dictionary to maintain as we learn our high-frequency words. Students can use these to help them with their writing. We have started learning about the parts of a computer. Each child will receive a small paper book to read and will get to keep it when we are finished with the story. In addition to all of these things, we will learn more about our American flag and what it stands for. Alphabet books are not ready and will go home whenever they are! Sorry for the delay!

            In math, we have moved on to the next topic, Shapes! Please review the paper introducing our new topic and consider completing some of the activities at home. Any time you have a chance to extend your child’s learning at home, take advantage of it!

            On a different note, it has been brought to my attention that some of our students are taking part in the Free/Reduced Lunch program. Please understand that this program is highly confidential. I do not know who is part of this program and who is not. If I send home notes requesting money and you are a part of this program, please do not be offended. I must ask EVERYONE for money. If I only asked those who did not qualify for the program, it would be reverse discrimination. To avoid this, I treat everyone equally. If you are unable to pay for something, please send me a note or email letting me know. My intention is never to “hound” you for money. On the same note, our snack system is NOT a part of the Nutrition Program. If you want your child to participate in snack, you must send in a snack for the class and do your part.

Story of the week: Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? By Bill Martin Jr.

Phonics: Bb /b/

Math: Position words

High-Frequency words: see, me

Reminders:

·         Please turn in any missing paperwork

·         I am in need of some headphone splitters so that more than one student can use our computers at a time. I will need 3 of them.

·         Alphabet books will start next week, so keep an eye out for those.

·         Thank you for the wonderful snacks! Keep them coming!

Dear Parents,

            We have been off to a full start this year. These newsletters usually go home on MONDAYS! Let’s just say, I have had my hands full! We will be hiring our 4^th teacher on Monday if all goes as planned. Mr. Stephens will be conducting interviews tomorrow! We will do our best to be sure that it is a smooth transition when it does happen. As I have said before, we work as a team in Kindergarten so our new teacher will not be left in the dark to fend for herself!

            In the mean time, we have started learning how to read! We have read the Kissing Hand and  Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? many times since we have started school. We have also started discussing the alphabet, Bb, and high-frequency words. HFW are words that students should be able to “read” as soon as they see them, or sight words.

            In math, we have been talking about our position words. We are learning to use words to describe where an object is. So far, we have learned: inside, outside, under, over, on, top, middle, and bottom. Try to use these words at home to help them continue learning at home in a real-life context.

            There are a few housekeeping items I would like to address. Please avoid interrupting our class time by coming into the classroom during the last few minutes of school. It is quite a challenge to juggle all of the students and sending them to the correct places. On that note, please talk about your child’s dismissal procedures at home. We have had many car riders attempt to try out the busses. I have explained this many times to the class, but they may need some outside encouragement on this.

            I know that Kindergarten is a huge milestone both for you and your student. Please let your student walk into class alone. They know where the classroom is and it is important for them to walk in by themselves. Please encourage older siblings to meet Kindergarten students at their appropriate places for dismissal as well.

            Please note the schedule change on the back of this letter. We are still trying to figure out what will make our day move smoothly and still participate in everything Mr. Stephens has scheduled us for.

Have a great rest of the week!

Need Reminders?

There is an incredible program that we can use to communicate without trading cell phone numbers. While I love my students dearly, its not my first preference to receive calls on my personal cell phone. I have an email address (gavirett@clevelandschools.org) and a phone number at school (423-479-8063) where I am happy to be available to communicate. You can receive reminders from me on your cell phone!!!! This is so exciting. All you have to do is follow the steps below:

Text @mrsavi to 422-222-3801

You will then be prompted to provide your full name so I can approve you.

I have already tried it and it works! I will remind you about field trips, assignments, assessments, and more. I promise not to bombard you, but if you are at all like me, you need reminders sometimes to keep everything together. Standard message rates apply.

Thanks for your cooperation!