Kindergarten Newsletter August 28th - September 1st

DONATIONS!!!! Thank you to all who have donated to our school supplies!  Kindergarteners need lots of supplies and with your help, we are hoping to have plenty to last for a long time!

Here’s what’s coming up for this week…

• ·Upcoming Important Dates~~ Tuesday August 29th is Back to School Night.  TK-2nd grd. Will be held from 6:30 - 7:45PM and  3rd–5th grade is from 5:00-6:15PM.  Please meet in the MPR at 6:30 for a brief talk with our awesome administrators, Mr. Kubiak and Ms. McCormick, followed by the classroom overview with your child’s teacher.  There will be paperwork for you to take home on your child’s desk.  Please take a peek at their Pete the Cat art on the wall and their rainbow book.  These art projects are good assessments of both your child’s ability to listen to and follow directions, as well as an assessment of their fine motor skills (ability to cut, color and write).  Please practice cutting and writing names every day.  Thank you!

• Parent Volunteers~ We can’t wait to have your help in the classroom!  A sign-up sheet for Parent Volunteers will be out in your child’s classroom at Back to School Night.  If you are interested in volunteering in our classroom this year or chaperoning a field trip, you will need to be fingerprinted with the school district.  You can get this process started early by calling the District Office and scheduling an appointment to be fingerprinted.  You will need to call Debbie at 399-5078

 

• Please try to be waiting outside our door by 11:35 for AM K pick up and by 2:15 for PM K pick-up to ensure the safety of your child,  We always instruct your children to always stay with us until we see their grown up.  Please talk with your child to help us reinforce that rule.  Being SAFE is always our number one rule.  Thank you for your support!
• Library check out- This will begin next week!  Each child will be allowed to check out one library book each week.  Please read it and return it to your library book return bucket (will be outside the classroom doors) BEFORE the next library check out day.

• STARFALL is an awesome, free web site.  Please log on to www.starfall.com and have your child practice their letter names, letter sounds and early reading skills.  

• Thank you for NOT sending juice to school.  For sanitary reasons, water is the only beverage allowed at school.  Thank you for your cooperation.

•   PLEASE make sure that we have your email address.  If we don’t, you will not know what’s going on!

• Homework- Please remember that we have moved to a NO homework policy this year.  We would rather you spend quality time reading and doing other fun activities with your child after school.  HOWEVER, we still encourage you to work on letter names, sounds and high frequency words with your child every day.

• Centers- we have started real deal centers!  We move around to four different centers each day, using or folders to collect our work at each table.  What comes home should be MOSTLY complete.  If your child’s center work is not complete, you can always have them complete it at home for extra practice but it doesn’t need to come back to school.  THANK YOU!

• Folders~~ folders go back and forth to school EVERY DAY.  Please encourage your child to put their folder in the bucket every day, as well as check in for attendance. Thank you for not doing it for them, so that they will learn the routine.  We are trying to encourage independence!

 Please be sure that EVERYTHING you bring to school is LABELED with your name!!!!

• Please have your child use the BATHROOM BEFORE school every day.

• SNACK~~ please send your child to school every day with a snack. We do not provide snack for your child.

•  We have severe peanut allergies in Kindergarten every year.  Please NO NUTS at snack time.

• Paperwork~~ If you have not returned the paperwork from the first week of school, please do so NOW.

Thank you again for all that you do at home to support your child’s learning.  We appreciate all that you do!  Please feel free to email with any concerns or questions!  Thank you!!

The Kindergarten Team

Sarah Barnes sarahba@fsusd.org,  Erin Barron erinba@fsusd.org, sheetalp@fsusd.org

Theresa Davila theresad@fsusd.org  and Kim Ron kimr@fsusd.org

Kindergarten Newsletter August 21st-25th

PHEW!!!!!  We made it through our first 3 days.  Monday will already be our official 2nd week of Kindergarten!  Hopefully you have all gracefully made it through this big transition and are feeling a bit more comfortable!  Many thanks to those of you who donated supplies. We truly appreciate it!!! Please look for our newsletter in your email every Friday to find out about the happenings for the upcoming week.

Here’s what’s coming up for next week…

First and Foremost~~~~if you are reading this via email, YAY.  If you are reading it on a piece of paper, we NEED YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS ASAP.  Please email your child’s teacher.  If someone tells you that he/she is NOT receiving any information from the teachers, please tell them to EMAIL us!   Sarah Barnes sarahba@fsusd.org,  Erin Barron erinba@fsusd.org, Theresa Davila theresad@fsusd.org,  Kim Ron kimr@fsusd.org,

Sheetal Pravin sheetalp@fsusd.org

Homework We will not have weekly homework packets as we have had in the past.  This year our whole school is encouraging “Family Reading Time” every single night.  If your child grows up loving to read, they will be ready to succeed in everything they do.  Although we will not have homework packets, we do ask that you please encourage your child to practice writing every day.  Watch that they use a proper pinching pencil grip and that they write all of their letters with the correct top-down letter formation.  Handwriting practice is crucial.  Your child should already be able to write their names easily and independently at this time. Only the first letter should be capitalized, all others need to be lower case.  If they are not, PLEASE continue to practice daily until it is effortless for them.  Other thing you can use to practice and reinforce skills is Starfall.com. It’s a fabulous FREE site to use to practice letter names and letter sounds.  Thank you!!!

*Special assignments* In your child’s folder today, you should find two special projects to be completed and returned by the end of the week.   The Happy Camper Tent will need your child’s photo peeking out of it, and schmancy fun, custom decorations that represent them.  Have FUN creating!  The other assignment is the Let Me Introduce Myself page.  That will also require a photograph.  Help your child complete the writing portion and have them practice presenting it.  They will each present their paper to the class.  Color the border and make it fun to look at.  It will be part of a class book that they will look at throughout the year.  (If you do not find these papers in your child’s folder, they lost them as they put their folders away today.  Please keep reinforcing our expectations at home.  They are capable, and we know can do it!)

·        Please be sure that EVERYTHING you bring to school is LABELED~~ backpacks, folders, lunch boxes, water bottles,

jackets, sweaters, sweatshirts…

·        Please have your child use the BATHROOM BEFORE school every day.

·        We have severe peanut allergies in Kindergarten every year.  Please NO PEANUTS or foods containing peanuts (ie. peanut butter) at snack time.

·        Folders~~ folders go back and forth to school EVERY DAY.  Please encourage your child to put their folder in the bucket every day, but  please do NOT do it for them, as they will not learn our routine.  We are trying to encourage independence! Students are expected to put their backpacks in their cubbies at the start of the day, and at the end of the day to put their folders in their backpacks without spilling anything.  We have a few kids in each class who are struggling with listening and following directions.  Please work with us as a team and we’ll make quick progress.  They are all incredibly capable!

·        Paperwork~~ If you have not returned the paperwork from the first day of school, please do so now.

·        SNACK~~ please send your child to school every day with a small snack.  We do not provide snack for the students.  Please remember though, NO NUTS and NO JUICE.  Thank you!!!!

·        Parent Volunteers~~We will have a sign up sheet for Parent Volunteers at Back to School Night.  If you are interested in volunteering in our classroom this year, you will need to be fingerprinted with the school district.  You can get this process started early by calling them and telling them that you need to be fingerprinted.

·        Upcoming important dates~~ August 29th is Back to School Night.  Please plan to be here.  More info to come later!

 

Thank you again for all that you do at home to support your child’s learning.  We appreciate all that you do!  Please feel free to email with any concerns or questions!  Thank you!!

The Kindergarten Team

Sarah Barnes sarahba@fsusd.org,  Erin Barron erinba@fsusd.org

Theresa Davila theresad@fsusd.org,  Kim Ron kimr@fsusd.org and

Sheetal Pravin sheetalp@fsusd.org

Welcome to Kindergarten!!!

Welcome to Kindergarten!!!

We'd like to welcome all of our families to a new year!  We are so excited to meet all of you!  There are a few things that we need you to know about the first day/week...

1.  AM K attends from school 8:15 - 11:35 and PM attends 10:55-2:15.  Please enter through the gate on the Kindergarten playground.  Pick up will be from the front door of room 401 & 402.  Mrs. Pravin’s class will release from the MPR.  

2.  Please send your child to school with a small, healthy snack every day.  We do not provide snack.  Please send water only.  Please do not send any juice or Capri Suns.

3.  Please always stay in your car if you are dropping off in front of the school.  NEVER get out of your car, or leave your car unattended at the yellow drop off curb in front of Kindergarten.  This applies to picking up as well.  Stay in your car.

4.  On the first day of school you are welcome to accompany your child into the classroom for first 15-20 minutes, helping them to find their cubbies and seats.  There will be an activity to complete at your child’s seat.  We will wave goodbye shortly thereafter.  At that time, please make a quick, happy exit in order to help the students feel calm and confident and avoid increasing anxieties.  

5.  Supply bins will be outside in the kindergarten playground for any donations.  Please leave your supplies in the appropriate bin.  Thank you for your donations.  We truly appreciate them.  THANK YOU!

6.  Your child will need a plastic folder, labeled with their name, that will be used daily.  

Every morning your child will need to place their folder in the Homework Bin on the bench in front of their classroom AND they will also need to move their name to Present on the attendance board.  In order for your child to establish this daily routine, please encourage them to do this on their own every day, including the first day.    Please do not do it for them.  Once your child has moved their name and turned in their folder they can leave their backpack by the classroom and play on the playground until it is time to line up.  AM K will bring their backpacks inside and place them in their cubbies.  PM K will leave their backpacks outside and bring them in later after snack recess.

7.  Please make sure to label all personal items for your child, such as jackets, lunchboxes and water bottles.  Donated supplies will be shared and do not need to be labeled.

8.  At the end of your child's day, your teacher will be dismissing each student, one by one, so that we can become familiar with each child's parent/caregiver. Please be patient, as this is important and will take a few extra minutes.  Please plan to park in the lot or neighborhood, as you are never allowed to leave your car unattended at the curb, even to pick up.  Thank you for your understanding and cooperation with our crazy traffic!   

If you are not receiving our emails, please email your child’s teacher to be added to our lists.

Mrs. Barnes: sarahba@fsusd.org

Mrs. Barron: erinba@fsusd.org

Ms. Davila: theresad@fsusd.org

Mrs. Ron: kimr@fsusd.org

Mrs. Pravin: sheetalp@fsusd.org

We are very excited to see you tomorrow morning and begin our new year!  Kindergarten is a special adventure.  Our goal is for your child to LOVE Kindergarten as much as we do.