Mark Those Calendars!

• October Parent Meeting: Wednesday October 26th 6:30-7:30pm
• Parent Teacher Conference Week: We have EARLY dismissal at 1:10pm 10/24-10/28 for goal-setting conferences. Please click here to sign up for Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, or Friday conference times, (Yes, I said Sunday!). I have commitments Tuesday and Thursday that I cannot change.
• Goodbye to Mia:  Mia has unfortunately withdrawn from D2 and will not be returning. Friends were surprised by this and will miss her a lot! They requested to say goodbye with a card. We wish her and her family all the best!
• Harvest Festival: Friday October 28th, join our school in welcoming the fall season! Children may wear costumes and the school will provide activities and food for celebration!
• Halloween Celebration: On Monday, October 31st, children may wear Halloween costumes to school for a whole-kinder pod celebration day. We know they will be excited about trick-or-treating and we want to lean into that culminating energy explosion with joy and anticipation, in an effort to channel their energies! Please click HERE to sign up to help with fun activities or bring in supplies needed. Thanks!
• Field Trip #3: Thursday November 17th, Seymour Marine Lab in Santa Cruz
• Field Trip #4:  Wednesday December 14, 2016. We’re taking the  Light Rail to Christmas in the Park in San Jose. Also, our class has sponsored a tree to decorate! If you’d like to help us trim our tree on Tuesday November 22nd, please let Arielle know. We need HELP and…Christmas cheer! (Arielle Kurtze, Field Trip Coordinator a.kurtze@gmail.com)
• Community Snack Schedule: This week is the Rahool Family. Please, use the snack signup genius here to sign up for a week to bring snack. Let the Snack Coordinator  Kudsana (kkizaraly@yahoo.com) know if you need special accommodations. And a BIG thank you to the Hunter family who volunteered last week!
• FUTURE Parent Meeting Dates: Wednesday October 26th, Wednesday Nov 9th (Thanksgiving Dinner), Wednesday Dec 14th, Wednesday Jan 25th, Skipping February (short month, too many conflicts), Wednesday March 22nd, Wednesday April 26th, Wednesday May 24th, and Wednesday June 14th.

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip Photos

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REMINDER: Protocol for pick-up on HALF-DAYS:

•   We will have lunch/recess outside and PICK-UP will be at the black top near the silver benches.
•  You can find your child at the playground, if he/she has not yet come back to the benches. Please, return to check out with me so I can mark him/her off my attendance list, and he/she can grab his/her lunch.
•   The shift parent will help shepherd kids back to me at the benches.
•  We will NOT return to the classroom.
•   After care kids: After care kids will go straight to the atrium from the double doors inside the gate.

Emergency Parent Sub Protocol:

You are responsible for finding your OWN sub. Do not expect Deepa, our classroom coordinator, to handle that. First, send an SOS email out to the class on the yahoo group, CCing me. Then, as soon as you do that please call through the emergency sub list, below. Follow up with me regarding who I can expect in your place. I plan activities based on the parent support available for each shift. Your absence can completely throw off curriculum plans. Please be responsible and respectful with your shift. Thank you!

1. Jennifer Coscarart (Tuesdays 2nd shift & some Thursdays)
2. Doreen Stitt (Tuesdays 2nd shift & some Thursdays)
3. Akiko Fukuhara (3rd shifts) 408-614-9793
4. Angela Henshall (Thursday 2nd shift)
5. Christine Ging (always around Thursday morning, though I may be in Rm 12)
6. Lonnell Graham (408)-836-0385
7. David Ramos (408) 393-4456 (Thursdays after 1pm)

Weekly Highlights:

• Third Week of FULL DAYS: Children transitioned WONDERFULLY this week! They adjusted so smoothly to the full day schedule and quickly acquired the stamina needed to pace themselves through the day. The children, arguably, did better than most of us adults! 🙂
• Field Trip: We went to Spina Farms Pumpkin Patch and had a BLAST riding the train, exploring the patch, playing, and learning more about pumpkins!
• Earthquake Drill
• Visiting Reader: A guest teacher (Terra came to rm 7) comes to read to each classroom in the whole school.
• Handwriting: Finished frog jump capitals in handwriting without tears
• Art Enrichment: Read “What do you do with an Idea?” by  Kobi Yamada and then did Leaf rubbing and Pumpkin Paper Plate Lacing craft.
• Science Enrichment: Properties of water, volume, and center of gravity for learning about our new balance board tool
• Pumpkin Exploration: Making the filling for our yummy pumpkin pie and reaping the benefits!
• Math: Name addition and eye color bar graphs. I asked “How many letters are in your name?” Children counted the letters in their names and paired up with friends to add the sums. Some even liked it so much they counted all the letters in their last name and middle name. Later, we looked at our eye color and made a graph to help us organize our information. We later did the same thing with our buddies!
• Story Workshop: This week we began writing and then practicing the story we made. We had a dress rehearsal and will have another one, next week, before our performance next Thursday.
• Buddies: We did math activities with 4th grade buddies – measuring our height and polling their class for eye color.
• QUIET TIME: This is the period after lunch recess when children come in and have “me time.” They can Read, Rest, or Reflect silently or whispering. It’s not a social time, but rather a chance to recharge and be with ourselves for 20 minutes before gearing up for the afternoon!
• Clean-up Routine Tool: Kids and adults agreed that clean up time was hard with children not knowing when to stop cleaning and getting distracted. So, they came up with having areas to be responsible for perhaps and that’s how the zones of cleanup began.
• Birthday Books: Logan shared his! To celebrate your child’s birthday, they may bring in a book for us to read to the class! Please, refrain from bringing food.
• Share Chair: If children would like to share anything, the 3rd item on our meeting agendas are usually sharing. They can bring in a book or special item from home to show. If they bring a toy, it will have to go right back into their back packs.

Story Workshop: 3 W’s & Getting Ready For Storytelling Performance!

This week, children focused on the last/top tier of the 3W’s chart -the plot! They had SO much fun. The last two weeks, children created the setting and characters. They have focused on literally and figuratively building their story and solidifying the vocabulary for reading comprehension with a focus on 3 keywords: setting, characters, and plot. The goal was for them to collaborate to create a story one building block at a time and act it out -to literally play with a well thought out idea! Children worked in partners and focused on the 3 W’s Tiered Story Chart to explain:

1. WHERE: The base, the largest part, is the setting, or the “WHERE”. It’s the foundation that supports and holds everything else.
2. WHO: The next layer is the characters, the “WHO”, because they live in the setting and drive the story. They can’t come first, because they need a place to exist!
3. WHAT: Finally, the plot or the story is the last piece, the “WHAT”. The story only exists if the setting and characters are in place. The story can change many times before they finalize it on paper.

Next week, they will dress rehearse their story telling and then perform it on Thursday!

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