Odyssey Charter School | Erin Wolfson RSS

Room A News Jan 12

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:59:24 GMT

Room A News

January 12^th, 2012!

What we are learning:

We are beginning our social studies until on our Community. Students shared what they know about our local community. We will take our first field trip into the community next Thursday with a walk to the library. In math, we are reviewing numbers and talking about more, less, and greater than. We are reviewing our readers’ toolbox (tools we use to figure out tricky words). Ask your child about them! We will talk tomorrow about Dr. Martin Luther King and the dream he had for the world. Then we will come up with our own dreams for ourselves and for the world. You can start to talk about Martin Luther King and his impact on our country tonight.

What we will be learning:

We will be finishing our personal narrative writing unit next week, and then we will begin a fiction unit.

Ways for you to support:

Story prompt: tell your child a story about Martin Luther King.
Make sure you are reading at least 20 minutes a night.
Practice fine motor skills. I’m noticing a lot of students still struggling with pencil grasp, pressure when holding a pencil, or hands getting tired quickly when writing. This site has some easy ideas: http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/fine-motor-skills-activities-for-children.html
Ask your child about kindergarten:
- How do you play monster squeeze?
- What are the months of the year? What month is it now? What year is it?

Upcoming events

NO SCHOOL (Martin Luther King Day): Monday, January 16
Field Trip to Library: Thursday, January 19^th, from 9:45-11:30
Look for more field trips in the next few weeks to: Loma Alta Park, Altadena Community Garden and the Altadena Stables; the Fire Station, hiking, and possibly 1 or 2 more!

Mystery Reminders:

Tuesday: Ziggy, Wednesday: Yuna Thursday: Valentina

Class Wishlist

Found items, such as toilet paper rolls, paper towel rolls, egg cartons, empty yogurt containers, etc.

**Reminder: If you are on campus past 8:30, you MUST get a visitor’s pass from the front office. Thanks!

Annual Campaign Update

15 of our families have donated to the annual campaign, bringing us to 60%!!! Please donate whatever amount you are able if you have not to help us reach our goal of 100% of families participating and to retain our PE and Computer program.

Mystery schedule

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:58:21 GMT

Mystery Schedule

January

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday
1/16 NO SCHOOL	1/17 Ziggy	1/18 Yuna	1/19 Valentina
1/23 Theo	1/24 Sanye	1/25 Santi	1/26 Robby
1/30 Ravi	1/31 Pascal

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

1/16

NO SCHOOL

1/17

Ziggy

1/18

Yuna

1/19

Valentina

1/23

Theo

1/24

Sanye

1/25

Santi

1/26

Robby

1/30

Ravi

1/31

Pascal

February

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday
		2/1 Nevin	2/2 Mikel
2/6 Max	2/7 Logan	2/8 Laila	2/9 Jack
2/13 Ivy	2/14 Gigi	2/15 Emery	2/16 Ella
2/20 NO SCHOOL	2/21 Desha	2/22 Cooper	2/23 Christian
2/27 Brianna	2/28 Asha	2/29 Asa

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

2/1

Nevin

2/2

Mikel

2/6

Max

2/7

Logan

2/8

Laila

2/9

Jack

2/13

Ivy

2/14

Gigi

2/15

Emery

2/16

Ella

2/20

NO SCHOOL

2/21

Desha

2/22

Cooper

2/23

Christian

2/27

Brianna

2/28

Asha

2/29

Asa

Kindergarten News November 17

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 10:41:57 GMT

Room A News

November 17th, 2011!

What we are learning:
We had a very fun week in kindergarten. On Tuesday, Zero the Hero came to visit us and brought a deck of cards for each student! I hope you’ve been playing Top-It at home! Please teach your child other games that you know (i.e. Go Fish, Crazy 8s)-these games help with number recognition. On Wednesday, Nevin’s mom, Traci, came with Alan (Melody’s dad from Room B) to teach us World Music. We sang songs in a West African language, in Sign Language, played in a drum circle, and sang a lot. It was lots of fun and we look forward to the next Music class! We had Yoga with Ravi’s mom, Susan. Tomorrow is our first time with our Reading Buddies-this is a time for us to get to know some older students at school. It is one of my very favorite things we do at Odyssey.
Kindergarteners got Just Right books! I am teaching how to read pattern books. The first two lessons were getting our minds ready to read: before we read a new book (adults do this, too!), we look at the cover and the title and think “What is this book going to be about?”, then we take a book walk—we look inside the book and just talk about what we notice in the pictures. Next we will talk about paying attention to the pattern, and then using the pictures to figure out tricky words.

What we will be learning:
Stone Soup Day is next week! Please make sure you check the sign-up genius http://www.signupgenius.com/go/room390 for what you need to bring no later than Monday.
Unfortunately, I may be called to jury duty next week, but I’m crossing my fingers I won’t!

Ways for you to support:
• Story prompt: tell your child a story about Thanksgiving.
• Make sure you are reading at least 20 minutes a night.
• Ask your child about kindergarten:
o What did you learn in Music?
o Can you show me a yoga pose?
o What is the story of Stone Soup?
o Tell me about your just right books? How do you get your mind ready to read?
o Tell me one of the stories you have written in Writing Workshop.

Upcoming events

• Stone Soup Day! Tuesday, November 22nd This is a great family
event!!! Soup will be served @ 11:30 The whole family is invited. You can sign your child out after lunch to take them home for the long weekend.
• NO SCHOOL Wednesday, November 23-25. Happy Thanksgiving!

Volunteering/Classroom Help

• We NEED boxes of tissues. Please bring one or two if you can.

**Reminder: If you are on campus past 8:30, you MUST get a visitor’s pass from the front office. Thanks!

If you didn’t already, click here: http://www.odysseycharterschool.org/campusuite/modules/photo-gallery.cfm?box_id=6088&grp_id=5724&kind=image&preview=yes
For pictures from Camp Day. If you have any you took in the morning or afternoon that you would like to share, please send them my way and I will add them to the page. Thanks!

By the way, we are always putting up new things in the classroom. Make sure to check out our Camp Day stories on the wall. You can also find potatoes that seemed to be the grossest from our germ experiment. Ask your child about it.
Annual Campaign Update

15 of our families have donated to the annual campaign, bringing us to 60%!!! Please donate whatever amount you are able if you have not to help us reach our goal of 100% of families participating and to retain our PE and Computer program.

Kindergarten News October 27

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:52:09 GMT

Room A News

October 27th, 2011!

What we are learning:
We added I and a to the word wall this week. We continued adding animals to our Camp Day decorations. We explored oil pastels and gluing different materials for mask making. We had an amazing Creative Dance class with Laila’s dad, Todd. In reading and writing workshop, we talking about making choices that will help students do their best work (i.e. getting straight to work, picking a writing spot not near friends, taking care of business before or after). We have also been working on pumpkin math—we put the pumpkins in order from biggest to smallest and then made predictions of how many seeds they have. We counted the seeds today.

What we will be learning:
We will do a fun cooking project and continue getting ready for Camp Day. We will paint river rocks, learn about and make fossils, decide what else our room needs to look like a forest, etc. We will continue to learn about reading and writing routines, and wrap up our Emergent Storybook unit. In two weeks, we will begin reading just right books! Stay tuned for information on a meeting for parents regarding reading and writing in kindergarten.

Ways for you to support:
• Story prompt: tell your child a story about a pumpkin.
• Make sure you are reading at least 20 minutes a night. Record your reading on your Read-a-thon form!
• What can you order at home? This can be biggest to smallest, tallest to shortest, etc.

Reminder:
Odyssey does not celebrate Halloween, please make sure your child does not come in costume on Monday.

Upcoming events

• Kindergarten Potluck (check the email from our room parents!), Saturday, November 5, 12:30-2:30
• NO SCHOOL, Friday, November 11—Veteran’s Day Holiday
• Stone Soup Day! Tuesday, November 22nd

FYI: Fridays are Odyssey spirit days. Your child can wear an Odyssey shirt or the color red!

Volunteering/Classroom Help

• I need a few muffin tins (mini muffins) for our cooking project on Monday. Please bring them if you have (please label them). Thank you!!!
• Please look out for an email from our room parents for supplies and help needed for Camp Day (Monday, November 7th)

I need volunteers to clean the classroom on Friday afternoons. You can sign up here: Please sign-up here to help:
www.SignUpGenius.com/go/classroom559

Annual Campaign Update
10 of our families have donated to the annual campaign, bringing us to 40%.
I know we had many more donations last night, so I will have updated numbers soon! If you have not already contributed, please help us be one of the classes to reach 100% and help Odyssey maintain our wonderful programs.

Newsletter October 13

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 16:11:32 GMT

Room A News

October 13th, 2011!

What we are learning:
We are still working through the alphabet with Sammy Snake (s), Timothy Tiger (t), Umber Umbrella Bird (u), Vincent Vampire Bat (v), and Willy Weasel (w). We began Reading Workshop by learning how to read emergent storybooks. I taught how to read a book by reading the pictures, using storyteller words as you tell the story, and using the pictures to remember what happened in the story. We also began Writing Workshop—if your child comes home drawing oval people, it is because that is how I begin teaching them. We read about and made dragonflies/fireflies (you can ask your child which he/she made) for Camp Day.

**Each morning, students are responsible for answering the question of the day when they come in the room. Please do NOT read the question to them. You might have noticed that the beginning of the question is the same from day to day. Students have memorized this part (and if they have not, you can prompt them by pointing to the words and asking them what they think it says—this works on tagging, which is a beginning reading skill). The final word is in the picture. If they cannot tell what the picture is, direct them to the first letter of the word and have them think what it could be that starts with that letter. If you need help with this, I’m happy to demonstrate!

What we will be learning:
Next week, we will continue to get ready for Camp Day by making and learning about different forest animals. We will talk about more animal adaptations, including camouflage. We will revisit a germ experiment we begin tomorrow and talk about the importance of washing our hands and cleaning thoroughly. On Monday, we will celebrate the 30th day of school and launch the Read-A-Thon! Ms. Ketryn will be with us once again on Tuesday as I pull students and assess to prepare for our ILP meetings. Tuesday is also a PE day (we have PE every other Tuesday).

Ways for you to support:
• Story prompt: tell your child a story about your favorite book.
• Ask your child the steps of the Peace Path and why we use it. What is it for?
• Please ask your child the movements that go with the sounds of S, T, U, V, and W.
• Make sure you are reading at least 20 minutes a night.
• ENVIRONMENTAL PRINT: Your children know how to read a lot of words! Words on cereal boxes, words on signs, clothing, etc. Please cut these out and send them in with your child. We will have a wall in the classroom dedicated to the words your child is already reading.
• Ask students how to write their numbers (we start at the top). Please make sure when your child is doing the practice sheets at home, they are writing the numbers correctly (handwriting is the only time of day we ask our students to form letters and numbers correctly).

Homework:
Any homework I send is for you to keep at home, please do not send it back to school. Have fun!

If you have not signed up for an ILP meeting, please do so: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/ilpsignup

Upcoming events
• Family Math Night, Thursday, October 20th, 5-7 pm (please check the OCS Thursday packet for the pizza slip and return to the classroom)
• Kindergarten Potluck (sign-up coming soon!), Lookout for an email on this later today or tomorrow.

A quick note on our morning routine: please help us start our day on-time by saying goodbye to your child as soon as I turn on the music. I aim to start our morning meeting right when the Good Morning song goes on, but it is difficult when there are still parents in the room. Also note that if you come in after the 8:15 bell, you need to stop by the office and get a tardy slip. Thanks for your help!

Volunteering

I need volunteers to clean the classroom on Friday afternoons. You can sign up here: Please sign-up here to help: www.SignUpGenius.com/go/classroom559

Pumpkins

We need pumpkins of different sizes for math we will be doing in the next few weeks. Please let me know if you can bring in a pumpkin (we will need one of each size—from the palm sized ones to big carving pumpkins). If you would like, you can either donate it to the class (we will need 5 to keep) or take it home at the end of the month. Thank you!

Annual Campaign Update
10 of our families have donated to the annual campaign, bringing us to 40%.
I know we had many more donations last night, so I will have updated numbers soon! If you have not already contributed, please help us be one of the classes to reach 100% and help Odyssey maintain our wonderful programs.

Our inaugural Read-A-Thon is finally ready to "Blast OFF!"
That's our theme: Blast off into Reading.

Your kids will be getting a notice with all the details of the event in their Thursday Packets this week. (If that doesn't make it home, we will have the information on the OCS web site soon too.) The event starts on Monday the 17th.

The basic details are 2 goals for the kids:
Goal: Read an additional 15 minute a day for 12 days (or the little ones can have someone read to them.)
Goal: Raise at least $15 in pledges

Two ways you can help me launch the Read-A-Thon:

1. Friday the 14th, 8:30am
I will be hanging up posters and decorating the school to get us ready to go.
Come by and help if you want. I will do this right after drop off on Friday. Just come by the picnic bench area in the courtyard. It shouldn't take too long. Bring masking or blue tape, if you have it. We can always use more!

2. Monday the 17th, 8:30am
We will have a school wide assembly to launch the event.
Every class will get to count down and blast off their own balloon "rocket."
We welcome all parents to stay after drop off. The kids will come to the field for a quick gathering to get everyone excited and ready to read. If you'd like to help before school getting the rockets ready, let me know or just come by. I'll be on the back field early that morning.

This is a new fundraiser for Odyssey. Your participation is all we need to make it very successful. Thank you!

Rebecca Mercado
elirebecca@aol.com
(310) 869-7283

Newsletter September 22

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 13:09:08 GMT

Room A News September 22nd, 2011!

What we are learning:
We are still working through the alphabet with Ellie Elephant (e), Francine Fish (f), Gordo Gorilla (g), and Henny Horse (h). We have begun learning about each other’s names. We learned how Max, Pascal, Valentina, Yuna, Sanye, and Nevin got their names and we added their names to the word wall. We came up with our class expectations. Please ask your child what they are! We also began our handwriting program with practicing with flip crayons. I will be helping students with how they grasp pencils/crayons and we will be working on pressure.

What we will be learning:
Next week, we will continue building our classroom culture. We will work through more Zoo Phonics letters and begin our word study program with learning each others’ names. We will add them to the word wall as we learn them. We will have our first fire drill on Tuesday. I will be out on Thursday for Rosh Hashanah, but a sub named Michael Lin will be here. We being our discussion of Camp Day and learn about animals and activities related to camping (please note the Kindergarten Potluck on October 30th from 12:30-2:30 to prepare for Camp Day).

Ways for you to support:
• HOMEWORK: Please tell your child the story of how he/she got his/her name if you have not already done so.
• We are working on oral storytelling in class, and will be telling each other lots of stories. We’ll also be meeting our class puppets. Storytelling is a great skill to practice at home (and students love hearing your stories).
• Ask your child the steps of the Peace Path and why we use it. What is it for?
• Please ask your child the movements that go with the sounds of E, F, G, and H.
• Make sure you are reading at least 20 minutes a night.
• FAVORITE BOOK: Please have your child bring his/her favorite book to school on TUESDAY. We will create a special bin in the classroom for them and keep them at school for a few weeks. We will also be talking about them and sharing them with each other.

If you have not signed up for an ILP meeting, please do so: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/ilpsignup

Volunteering

I need volunteers to clean the classroom on Friday afternoons. You can sign up here: Please sign-up here to help: www.SignUpGenius.com/go/classroom559

Thank you so much for taking the chairs down each morning!!!

****Thank you to those who have purchased items from our wishlist. Unfortunately, Amazon does not tell me who has bought what, but I have been overwhelmed by what we have received! If you feel comfortable, please let me know what you purchased.

Extra Clothes
If you have not already done so, please send an extra set of clothes for your child in case we get messy or have accidents.

Newsletter September 15

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 13:09:24 GMT

Room A News September 15, 2011!

What we are learning:
We have continued learning each other’s names and building our classroom community. We are reviewing recess rules and beginning to create our own classroom rules. We are learning how to use the Peace Path and will be reviewing it for the next few weeks. Of particular focus is the 3rd step—how can we solve it. We work together to brainstorm appropriate solutions to problems. Common problems that end up at the Peace Path are: not sharing, pushing, cutting in line, hurting feelings. We also learned the Zoo Phonics sounds for letters a (Allie Alligator), b (Bubba Bear), and c (Catina Cat). Tomorrow we will learn d (Deedee Deer).

Ways for you to support:
• HOMEWORK: We will be learning about each name in our class. Please tell your child the story of how he/she got his/her name
• We are working on oral storytelling in class, and will be telling each other lots of stories. We’ll also be meeting our class puppets. Storytelling is a great skill to practice at home (and students love hearing your stories).
• Ask your child what he/she hopes to accomplish this year in kindergarten. Ask for academic goals as well as social goals.
• Ask your child the steps of the Peace Path and why we use it. What is it for?
• Please ask your child the movements that go with the sounds of A, B, C, and D. Please make sure you are modeling the C sound like a K (we will talk about the soft sound like S later in the year).
• Make sure you are reading at least 20 minutes a night.

***You can find our class wishlist here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/KM22W9Y626AI

Volunteering
Kindergarten needs an Arts Rep! Please help ensure we have art and music in Kindergarten. Our Arts Committee is amazing, please contact Paula Solano if you are interested: pwsolano@sbcglobal.net

I need volunteers to clean the classroom on Friday afternoons. You can sign up here: Please sign-up here to help: www.SignUpGenius.com/go/classroom559

Please help take down chairs each morning. Please take down a few chairs when you enter the classroom in the mornings.

Extra Clothes
If you have not already done so, please send an extra set of clothes for your child in case we get messy or have accidents.
Family Tree
We have a family tree in our classroom so that we can all feel the presence of our families throughout the year. Please give your child a picture of your family to put on our tree. It will be returned at the end of the year.

Picture Day is next Wednesday! The form is in your child’s Thursday envelope.
Please return it on Wednesday if you would like to order pictures.
Our picture time is at 8:25, so please make sure you are on time next Wednesday. I will be putting on the music at 8:20.

Please return the Thursday Envelope each Friday.

General Kindergarten Information

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 18:27:54 GMT

Welcome to the 2011-2012 school year in Room A!
Here is some general classroom information to help you navigate your year in Kindergarten.

Thursday Packets:
Thursday Packets are used as a way of communicating with OCS families. In these packets you will find flyers, notices, a classroom newsletter, classroom work, and homework. Some of this communication will be done via email if you have specified email as an alternative to hard copies. Please return the empty packet on Friday. For further information please go to the Odyssey web site and follow to my teacher page for blogs and updated information.

Birthdays:
Birthday celebrations are welcomed in the class. Please notify me at least a week ahead of the party so that I can plan accordingly. All birthday celebrations will be at 2:00pm.

My Contact Information:
The best place to reach me is by email at erinm@ocsmail.org. Email is used to request a meeting/conference and or to send quick FYIs. If you have something to discuss with me, please schedule an appointment by email.
**Please visit my webpage at least weekly for updated newsletters, classroom information, and classroom calendar: http://www.odysseycharterschool.org/ewolfson/index.cfm
Please check the PARENT BOARD when you enter the room. It is located on the back of the front door, and it is where I will put copies of newsletters, sign-ups, and other communication from me, the school, and our room parents.

Morning Reading with Parents:
Morning reading with parents takes place from 8:15-8:30am. This is an opportunity to read a book to/with your child in our classroom. Please keep in mind, this time should only be used for reading. If you have a younger child, they need to join you as you read. Please, no cell phones or teacher conferencing during this time.

Drop Off Procedures:
Students are not to be on campus before 7:45am. Morning care is available from 7-7:45 for a small fee. Please see the office for details. Classroom doors open at 8:10am. If your student arrives after 8:15am, a tardy slip must be obtained from the office.

Pick Up Procedures:
On Mondays students are released at 1:30 and 2:30 Tuesday through Friday. Kindergartners will remain in classroom until a parent or guardian either picks them up at the door or teacher is contacted by walkie to send your child to the pick up line. If you choose to come into the classroom please park in the Odyssey parking lot and do not disturb our neighbors! Please do not come into the classroom until after the dismissal bell rings.

P.E.:
Our class will participate in P.E. on Tuesdays and Fridays. Please make sure that your student wears the proper shoes for physical activities on this day.

Computers:
Our computer lab time is scheduled for Mondays.

Snack:
Your student should bring two healthy nutritious snacks every day (Mondays only one). Some suggestions are:
 fruit/veggies
 granola/granola bars
 yogurt w/spoon
 nuts
 ½ sandwich
 water is the best drink for young learners. We have filtered drinking water if your child brings a refillable bottle.

Lunch:
If your student gets hot lunch they are required to know if they are having “regular”, “veggie” or “entrée” so that the proper lunch can be ordered for them. Please have them check in each morning on our lunch check in chart. Snacks are not included.

October 14 news

Thu, 14 Oct 2010 15:45:30 GMT

Room A NewsOctober 14^th

Dear Families,

Camp Day was a lot of fun! We had a full day: sitting around the campfire drinking hot cocoa, going fishing, reading in tents with flashlights and popcorn, going on a bear hunt, identifying plants in the garden, painting plants with watercolors, finding fossils, listening to stories, and making trail mix. I thoroughly enjoyed not only watching how our classroom community is developing through such a fun experience, but working with you on Sunday afternoon. Thank you for all your hard work! Mykle took some amazing pictures, and I’m working on editing them and putting them on the website. Please check the website in the next few days to see how our day went!

We continued reading this week by learning how to read alone and in partners. We started writing stories in Writing Workshop (mostly through drawing). Camp Day was the theme of our first stories. We are working on sorting in math.

We started talking about names—we learned about Kaden, Maxine, and Axel. We made books for them—take a look in the library! Many of your children seem not to know the story yet of how they got their names, so please, please talk about it with them so they will have a story to share!

***Reading Buddies: We will begin reading buddies next Friday. Our reading buddies are the 7^th graders, who will come to our class for a half hour each Friday to read and do other activities with us. We will start reading buddies by hosting them for breakfast next Friday.

If you have not already, please go to www.SignUpGenius.com/go/reading46/400491 to sign up to bring something. Because we are having this breakfast next Friday (October 22^nd), your child does not need Snack #1 on that day.

The A Snowy Day books that were sent home last week are for you to keep. We participated in a program with the Altadena library that provided copies of the book for different classes provided they all read the story on the same day. We read the book in English and Spanish last Thursday.

We are hoping to start planting next week. We are planning to contribute to the fresh salad bar at lunch. Here are the seeds we would like to get:

Kale

Brussels sprouts

Cauliflower

Turnips

Radish

Parsnip

Turnip

Chard

Carrots

Beets

Radish

Kohlrabi

Cabbage

Rutabaga

Lettuce

Zoo-Phonics

We continued learning letters this week with R-Robbie Rabbit, S-Sammy Snake, T-Timothy Tiger, and U-Umber Umbrella bird. Ask your children to show you what each letter does and the sound it makes. We spent a lot of time discussing words that have those sounds in them, see if you can generate a list at home (look around your house and find words that have the sound Francine Fish makes, etc.).

Homework

Read-please read to/with or both for 20 minutes a day.
What can you sort at home? (ideas: shoes, clothing, food items, books, etc.)
Story prompt for parent: tell a story about a time you went camping or hiking.
Handwriting: I will send home a copy of the handwriting we did in class so you can see what we are working on. Please ensure that your child is starting at the top and working to write the numbers/letters properly. This is the only time in class I expect them to write on lines/correctly. Let me know if you have any questions about it!

If you have not already, please send your contact information to our room parents:

Melody Lumpkin
melodylumpkin@gmail.com
(501) 749-4434

Mykle Parker
sunflowerhottie@gmail.com
(626) 345-1713

Upcoming Events:

ILP meetings begin next week. Please check the door to be reminded of your time.
Family Math Night, October 20, 5-7 pm
Earthquake Drill, October 21
Reading Buddies begins, October 22
Minimum Days October 27-29, 12:00 dismissal
Reading and Writing Workshop meeting November 3, 6:30 pm

November 4, 2:45 pm (please choose one to attend)

Annual Campaign Update

We are up to 21%. Let’s get 100% participation from Room A!

Reminders

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 10:55:48 GMT

Picture Day is this Wednesday! Please have your child bring the order form if you would like pictures. There are extra forms in the office.
Our Kindergarten Picnic is this Sunday from 12-2. Please sign up for a dish if you have not already. Here is what the day will look like: We will eat together in the Community Hall, and then parents will go back to the classrooms to set up for Camp Day (while the students play in the yard with a few parents supervising). On Monday, there will be no morning reading so we can start our Camp Day experience right away (I will take pictures of their reaction to the room and post them on the website so you can see!). It is a really wonderful community building day for Room A! Please let me know if you have other questions.
Please say your good-byes before your child reaches the rug. I have videotaped myself for professional development reasons, and the last one caught our morning routine. It is taking a very long time for parents to say good-bye and is disrupting the flow of our day. Once the music starts, please put the book away with your child and say your good-byes. That way, your child can come to the rug ready to learn. Thank you for working with us!

For our camp day preparations, we need the following materials as soon as possible:
- 1 foot long ¼” dowels (24)
- Acorns, leaves, other small found objects
- 2 buckets of soil with a heave clay content

We will begin talking about names later this week. For this, each student needs to know the story of how he/she got his/her name. Please tell your child the story (a few times, hopefully, and have him/her repeat it back to you). You can also write it down in case he/she forgets.

Thank you!

Updated Wishlist

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 10:29:54 GMT

Wishlist

Emergent Books (new or used)

Caps for Sale
Little Red Riding Hood
Madeline
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
The 3 Little Pigs
3 Billy Goats Gruff
Clifford the Big Red Dog
Little Red Hen

Learning Tools

· 2 doz. Paper Mate Flair pens black ink

· Expo Dry Erase Low Odor Markers (Thin)

Play Items

· Puppet Theater

· Dress Up/Used Work Clothes (such as firemen, police, singing, gas station, chefs jacket, etc.)

· Restaurant Menus

· Soccer and Basketballs

· Outdoor lockable toy storage shed/trunk

Classroom

· Boxes of tissues

· Quart Sized Baggies

· Gallon sized Ziploc bags

· Plastic Utensils (for lunch!)

· Newspaper

Gift certificates to Staples, amazon.com, or Target are always welcome!

September 30 Newsletter

Thu, 30 Sep 2010 10:50:47 GMT

Room A NewsSeptember 29^th

Dear Families,

This week we learned more about our friends and our classroom. We learned what to do when the fire alarm goes off. We made books to show everyone what our class expectations look like (find them in the library and read them with your child!). We started exploring patterns by reading a book called “Pattern Fish”. We each got to share our favorite books and see how some of them are the same and some are different. Some have been very well-loved! Next week, we will start our first reading workshop unit of Emergent Storybooks (I’ll write more about it next week), but if you have any of the following books at home, now would be a great time to read them to get us ready for our Reading Workshop: Corduroy, A Snowy Day, Caps for Sale, Madeleine, Little Red Hen, Goldilocks and the 3 Bears, the 3 Little Pigs, Where the Wild Things Are 3 Billy Goats Gruff.

Meet Ms. Gloria!

My name is Gloria Rios. I enjoy working with kids and I have worked with different ages. I first stared volunteering at Hamilton Elementary where my kids attended school. I worked at Children’s Center at Caltch. Then, about 10 years ago, I stared working at OCS with the 4^th graders and I’ve been in different classes, with the K-1, the 2-3, the 1-2 and now with the K in Room A. All together I worked here 8years, and hope to have a wonderful year and a great experience.

The updated wishlist is on the website, and it includes a list of books we will need for our reading unit next week. We would love new OR used copies of these books.

Camp Day is coming up! We need your help collecting supplies for the day. Here are supplies we need as soon as possible.

***We need soil with a high clay content. Please let me know if you have some you can share (I need to know so I can plan a different activity if no one has any).

small seashells
small pieces of wood
small leaves
small and large rocks
nuts in shells
24 1' x 1/4" dowels

Please also check the classroom for a list of supplies needed the day of (or to bring the day of the Picnic). There is also a potluck sign-up in the classroom.

We are also hoping to start planting soon. We are planning to contribute to the fresh salad bar at lunch. Here are the seeds we would like to get:

Kale

Brussels sprouts

Cauliflower

Turnips

Radish

Parsnip

Turnip

Chard

Carrots

Beets

Radish

Kohlrabi

Cabbage

Rutabaga

Lettuce

Zoo-Phonics

We continued learning letters this week with (I) Inny Inchworm, J (Jerry Jellyfish), K, (Kayo Kangaroo), L (Larry Lizard). Ask your children to show you what each letter does and the sound it makes. We spent a lot of time discussing words that have those sounds in them, see if you can generate a list at home (look around your house and find words that have the sound Francine Fish makes, etc.).

Homework

Read-please read to/with or both for 20 minutes a day.
Environmental Print: Children do not realize how much they can already read, so to support this please help them to choose and bring in environmental print of words they already know—(cut out top of pizza box, cut out front of cereal box, clean favorite juice box, something with their favorite sports teams name or their team, and so many more—let them get creative!
Look for patterns at home. See if your child can find clothes that have patterns or dishes in the kitchen. What materials do you have at home that you could arrange into different patterns?
Story prompt for parent: tell a story about a reading memory.

Volunteering

I have a sign-up sheet to help wash dress-up clothes each month and clean the classroom on Friday afternoons. Please sign-up to help.

I also have these small jobs:

Putting books together
Labeling books
Sorting and labeling books for the library (in the classroom-maybe after school)

Upcoming Events:

Kindergarten Potluck Sunday, October 10th, 12-2 (Please check the sign-up in the classroom)
ILP meetings begin October 18. Please make sure you signed up for a time.
Family Math Night, October 20, 5 pm
Minimum Days October 27-29, 12:00 dismissal
Reading and Writing Workshop meeting November 3, 6:30 pm

November 4, 2:45 pm (please choose one)

*Please email your information to Mykle at sunflowerhottie@gmail.com if you have not already done so. This is for a parent list so you will be able to contact each other.

Annual Campaign Update

We are up to 21%. Let’s get 100% participation from Room A!

Ms. Gloria!!!

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 16:34:05 GMT

My name is Gloria Rios. I enjoy working with kids and I have worked with different kinds of ages. I first stared volunteering at Hamilton Elementary where my kids attended school. I worked at Children’s Center at Caltech. Then about 10 years ago I stared working at OCS with the 4^th graders and I’ve been in different classes, with the K-1, with the 2-3^rd also with 1-2 and now with the K in Room A. All together I worked here 8years, and hope to have a wonderful year and a great experience.

September 23 Newsletter

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 15:26:52 GMT

Room A NewsSeptember 23^rd

Dear Families,

We did a lot of community building. We narrowed down our class expectations to: Treat each other nicely, treat our stuff nicely, keep our bodies calm and safe (Can you tell the students came up with them?). We learned how to use the Peace Path. We got new fish and plants for our fish tank and we had 2 day old baby chicks visit our class. We worked on 4 shapes: circle, triangle, square, rectangle. Students are starting to get personal things (such as word study notebooks) to put in the personal mailboxes and learn how to use them.

The updated wishlist is on the website, and it includes a list of books we will need for our reading unit next month. We would love new OR used copies of these books. We also need a carpet roll (not a roll of carpet, but the cardboard inner tube the carpet comes on). If anyone is able to go to a carpet store to get one and bring it to class, that would be very helpful (it will be our tree trunk for a tree we’ll be decorating with leaves, etc. for Camp Day). We need it next week.

Zoo-Phonics

We continued learning letters this week with D (Deedie Deer), E (Ellie Elephant), F (Francine Fish), and G (Gordo Gorilla). Ask your children to show you what each letter does and the sound it makes. We spent a lot of time discussing words that have those sounds in them, see if you can generate a list at home (look around your house and find words that have the sound Francine Fish makes, etc.).

Homework

Read-please read to/with or both for 20 minutes a day.
Environmental Print: Children do not realize how much they can already read, so to support this please help them to choose and bring in environmental print of words they already know—(cut out top of pizza box, cut out front of cereal box, clean favorite juice box, something with their favorite sports teams name or their team, and so many more—let them get creative!
Story prompt for parent: tell a story about a time you went to the beach.
Go on a shape hunt at home: how many circles can you find? Triangles? Squares? Rectangles?
For Monday, please have your child bring in his/her favorite book. We will share these and keep them in a special bin in the classroom for a few weeks.

Toys, Stuffed Animals and Shares

Students should not bring any toys, stuffed animals, etc to school. We will begin Secret Share Days in October and I will send home dates and information about this at a later date.

Mondays

We only have a 1^st snack on Mondays due to the shortened day.

Volunteering

I have a sign-up sheet to help wash dress-up clothes each month and clean the classroom on Friday afternoons. Please sign-up to help.

Other take-home/before/after school projects I would love help with:

Sharpening pencils (there are a lot!)
Putting together handwriting toolboxes
Putting together writing toolboxes

Family Tree

We have a family tree in our classroom so that we can all feel the presence of our families throughout the year. Please give your child a picture of your family to put on our tree. It will be returned at the end ofthe year.

Upcoming Events:

Kindergarten Potluck Sunday, October 10th, 12-2
ILP meetings begin, October 18. Please make sure you signed up for a time.
Minimum Days October 27-29, 12:00 dismissal

September 16 News

Thu, 16 Sep 2010 17:17:06 GMT

Welcome to Room A!

Dear Families,

We had a busy week! We are working hard to learn each other’s names—you can see each child’s picture on our webpage to practice names. In math, students are learning how to use different materials, and we completed an apple graph of our favorite colored apples and a birthday graph. Make sure to check out the classroom to see some of the things we’ve done. We also talked about our hopes for the kindergarten year, and then we are creating our list of classroom expectations

Zoo-Phonics

We are beginning our year with letter/sound recognition using the Zoo-Phonics program. This is to help those who are learning their sounds and to review the letter/sounds for those who already have them down. It is fun and interactive. started learning our Zoo Phonics (we learned all the symbols, and are focusing on A (Allie Alligator), B (Bubba Bear), and C (Catina Cat) this week.

Homework

Read-please read to/with or both for 20 minutes a day.
Environmental Print: Children do not realize how much they can already read, so to support this please help them to choose and bring in environmental print of words they already know—(cut out top of pizza box, cut out front of cereal box, clean favorite juice box, something with their favorite sports teams name or their team, and so many more—let them get creative!
Story prompt for parent: tell your child something special about your elementary school experience.

Toys, Stuffed Animals and Shares

I am sending home all toys, stuffed animals and other items they had to share the first two weeks. We will begin Secret Share Days in October and I will send home dates and information about this at a later date.

Mondays

We only have a 1^st snack on Mondays due to the shortened day.

Volunteering

I am excited to learn that many of you want to volunteer in the classroom (and out of the classroom!), however, it may be a few more weeks before we are ready for classroom volunteers. You are welcome to join us for the beginning of the day. Each morning, students put their snacks and lunches away, answer the question of the day and lunch chart, and read a book. Please feel free to stay with them and help them get settled until we are ready to start our morning at 8:30. If you have any questions, please let me know.

I have a sign-up sheet to help wash dress-up clothes each month and clean the classroom on Friday afternoons. Please sign-up to help. I also have some cutting projects this week. Let me know if you’d like to help!

Family Tree

Upcoming Events:

Back to School Night Wednesday, September 22, 5pm
Kindergarten Potluck Sunday, October 10th, 12-2

September 9 Room A Newsletter

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 17:16:04 GMT

Welcome to Room A!

Dear Families,

Welcome to the 2010-2011 school year at Odyssey! Ms. Gloria and I are looking forward to an exciting year! Today we continued getting to know each other and our new school, and will be getting comfortable with each other and the routines of our classroom for the next few weeks of school. Your children are working hard at learning each other’s names and learning about the things in our classroom (such as how to hold scissors, cleaning up after Creative Workshop, and washing our hands).

Please check in with me to let me know how your child’s first week of school is going! You can contact me anytime by email at erinm@ocsmail.org (not erinw as I sent out before), stop by after school, or set up an appointment for before school. I look forward to working with you this year!

I will post each newsletter and information that goes out in email or in the packet on my page on the odyssey website, so please check it frequently for updates. I have also posted the class wishlist, so if you’d like to check what we still need, please check there.

Volunteering

I am excited to learn that many of you want to volunteer in the classroom (and out of the classroom!), however, it may be a few more weeks before we are ready for classroom volunteers. You are welcome to join us for the beginning of the day. Each morning, students put their things away, answer the question of the day and lunch chart, and read a book. Please feel free to stay with them and help them get settled until we are ready to start our morning at 8:30. If you have any questions, please let know.

I will have a sign-up sheet to help wash dress-up clothes each month and clean the classroom on Friday afternoons. Please sign-up to help. I also have some cutting projects this week. Let me know if you’d like to help!

I also need help taking down chairs each morning. Please take down a few chairs when you enter the classroom in the mornings.

We will have a KINDERGARTEN PICNIC for both kindergarten classes on Sunday, October 12th from 12:00-2:00. We will have a potluck lunch and then the yard and other activities for children, and some special work for parents/other family members. Please feel free to stop by for as much or as little time as you can. We will have a food sign-up when it gets closer.

Please fill out the attached surveys to help me learn about your child and share your volunteer preferences.

On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, we have PE with Mr. Denny. Please make sure your child comes to school dressed appropriately on these days.

Extra Clothes

If you have not already done so, please send an extra set of clothes for your child in case we get messy or have accidents.

Family Tree

Storytelling

We are working on oral storytelling in class, and will be telling each other lots of stories. We’ll also be meeting our class puppets--Penguino and Tembo. Storytelling is a great skill to practice at home (and students love hearing your stories).

If you did not pick up the handouts on the Parent Board in the classroom (on the front door), please do! Please bear with me as I learn your names, it may take me a few weeks to get them all down.

This will be the last hard copy newsletter. Please check on the survey if you would like to continue receiving a hard copy. Otherwise, I will send it through email and post it on our class page on the Odyssey website.

Please return the Thursday Envelope each Friday. Thank you for a great first week!

Wishlist

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 11:10:36 GMT

Wishlist

Emergent Books (new or used)

Caps for Sale
Little Red Riding Hood
Madeline
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
The 3 Little Pigs
3 Billy Goats Gruff
Clifford the Big Red Dog
Little Red Hen

Learning Tools

· 2 doz. Paper Mate Flair pens black ink

· Expo Dry Erase Low Odor Markers (Thin)

· Golf Pencils (box)

Play Items

· Shaving cream (for sensory play)

· Bean Bags or comfortable seats for library

· Puppet Theater

· Dress Up/Used Work Clothes (such as firemen, police, singing, gas station, chefs jacket, etc.)

· Restaurant Menus

· Soccer and Basketballs

· Outdoor lockable toy storage shed/trunk

Classroom

· Boxes of tissues

· Sponges (with scrubbing side)-5

· Gallon sized Ziploc bags

· Plastic Utensils (for lunch!)

· An inner carpet tube

Gift certificates to Staples, amazon.com, or Target are always welcome!

Wishlist

Emergent Books (new or used)

Caps for Sale
Little Red Riding Hood
Madeline
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
The 3 Little Pigs
3 Billy Goats Gruff
Clifford the Big Red Dog
Little Red Hen
Jack and the Beanstalk

Learning Tools

· 2 doz. Paper Mate Flair pens black ink

· Expo Dry Erase Low Odor Markers (Thin)

· Golf Pencils (box)

· Erasers

· Teaching Clock from Really Good Stuff (online store)

· Hi-Ho Cherrio game

· Xacto Pencil Sharpener (that can be bolted to a table)

Play Items

· Shaving cream

· Bean Bags or comfortable seats for library

· Puppet Theater

· Dress Up/Used Work Clothes (such as firemen, police, singing, gas station, chefs jacket, etc.)

· Restaurant Menus

· Soccer and Basketballs

· Hula Hoops

· Outdoor lockable toy storage shed/trunk

Classroom

· Boxes of tissues

· Sponges (with scrubbing side)-5

· Gallon sized Ziploc bags

· Plastic Utensils (for lunch!)

· An inner carpet tube

Gift certificates to Staples, amazon.com, or Target are always welcome!

Drop Off/Pick Up Routines

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 12:02:52 GMT

I open my doors @ 8:10. Students and Parents enter through the back door.

Morning Routine: 1st Week

Put snacks in snack box: make sure snacks are labeled with child’s name (you can put it on tape for tupperware)
If your child gets hot lunch, please help your child answer the lunch question daily!!! This is new and I am still working out how it will look, so bare with me if it changes.
Put lunches, etc. in cubby (except 1st day)
Each day the first week there will be an art project to do with your child. Check front board for directions.
Read with your child.
I will give a 5 min. warning @ 8:40. Please begin to wrap up your books and say your goodbyes. (If your child is having difficulty separating from you please let me know and I will support them but I find it is better if parent does not linger)

This week I expect parents to be modeling and teaching your child to do these routines independently.

You may also drop your child off after 7:45, as there will be playground supervision then. If you need to drop them off earlier, please contact the office regarding morning care.

***If you are late you must stop at the office and pick up a tardy slip--anyone coming in after the 8:15 bell will be sent back to the office for a slip. PLEASE get your child to school on time—it is very disruptive to their morning routine and that of the whole class.

Pick Up Procedure

Kindergartners stay in the classroom for pick up.

If you want to come to the classroom to pick up your child, please park in the Odyssey parking lot. When the bell rings at 2:30, you are welcome to come into the room to greet your child.

If you pick your child up at the front of the school in the pick up line, the staff members will ask your child’s name and call me to send your child to the front.

If you would like to have the older sibling pick up your K child let both teachers know and I will release into their care.

After School Programs/ Playdates/Friend-Relative

Please email me with alternative pick up plans.

April 15, 2010 News!

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 16:37:20 GMT

Room A Newsletter!

April 15, 2010

Dear Families,

I am so happy to be back. I certainly miss my little one, but I missed your little ones a whole lot and am excited to have a trimester of fun and learning. We will have a busy trimester getting ready for first grade!

We started the week with talking about different combinations through boxes of apples (what are all the different combinations of red and green apples you could have in a box of 5 or 10 apples?). We have also begun counting by 5s.

I’ve been conferencing with each reader and am amazed at how much progress they have made! If you notice your child needs a conference with me (i.e. the books they are taking home are too hard or too easy), please let me know!

We are talking about characters, settings, and beginning, middle, and end in our fiction stories. This week has been spent telling stories orally with these elements.

Our classroom is also host to hatching caterpillars and praying mantis’! We are so excited to watch how they grow and change in the classroom.

**Please sign up to help wash towels and/or clean the classroom on Fridays.
Upcoming events:

Earth Day, Thursday, April 22, 8:30-2:00 (please check your email for information on how you can volunteer/help)! It promises to be a very fun day!
OPPG Dance Away, Friday, April 23, 6-8:30 pm

Charity Marketplace

Charity Marketplace is coming up in June! For this wonderful event, each class makes a product (or products) and sells them. The profits go to various charities. If any of you have ideas of things to make with the children (last year, parent volunteers came in to make clay-covered pens with the class), please let me know!

Wish List:

· rolls of tape

· staplers

· Outdoor toys for students to play with during recess, including sand toys, balls, hula hoops, speed boats.

Thursday newsletter, December 17

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:30:48 GMT

Room A Newsletter!

December 17, 2009

Dear Families,

Can you believe it is already Winter Break? I cannot believe the first trimester is over, and I will be leaving on my maternity leave. It has been an amazing trimester—as I know you have seen, all of your children have made growth in all areas: socially, emotionally, in reading, in writing, and in math. You will see more growth during the next trimester—especially in their reading and writing! Mollie will be teaching a lot of great units including how readers think and talk about books, a how-to and a fiction writing unit. She will continue to teach about space and the planets in science, and will be building more on number sense and working with bigger numbers.

We celebrated the end of our reading and writing units. Last Friday, we read our published stories to our 8^th grade reading buddies, and then our buddies toasted to us. Ask your child what his/her buddy said (they were very thoughtful toasts!). On Tuesday, each child read aloud a just right book to 10 classmates. They were so proud to share their learning, and were eager to give each other toasts in celebration. I am very proud of how they are able to reflect on what they have learned and give each other compliments!

Over the vacation, please make sure your child is reading every day, whether that is alone, reading to an adult, sibling, or friend, or being read to by an adult, sibling, or friend. You can also refer to the December calendar or the supplementary homework sheet I previously sent home.

Other ideas to continue learning over the vacation:

keeping a journal. Have your child write/draw about something that happens each day over break.
look at the night sky and talk about the stars and moon. You can also keep a daily weather graph.
count, sort, make patterns. Math can be integrated into almost any activity (let’s count the ornaments, how many more days until 2010, looking at the calendar, etc.).

**Please sign up to help wash towels and/or clean the classroom on Fridays. Even though I will not be here after break, the sign up is for the following trimester. There are more slots on the back! Let’s make it as easy as possible for Mollie!

Upcoming events:

· Walking Trip to Loma Alta Park, tomorrow: December 18^th from 11:45-2:15, I’m anticipating I might have to drive (this baby is getting heavy!), so it would be extremely helpful if we could have volunteers to walk with the class! Family is welcome to eat lunch with us and enjoy the last afternoon before holiday vacation! We’ll also have a small holiday celebration, so if you’d like to bring a small treat or game to play, we’d love it!

· Winter Vacation December 19-January 10

Thank you:

To everyone who has taken wash home this trimester: Albert’s family, Ocean’s family, Peyton’s family, Finn’s family, Candace’s family, Austin’s family, Charlotte’s family, Marisol’s family, Logan’s family, and Matthew’s family!

To everyone who has come in on Fridays to clean the classroom: Chris, Karla and Edward, RJ, Julie U, Julie J, Sun, Toni, Heather, Zarina, Tracie, Ellen, and Adriana!

To everyone who has volunteered in the classroom: Christa, Ellen, Zarina, Ilse, Susie, Cari, Sun (cleaning Scooter’s tank!), Heather (we love music!), Susan (we love movement!), and all the parents who were here on Camp Day!

To everyone who has done work at home for the classroom: Taffany, Zarina, Ellen, Susie, Sun, Cari, and Julie U.

--You have made this a smooth, fun trimester for the students and for me!

Thank you also for getting your children to school on time, making sure they have healthy snacks, reading take home books with them, and being such supportive, wonderful parents! It truly shines through in our classroom community!

Report Cards should arrive over the vacation. For the first trimester, most students are still developing concepts, so you should expect to see a lot of 1s on the report card. Also, many parts of this report card do not apply to kindergarten, so they will be intentionally left blank. If you have any questions, please let me know!

Wish List:

· Gift Certificates to PetCo would be greatly appreciated for Scooter’s tank!

· Outdoor toys for students to play with during recess, including sand toys, balls, hula hoops, etc.

Ways to Help OCS

If you have not already, please give to the ANNUAL CAMPAIGN. We are very fortunate to have great programs still at Odyssey (Computers, PE), but we will not be able to have them next year without your support. Thank you for being great supporters of our Odyssey community!

One Cause – www.onecause.com

The OneCause community is managed by CauseLoyalty, a wholly owned subsidiary of RakutenUSA, Inc. Since being founded in 1999, OneCause has provided simple ways to turn thousands of consumers' everyday purchases into much-needed contributions totaling over $200 million to more than 30,000 causes and schools nationwide.

When you start your everyday shopping at OneCause.com, you will contribute up to 20% of every eligible purchase to your chosen cause or school, at no extra cost to you! Simply shop online at hundreds of well-known merchants, save money with valuable Coupons & Deals and earn contributions on every eligible purchase.

eScrip - http://www.escrip.com/

Electronic Scrip Incorporated (ESI) is a California-based corporation dedicated to establishing relationships between commerce and community -- to provide resources to organizations and projects that support children.

	•	You register any one or all of your existing grocery loyalty, debit and credit cards for use in the program.
	•	Participating merchants will make contributions to your chosen group, based on purchases made by you, just by using the cards you have registered.
	•	Your purchases are tracked and available to you online, allowing you to see just how much you are earning on your child's behalf!

Happy Holidays!

Thursday newsletter, December 10

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:09:20 GMT

Room A Newsletter!

December 10, 2009

Dear Families,

Time is going so quickly! The first trimester is almost over! We have hired a new TA for the classroom—Ms. Natasha. She is here this week and will be here next Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Natasha has a lot of experience working with young children, and we are very happy to have her in the classroom. Please introduce yourself if you see her!

We’ve continued reading our just right books (hopefully, your child is enjoying bringing it home each day!). Students have learned a lot of tools for reading just right books, and we’ll be celebrating their work next week.

Tomorrow, we’ll be celebrating our published writing with our reading buddies. Students picked their favorite piece of writing and we spent the week making it ready for the world! We talked about adding details to the drawings, adding words, and making sure our word wall words are spelled correctly. Students will read them to their buddies and then we’ll give our published writers a toast with juice! We will put these on display in the classroom: stay tuned!

In science, made paper miche planets and today, they painted them. Ask your child if he/she can remember the planet he/she worked on!

Books in the Thursday packet: Your child should have a printed book in his/her Thursday packet this week (if not, it will be there next week). Each week, I meet with students in groups to introduce new concepts at a book that is slightly above his/her just right level. We read the book together, and then they get to take it home to read and practice. These books (and optional worksheets) are for you to keep at home. Let me know if you have any questions about it!

**Next week (December 14-18) will be spent talking about holidays. I would love to incorporate your family traditions! If you would like to come in at any time during that week to share a cooking, art, or other cultural activity with the class, we’d love to have you! Please let me know!

Upcoming events:

· Walking Trip to Loma Alta Park, December 18^th from 11:45-2:15, I’m anticipating I might have to drive (this baby is getting heavy!), so it would be extremely helpful if we could have volunteers to walk with the class! Family is welcome to eat lunch with us and enjoy the last afternoon before holiday vacation!

· Winter Vacation December 19-January 10

Thank you:

To everyone who has come in on Fridays to clean the classroom: Chris, Karla and Edward, RJ, Julie U, Julie J, Sun, Toni, Heather, Zarina, Tracie, Ellen, and Adriana!

To everyone who has done work at home for the classroom: Taffany, Zarina, Ellen, Susie, Sun, Cari, and Julie U.

--You have made this a smooth, fun trimester for the students and for me!

Wish List:

· White chalk

Staplers!!

· Gift Certificates to PetCo would be greatly appreciated for Scooter’s tank!

· Outdoor toys for students to play with during recess, including sand toys, balls, hula hoops, etc.

· Black Flair Pens

Ways to Help OCS

If you have not already, please give to the ANNUAL CAMPAIGN. We are very fortunate to have great programs still at Odyssey (Computers, PE), but we will not be able to have them next year without your support. Thank you for being great supporters of our Odyssey community!

One Cause – www.onecause.com

eScrip - http://www.escrip.com/

	•	You register any one or all of your existing grocery loyalty, debit and credit cards for use in the program.
	•	Participating merchants will make contributions to your chosen group, based on purchases made by you, just by using the cards you have registered.
	•	Your purchases are tracked and available to you online, allowing you to see just how much you are earning on your child's behalf!

Thursday newsletter, December 3

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 10:31:55 GMT

Room A Newsletter!

December 3, 2009

Dear Families,

Time is going so quickly! The first trimester is almost over! We have three weeks before winter break—three weeks before I go on maternity leave! Your students have made so much progress, I know I will be amazed when I return in April! Mollie and I have been preparing for her to take over the class, and Lauren is working on hiring a temporary TA for Mollie from January to April. If you have any questions about any of this, let me know!

We’ve continued reading our just right books (hopefully, your child is enjoying bringing it home each day!). Students are learning new strategies for figuring out tricky words, such as using the picture, looking at the first letter of the tricky word and using the picture, and remembering the title because those words are usually in the pattern.

In science, we’ll begin talking more in depth about space and the planets. We will be making paper miche plants and students will be responsible for learning about one planet.

**Please sign up to help wash towels and/or clean the classroom on Fridays. Even though I will not be here after break, the sign up is for the following trimester. Let’s make it as easy as possible for Mollie!

** We have been collecting recycling, only to find out that our trash company no longer picks up paper recycling. Does anyone have the capacity to take it home to be recycled?? Thank you!

**The week before vacation (December 14-18) will be spent talking about holidays. I would love to incorporate your family traditions! If you would like to come in at any time during that week to share a cooking, art, or other cultural activity with the class, we’d love to have you! Please let me know!

Upcoming events:

· Scholastic Book Orders Due BY Tuesday, December 1 so they will arrive in time for the holidays. If you put in an order online, please let me know so I can make sure it goes through!

· Saturday, December 5^th Pancake Breakfast, Rummage Sale, and Book Fair!

· Walking Trip to Loma Alta Park, December 18^th from 11:30-2:30, I’m anticipating I might have to drive (this baby is getting heavy!), so it would be extremely helpful if we could have volunteers to walk with the class!

· Winter Vacation December 19-January 10

Wish List:

· Staplers!!

· Gift Certificates to PetCo would be greatly appreciated for Scooter’s tank!

· Outdoor toys for students to play with during recess, including sand toys, balls, hula hoops, etc.

· Black Flair Pens

Ways to Help OCS

If you have not already, please give to the ANNUAL CAMPAIGN. We are very fortunate to have great programs still at Odyssey (Computers, PE), but we will not be able to have them next year without your support. Thank you for being great supporters of our Odyssey community!

One Cause – www.onecause.com

eScrip - http://www.escrip.com/

	•	You register any one or all of your existing grocery loyalty, debit and credit cards for use in the program.
	•	Participating merchants will make contributions to your chosen group, based on purchases made by you, just by using the cards you have registered.
	•	Your purchases are tracked and available to you online, allowing you to see just how much you are earning on your child's behalf!

Thursday newsletter, November 19

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:10:35 GMT

Room A Newsletter!

November 19, 2009

Dear Families,

Writers are learning about having consistency in their writing. Writers are adding lots of details to both the pictures and the words!

In math, we are still developing our number sense by learning new counting and more/less games, making number lines, and working with the number grid. Your child should be bringing home a number grid they are working on (they were not expected to be able to complete it all in class!). Please continue counting at home!

In science, we’ll begin talking more in depth about space and the planets. We will be making paper miche plants and students will be responsible for learning about one planet.

Upcoming events:

· Stone Soup Day, Tuesday, November 24^th. If you’d like to volunteer in the classroom that day (from 8-11), please email one of our room parents. We will need 2-3 volunteers. Your child has chosen a vegetable to bring in on Tuesday. Please check the Thursday packet for which vegetable or broth you are responsible for. If you cannot bring that, please let me know!

*Though it is not a short day, if you come for lunch and you do not want/cannot come back to school to pick up your child at the end of the day, you may sign your child out at the office to go home early.

· NO School Wednesday-Friday, November 25-27 in observance of Thanksgiving.

· Scholastic Book Orders Due BY Tuesday, December 1 so they will arrive in time for the holidays.

Wish List:

· Staplers!!

· Gift Certificates to PetCo would be greatly appreciated for Scooter’s tank!

· Outdoor toys for students to play with during recess, including sand toys, balls, hula hoops, etc.

· Black Flair Pens

Ways to Help OCS

One Cause – www.onecause.com

eScrip - http://www.escrip.com/

Thursday Newsletter, November 12

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:14:53 GMT

Room A Newsletter!

November 12, 2009

Dear Families,

I hope you are having fun with your child’s take home books. They were very excited to bring them home and share them with you. If you need another copy of the reading prompts to use, I posted it on the class blog. Also, if you have any noticings about your child as a reader, let me know! I love to hear about successes or challenges at home. Thank you for helping ensure these books come back to school each day!

In writing, writers learned how to be brave spellers. They are writing very detailed stories! Some have moved to writing 3 part stories in booklets. They might want some pages at home to write stories!

In science, we’ll begin talking more in depth about space and the planets. Today we did another experiment about UV rays. We had special paper, and noticed what the sun did to it. We put sun block on half of it, and put objects on both sides and watched which side got darker.

Math- We began our unit on number sense. This is a 3 month unit and a very important one! Number sense is the base for all number operations and is “intuitive” sense of numbers, their value, and how to make educated guesses.

Math Homework: label containers or egg cartons with #s from 0-10 have child count the number of object (beans work well) to match the corresponding number. If they complete this task with ease, repeat the game using numbers from 10-20, if they completed the task but it took some thought and time, use the #’s 0-10 again using different objects. Do not push them higher if they need more practice with 1-10; we will have lots of time to build on this.

Upcoming events:

· Walking trip to the Altadena Library on Lincoln, Tuesday, November 17^th. We will leave after recess (10:10) and return by lunch (11:45). If anyone wants to join us, please let me know!

· Stone Soup Day, Tuesday, November 24^th. If you’d like to volunteer in the classroom that day (from 8-11), please email one of our room parents. We will need 2-3 volunteers.

· NO School Wednesday-Friday, November 25-27 in observance of Thanksgiving.

Wish List:

· Gift Certificates to PetCo would be greatly appreciated for Scooter’s tank!

· Outdoor toys for students to play with during recess, including sand toys, balls, hula hoops, etc.

· Black Flair Pens

Ways to support reading at home

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:56:18 GMT

One of our most important jobs this year is to instill a love of books and reading in our kindergarteners. At school, this comes largely during Reading Workshop, which is made up of a mini-lesson (a 5-10 minute lesson that teaches one reading strategy or skill). After the mini-lesson, students have time to read independently and then in partners, During this time, we meet with them individually and in small groups to reinforce skills and teach new reading strategies. At home, this is when your child is reading his/her take home book and when you are reading other books to your child (combined reading should be at least 20 minutes a night). This is a time for them to reinforce what they learned at school, ask questions, talk about books, and just enjoy listening to them. Your child will bring home a just right book (a book he/she can read independently) each night, and is expected to read it each night. One of the ways we help young readers love independent reading is by helping them feel successful. When students ask us what a word is that they are having trouble with, instead of us being the reader and reading the word for them, we ask questions and use prompts to empower them to be the readers.

All our readers are reading at levels A, B, and C. Characteristics of these books are:

A/B: Books are dependent on patterns. Students are expected to carry a pattern from one page to another, use picture cues, point under each word as they read (from left to right).

*At this level, it is important that students are saying the same amount of words as printed on the page, rather than ensuring they are saying the correct words.

If students need support at this level, you can prompt your child:

· Point to the words with your finger.

· Did you have enough words (or too many)?

· Does the book have a pattern? (you might need to help them figure out the pattern in the book)

· Read the title of the book. What do you think this book will be about?

· Use the picture to help you.

· Does that make sense?

· Does it sound right?

C: Books are still dependent on patterns. Students are expected to carry a pattern from one page to another, use knowledge of sight words and letter sounds to read the words.

If students need support at this level you can use these prompts:

Point to the words with your finger.
Did you have enough words (or too many)?
Does the book have a pattern? (you might need to help them figure out the pattern in the book)
Read the title of the book. What do you think this book will be about?
Use the picture to help you.
Look at the first letter of the word. Do you see anything in the picture that starts with that sound?
Do you know that word? Look at the word wall and see if you can find it.

D: Level D books still frequently have a pattern, but the pattern may be a two page pattern, or it may change a few times in the story. Students are expected to use knowledge of sight words, beginning and ending sounds in words

If students need support at this level, you can use these prompts:

Did that make sense? Try again to find a word that would make sense in that sentence.
Look at the sound at the end of the word. What is it? Do you know any words that end that way? (This might be after a prompt pointing out the beginning sound)
Did that sound right? Did it look right?
Which was the tricky word? What strategies or tools can you use to help you figure it out?
You made a mistake. Can you find it?
(to support self correction) You are almost right. Try that again.
(to support fluency) Put your words together so it sounds like talking.
(to support making predictions) What do you think will happen next? Was your prediction right? What did happen?

Thursday Newsletter, October 29

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:39:16 GMT

Room A Newsletter!

October 29, 2009

Dear Families,

This was a fun week of pumpkins and parks! On Monday, we ordered our pumpkins from smallest to biggest. On Tuesday, we counted the seeds in our pumpkins and found that three of them had the same amount of seeds! Today, we cut a pumpkin and started cooking it so we can use it tomorrow to make pumpkin muffins.

We walked to Loma Alta Park on Tuesday with Ms. Denise’s class. It was great to have time with just kindergarteners, and they have a wonderful playground to work on gross motor skills!

We spent the week talking and experimenting with ordering. There are lots of things to order at home in different ways: biggest to smallest, tallest to shortest, darkest to lightest, etc.

We also spent our last week reading emergent storybooks. Next week we will go book shopping and get books that are just right. Learn about this process at our meeting on Thursday! Writers are working on adding words to their writing. We will also talk about this at the meeting next week.

**Please note: we do not celebrate Halloween at school. Please save costumes for your at home celebrations. Have fun!

Upcoming events:

· ILP meetings will be held the week of October 26^th. Please sign up for a 30 minutes slot if you have not already done so. Hopefully you have received my email reminder of your time. Please let me know if you haven’t. Thank you! **There is a reminder of your time in the Thursday packet. Please check and make sure I have the correct time!

· Scholastic Book Orders due tomorrow, October 30^th. If you would like book recommendations, please let me know!

· ***Meeting to discuss the Reading and Writing Curriculum: Thursday, November 5^th at 3 pm.

· NO School Wednesday, November 11^th in observance of Veteran’s Day.

· Stone Soup Day, Tuesday, November 24^th.

· NO School Wednesday-Friday, November 25-27 in observance of Thanksgiving.

Wish List: There is one more ongoing thing we will need for Scooter’s tank, so if you are at a pet store or shopping on Amazon, please pick one up for us. We will need to change the filter once a month, and they cost $4-$6 each. They are called: Rite-Size Bonded Filter Sleeves for Magnum Models 220 and 350 (they are made of blue floss). We also need a gravel vacuum to clean out his tank and change the water every few weeks, but these cost a bit more. If you are interested in helping us with this, I can purchase it at PetCo if you’d like to get a gift card. Thank you!

Attendance Policy

Our school budget is based on attendance, which means each time your child is absent, Odyssey looses $43 from our budget. Please try to schedule vacations around our school vacation, but if you must (I know family trips can be extremely educational and invaluable), you are more than welcome to donate to the annual campaign! Thank you for your understanding!

Thursday Newsletter, October 22

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:30:16 GMT

Room A Newsletter!

October 22, 2009

Dear Families,

We started Computer class this week! Mr. Lee taught us the rules of the computer lab and how to play a game called Reading Rabbit. Room A picked up the computer skills very quickly!

This week, in math, we have been doing lots of graphing—we graphed our favorite pets, counting bears, etc. Next week, we will be doing different counting, grouping, ordering, and graphing activities with pumpkins. If you have one to donate (any size), please bring it in!

In reading, we got reading partners and are learning how reading partners can read together.

In writing, we are spending the week talking about drawing—no more stick figures or hands coming out of faces! We learned that we can use ovals to make a person—ask your child to show you at home how he/she uses ovals to make the shape of a person, and then adds clothing to the person!

We will start a gardening project tomorrow with Mette’s mom, Ilse—if you have seeds to donate, please bring them in. We have also started talking about space. Owen’s mom, Ellen came to teach a lesson on sound cones and how putting the cone to your ear can help you hear things from far away, or very quiet voice. I hope you were able to test them at home! We talked about satellites and how they work like the sound cone.

Upcoming events:

· On Tuesday, kindergarten will be walking to Loma Alta Park for lunch and play time. If you’d like to join us for the walk or for the afternoon, we’ll be leaving school at 11:45.

· Scholastic Book Orders due October 30^th. If you would like book recommendations, please let me know!

· Meeting to discuss the Reading and Writing Curriculum: November 5^th at 3 pm.

· NO School Wednesday, November 11^th in observance of Veteran’s Day.

Attendance Policy

Word Wall

Each week, your child will bring home a word wall in their Thursday packet. This word wall has the words on it that we have practiced all week. These are high frequency sight words (meaning they are words the students should know by sight because they are frequently used in their books and in their writing). I expect them to be practicing them at home. Though I don’t expect them to be able to spell all the words, they should be able to read them. When they are doing any writing, these words should be spelled correctly because they can use the word wall to write them. Here are some ways you can study these words at home:

Clap them out.
Look for the words in books, on signs, or any other text.
Write a story using these words.
Find the words in their just right books.
Draw a picture and label it using the words.
Play a word hunt with the words (put your finger on the word the)
Use these words to practice letter sounds and patterns (for example, what sound does me start with? What are some words that rhyme with me? Write them down)

· Bean Bag Toss

Materials: One shower curtain liner divided into 20 squares
          Bean Bag
          Words on large cards with small numbers on the corner of each card.
Attach the words to the shower curtain with tape or rubber cement before the game is to be played. Divide the class into 2 teams. Each team will take turns throwing the bean bag to a square. If the student can read the word the bean bag lands on, the team gets the number of points on the card. If the student misses the word, the other team gets the chance to say it. The team with the most points wins the game.
        Some alternative games using a shower curtain:

For the beginning of the year or for kindergarten: Write the letters of the alphabet onto cards. The children identify the letter name or the sound(s) that letter makes.
Make index cards for upper and lower case letters. Give the students the lower case cards to match to the upper case liner. Give the other students upper case cards to match to the lower case liner. For variation -- they can choose the card from a pile and then attempt to toss the bean bag onto the matching box.
Students can toss the bean bag onto the liner. They must then name a word that begins with the sound of the letter it landed on.
Students pick up a picture card. they must then try to toss the bean bag onto the square that contains the letter that matches the beginning sound of the picture on the card.

Tic-Tac-Toe

Each player picks X's or O's. Write sight words in the tic-tac-toe spaces. Each player take turns coming up and selecting a space to read. If the child reads the word correctly, he or she may put up an X or O.

Sight Word Money

This is a fun way to integrate language arts with money recognition. Divide the children into two teams. Have play money available in the following values: pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters and dollars. (I usually start with just 3 amounts) Each money denomination represents a sight word activity with an increasing degree of difficulty. For example: for a penny the child reads the word, for a nickel the child reads the word and acts it out, for a dime the child reads the word and tells its meaning and so on. The first child tells how much money he is playing for. If he answers the question correctly, his team gets the money. If the answer is incorrect, you go back from team to team until it is answered correctly, and that team will get the money. The team with the most money at the end wins.

Vowel Hopscotch

Use chalk to make a hopscotch board outdoors. Write the vowel sounds in the squares. Students toss a bean bag onto the gameboard. They have to hop to the bean bag, say the vowel and the sound, short and/or long. If they say it correctly, they may pick up the bean bag and continue. If the answer is mpt correct, they leave it there for the next child.

ABC order

This idea, posted by one of the teachers on the teachers.net webring has proven to be very valuable in helping children understand ABC order. It is both visual and kinesthetic, which really enhances learning.
Take a blank sentence strip. Place an ABC desktape on one side and a 1-20 desktape on the other side and aminated. When working on ABC order the students are given an ABC strip and big paperclips (a later option here would be numbered clothespins). They look at their words and put a paperclip (or clothepin) over the letter that each one begins with. Then they can look at the strip and see which letter comes first, second, and third.
When working with a larger number of words, write the words on 3x5 index cards and place them in the pocketchart with one of the ABC strips at the top. The students can then physically move the cards in the pockets vertically until they get them in the correct order. Then they copy them down onto their paper. By letting them move them around in the pocketchart first, they can more clearly visualize what they are copying down.

More Game Ideas

Make up 1 or more game boards or use board from old games picked up at yard sales; use your own creativity. It would be helpful to make some game boards with fewer spaces and some with more.
The students roll the dice to see who will go first. Student with the highest number rolls the dice. The teacher says a word that the student should try to spell. If the student spells the word correctly, he or she may move the number of spaces indicated on the dice. If the student spells the word incorrectly, the teacher shows it to the student for a few seconds, then hides it. The student attempts to spell the word again. Usually the student gets the word the second time around. While the next student is rolling the dice, the student who has just finished his/her turn will be writing down the word he/she just spelled.
Some extensions for this game might include any of the following:

· Have the students write each word on their list three times

· Have the students "rainbow write" the words on their list.

· write sentences with the words on their list, and/or add the words to their spelling notebook.

Model the correct formation of the letters and have your child trace the word in salt, sand, gel, fingerpaint, pudding,or shaving cream .

Model the correct formation of the letters and have your child print the word with a paintbrush, marker, crayon, chalk, q-tip, magic slate, pencil, or pen.

Purchase magnetic letters to place on the refrigerator or cookie sheets and have your child put the letters in the right order to spell the word.

Cut out the letters in the word from a magazine or newspaper.

Use playdoh to roll out and make the letters in the word or a toothpick to write the word on the playdoh.

Talk about the shapes of the letters in the word and take a marker and draw around the word to display a visual connection. Play matching games, same or different, or word bingo.

Take your finger and trace the letters of the word on the palm of the hand or on your child's back.

Show or print 1 letter at a time until the child guesses the word.

Alphabet Stamps are a practical investment for having fun with making words. Store stamps in ice cube trays.

Eating words can be a delicious way to reinforce words using vegetables, pretzels, potato sticks, and candy to form the letters in the word.

Decorate cupcakes, cakes or cookies using frosting tubes to print words. Squeeze mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise, or jelly letters to spell words out of containers to enhance your food. If your not hungry place inside a ziploc bag and practice printing words on the outside of the bag.

Try Alphabits Cereal for breakfast and find the letters to spell the word..

Alphabet Soup letters are fun to discover with a magnifying glass to find the letters in the word.

Alphabet tiles or cubes can be great assets to create interest and play games that strengthen spelling words.

Reading with your child and pointing out a word is a very natural way to teach the word recognition.

Find a flashlight and let your child find the word in magazines, books, or the newspaper. Have your child color code or highlight the word in yellow.

Make puzzles out of words by printing the word, taking a marker and forming lines or shapes to cut so that your child can fit the word back together.

Art projects can reinforce word recognition by making words out of pipe cleaners, buttons, sequence, glitter, macaroni, yarn, ribbon, lace, stickers, materials, or anything that you have available.

When you are at the supermarket have your child help you find the groceries by using words. Logos and environmental print that surround your child adds to the learning environment.

Rhythm, chanting, poems, and clapping can help children learn words accompanied by music or visual associations.

A typewriter or keyboard are interesting techniques for assisting your child to learn words.

Word Wall

A and	B	C	D	E
F	G	H	I is	J
K	L	M	N	O
P	Q	R	S	T the
U	V	W	X	Y Z

Name Word Wall

A Albert Austin	B	C Candace Charlotte	D	E Ella
F Finn	G Gloria Griffin	H Hannah	I	J Jesse Joseph
K	L Logan	M Maddie Marisol Mason Matthew Mellissa Mette Ms. Erin Ms. Mollie	N	O Ocean Owen
P Peyton	Q Quincy	R	S	T
U	V	W	X	Y Z

Room A Newsletter, October 15

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:44:45 GMT

Room A Newsletter!

October 15, 2009

Dear Families,

Camp Day was so much fun! I hope you were able to see the pictures on our class blog! It was definitely a team-building day, but we also learned a lot. Here are some of the things students said they learned:

-how to make S’mores

-how to make butterflies, bears, bats, leaves, and fairy houses.

-what is a crescent moon

-bats are nocturnal (and nocturnal means an animal sleeps in the day and is awake at night).

-some people learned how to go camping.

Thank you also for coming on Sunday. It was wonderful spending time together and eating delicious food. I had a lot of fun watching you put up tents, curtains, and come up with different ideas for our day (the kids loved the cave and the bear prints!). We will have more potlucks/work days in the future!

This week, we’ve started writing stories in our drawing and writing books in Writing Workshop. Your children have so many stories to share! In math, we have moved on to sorting. This is an easy concept to apply at home (sort laundry, sort vegetables, sort books). You can also talk about why you sort something a certain way (we sort laundry by color, we might sort books by size, etc.). In reading, we are learning how to take care of books. We are also learning how to tell a story by connecting one page to the next and using storyteller words, such as once upon a time, then, next, etc.

Learning at home: I’ve emailed a sheet of activity ideas for you and your child (or child and grandparent, friend, sibling, etc.) to extend learning to the house. These are fun activities that will help your child apply what he/she is learning in school, as well and work on important kindergarten skills, such as fine motor skills and phonemic awareness (letters and sounds). Let me know if you have any questions about it or could not access it by email.

Wish List: There is one more ongoing thing we will need for Scooter’s tank, so if you are at a pet store or shopping on Amazon, please pick one up for us. We will need to change the filter once a month, and they cost under $4 each. They are called: Rite-Size Bonded Filter Sleeves for Magnum Models 220 and 350 (they are made of blue floss). We also need a gravel vacuum to clean out his tank and change the water every few weeks, but these cost a bit more. If you are interested in helping us with this, I can purchase it at PetCo if you’d like to get a gift card. Thank you!

Upcoming events:

· Scholastic Book Orders due October 30^th. They are in your Thursday backpack If you have any questions about it

· Meeting to discuss the Reading and Writing Curriculum: November 5^th at 3 pm.

· NO School Wednesday, November 11^th in observance of Veteran’s Day.

Attendance Policy

Our Camp Day Schedule

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:42:10 GMT

***Please note, Camp Day is a day for our classroom community, so that means from the beginning of the day, it will just be students and teachers. Thank you!

Camp Day Schedule

Monday, October 12, 2009

8:15 – 8:30 am Kid drop-off. Students come inside, drink hot cocoa and talk about our day. (Pine scent)

8:30 – 9:00 am Make rain; going on a bear hunt

10:00 – 11:45 Mitch the fish

Read in tents for 30 minutes; popcorn “flashlights”

Tell Camp stories

Groups:

· Go fish

· Fishing

· Touch feely 5 senses box : pine cones, fake fur, pine needles,

12:30pm Quiet time in tents

S’mores – whole group outside

KWL chart

1:30 Dismissal

Room A Newsletter, October 8

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:08:19 GMT

Room A Newsletter!

October 8, 2009

Dear Families,

We are busy getting ready for camp day! Today we made fire, stars and moons, nocturnal animals, and a tree. We are very excited for Monday. Thank you in advance for coming on Sunday to get to know kindergarten families and help us set up for our big day Monday! We also started Reading Workshop—right now we are reading emergent storybooks (books students are very familiar with, such as Caps for Sale). Students are working on using the pictures to remind them of the story and using a storyteller’s voice when they are telling the story. This unit is to make students comfortable with looking at books and telling the stories. They are essentially ‘reading the pictures’. If you have questions about this, please let me know! In math, we are still working on patterns. We are now on the number 6 in handwriting! I’ve sent a copy of how the numbers should be written in the Thursday packet, so please use that as a reference at home!

**Tomorrow we will be doing a special pattern activity and students need circles to trace. If you have any circles at home we can use for the afternoon (i.e. lids for containers), please send them in!

Wish List: There is one more ongoing thing we will need for Scooter’s tank, so if you are at a pet store or shopping on Amazon, please pick one up for us. We will need to change the filter once a month, and they cost under $4 each. They are called: Rite-Size Bonded Filter Sleeves for Magnum Models 220 and 350 (they are made of blue floss). We also need a gravel vacuum to clean out his tank and change the water every few weeks, but these cost a bit more. If you are interested in helping us with this, I can purchase it at PetCo if you’d like to get a gift card. Thank you!

Upcoming events:

· We will have a KINDERGARTEN PICNIC for both kindergarten classes! We will have a potluck lunch. Then the children will play while the adults do some special Camp Day preparations in the classrooms on Sunday, October 11^th from 1:00-3:00

· Meeting to discuss the Reading and Writing Curriculum: November 5^th at 3 pm.

Attendance Policy

Room A Newsletter, October 1

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:51:18 GMT

Room A Newsletter!

October 1, 2009

Dear Families,

This has been a great week! We have been sharing stories of how we got our names, and some of us have very interesting stories! We also starting work in our Handwriting books, and are working for the next few weeks on writing our numbers. I will post what numbers should look like, so please check the blog so you can encourage proper formation at home. As part of our camp day celebrations, we will be making stars and moons. We will talk a bit about the night sky. I have attached a moon observation paper, where children can draw the moon every night to see the pattern this month.

Camp Day: Room A will be celebrating Camp Day on October 12^th, the day after our picnic/work day. Camp Day will be a fun day for our classroom community, where we will ‘camp’ in the classroom during the school day. We have been getting ready for it by talking about camping, making animals and plants to make our classroom look like a forest (trees, butterflies, stars, moon, etc.). I have attached a sign-up sheet if you can donate/lend us any of the items for our special day. There is also a sign-up sheet in the classroom.

Wish List: There is one more ongoing thing we will need for Scooter’s tank, so if you are at a pet store or shopping on Amazon, please pick one up for us. We will need to change the filter once a month, and they cost under $4 each. They are called: Rite-Size Bonded Filter Sleeves for Magnum Models 220 and 350 (they are made of blue floss). We also need a gravel vacuum to clean out his tank and change the water every few weeks, but these cost a bit more. If you are interested in helping us with this, I can purchase it at PetCo if you’d like to get a gift card. Thank you!

Upcoming events:

· Meeting to discuss the Reading and Writing Curriculum: November 5^th at 3 pm.

Attendance Policy

Room A expectations

Your children came up with these for agreements for the classroom:

1. We will listen to the kids and the teacher when they are sharing.

2. Be careful.

3. Take care of materials in the classroom.

4. Take care of our friends.

Pickup

…will now be from the classroom, HOWEVER, you can also just drive up to the front of the school and one of the aides will walkie talkie me in the classroom (and your child will come out to meet you).

Camp day Supplies list

Please Make sure everything you want returned is well labeled (you may sign up to bring more than one item)

Ø 4 Tents

______________________

Ø Flashlights

______________________

Ø Fake Electric Fire

______________________

Ø Marshmallows

______________________

Ø Graham Crackers

______________________

Ø Hot Fudge Syrup

______________________

Ø Sugar Free Instant Cocoa (pre-made)

______________________

Ø Plastic swimming pool

______________________

Ø Pine incense

______________________

Ø Bag of unpopped popcorn

______________________

Ø Long bamboo poles (6)

______________________

Ø Helpers to clean up Monday after school

______________________

Room A Newsletter, September 24th

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 10:49:30 GMT

Room A Newsletter!

September 24, 2009

Dear Families,

This week, we celebrated our 10^th day of school with a visit from Zero the Hero. Zero taught us about how zero holds a place (so 10 is 2 numbers, a 1 and a 0) and he brought us dimes. We also started talking about each other’s names. We have put up 6 names on the word wall, and heard the stories of how they got their names. What a fun way to learn about letters! There is a lot of student work up in the classroom! In math, we are talking about patterns. We have been practicing with AB patterns. Can your child find patterns at home? Please make sure you are reading each night with your child for at least 20 minutes!

Attendance Policy

Our school budget is based on attendance, which means each time your child is absent, Odyssey looses $43 from our budget. Please try to schedule vacations around our school vacation, but if you must (I know sometimes a family trip is educational and unavoidable), you are more than welcome to donate to the annual campaign! Thanks for your understanding!

Healthy Snacks-- Part of our school culture involved being healthy. This includes snacks. Your child needs a healthy snack (especially protein!) to get through our long kindergarten day. Some great ideas I’ve seen are: a piece of fruit, yogurt, crackers and cheese, etc. Also, juice contains a lot of sugar. The best choice for drink is always water. If you’d like to send your child with a refillable water bottle, we have a filtered drinking fountain in the classroom.

Dress Code

Please make sure your child comes to school in closed-toed shoes—meaning no sandals or Crocs. Also, girls must wear shirts that have straps wider than 3 fingers (meaning no spaghetti straps or thin strapped shirts or dresses).

Upcoming events:

· We will have a KINDERGARTEN PICNIC for both kindergarten classes! We will have a potluck lunch and then the yard and other activities for children, and some special work for parents/other family members on Sunday, October 11^th from 1:00-3:00 Please feel free to stop by for as much or as little time as you can!

· ILP meetings will be held the week of October 26^th. Please sign up for a 30 minutes slot if you have not already done so. Thank you!

· Meeting to discuss the Reading and Writing Curriculum: November 5^th at 3 pm.

Room A expectations

Your children came up with these for agreements for the classroom:

1. We will listen to the kids and the teacher when they are sharing.

2. Be careful.

3. Take care of materials in the classroom.

4. Take care of our friends.

You might want to go over these at home to reinforce them. Thanks!

Pickup

Room A Newsletter Sept. 17

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:16:28 GMT

Room A Newsletter!

September 17, 2009

Dear Families,

Our second week is going well! We have jumped into our classroom routine—learning how our morning meeting works, how our clean-up routine will go, etc. We shared our favorite books and learned that we are all very different readers! These books will be in a special bin in the classroom for a few weeks so we can share them. Our turtle arrived and we learned how to take care of him. We started talking about our names and creating expectations for ourselves for how we want our classroom to run. We even learned the Peace Path!

Next week, we will start talking about our names. Each child will have a day where he/she will be the special name of the day. For part of this activity, each child will get to tell the story of how he/she got his/her name. Please discuss with your child (if needed, you can write it down so Mollie or I can help).

On Wednesdays, we have PE (ask about their fun time today with Mr. Denny!). Please make sure your child comes to school dressed appropriately on these days.

Please make sure your child comes to school in closed-toed shoes—meaning no sandals or Crocs. Also, girls must wear shirts that have straps wider than 3 fingers (meaning no spaghetti straps or thin strapped shirts or dresses).

Family Tree

We will have a KINDERGARTEN PICNIC for both kindergarten classes! We will have a potluck lunch and then the yard and other activities for children, and some special work for parents/other family members on Sunday, October 11^th from 1:00-3:00 Please feel free to stop by for as much or as little time as you can! We will have a food sign-up when it gets closer!

Thank you to Metta’s family and Peyton’s family for helping us get the basics for our turtle, Scooter, and to Metta’s family for helping set up the tank! We still need some items to keep Scooter healthy and happy (including some fish), so if you’d like to help, I could either give you an item to purchase or you could donate a gift card to PetCo. Thank you for your support! Scooter will teach us a lot this year!

HOMEWORK IN KINDERGARTEN

There will not be any required homework in kindergarten, except what I know most of you are doing already—reading! Kindergarteners are expected to read for at least 20 minutes a night (either with a parent, sibling, adult, or by themselves). I will also occasionally send home optional homework ideas (such as the idea last week about storytelling at home).

Room A expectations

Your children came up with these for agreements for the classroom:

1. We will listen to the kids and the teacher when they are sharing.

2. Be careful.

3. Take care of materials in the classroom.

4. Take care of our friends.

You might want to go over these at home to reinforce them. Thanks!

Pickup

…will now be from the classroom. Thank you!

Our TA, Mollie

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 22:06:34 GMT

Mollie is currently entering her fourth year in the elementary classroom having worked as a long term substitute and K-8 visual art instructor at various charter schools throughout the Los Angeles area. Her background is in arts and enrichment and she has many years experience in early childhood, youth and community based organizations. Mollie currently serves on the Board of Directors as Program Chair at a cooperative Nursery School working closely with staff and families in parent education programming and curriculum development. Mollie has a B.F.A. in Visual Art with a postgraduate in advanced printmaking, she has studied Early Childhood Education at UCLA and is currently completing her California Teaching Credential at Cal State University. Mollie is passionate about the Arts and education, she is very excited to be joining us here at Odyssey and is looking forward to getting to know all of you over the next few weeks!

9/10 Newsletter

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 21:04:09 GMT

Dear Families,
Welcome to the 2009-2010 school year at Odyssey! Ms. Molly and I are looking forward to an exciting year! Today we continued getting to know each other and our new school, and will be getting comfortable with each other and the routines of our classroom for the next few weeks of school. Your children are working hard at learning each other’s names and learning about the things in our classroom (such as how to hold scissors, cleaning up after Creative Workshop, and washing our hands).
Please check in with me to let me know how your child’s first week of school is going! You can contact me anytime before or after school (I will normally be on campus from 7:15 until 4pm) or by email at erinw@ocsmail.org. I look forward to working with you this year!

Extra Clothes
In case we get messy or have accidents, please send an extra set of clothes in a Ziplock bag for your child. Please clearly mark your child’s name on the outside of the bag.

Favorite Book
We will be learning a lot about each other as readers. One way that we do this is by sharing our favorite books. I’m hoping that each student can bring their favorite book from home on Monday to keep at school for a few weeks. We will take very good care of these special treasures!

Volunteering
I was excited to learn that many of you want to volunteer in the classroom (and outside the classroom!), however, it may be a few weeks before we are ready for classroom volunteers. You are welcome to join us for the beginning of the day. Each morning for students to put their things away, complete morning jobs, and read a book. Please feel free to stay with them and help them get settled until we are ready to start our morning meeting at about 8:30. If you have any questions, please let me know.
We will have a KINDERGARTEN PICNIC for both kindergarten classes! We will have a potluck lunch and then the yard and other activities for children, and some special work for parents/other family members on Sunday, October 11th from 1:00-3:00 Please feel free to stop by for as much or as little time as you can! We will have a food sign-up when it gets closer!

Please fill out the attached surveys to let me know about your volunteer preferences as well as helping me learn about your child.

Family Tree
We have a family tree in our classroom so that we can all feel the presence of our families throughout the year. Please give your child a picture of your family to put on our tree. It will be returned at the end of the year.

A little bit more about me…
As many of you noticed, I am pregnant and expecting my first child! I am due January 1st, which means I’ll be taking my maternity leave during the time between Winter Break and Spring Break. We are incredibly fortunate to have Ms. Molly with us, who will be taking over during the time I am gone. She has extensive experience in the classroom, and is completing her teaching credential this year. If you have any questions about this, please feel free to ask me or Ms. Lauren.

On Wednesdays, we have PE (ask about their fun time today with Mr. Denny!). Please make sure your child comes to school dressed appropriately on these days.
Also, please make sure your child comes to school in closed-toed shoes—meaning no sandals or Crocs.

More Volunteering:
•    I have a small cutting project that needs to be done this week.
•    We are going to need help washing our dress-up clothes and hand towels. I am going to put up a sign-up sheet on the Parent Board in the classroom, so if you could lend your washing machine, please sign up!
•    I also need help putting up chairs each afternoon and taking them down in the morning. We have a great cleaning crew who wants to make sure the floor is clean, but can only do it if everything is off the floor. If you can help, please stay a bit after school or help in the morning when the door opens.
Thank you, thank you!!

We will be here Saturday from 3-6 for the Orientation and Picnic. Looking forward to seeing you!

Storytelling:
We are working on oral storytelling in class, and have heard stories from each student about his/her summer. This is a great skill to practice at home!

Wishlist
If you would like to help our classroom, please check the class wishlist on the classroom blog (at www.odysseycharterschool.com click Teachers and then Erin Munavu)

I was hoping to bring the turtle to the classroom this weekend, but unfortunately do not have all the supplies I need. If you can, please help by donating a gift certificate to PetCo so our turtle can join us as soon as possible!

The 09-10 Parent Student Handbook, which contains a plethora of information regarding our official school policies and procedures, is being sent home today.
You can also access this online at:

http://www.odysseycharterschool.org/parents/Documents-and-Forms.cfm

Please help me get to know your child better by filling in this form. All information is confidential and will only be used by me to work with your children, but because you are your child’s first teacher, your input is extremely valuable! Please return the surveys by Monday, September 14th. If you have anything else you would like to tell me about your child, please feel free to attach another sheet. Thank you!

Child’s Name __________________________________________________________________
Parent or Guardian Name(s) ______________________________________________________
Address ______________________________________________________________________
Phone # Home _________________________________________________________________
Any other # you want me to have ____________________________________________
Child’s Birthday ________________________________________________________
What languages are spoken at home? _______________________________________________
Names and ages of siblings: ______________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Does your child have any allergies or any medical conditions we should know about? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What are the most challenging issues you experience with your child? _____________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
What holidays do you celebrate? Are there any you do not celebrate? _____________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
What are your child’s interests? ___________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
What do you see as your child’s strengths? __________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
What do you hope your child learns or gains this year? _______________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
What are some places your child visits frequents? ___________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
Do you ever read with your child at home? Does your child like to read? ________________
___________________________________________________________________________
Please list some of your family’s favorite books, authors, characters, cartoons, or videos ____
___________________________________________________________________________

Volunteer Survey
Do you use email? _________ Email address: __________________________________
What is your preferred method of communication? ______________________________
If we were to have a meeting before or after school, what would be the best time?
    (Please circle)     before school        right after school        in the evening
Please check all they ways you would be interested in helping.
    _______     Share about your culture ___________________________
    _______     Share about your occupation ___________________________
    _______     Share a hobby or skill ___________________________
    _______     Volunteer in the classroom to work with small groups of students
    _______     Volunteer in the classroom to work one-on-one with students
    _______     Assist on special days (Stone Soup Day, celebrations, etc.)
    _______     Chaperone field trips
    _______     Prepare supplies at home or school
    _______     Make copies (if you have access to a Xerox machine)
    _______     Wash dress-up clothing throughout the year
    _______     Make phone calls or emails to other parents
    _______     Organize the Scholastic Book orders for our class
    _______     Other suggestions? _____________________________________________
Comments? _____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Please tell me anything else you would like me to know about you _________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Thank you so much for all your support!

Preparing for the first day of school

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 12:34:05 GMT

Preparing For the First Day of School

Dear Families,

Again thank you for all of your help and support as we begin our first day of kindergarten. Ms. Molly and I are very excited to begin the new school year. Some parents have asked what their child should bring and what the first day will look like so I thought I would send out a brief outline.

Each child will be given a cubby to store their snacks, lunch, blankets, and other personal items.
**Cubbies are not very big so please take that into consideration.
** I prefer students do not bring their own school supplies- we have classroom supplies (thank you for all your donations!).

Healthy snack- please provide two healthy snacks for your child: one for the morning and the other for the afternoon. Students can have these separate from their lunch so they know what is for lunch and what is for snack. If you need ideas of healthy snacks, please let me know.

Towel or small blanket labeled with your child’s name- we will have a quiet time after lunch. I will be turning the lights off and students can lie down—if children fall asleep I will allow them to take a nap while others move into Creative Workshop (choice time).
**As we move into 2nd and 3rd trimesters I imagine there will be less napping and more constructive play, science, and/or social studies.

Extra clothing- In case we get messy or have accidents, please send an extra set of clothes in a Ziplock bag for your child. Please clearly mark your child’s name on the outside of the bag.

The first week:
8:15-8:45: parents are welcome to stay and help children adapt to the morning routines.
Student and parent can decorate their cubby label and choose a cubby.
Students will put their snacks, lunches, and other items in their cubbies.
I will take first day of school photos.
Parents can read books provided in tubs to read with their child.
*At 8:45 I will put on Good Morning song and that is parents cue to say their goodbyes and students will begin their day. If your child has difficulty saying goodbye, Ms. Molly and I will be there to support them while you leave the room. I know this is a difficult time for both child and parent, but it is an easier transition if all parents leave at the given time. Thank you for helping our class adjust to our new and exciting schedule!
This routine will be repeated all week with a different project.

Week 2 and the following weeks: Parents may read with their child until 8:30.

Wish List- Many of you have asked about my wish list—I find it is best if I purchase items when I need them partly because I get a teacher’s discount and partly because I know exactly what I want. I would prefer gift cards either in the form of a Visa, Target, Staples, or Amazon. We also need to outfit the turtle tank so we can bring our turtle, Scooter, into the classroom. **If you can, PetCo gift cards would be extremely helpful so he can join us during the first few weeks of school.

Volunteer Opportunities:
1.    Weekly Laundry: We will have pillowcases and hand towels to be laundered.
2.    Wednesday or Thursday: I need a parent (or 2!) to help laminate and cut Thursday packets so they are ready to go home on Thursday.
3.    I will send home a parent survey in the first Thursday packet asking more about the types of volunteering you would like to do.

As the year progresses there will be plenty of volunteer opportunities in the classroom but I do prefer the first 6 weeks or so I prefer to establish a classroom culture with the students, Ms. Molly and I.

Daily Schedule:
8:15-8:30    Parents and children read
9:35-10:10    Snack and Recess (in the K-2 yard behind our classroom)
11:45-12:30    Lunch and Recess (in the K-2 yard behind our classroom, though children can venture to the ‘Big’ playground for recess)
2:00-2:15    Snack (if needed) and Recess
2:30        Dismissal at front of school benches (**please note that on Monday, dismissal is 1:30)

Also, the new Odyssey website has launched (www.odysseycharterschool.org)! Please check it for further school information, news, as well as classroom information. I will post all emails sent on our classroom blog, as well!

There is also a group of parents with a fantastic fundraiser: they are selling reusable sandwich, snack, grocery bags. I will have more information about this on the first day of school. If you haven't already bought your child's lunch containers, please wait to support our school!

See you on Tuesday!

Room A Wishlist

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:54:29 GMT

Room A Wishlist

•    Boxes of tissues
•    Painting Easels
•    Paint cups
•    X-acto Manual Pencil Sharpener
•    Paper Mate Flair pens black ink
•    Expo Dry Erase Low Odor Markers (Thin)
•    Washable Markers
•    Stamps
•    Stamp Pads
•    Lefty scissors
•    Dress Up materials (especially job related, such as firemen, police, singing, etc.)
•    Musical Instruments
•    Teaching Clock from Really Good Stuff (online store)

Gift certificates to PetCo to outfit the turtle tank

If it is easier, I would LOVE gift certificates to Staples, amazon.com, or Target to purchase the items on the wishlist.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT OF OUR CLASSROOM!

Email sent 8/31

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:23:34 GMT

It was great seeing some of you today. I will be at school tomorrow morning if you'd like to stop by, and then, as I'm sure you have already heard from Odyssey, we will be closed the rest of the week. I have a few requests and reminders:

I got an aquatic turtle for the classroom and am very excited to set up the tank! We have a wonderful 4' long tank, but I need a bit of help outfitting it to be ready for the turtle (and hopefully some fish). Are any of you experienced in setting up a tank and would be willing to help?

We also have 2 beanbags that need new stuffing. If any of you receive packages with packing peanuts, please save them and bring them in. We are trying to have a green classroom and use recycled products as much as possible!

Reminders:

Please make sure your child has a healthy snack separate from his/her lunch.
Also, please refer to your Parent/Student Handbook for the Odyssey dress code. I know it is hot, but students must wear closed-toed shoes and no tank tops.
You will be welcome to stay with us in the classroom for the first 15 minutes of school (a bit longer the first week).
If you have any other questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to email!

See you next Tuesday!
Sincerely,
Erin

P.S. Please check back in the next few days--I'll post and email one more update before school starts!

What I did last summer…

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:44:05 GMT

I had a very relaxing summer. A few of the highlights are: the week I spent in Santa Barbara with Ms. Linda, Ms. Tammy, Ms. Lisa, Ms. Sandrea, and Ms. Jaime learning about our amazing math curriculum; camping with 2008-2009 Room A families at the beach; camping up North with my husband and dog, Manny; and finding out I'm expecting a baby boy!

Welcome Back!

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:03:10 GMT

Welcome to the 2009-2010 school year at Odyssey! I am very excited to get to know all of you and help you and your child transition into kindergarten!

We will spend most of our first month of school building community, routines, and create shared goals for our class and learning. While I am extremely thankful and excited for parent involvement (and will be asking for a lot of it during the year!), for the first 6 weeks of school, I ask that you reserve your time in the classroom for the first 20 minutes of school. This will be a time for you to read with your child and help us settle into our school day. At about 8:30, I will play a song as a signal for parents and children to say goodbye so we can start our day.

If you have any questions, concerns, or want to know about volunteer opportunities, please feel free to leave me a message at school or by email (erinw@ocsmail.org). I will be sending home a survey in the next few days, and will contact you after the first few weeks of school if you are interested in volunteering.

I look forward to the upcoming school year and working with you in your child’s path to learning.