Week 23
February 21, 2012
Our 100th Day of School celebration was a huge success. Thank you to Michele, for organizing, and
Suzanne, Kristeen, Tracey, Elena, Amy, Alex, and Maileen who helped with art, set-up, centers, pizza
pick up and delivery, lunch, snack and cleanup. Thanks also to Peggy, Kim, Ana and Oana who
contributed to our derdnuH snack! (Guess you’ll have to ask your child what derdnuH means!).
And, on Valentine’s Day you could feel the love AND energy! Thanks go to Kristeen and Laurie who
provided yummy yogurt and strawberries as a special treat. Christine joined in to help Kristeen and
Laurie with Valentine delivery, serving and clean up! It was chaotic, but fun. Words of thanks and
kindness could be heard across the room. I hope you saw the yogurt recipe on yahoo and that your
Valentine arrived.
Thank you to Amy, for volunteering to help with math on Thursdays and art on Fridays, and to Linell,
who will help with math on Fridays.
GENERAL INFORMATION AND UPCOMING EVENTS
Our spring conference week has been cut short by two days, and so conferences
will be held on an as needed basis only. I will be scheduling some, but not
all of you for conferences March 14th, 15th and 16th. Those days will be
minimum days for everyone. (Remember you can always contact me for a check in conference.)
February 29: Oratorical Fest. 10:00 in the cafeteria. The children will recite a poem and sing a song
honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. Please join us if you can!
March 2: Dr. Seuss’s Birthday celebration. See the letter in your child’s homework folder and look for
an email from our co-chairs.
March 10: The 26th Annual Benefit. Our class basket sounds wonderful. Thanks again to Suzanne for
organizing and your donations to make it happen. I have donated two items this year. One is a
pajama/movie night open only to P-15 and P-17 students on March 23rd There will be food, singing,
a movie, warm milk and graham crackers before saying good-bye. Additionally, two lucky children
will get to spend a weekend morning with Mrs. Weissman doing some of her favorite things. Go to the
auction website to find out!
March 14-16: Minimum days. Conferences.
March 16: St. Patrick's Day celebration
March 23: Field trip to the SF Opera Scene Shop. At this time we only have two drivers who can drive
5 children. Please let me know ASAP if you can join us.
CLASSROOM NEWS
The children were excited to celebrate as we read book 200 in class!
February is a month full of birthdays. This week Ray and Lauren both turned 6! We enjoyed cupcakes
for Ray’s birthday and Rice Krispie treats for Lauren’s. Thanks to the girls’ families for the special
treats.
Language Arts: The children reviewed the letter sounds /t/ and /h/. We are blending to read cvc
words and had fun working in teams to make words with the letter cards given. We will soon be
adding new letter sounds to expand our reading skills. The children are working very hard on
listening skills to hear EACH sound in a word. I am continuing to meet with the children for formal
assessments.
Math: We began our 100th day celebration by dancing to Celebration and then counting to 100! I
asked the children if 100 seconds is a long time and they told me YES! How long? Minutes, hours,
days and weeks! During centers the children counted to 10 10 times to make their snack, made bead
necklaces, built with 100 blocks and wrote what they would do with $100! Estimating was a
challenge. Which jar held 100 popcorn kernels, which bowl held 100 cubes, and how long would it
take 100 ice cubes to melt! The children enjoyed finding missing numbers from our 100s chart and
quickly found where they go!
In addition to our 100 activities we read about The Greedy Triangle who went to the shape shifter to
become other shapes and we read Grandfather Tang’s Story, a story told using a tangram. Ask your
child about tangrams and the puzzle he/she made. I was quite pleased with the creativity I saw!
Science: We are learning about paper, TEN DIFFERENT KINDS! The children observed and studied each
paper to try and not only name it, but realize what it was used for. Ask your child to name some of
the papers and their uses.
Social Studies: What is a President? It’s a question like this that makes me love Kindergarten. “He
talks a lot. He takes care of the world. He runs the country. He makes speeches. He helps change
rules.” Can a woman be president? “NO!” “I mean yes!” During our discussion about George
Washington someone mentioned that he probably had bad teeth from eating too many cherries! All
in all, we talked about Washington and Lincoln, what life was like for them long ago and why they are
remembered today. Ask your child is they know how many presidents we have had?
Art: On Monday the children drew self-portraits of what they look like today and what they will look
like when they are 100 years old! Grey was a popular color! On Friday, the children learned about
Picasso and the different stages of his art career. In keeping with our math study on shapes the
children created portraits using Picasso’s cubism style. They will be displayed on the hallway bulletin
board for your enjoyment.
Music: The children welcomed their new music teacher Mr. Schraft. We introduced ourselves with
music, played pass the sound and did creative movement. We also played shakers and drums.
SF Opera: Mrs. Weissman demonstrated soprano, tenor, alto and bass singing voices for the children.
We were excited to welcome two opera singers from the Alder Fellows. The children listened with
their hearts (respectful listening) and then asked the many questions we had brainstormed earlier.
How could they sing that high? Do they sing with others? Where do they get the costumes? Do they
dance? How many songs do they know?