Dear Family, January 7, 2010
Welcome back! I hope everyone had a great time over winter break and everyone is rested….it’s
a new year and we have lots of fun things to do this next month. New year activities, 100th day
celebrations, Chinese New Year, Valentine’s Day…Lots of cool learning!
We have a new student in the class, Manuel Barnett. We are excited to have him in our class. We
have 20 students in our class.
Spring activity fee is due-please send in a $25 cash or check (made out to Bandelier and Ms. Lea
activity fee in memo line) in your child’s folder and I will put a receipt in their backpack. This money
pays for art and cooking supplies and field trips. If this is a hardship for your family, please let me
know and I will get a scholarship from the PTA. Thanks for your support!
Some safety reminders- When visiting our school during the school day, remember to go and
get a visitor’s badge from the office. If you are picking your child up early from school, you must
sign them out at the office first and bring me the purple slip. If you are tardy in the morning, drop
your child in my class and go upstairs for a green tardy slip for your child. The staff and
administration want to ensure the safety of all of our students and this includes knowing who is on
our campus and where our students are, thanks for your help with this.
New snack and sharing theme-On your child’s snack day, please send an “item” in a bag so that
the students may ask 20 questions about the item and then guess what it is. This is a great activity
to teach the kids listening and questioning skills and using deduction. Some of them get very
excited about discovering the item.
Chair-A-Tea- To support the Art in the Schools program, which provides training for parents and
art supplies for lessons, our class usually donates an art decorated chair or stool. So I am asking for
a family from our class to donate a wooden stool, step stool or chair for our class to decorate.
Please let me know if will be able to do this-it can be used. My idea is to cover the chair or stool
with “found” writing-such as a piece of paper with a grocery list or an envelope with address on it. I
would like all families to donate some piece of “found” writing to the piece and we will attach it to the
chair using modge podge (wish list item).
SCIENCE WEEK AT BANDELIER- As a volunteer staff and parent member of the science week
committee I would like to ask families to volunteer to help with science activities that will be at
Bandelier on January 27th and 28th during the day and an evening event on January 29th. The sign
up sheet to help “in general” with the event will be on the inside wall near our line up spot in front of
building. I will know the actual time of our class’ activity soon and will let you know ASAP if you
would like to sign up just to help with our class. We need all the help we can get to make this a
successful event for all students at Bandelier.
WHAT ARE THEY LEARNING IN K5?
Well we are starting some new year around the world activities- in Colombia people write new year
wishes on balloons and let them fly away (look for these posted on the windows next week!), in Brazil
they eat French toast called Rabanada, in Israel they eat apples with honey to ensure sweet tongues
(sweet words) for the new year, in Iran they plant seeds called Sabzeh and put them into the river to
ensure good crops for the new year, in Belgium kids write letters to their parents/families of
promises for the new year (look for these in the mail in next few weeks!). During this time we will
look at the globe to locate these places and discuss the new year traditions here in the US. All of
these activities are social studies related and incorporate math, writing, reading and science.
We will also start a unit on Martin Luther King Jr and his good deeds. We will be looking at being a
good community member and things we can do to help our community. SO in his honor we are
collecting cans of food to donate to the local food pantry which we will take a field trip to to see
where our donations go and how it will help people. I am also sending home "Random acts of
kindness" cards for families to fill out and send back into school to recognize the good deeds that
our kids do every day.
By the end of the month we will start a writing project on poetry, which I find really lends itself to
kindergarten. We will read lots of poetry and students will begin the writing process (brainstorm,
main idea and supporting details, rough draft and final draft) while working with partners. We will
post these in the hallway when they are done.
In math, we will be introducing some new shapes (hexagon, trapezoid, rhombus) and use those in
patterning and graphing. We will also look at numbers and how numbers can be put together with
different numbers (for example- 3 can be 2 and 1, 3 and 0, 1 and 2) using bead manipulatives and
a short book. We will also work on a 3D patterning art activity that incorporates shapes-they will
hang in our room.
In science, we will be looking to the sky to explore stars, the moon, the clouds and weather. The
kids seem really excited by these things so I will work on some more activities to tap into their
enthusiasm. We will also be looking into our senses, what they are and how we use them.
In reading, we are currently working on story components-characters, setting, plot, climax, ending.
We are working on “The Mitten” right now and using characters to retell the story. I will start small
guided reading groups next week.
TESTING-Next week, I need to start testing using the DIBELS-Dynamic Indicator Benchmark Early
Literacy Skills-which is a timed test to benchmark their literacy skills (automaticity-they must know
these skills quickly). Letter naming, beginning sounds in words, chunking words (f-i-sh) and
reading nonsense words like lug-which tests their ability to apply their letter sound knowledge. Mid
month I will test them using the DRA-Developmental Reading Assessment-which will give me an
idea of where they are at in reading. KDPR testing will begin in February. To support your child,
have them get plenty of rest and a good breakfast!
Thanks for sharing your kiddos with us.
Lhasa Lea 228-8759 lea_l@aps.edu
Teacher website- http://teacherweb.com/NM/Bandelier/LhasaLea
