Kindergarten News Ms. Yamazaki ~ Room 1A33 ~ March 3, 2008 Dear Parents, Thanks to our hard-working life skills teachers and the many parent volunteers who helped out, our Field Day was a tremendous success. See our photo gallery this week. It’s all about Field Day Fun! We continue participating in small group guided reading instruction where we are learning reading behaviors (“what good readers do”), concepts about print, decoding, and comprehension skills. An important step in comprehension is to be able to retell the story in your own words. This is something that you can reinforce with your child at home. Discuss story elements with your child from time to time after reading the nightly picture book (eg. characters, setting). In class we are learning about setting and characters, beginning, middle, and endings of the stories we read in class. This week, our PTA is sponsoring singer Jim Valley at TAS in the lower school. Kindergarten will meet with him three times during the week, once on Monday, and two times on Friday. We have been learning some of the song that Jim Valley sings on his CDs, including Rain Forest, Splish Splash, Witchy Tai Tai, and Hand Jive. Tuesday Night is Family Night at TAS with Jim Valley from 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. in the Guy Lott, Jr. Auditorium. March 3 rd is Girl’s Day in Japan! The Hina Matsuri is celebrated on March 3 in Japan. On this day, families with girls wish their daughters a successful and happy life. Dolls are displayed in the house together with peach blossoms. Happy Girl’s Day to Hirari and Kurumi and all our female kindergartners. The Emperor and Empress with their court---Dolls for Hina Matsuri, also called Girl’s Day or Doll Festival. When I was a young girl, I had my own collection dolls for Girl’s Day. This collection is in my basement at Lake Tahoe. I would say these dolls are almost sixty years old. Do they qualify as antiques? For more information: guide.com/e/e2281.html Field Day Fun!

page 3 Our class is learning about amphibians and reptiles (and mammals, fish, and birds). Can you tell if the animals pictured below are amphibians or reptiles? Ask your child to teach you. We are learning about amphibians and reptiles. This week, we have an e-book on amphibians which your child may read aloud to you (with some support). We continue to learn about animals with backbones (vertebrates). Each child has chosen an animal and s/he will become our class expert on their animal. We will research our animals at school. Please send in an empty shoe box (or similar size and shaped box) for our animal dioramas. We will need these this week. Thanks. Kindergarten News It looks like a worm? Is it a worm?.

page 3 Our class is learning about amphibians and reptiles (and mammals, fish, and birds). Can you tell if the animals pictured below are amphibians or reptiles? Ask your child to teach you. We are learning about amphibians and reptiles. This week, we have an e-book on amphibians which your child may read aloud to you (with some support). We continue to learn about animals with backbones (vertebrates). Each child has chosen an animal and s/he will become our class expert on their animal. We will research our animals at school. Please send in an empty shoe box with lid (or similar size and shaped box) for our animal dioramas. We will need these this week. Thanks. Kindergarten News It looks like a worm? Is it a worm? NO! It’s a legless amphibian. Spotted Salamander Amphibian Turtle Reptile Alligator Reptile Iguana Reptile Frog Amphibian Frilled Lizard Reptile

page 4 We Love Jack Gantos and Rotten Ralph! Jack Gantos tells us to write about what we know. Have only a few main characters, one or two interesting ones, and have a beginning, middle, and end to your story. Drawing your ideas is a good first step to writing. Thank you, Jack Gantos! Family Night with singer Jim Valley ~ Tuesday! We have a wonderful opportunity to meet and sing with Jim Valley on Tuesday, March 4 th from 6:30.-7:30 p.m. in the T.A.S. Guy Lott, Jr. Auditorium. Don’t miss it! Jack Gantos taught us ways to become story writers. We should write our ideas down in journals like he did as a young boy. Following our session with Mr. Gantos, we started thinking of story ideas for Rotten Ralph if he visited Taipei. We have spent the past two weeks doing pre- writing activities for our very own Rotten Ralph books. We hope to be published in time to share with you at conferences (March 20-21). Remember: Send in a shoe box! Kindergarten News