Friday, November 18, 2022

 Hello Weckie Families!!

Today is going to be a short News Blog as things are SUPER busy on this end but I hated to miss a Friday post!! We are in full blown Turkey-Mode over here as we prepare for Thanksgiving! Look for some fun projects to come home with your Weckies next week and enjoy sharing them with your family over the holiday week! We have had some awesome discussions about allllllllll of the people, places and things we are thankful for this "thankful" time of year. We have created a class book the kids will be bringing home next week and a few turkeys projects along the way too!

Big things coming...

Conferences - Please check Skyward on Monday morning to sign up for Parent-Teacher Conferences! All conferences are going to be held remote on Zoom. Skyward says they are "in person" but they are in fact, on Zoom. You can sign up for conferences beginning on Monday, November 21st in the morning (I hear about 7am) on Skyward. 

Tuesday, November 29th is our Field Trip to the Outdoor Center - Wahoo!! If you have not yet turned in your field trip permission slip and $15 cash, please do so ASAP. We want to have all money turned in before Thanksgiving break so that the Monday we return, we can sort our payments for the buses and the Outdoor Center! For this field trip, your child will need to dress in FULL winter gear. Think: snow-pants, boots, good socks, winter coat, hat and gloves. Please make sure that everything is labeled. We spend a lot of time outside on the trip and we'll want to make sure everyone is bundled up. I am also looking for TWO volunteers to help with a surprise treat for our return! In the past we have had very HUNGRY kids returning to school and I thought it would be a fun surprise to have a snack waiting for us. I am looking for one parent to drop off 24 cookies and one parent to drop off 24 cold juice boxes that afternoon, just prior to our return. We are estimated to be back about 1:45 but our class will then go right to Music and PE. I know that a snack about 2:45pm would be just perfect!! Please let me know if you are able to help and I'll let you know which two parents I hear from first. Thank you, thank you!!

And a side note from Mrs. Weckstein:

A special heartfelt thank you to each of you for sharing your kid(s) with me!! I am LOVING this group and they have really come together well as a strong classroom family. We receive compliments from FAPES teachers and are often compared to the other classes as a very strong example of good leaders and behavior. THANK YOU!! I can for certain say I am so thankful for these 23 Weckies this holiday season. I wish you only a safe and healthy Thanksgiving holiday!

Friday, November 4th

 Hello Weckie Families!

Happy Friday! What a week it has been... Halloween followed by a sick kiddo at the Weckstein's has made for a tricky week for sure. A huge thank you to our guest teacher, Mrs. Jackie Valentine, for keeping things running smoothly in my absence Wednesday and Thursday!  A special thank you to everyone who sent in items for our Boo Bash Halloween Breakfast as well as to all who gave of their time to help work our party (Mrs. Thomas, Mrs. Anglin and Mrs. Vazquez)! We had a fantastic morning together! 

Readers' Workshop
In Readers' Workshop we wrapped up our "Readers Grow Like Beanstalks" unit! We had a couple ending mini-lessons including:

• I can identify how the author made the whole story click together.
• I can reteach about a story using the phrase: Somebody wanted ________, but_______ so_______. (For example: Adam Rubin's book, Those Darn Squirrels.. Mr. Fookwire wanted to paint illustrations of the birds, but the squirrels kept eating all of the birdseed in his feeders which made the birds fly away, so the squirrels ended up dressing up like birds to make Mr. Fookwire happy). 
• I can determine what the author wanted to teach me from the story.
• I can predict the author's lesson from my sneak preview of the book.

Then we did a culminating activity where we talked about all of the new reading strategies we have learned and talked about which strategies we would most often pick for tricky and challenging words.

This week we moved into our Non-Fiction Reading Unit! We have started by talking how readers of non-fiction grown knowledge. Mini-lessons have included:

• Non-Fiction readers notice and learn from details in their text.
• Non-Fiction readers can put the parts of the text together in their mind.
• Non-Fiction readers can ask questions about the text/topic they are reading.

It was a big shift this week to book shop for non-fiction books to add to our book bins but there was also a lot of excitement about reading books on new topics for our readers!

Writers' Workshop

We continue to work on writing small moment personal narratives in Workshop. Mini-lessons have included topics like:

• I can revisit my ending to make it strong.
• I can check my writing over to make sure SNAP words are spelled correctly.
• As a writer, I can work hard, practice and get stronger each time I write.
• I can use a checklist to set goals for my writing.
• I can revise my story to match my intent and meaning.

Next week we'll dig deeper into mentor texts where we can find author's craft that we can try in our own writing to make it even stronger!

Math Workshop

In Math we wrapped up Unit 2!! We spent time finishing up with addition strategies for the near doubles facts, the turn-around rule for addition (which we proved does not work for subtraction), learned to play new games including: Evens and Odds, Money Exchange Game, Fishing for 10s and a pumpkin dice game. This week we spent time reviewing important concepts like evens and odds as well as using our addition strategies to solve number stories. We also took our Unit 2 Assessment, Unit 2 Cumulative Assessment and worked through the Unit 2 Challenge! Look for all of this to come home later next week! At the front of their packet, look for their Self-Assessment page. The check marks done in pencil were filled in at the beginning of the unit and the check marks done in color were done at the completion of the unit. It's interesting to see what they think they have improved in with the different skills and their comfort level with each!

Science

You may have heard the exciting news... we are botanists!!! Our science kit has arrived and we have done our first planting of brassica seeds. Each child is growing their own plant as we observe and learn about plant parts. More to come on this...

Important Upcoming Dates:

November 8, 2022  - NO SCHOOL - ELECTION DAY

November 17, 2022 - Half Day of School (dismissal around 12:10pm)

November 24-25, 2022 - NO SCHOOL - THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY

November 29, 2022 - Field Trip - WL Outdoor Education Center (YAY!)