Thursday, October 27, 2011

Thank You Parents

I just wanted to take a moment to thank each of you for taking time out of your busy lives to come spend an hour with your child at school. We had a wonderful turn out for the Student Led Conferences this week! I hope you enjoyed the time just half as much as your child. :-) They have all been so excited for this opportunity to show you what they have been doing at school. I thank you, and more importantly, your children thank you!


A big Shout Out to the Following October Apple Winners:
Red-Academic Apples: Logan and Jayden
Yellow-Improvement Apples: Gloria and Emma
Orange-Behavior Apples: Nicholas and Claire
Green-Teamwork Apples: Caleb and Isaac

Up-coming News: We will be beginning a big "addition and subtraction" unit in math. This unit will take up all of November. Be asking about "strategies" to help us add and subtract.


In writing, we will be starting to organize our thoughts into a good sequence for a story. Then we can begin to think about writing a good beginning and using good "juicy" detailed words. We, of course, will continue to focus on using good conventions (Capital letters, punctuation, and sounds in a word).


Finally, we will be combining some math and science skills as we study, measure, and explore pumpkins.


Thanks again for supporting your child, and have a great weekend.

Mrs. Newman

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Raz-Kids!

1. Have you heard your child talk about Raz-Kids? This is a new reading site the students were introduced to this week. It is a wonderful tool to practice reading, fluency, and comprehension. Each child at WOHE has an "account" which they can access both at school and at home. Attached to this newsletter is a copy of your child's log in information. Once at the site, the children should know what to do. They may read a book (on their level), listen to a book read to them, or take a comprehension quiz. Each task will earn them stars that they may use in the rocket room to purchase things. If you have internet access outside of school, please take advantage of this wonderful site.

2. The Orchard Hills 5K race is coming on October 22! New information came out today, that if our class has 100% participation of at least one family member from each family either be in the race or sign up and come volunteer to help with the race, then our class will win a free IPad. Wow, I would love to have an Ipad for the students to work on! Please, if you are able, sign up to enter the race or volunteer to help. Call the office to find out more.

3. Has your child purchased their ear-buds for the classroom? We are using the classroom computer to work on our Raz-Kids reading, but we don't want to share ear germs. :) You can either send in a set of ear-buds from home, or send in $2 and we will get a set for your child. Once your child has ear-buds, then they have access to Raz-Kids in the classroom. Thanks

4. Can your child tie his/her shoes? This is one of those life skills that is next to impossible to teach at school. It is an individual skill. If you could take just a few minutes each night helping your child learn how to tie shoes, it will really give your child a boost of self confidence and independence.

5. Finally, Parent-Teacher Conferences with the 1st quarter report card are coming up. WOHE is doing the student led conferences again this year. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to come spend 45-50 minutes at school with your child, letting him/her show you what they know! Attached is a form for you to choose your conference time. If you would please pick 2 times that would work well for you, I will do everything I can to accomodate your preferences. If you have other children at WOHE, please indicate their name and teacher at the bottom of the form, so we can try to coordinate the times for you.

Thanks for reading. Have a great Fall weekend.