We are Thankful for So Much

Long Ago and Today: We have just finished up our November Social Studies unit. We compared and contrasted times long ago with today. We learned about the Pilgrims and the Indians and the struggles they faced during that time. We had fun and learned a lot during this unit. We also decided we have much to be thankful for; our lives are much easier than in times long ago.

Thankful Quilt: During November, we also worked on making a Thankful Quilt. This amazing quilt is hanging outside our classroom. We used our writing skills to write about what we are thankful for. We also used our math skills to design our very own quilt blocks. Then we worked together as a team to "sew" our quilt together. This was a big project that we are proud of.

Penny Drive for Holiday Baskets: The school has just completed a penny drive to raise money for Holiday Baskets to help many families within our school. Because of your generosity, we were able to raise over $1100! Thank you so much for all of your support!

Mark Your Calendars: There are several important dates coming up.
December 7th - Holiday Music Program - 6:30-7:30pm. This is an evening for the whole
school to come together to celebrate the Holiday season. Each grade level will
have songs to sing. Plus, there will be trees decorated with ornaments made
by the children. You will be able to remove your child's ornament to take
home (donations for the ornaments will gladly be accepted).
December 9th - November's Tiger Pride Assembly - 2:30pm
December 21-January 1 - Winter Holiday Break
January 6th - December Tiger Pride Assembly - 2:30pm

Morning Times - Mrs. Bishop has asked us to remind parents that the earliest students are able to enter the building in the morning is 8:15 (unless they are eating breakfast, 8:05). Thank you.

Recess - Since we are beginning to see some winter weather, please remember to send your child to school in a coat appropriate for the temperature/wind chill at around noon. We go to recess after lunch, and it hasn't usually hit the high temperature of the day by this point. We will go outside if the temperature is 32 degrees or above (wind chill of at least 25 degrees). We want the children to be able to enjoy recess. Thanks.

Economics Unit - We will be beginning our Economic unit after Thanksgiving break. In this unit, we will be learning about needs/wants, goods/services, scarcity/demand, and producers/consumers. The students will get paid each day for coming to work/school; and they will be able to earn bonuses for extra effort/behavior (along with fines enforced for late work or problems with behavior). At the end of the month, we will finish up our economics unit with a class store. The children will be able to spend the money they have earned on goods and services. This is always a fun way to learn economic terms and practice identifying and counting coins.

Spelling Update - There is a slight change to the way we will be doing spelling for the rest of the school year. We will still have a list of spelling words that will be introduced with our Word Preview paper (and the list sent home), but this will not necessarily be a weekly list with the test always being on Friday. The 1st grade teachers have decided in order to teach these words more thoroughly, we need more time for most of the list of words. From now on, we will begin a new list with the Word Preview, then spend as many days as we feel needed to do word work activities for the words in the list, and then give the written test. As parents, you can help us by just continuing to have your child practice the same list of words until they come home with a new list. Here is the next list of words (we will begin it on Monday): want, was, some, said, do, doing.

Apple Awards

Here are the winners of the Apple Awards mentioned in the next entry. These are the awards earned each month and recognized at the Tiger Pride Assembly.

The Apples for Academics went to: Ashlin and R.J.
The Apples for Improvement went to: Kaylee and Blaine
The Apples for Teamwork went to: Taylor and Oscar
The Apples for Character (Responsiblity) went to: Hailey and Quentin

Congratulations to all of the students who earned an Apple Award for October!! You worked hard for this. Everyone else, keep working hard!


One other news item, Mrs. Bishop has asked for us to remind parents to use the parking lot if you are going to be getting out of your car or parking for a minute or two; but use the parent drop off lane if you are just letting your child out of the car (in the morning) or in the car (in the afternoon). This will help with the traffic flow. Thanks for you help.

New Calendar Dates

We had a wonderful Fall Party on October 26th. Mrs. Bishop is working hard to blend 4 elementary school building traditions together, but at the same time establish new WOHE traditions. She asked the teachers if we would like to try a new version of the classroom parties. With this version, we all celebrated together. Kindergarten and first grade all joined together to rotate through games and craft activities in the commons area. The children all seemed to have a great time. I would like to thank all the parents who sent in items and/or came to our party. I would like to give a big thank you to Amanda Givens who organized our part of the party. Be watching for news of our Winter Party which will be here before we know it.

We also had a great turn out for Parent-Teacher Conferences. Thank you so much for bringing your child and allowing me to share with you all the great things your child is doing. What a great way to show your child his/her education is important!

Another new activity at WOHE is the monthly awards/recognition assembly called The Tiger Pride assembly. We are now on a roll with these assemblies. Plan on each month on the first Wednesday to join us at 2:30 for this assembly. We have several monthly awards we will give out each month along with anything special for that month. One of those awards is the "Apple". There are four different apple categories in which children can earn an apple: academics, improvement, character, and teamwork. For the month of October, I awarded 8 children an apple award. Please check the above blog entry to see who earned the first apple awards (sorry, I am writing this entry at home and I am afraid I might not remember correctly, so I will add to this tomorrow when I get to school :)). Parents are definitely welcome to come to our Tiger Pride assemblies. We love to celebrate the successes of our students!

Upcoming Dates/Events:
Thursday, November 12 - Picture retakes. If you missed the first picture day and would like to
have retakes, let me know so I can send the form home.
November 13 - H1N1 vaccinations (you MUST call the office to set up an appointment)
November 25-29 Thanksgiving Vacation (Enjoy your family)
December 2 - Tiger Pride Assembly at 2:30
December 7 - WOHE's first Holiday Program (be watching for more details, but mark your
calendar for an evening of songs and child made ornaments to purchase. Each class
will be a part of this enjoyable evening.)

My New WOHE Blog

Finally, I have updated my blog to represent our new and wonderful WOHE School! Thank you for being patient with me. I never dreamed of all the little things you don't think about with opening a new school. It has been exciting, but it is also taking longer than I would like for me to feel settled and organized :) I guess it is just like when we move into a new house. We always think we will never be totally unpacked and settled in! Anyway, thank you for being patient with me.

I do like to use this blog spot and email as communication tools. I know how busy everyone is and it is not always easy to make or receive a phone call in the evenings. I also know that since we are all busy, it is not always easy to check a website daily for any new announcements. So, with that in mind, anytime I update this blog with any new information, I will send out a quick email letting you know there is something new you might want to look at.

I will also begin to post my newsletter to the blog. I will still, at this point, send a paper copy of the newsletter, but I am hoping to get things working so smoothly that I don't need to send out a paper copy (unless of course you don't have access to a computer).

Now for the news:
Conference Schedule - I have been working on our schedule. I believe I have received a time preference from most families, so I will be sending home an email letting you know what your exact time is. Please let me know if the time I give you doesn't work for you.

Homework - Each child was asked to check for smoke alarms in their house this week. We are discussing fire safety and I know first hand how important it is to have working smoke alarms in your house. The children will probably come home and tell you that my house burnt. Yes, it did. About 16 years ago, I had a total loss house fire; and if it wasn't for our smoke alarm, my son, Zach, and I wouldn't be here. I would very much request that you check your smoke alarms to make sure they are working and if you are in need of new smoke alarms, please contact the Willard Fire Department. They should be able to help you.

Again, thank you for your patience with things so far this year, I am truely enjoying each and every one of your children!

End of the Year and Summer Information

Summer Office Hours – Ms. Betty and Nikki will be in the office answering phones until Wednesday June 3rd. The office will re-open for business July 21st.

New Student Enrollment = If you have a new neighbor, the new student enrollment dates are: July 29th – 30th

Next Year's Class Lists will be posted Friday August 5th. (Usually August 1st but it falls on a Saturday.) I will also put this in my report card newsletter.

Meet the Teacher Night = Thursday, August 13th from 6:00-8:00 pm

1st Day of School = Tuesday, August 18th :)

2009-2010 Theme – Together East Achieves More (Sports theme)

Lots of Information!

It is the end of the school year and there are lots of things happening:

ADDITION BANANA SPLIT CHALLENGE!!
I have scheduled our banana split celebration for next Tuesday or Wednesday. We have passed all of our tests and the children are very excited! Thank you for working with your child at home on addition and subtraction accuracy and fluency. This is also a great thing to continue working on over the summer to prepare for 2nd grade! All of the items have been spoken for. Thank you for helping supply the items. The kids can’t wait, and have been working so hard toward this goal!

READING CELEBRATION!
We are only 7 reading records away from our last reading celebration of the year. The students have challenged each other to bring in one reading record a piece on Monday! Please help remind your child to read and record the books this weekend. And, don’t forget to continue reading over the summer. The children have worked so hard on their reading skills, we don’t want them to slide back over the summer.

Last Day of School
Please notice that our last day of school, May 22nd, is an early-out day. School will be dismissed at 12:30 that day. Also remember your child will need to bring a sack lunch and a drink for our school-wide end of year picnic on the 22nd! We have had an amazing school year and I can’t believe it is almost over! Please plan on coming around 11:15ish, if you are available, to eat lunch with us before we leave for the summer.

TIGER PRIDE ASSEMBLY
Join us for our end of the year tiger pride assembly next Thursday, May 21st at 2:30. Hope to see you there!

REPORT CARDS
Please make sure that your child has returned all library books and payed all lunch fines so that I will be able to send home their progress reports on the last day of school. I know that you will be pleased with the progress your child has made!

Wind, wind, and more wind :-)

We have had just a little bit of wind lately :), but we have managed to make the best of it! I wanted to take just a moment to brag on your children. First of all, last Friday was an interesting day to say the least, but all of the children handled it exceptionally well! I was very proud of them. Secondly, today's field day and picnic was just a little windy also; we had fun looking hair, chilly arms, and had to chase our food, but the children once again made me proud. Everyone just focused on having fun and didn't worry about who did the best. It was a great day! Thanks again for sending me such wonderful children this year!!!

Now for the news:

Addititon Banana Split Challenge:
We are getting very excited about our banana splits. So far, we have earned a bowl, spoon, a banana, 2 scoops of ice cream, chocolate topping, and sprinkles. We are trying today for our second flavor of topping; and then we will work for whipped cream and a cherry. The students are doing very well on the test. We have only had to take one test over the second time. Thank you to all that have volunteered to bring in supplies, also. I believe we have everything spoken for except the two toppings. I very much appreciate everyone's willingness to help.

Puppets:
We are going to bring our field trip to life! We saw how to make many different kinds of puppets on our field trip; now we are hoping to make puppets next week, write puppet scripts for them, and then perform our scripts in class. It will be a fun way to use our writing and reading skills we have worked so hard on this year.

ASK YOUR CHILD ABOUT…

Comparing and contrasting two Goldiocks stories and the characters in Frederick, adding 2-digit numbers, working on our addition banana split challenge, our last reading celebration (we are only 16 reading records away), our walking field trip to the high school to watch a drama production.

Have a great rest of the week!