The Week of January 8th

Upcoming Events 

Winter Sports 2018

January 24, 31 and February 7

We are so excited to finally begin our 2018 Winter Sports Program! We are all looking forward to getting outside and enjoying some of the snow.  Please make sure that your child is prepared for their winter activity. I just wanted to remind you of a couple of things you should pack for your child.

Winter Sports Checklist

• Warm clothes: snow pants, boots, hats, mittens and neck warmers.
• Have your child dressed in comfortable clothes: sweatpants, sweatshirts and warm socks. 
• A back pack to keep all of your things together.
• A change of clothes. You never know when you will need them!
• Non-perishable lunch, snacks and drinks
• Any equipment you are providing such as snowboards, boots, skis, goggles, helmets, skates, snow shoes etc.

Students will arrive at school as usual. Skiers and snowboarders will be leaving the school at around 8:30. Skaters, snow shoe kids and cross country skiers will be leaving a little bit later. All kids will be back at WES in time to catch the bus home. Also, please remember to pick up your child’s equipment in the afternoon or the following morning. Please notify Debbie at the front desk if you are planning on transporting your child either way.

February 1st Early Release Day/Teacher In-Service 

Classroom News 

It was nice to finally be back for a full week of school! The first and second graders settled down quickly and are happy to be together again. I on the other hand had car trouble which began with a flat tire on Tuesday evening... it was such a drag! The kids were very understanding and had lots of their own car trouble experiences to share! In class we worked on refreshing and renewing our Hopes and Dreams by doing some fun growth mindset activities. We have been following a fun website called Class Dojo. We met a fun monster named Mojo and watched some short video clips about his experiences with developing a growth mindset. In the coming weeks, we will review our Hopes and Dreams from the beginning of the year, reflect on how they are going, and set new goals as needed. 

We had a BIG mindset moment this week! We have been learning how to log on to our laptop computers, navigate to our WES website and sign on to Reflex Math! It has been really hard to learn the many steps involved in this process, but the first graders have been so persistent. We are getting better and better each day and some students are even helping others now! 

Big Buddy Friday

On Fridays we love spending time with our big buddies from the 4-5 class.  This week we practiced some things to say to our selves to help with our growth mindsets. Students worked together to do a phrase sort. This helped us to know what to say to ourselves when things get tough! 

Morning Meeting

There will be no special share days for the month of January, but we are LOVING our games of  silly soccer! The kids are doing a great job working interdependently, thinking flexibly and have found lots of humor! 

Patterns In the Sky 

We began a fun new science unit on Monday! Students explored our first natural phenomenon which was an elapsed time video of the earth and moon transitioning from day to night. Students shared initial ideas and generated questions. We discussed our scientist circle meeting rules, and began working on a class model of the earth, moon and sun. Students modeled with different sized balls and came up with explanations and engaged in argumentation about which ball was which! We spent lots of time outside observing the sky and recording our observations. It was windy, and a little cold, but such a PERFECT outdoor science day! We observed how the sun appeared to move, we saw the moon and some really interesting shadows!! Later we filled out our summary table where we talk and review what we did, what we figured out, how it might help us explain our phenomenon and recorded emerging questions. We spent time in our Tepee too... this time we had our snacks inside and talked about our observations. 

   

      

Math Workshop

             

This week in math, we continued to explore subtraction as a difference between two numbers. We played Cat and Mice which was really fun for the kids! We also worked on addition strategies to 20. Students continued to work hard during our number corner each morning, and are really able to explain their thinking about missing number equations.  

Get Well Cards For Mr. Carlton 

On Friday we made get well cards for Mr. Carlton. He's been out sick for a while and the kids have really missed him. The cards were adorable and so thoughtful. I'm sure he will really love them!