Learning Update-Dec. 15-19

Math
5th Grade-Took the Unit 3 assessment.  Most of the kids did a great job!  Those that needed additional practice were given some extra time and then retook a portion of the assessment.  It's great to see kids persevere through some of the tougher math topics!  Next up, in Unit 4, we will be looking at comparing numbers using multiplication and division.
4th Grade-Students are working on using all four operations to compare numbers.  We have also started to review graphs and charts, and use their information to compare numbers.
3rd Grade-Students are working with telling time, elapsed time and reading charts and graphs. 

Reading
This week in our reading groups we wrapped up our conversation about comparing and contrasting and started to take a peek into the idea of cause and effect.  It ties really nicely into our social studies unit!  Book clubs will have pages to read over the break next week.

Social Studies
We are diving into the causes of the Revolutionary War!  So far we have discussed the French and Indian War, the Sugar Act and the Stamp Act.  Next up, we will talk about how the colonists that weren't Loyalists reacted to the King's demands.

Writing
We are working diligently on our persuasive pieces.  Students took the time at the beginning of the week to write about a problem and a solution that they see around them.  They finished off the week with some peer reviewing.  Look for a special piece of writing to come home the day before break. 

Special Thanks:
We would like to thank the volunteers that have been working in our room every week: Mrs. Oelhafen, Mrs. Maas, Mrs. Uelmen and Mrs Kreuser.  Your help is extremely appreciated!  We would also like to think the parents who have been able to come in and help during our parties and other special events.  It's so exciting for the kids to see these special people come in and work with us!

Class Update 12/8-12/12

As Christmas is approaching, our class meet to discuss a Christmas party.  There is a sign up genius that went home through Skyward to sign up for supplies.  There will also be a letter coming home to explain the day once we get all the details sorted out. Students voted to participate in a secret Santa gift exchange similar to what they did in third grade with Mrs. Mentink.

Reading/Writing/Social Studies

This week we finished up main idea detail and introduced text structure (compare/contrast, cause/effect, problem/solution, and chronological order).  Our focus is comparing and contrasting.  Students were introduced to this topic with an activity comparing and contrasting Hershey's hugs and kisses.  We created a Venn diagram and then practiced writing a comparison essay. Students will continue to work in small groups at their reading level to focus on this skill.  They will also have the opportunity to practice this skill in social studies where they are learning about the 13 colonies.  

Math

Grade 3 - Third grade is continuing to work on our measurement unit.  This week we have been focusing on telling time to the nearest minute.  We are also talking about telling time before and after the hour (2:22 is 22 minutes after 2 and 38 before 3) and elapsed time (how much time has past from the start to the end of an activity).  

Grade 4 - The fourth graders have been working on division!  We completed the Unit 3 assessment early in the week and are now tackling number expressions and number equations-another comparing and contrasting activity. 

Grade 5 - Fifth graders are working on reviewing adding and subtracting fractions and practicing multiplying and dividing fractions.  All four operations should be fairly fluent at this time.  We will be taking the Unit 3 assessment in the beginning of next week.  A review will be coming home tonight to study over the weekend.  

Thanksgiving Week

What a fantastic, short week we've had!

Mrs. Ebert and Mrs. Petersen came back from the Google Summit with some exciting new ideas on incorporating technology into our classroom.  The first step was setting up our classroom on Google Classroom.  When students are logged into Google Classroom they can get assignments teachers have posted, visit links teachers and other students have shared and get involved in lots of other fun ways!

Some of the links we have shared recently have to do with the earliest English settlements including Roanoke, Jamestown and Plimouth:
Great videos including a tour of the Mayflower 2!
History Channel's guide to Thanksgiving
More history on Thanksgiving-including the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

Weekly Update November 24-25

It's hard to believe we are already at Thanksgiving break.  We hope you enjoy the extra time off with your family.

Math
Third grade started their unit on measurement.  We will be measuring to the nearest 1/4 inch, working with liquid volume (cup, pint, quart, and gallon), and mass (ounce and pound).  Students will also learn about metric measurements (centimeter, meter, milliliter, liter, gram, and kilogram).  We will also work on telling time to the nearest minute and elapsed time.

Fourth grade will continue to work on long division.  Please continue to review basic multiplication and division facts at home.

Fifth grade is continuing to work with fractions.  They are currently learning to multiply fractions.

Reading Workshop
We have been reading non fiction text.  Students have been exploring the different text features used in non fiction (table of contents, glossary, index, captions, bold print, etc).  We are also working on finding the main idea and details in our small groups.  We also started a new round of book clubs.  Check with your child to see which book they are currently reading.

Writing Workshop
Students have been busy working on Thanksgiving stories.  We introduced opinion writing using the following prompt...Write a story from the turkey's point of view why you should not eat turkey on Thanksgiving.  They have come up some very creative and funny stories.  We will wrap up our stories this week and give students a chance to share with the class.

Social Studies
We have moved on from explorers to colonization.  The unit was introduced by learning about Roanoke Colony, also known as the Lost Colony.  Ask your child what they learned about this mysterious colony.

Google Classroom
Mrs. Ebert and Mrs. Petersen were out a day last week at the Google Summit.  We learned many things we are excited to implement in our classroom.  One thing we have already put into place is Google Classroom.  Each student is now able to log into their Chromebook and access a folder for each subject. Classroom is designed to help teachers create and collect assignments without paper. Have your child log into their Google account and show you this weekend.

Cousins Cards
Fifth grade students are selling Cousins cards to fund raise for their Chicago field trip.  These are a great deal.  Each card is $10 and is good for 12 subs at buy one get one free pricing. They will make great Christmas gifts!

BEE Assembly

Please click below to see a video of this month's BEE expectation. Students reviewed winter playground behavior.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzeii9PQ33k

Student Government

Congratulations to our newly elected student government!

Co-Presidents - Lydia Steinbauer and Brooke Buechler

5th Grade Representative - Jacob Brzozowski
4th Grade Representative - Mason Stoffel
3rd Grade Representative - Matthew Oelhafen

3-5 Class Representatives:
Teagan Carroll, Kiera MacFarlan, and Ruth Uelmen

Student Government

Mrs. Mundigler will be in our room this week to talk to the class about participating in student government.

What is Student Government?

• Involves students in sharing ideas
• Enhances good citizenship
• Promotes service learning (doing good things for our community)
• Develops leadership and planning skills
• Gives students a voice in solving problems and making decisions

Student Government will consist of 8 people

• Two 5th Grade Co-Presidents
• One 5th Grade Representative
• One 4th Grade Representative
• One 3rd Grade Representative
• Three more reps from any grade level

How do I get on Student Government?

• Type or hand write an essay that contains the following:
• Your name and some facts about yourself
• The qualities you have that make you a good candidate for student government
• An idea you would like to see led by student government (example - Adopt a Family at Christmas time)
• A parent AND teacher signature

Deadlines for becoming a representative or Co-President:

• October 30 - Assembly - What is Student Government?
• November 4 - 5th Grade Co-President Speeches - election immediately after
• November 6 - Representative Speeches (grades 3, 4, and 5) - election immediately after.

Halloween Bash

Thank you WES PTO for a great night!

October 20-23 Update

No School on Friday, October 24th!  The KSD staff is traveling to local businesses on Friday to learn more about and discuss job opportunities our students may have after graduating from the KSD. 

Math
This week in math, the 5th graders reviewed what they had learned about adding and subtracting decimals and solving story problems.  All fifth grade students completed the Unit 2 assessment on Thursday.  Fourth graders continued to work on multiplying single digit by two digit numbers and two digit by two digit numbers.  Students were exposed to many different methods of multiplication, most recently to the "short-cut" method which is the more traditional method.  Third grade focused on continuing to learn and practice multiplication facts including the 7's, 8's and 9's. 

Reading
This week's theme was theme!  Together, we created an anchor chart listing the most important points of theme: it's the lesson of the story, it's what you learn from the whole story, it can be seen or applied to other books.  We worked with theme as a whole group, in book clubs and in small groups.  All students that participated in book clubs finished their books by Thursday, the 23rd.  New books will be selected next week!

Writing:
We continued to practice personal narrative writing.  Many students are taking advantage of the current season and writing stories about things that are spooky or haunted! 

Social Studies:
The fall of the Aztecs and Incas was the focus of social studies this week.  We discussed how it would feel if a stranger showed up on our doorstep and asked us to change our religious beliefs, our language, the way we grow and eat our food and the way we raise our children.  Most students were very vocal in their opinions-no way would they be ok with that!  Next week we will continue to talk about other conquistadors and explorers as they move towards America.

October 13-17 Update

Thank you for taking the time to visit our blog!  Here is the information from the week:

Math:
During this week in math, students in third grade focused on growing their multiplication and division facts.  Fourth grade students continued to work with multiplication models to multiply two digit by one digit numbers.  Fifth graders had some fun with decimals, making sure to line up the decimal before adding or subtracting. Next week we are going to change our independent stations a bit. When students are finished working independently on their workbook pages or activities, they will have online games to play that correlate with the lesson of that day.  Thank you to Mrs. Maas, Mrs. Oelhafen, Mrs. Kreuser for volunteering their time in our room!

Guided Reading:
Summarizing continued to be our focus during our mini lessons and small groups this week.  Some students continued to work with a graphic organizers while others moved onto writing paragraphs using the information they would typically include in the graphic organizer.  Next week we will begin talking about finding the theme in literature.

A book club group discussing their book, before writing about it!

Writing:
We continued to work on personal narratives during our writing sessions.  Something new that we began this week is starting our writing period off with a brainstorm session!  If a student is stuck on how to resolve their conflict or what characters to add or how they might begin their piece, their peers give suggestions.  It is so neat to hear all of the unique ideas that they share together.

Our anchor chart for personal narratives continues to grow!  Every mini-lesson we have is added to our list of must-haves.

Social Studies:
Exploration was the name of the game this week in social studies.  Columbus, Magellan, Cabot, Balboa and Vespucci were the topics of lessons this week.  On Thursday and Friday, students took time to create an artifact having to do with exploration.  Some students selected decorating a trunk for travel and creating a list of 25 items they would take with them on a voyage, other students selected reading a choose-your-own-adventure book and writing a short summary of their experience and others decided to create a picture of a shoal complete with a ship, animals and underwater plants.

Students in the 3-5 Cohort working on their social study activities!

Reminders:

• Don't forget to RSVP for the PTO's Halloween Bash that will be held next Thursday, the 23rd from 6:00-7:30.
• No school for kids on Friday, the 24th.  KSD Staff has an inservice day.
• We will be holding a cake walk at the Halloween Bash-5th grade students took home more information on Friday.
• Red Ribbon Week begins next week. 
• Monday is Wear Red Day! You will be given a pencil and bookmark purchased by our PTO
• Tuesday is Hats Off To Being Drug Free-wear a hat (the crazier, the better)
• Wednesday is I "Mustache" You Not To Do Drugs-wear a mustache or disguise
• Thursday is-Being Drug Free is Healthy For Me-wear clothes for exercising and bring a healthy snack

October 6-10 Update

The temperature may be dropping, but the sun is still shining!

This week during reading, we spent our mini-lessons discussing the skill of summarizing.  This skill was then carried over into small groups.  The format we like to use most is: Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then. One of the books we used in our lessons was titled "The Widow's Broom".  The perfect story to match our changing weather!


Our Summary: Minna Shaw wanted to keep her magical broom but, her neighbor didn't like it because it was magic.  So, when the neighborhood men came to take the broom she gave them her old broom in the closet and painted the magic broom white!  The old broom pretended to be a ghost and scared the neighbors away.  Then, the neighbors moved away and Minna Shaw, the widow, kept her wonderful magic broom.

Our writing lessons revolved around the personal narratives that we have been working on for the past week.  This week, we talked a lot about adding dialogue to our text and using correct capitalization.  Many students are beginning to wrap their pieces up so next week, our mini lessons will focus on how to make our pieces stand out while publishing!  In our newer writing workshop format, when teachers meet to confer with students, they will point out one or two areas the student should work on in their piece.  The piece is not edited by a teacher, but instead students are encouraged to strengthen their writing skills throughout the year.  This encourages student ownership over their piece and helps them grow in their individual skills under the guidance and instruction of the teachers. 

During our social studies time we have began exploring the facts and stories about explorers! We began the week learning and revisiting mapping skills that include: reading a map, finding the map legend and using a compass rose.  We continued the week learning about the Vikings, Marco Polo and the reasons for exploration paths to Asia.  Many students found this Viking website fun and full of information!

Math is continuing to go well.  The third grade finished their first math post-assessment on Friday, and will take their pre-assessment on Monday.  We use the pre-assessments to determine the placement of the students in groups. Fourth grade groups are working on multiplying one digit by two, and fifth grade groups ended the week adding decimal numbers.

If you haven't already, please take a few moments to complete the parent survey put together by the WES staff.  Results are anonymous and very important to us.  We are so excited to examine the results to make our school the best school we can! 

That's the news of the week!  



Parent Survey

If you haven't yet, please take a moment to complete our survey (Click Here).
We are excited to discover the opinions, thoughts and questions of parents regarding our current classroom design and our future classroom design. 
Thank you!

September 29 - October 3 Weekly Update

The highlight of our week was going to FES to participate in the mini-KEYS event.  The music was pumping while the students ran laps.  When they were done, they were each given a snack.  Mr. Thull put a lot of work into making this event fun for the WES and FES students.

Our students reached our class goal of 100 bee points.  On Monday, we will vote on our reward!

Math

Our fourth and fifth grade students had their first assessment and will begin unit two next week.  We had all students take a pretest to determine new groups.  

The third grade students will continue to work on multiplication facts.  We have learned how to multiply and divide by 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, and 10.  Next week, we will work on 6, 7, 8.  Please continue to review facts at home.  There are many great apps and online programs you can use.  In class, we use aaamath.com.  You can search for many different math skills to work on at this site.

Fourth grade will begin a unit on multiplication.  They will learn to multiply one digit numbers by up to four digit numbers.  Eventually, we will get into two digit by two digit multiplication.  If students aren't secure in their basic facts, they need to be reviewing them at home.  All facts are expected to be secure by the end of third grade. 

Fifth grade will begin a unit on decimals.  They will be expected to read, write, and compare decimals to the thousandths place. In addition to this, they will round, add and subtract decimal numbers.

Reading

We are full swing in our workshop model.  Students are divided up into eight different groups based on their Fountas and Pinnell reading test.  During our small group reading time, students are reading a short book at their level.  As we read, we are focusing on story elements and character traits.  Next week, we will move on to summarizing.

When students aren't reading with a teacher, they are either in a book club or independent reading. They are assigned a book club at their reading level and continue to work on the same skills they are learning in the teacher group.  The students are loving the workshop model!

Writing

Last week, we introduced personal narratives to the students.  We have gone through pre-writing and drafting.  This week we started revising and editing.  Students are meeting individually with a teacher for assistance on this.  We have enjoyed reading their stories.  It helps us to get to know each of them a little better.  We will continue to work on this next week.  Students will have an opportunity to share their writing with their peers as well.

Science

We wrapped up our plant unit this week and had our first assessment.  Students will receive their test back on Monday.  We will move to social studies next week.

West Bend Daily News

The West Bend Daily News visited our school on Tuesday, September 30. Click HERE to read the article.

Sept. 22-29th Weekly Update

Here is the news from the week:

Science:
We wrapped up our Sprout Kid observation with thoughtful discussion about the causes for our results.  How in the world was the grass able to grow with no sunlight?  Why was the grass different shades of green?  After a fantastic whole-group discussion, we used what we had learned about photosynthesis and chlorophyll to answer those questions.  We continued to learn more about plants this week, including the topics of seedless and seed plants and plant life cycles.  Next week we will review what we have discovered about plants and take our first science assessment!  The assessment will be a written assessment, with two versions based upon student need and expectations. 

Writing:
Our Writer's Workshop has taken flight!  Wahoo!  We began our first unit, personal narratives.  Most of our focus lessons revolved around picking a topic, making sure we knew enough to write about a topic and figuring our what details we could add to make our writing POP!  Next week we will continue to work on our narratives with focus lessons based upon revising our pieces.  Writer's Workshop takes place mostly on the computers or Chromebooks.  Using their Google Drive, they are able to "share" their writing piece with Mrs. Ebert and Mrs. Petersen with the click of a button!

Reading:
Book Club reports were a huge part of our Reader's Workshop this week.  Most of the groups completed and presented their report on Friday.  In addition to the students who presented their book club book, there were several students who used a graphic organizer to map out the character, plot and setting of a shorter text.  
Next week we will begin our full fledged Reading Workshop.  In this setting, we will have a whole-group focus lesson followed by students working in two 25 minute stations with a snack break & mini lesson between the stations. The stations will include: Teacher/Book Club and Independent Reading.  When students are in the independent station they are reading a book of their choice, quietly.  When they have finished they document their reading in a reading log.  If a student is meeting in a book club they are reading a book with other students at a similar reading level.  The students will set their own pacing and will use their time to read and discuss the literature using a teacher selected prompt.  If a student is not meeting with a book club they will be meeting with Mrs. Ebert or Mrs. Petersen for small groups lesson.

Math:
Third grade focused on multiplying and division this week, fourth grade continued to focus on subtracting greater numbers and fifth grade continued to practice adding and subtracting mixed numbers with unlike denominators.  Students spent their independent station working on either their interactive notebooks (used for reference in the future) or on task cards.  During their technology station students created accounts for Khanacademy.org  and spent time in Dreambox.  
If your child wants to use Khan Academy at home they are more than welcome to do so!  Please remind them that their username is their entire email address  _______@student.kewaskumschools.org and their password is whatever they use to log into the Chromebooks.  

That is the news of the week!  

Thank you for taking the time to visit our blog and learn more about our learning environment! 

September 15-19 Weekly Update

What a wonderful and exciting week we had!

Math:
Math stations are rocking and rolling! Third graders continued to work on multiplication facts including the 9's.  Fourth graders have been focusing on subtracting multi-digit numbers.  The fifth graders began working on adding and subtracting mixed numbers with like and unlike denominators.  There is a great hum of activity during our math time.  It's exciting to see students active with math for such a good chunk of time.  We sent out an email asking for volunteers to help with our independent station during math.  Ideally, it would be great to get one volunteer for each day of the week-one person does Mondays, one does Tuesdays, etc. We currently have had one parent offer to come in on Fridays and another volunteer to come in on Tuesdays.  If you are interested in helping out, please email, call or stop in!

Reading:
All of the book clubs have completed their books this week!  The students have been excited to share their books with their classmates, so next week we will give the groups time to create a book report to share with the entire group!  All students received a rubric for the book report on Monday, the 15th.  The third graders have a rubric that is slightly different than the fourth and fifth graders.  We talked about what a rubric is and why it is helpful to have.  We also showed an example of what a book report might look like using Google Presentation, and gave the students the opportunity to "grade" the presentation using the rubric.  They are hard graders!  Students will be using the Chromebooks and the computers in the lab to complete the project.  We are hoping to have all presentations complete by Wednesday.  In other great news, Mrs. Petersen and Mrs. Ebert have completed assessing student reading levels using the Fountas and Pinnell tests!  The students were great at being flexible about leaving their station during workshop to meet with the teachers.

Writing:
Next week we are going to get our writing workshop in full swing!  We will begin the year writing personal narratives.  Trying something a little different, we have created our planning sheets in Google Docs and will be sharing them with the students to complete during our Guided Writing time.  It will be wonderful to see the students evolve in their writing skills in our new writing workshop setting.

Science:
Our Sprout Kids have left the nest!  It was so cool to see the students' excitement each time we brought out the Sprout Kids from their homes.  As scientists, we have completed our data collection.  In the coming week, we will be working hard on figuring out what that data means and what might have been the cause of our results (the grass grew in the dark?!).  Here are some more great pictures of your scientists hard at work:

Math Stations

We are constantly assessing how our classroom functions and how to improve learning and our environment.  This week we moved from a four station to a three station math.  Reducing the number of stations allows more time in each station, which was greatly needed.  The three stations include: Teacher, Independent and Technology.

The Teacher Station, is just what it sounds like-students work in small groups ranging from 3-12 students and one teacher.  When students are at the Teacher Station they are receiving the direct instruction they would be receiving in a typical grade-level classroom, but with the ability to focus the teachers' attention on a much smaller group.  Students and teachers alike in our room are enjoying the smaller setting!  There are currently two student groups for each grade level.  These groups are fluid, meaning that they may not stay the same for a long period of time.  Students are assessed every one to two weeks to determine their current needs. 

In addition to the Teacher Station, the Independent Station is a continuation of the lesson from the Teacher Station.  During the Independent Station, students work on practicing the skill they were taught in the Teacher Station.  If they are stuck on a problem they can ask a friend, log onto edmodo.com, learnzillion.com or khanacademy.com to watch videos on the topic, or they can ask Mrs. Scannell who is in our classroom for math Mondays-Thursdays.  

Dreambox is the main focus for students when they are at the Technology Station.  Beginning this week, students will alternate their time at the Technology Station, working on Dreambox or creating their Interactive Math Notebooks(IMN). These IMN have a dual purpose, reviewing what was just learned in the Teacher Stations and serving as a resource book as students add to them. 

Sept. 8-12 Weekly Update

We spent most of our week focusing on our literacy time, math time and a great science activity!  Here's some information on what was accomplished this week and what we plan to do in the coming week.

Literacy

This week, our stations consisted of independent reading, reader's response with book clubs and technology.  During this time we also continued to work on assessing reading and comprehension levels.  The learning targets for all three grade levels included reviewing/introducing the setting, characters and plot of a fiction text.

While students are in their independent station, they are called one-by-one to confer or conference with a teacher.  This individual time gives the teachers a great insight into what reading and comprehension strategies students are putting into their daily practice and what still needs to be worked on.  Our literacy time will look quite similar in the coming week.

Science

The whole room was buzzing with activity this week Tuesday as we put our Sprout Kids together! Thank you to all of the families who donated items to the room and the parents and grandparent that came in to help that day-we certainly needed it!  After the students created their Kids they wrote their hypothesis to answer the question: How will the different levels of light affect the growth of the Sprout Kids?  

We will be checking on the Sprout Kids every other day to document sprout growth and color.  Students will gather in groups and as a class to compare data. 

In the coming weeks, our learning targets for science will included photosynthesis, the oxygen and carbon cycle and the life cycle of a plant.

Math

Math is a very busy and productive time in our learning environment!  The third graders continued to work on multiplying factors to find a product, the fourth graders focused on place value and comparing larger whole numbers and the fifth graders spent a lot of time concentrating on comparing fractions using equivalent fractions.

Another exciting event this week: we started using our Chromebooks!  The students were thrilled to finally get to use the Chromebooks in the classroom.  They will be used throughout the day, but primarily during math, for typing practice and during our writing time.

Sprout Kids

We completed our first science investigation this week.  Students used old nylons, grass seed, saw dust, and rubber bands to create Sprout kids.

These Sprout kids will be put into one of three place; Bright Light (natural sunlight), Pale Palace (classroom/fluorescent light), or Black Out (closet).  Students had to predict how their Sprout kid would grow in each environment.  After they finished their hypothesis, they named their Spout kid and drew a picture.  Over the next few weeks, students will water their Sprout kid and check to see how they are growing.  

Thank you to everyone that brought in materials for this project.  We would also like to thank Brady, Alyce, and Tierney's Papa, Mrs. Maas, and Mrs. Heinonen for volunteering their time.

September 2-5 Weekly Update

Our first week has come and gone, and what a fabulous week it was!  Now that we are up and running we thought we would give you a picture of what each subject area looks like in our learning space:

Math-
Students were given a pre-assessment at their grade level.  Based on their pre-assessment  and classroom observations, students were placed in groups based upon their needs.  Groups vary in size of 4-7 students.  In these groups, students are instructed directly by a teacher.  When their group is not meeting with a teacher, students are in a math fact practice station, a technology station or an independent station (where they work on workbook pages/remembering sheets).  As teachers, we are loving the small groups and the ability to focus on a select number of students at a given time.  The students are loving the movement of the math time and the ability to work with so few kids and one teacher.

Science/Social Studies-
We are starting the year in science with a focus on plants.  More specifically, their life cycle, how they make food, and what role they play in the oxygen cycle.  We did a short video preview of plants and are going to start off running with a fun activity that will last about two weeks, beginning on Tuesday.  Please visit our signup for materials needed for the activity: Science Sign Up.  Also, during this time, students will be brushing up on their typing skills. 

Literacy Workshops-
For our reading workshop, students were placed in book clubs of about 4 students/book.  The students set up their reading calendars to make sure they would be able to finish their book and complete a short report by September 24th.  When in our workshop model, students are using what they are reading to complete a book log and a reader's response.  Students are asked to write a short paragraph to answer one of the prompts we have given them-there are about 10 to choose from.  Also, during this workshop, students have visited two fun reading websites: abcya.com and Tumblebooks.  Next week, students will continue these stations and Mrs. Petersen and Ebert will being assessing the students using our Fountas and Pinell books.  
This week, students also took their first spelling assessment which helps us locate what their needs are as far as word work is concerned. We are calling spelling "Words" this school year and although it has a different title, is still the "Words Their Way" that we used last year.  There will be no weekly spelling assessments this year, instead we will check for understanding roughly every 5 or 6 weeks to ensure students are utilizing the new patterns-not just memorizing a list of words each week

We have heard from a few parents with questions on homework expectations.  Each week, students are asked to read at least 100 minutes.  The reading that is done at home should be documented in the assignment notebook with the title of the book and the minutes read.  Why is it so important to read at home?  Take a peek at this graphic:

We also check each morning to see that the assignment notebook has been signed by a parent.  This signifies to us that at home, the parent has checked the assignment notebook for notes from the teachers and has checked to make sure any homework for the night has been completed.  The assignment notebook is a fantastic tool for communication between home and school!

Some more exciting news-most kids have already handed their Google Permission forms back in with a parent signature so the Chromebooks should be making their appearance next week!

If you need to get a hold of us for any reason. please feel free to write a note, send an email apetersen@kewaskumchools.org & nebert@kewaskumschools.org or call 262-626-8427 ext. 5107.

First Day-In the Books!

Walking into the room this morning was such an amazing experience for us!  The morning started with the staff running around putting the finishing touches on the day's agenda and activities.  And then the kids came through the doors!

Some people may expect sad faces and slow feet as the end of summer and the beginning of school arrived, but not at WES!  Kids were rushing to their rooms looking for familiar faces and teachers to hug.  Parents were handing out well wishes to teachers and kids alike as they left the building.

Our learning space looked fabulous, but the big question was-would it work as an actual classroom?  The answer we found today?  Yup!  It sure will.

We spent most of the morning talking about expectations that the students had for themselves and their teachers.  We brainstormed, shared, discussed and created a short list of qualities anyone can see when they step into our learning space.  We ended our morning with a wonderful short video that gave a great start to a discussion about treating others with respect and kindness, no matter the situation.

The afternoon was full of some time getting reacquainted with Dreambox, completing a review of summer activity and ending the day with a great read-aloud.  Oh, and of course, recess was squashed in there too.

It was awesome to see the students hop right into the activities ready to grow and learn again. We are so excited to see what this year brings.  After such a fabulous day, there is no doubt we are headed for success!

Kids working on Dreambox!  After a little chaos getting everyone logged in, the kids got right to work. 

The beanbag chairs and couch quickly became the quiet, comfy place we were hoping it would be. 

Open House-A Success!

Thank you to all of the families who made it out to our Open House!  We loved seeing all of the familiar faces, and some new faces too.  It was great watching all of the kids find their crates and organize their sparkling new materials.  Another awesome aspect of the night was hearing so many positive comments about the layout of the room and the excitement of the upcoming year.  Yes, there has been a lot of change (some kids called things "weird"), but it is change for the better!  

On Tuesday, we plan on walking through the day with the kids.  We know this is going to be different for them, but we know if we prepare them and let them know what to expect they will have no problem finding their niche in the classroom.  

Watch for a new post next week with some classroom pictures and updates on how the room is working when the kids are finally here.  We are so looking forward to a great year with our fantastic students!  

Open House Tomorrow

Can you believe that summer is almost over?  A week from today, and we will be starting a new school year. We are excited for you to see the classroom at open house tomorrow.  Please bring your supplies and meet us in room 110 anytime between 4:00 - 6:00.  The PTO will also be hosting a book fair, so be sure to check that out in the cafeteria.

Progress!

We are making progress!  Our classroom is really beginning to look like a room designed for learning.  We still have some decorating and organizing to do before the Open House in a few weeks-but we're getting there!

Take a look at what the room looks like as of this morning:

• On the left you can see the book carts with some of our textbooks.  
• In the back section to the left you can see the Promethean board, groups of desks, a large whiteboard and a small group table in the far right hand corner.  
• The bookshelf with purple and pink bins is actually double sided with another 16 baskets on the other side, organized by reading level. 
• The small bulletin board beneath the flag has a bunch of beanbag chairs below it and is facing a couch for a cozy reading center.  
• More books continue in the pink, green, blue and yellow baskets on the right hand side of the picture.
• Between the bookshelves we have milk crates that will be used as individual storage space for each of the students.  This is where they can store their supplies, water bottles and any other treasures they may have. 
• Desks on the right are in a conversational U-shape and face a Promethean board.  
• The old staff lounge is now our 3-5 storage space.  You would also find both teacher desks in that space as well.  

We still have plenty to do before Open House, but we are so proud of the transformation this space has had so far.  Every time we move something we think about how it will impact the students, the learning and the feel of our room. 

Please make sure to have our Open House on your calendars: Wed. August 27th from 4-6

Summer is the perfect time for...

Summer is the perfect time for things like swimming, relaxing, being with friends, vacations with family!  For your teachers, it is a time for all of those things AND unpacking and arranging our new room!  It's not quite ready for all 43 students yet, but we are getting closer and closer.
At the beginning of July, our new classroom looked like a whole lot of boxes in an old library.  A few days of hard work left the room looking more like a classroom and less like a storage unit.  Take a look:

Using the desks and tables to organize what was once in boxes.  July 2014

All of the colored baskets are full of books organized by genre!  Mrs. Ebert spent a ton of time getting all the books where they needed to be.  July 2014

Did we mention how many books were sorted through?! July 2014  

More organizing.  The door you can see is the entry door into the computer lab. July 2014

More items to be sorted on the desks, boxes of books and one of the Promethean boards.  The door you can see is the entry that is across from the bathrooms.  July 2014

Farewell 2013-2014, Hello 2014-2015!

Bittersweet was the word of the day...and no, we aren't talking chocolate.  It's always sad to see the kids leave at the end of the year, but we are already looking forward to next year.  We have been busy packing up all of the classrooms and creating maps of how the new classrooms will look.  WES may be reorganized next year, but we know that the heart of the school will be exactly where we left it.  

Summer is time for fun, relaxation and some math and reading (right?)!  We have a few websites that are super fun and will help kids practice their math, reading and general academic skills.  All are free and some even have prizes for certain levels of participation!

Math:

• tenmarks.com
• Parents need to sign up and create a free account.  It's free for now, but it is usually fee based.
• sumdog.com
• Great basic skills practice!
• play.dreambox.com/login/7ubj/kewaskumsd
• Kids will need the login and password they were given at school.

Reading:

• barnesandnoble.com/u/summer-reading/379003570
• Barnes and Noble-Earn a free book!
• bookadventure.com/Home.aspx
• Free reading website-includes prizes for books read!
• tbcjr.com
• username: kewaskum
• password: login
• www.tumblebooks.com
• username: kewaskum
• password: books

General Fun Educational Website:

• wonderopolis.org/camp-early-registration

Thank you PTO

Thank you to our wonderful PTO for supporting our classroom with Chromebooks.  They voted last night to purchase 21 Chromebooks to support the students in the 3-5 classroom next year.  In addition, they also agreed to purchase Chromecast. This will allow students and teachers to project what they are doing on their computer to the Promethean board.  We are excited for our new technology!  Click here to learn more about Chromebooks.

Welcome

Welcome to Mrs. Ebert and Mrs. Petersen's classroom blog.  We are busy preparing for our first year as a multiage classroom.  Please visit us here for information about our class.  We are looking forward to starting our new adventure next September.