Weekly Updates November 30th -December 4th

Hello,

I hope everyone had an enjoyable and relaxing break. It's hard to believe tomorrow is December already! The excitement of the season is in the air.

Upcoming Events:

Monday, December 1st-Kaukauna Christmas Parade

We will plan to have families meet at our line up spot around 5:45/5:50.  The parade starts at 6:00, but it can be a bit of a wait to get going, so this should be plenty of time. Just a reminder: kids riding or walking in the parade MUST be accompanied by an adult.

Entry Name:  New Directions Learning Community Charter School
Parade Position: 27 *Look for a numbered stake on the side of the road 
Staging Street: 809 Wisconsin

Thursday, December 10th-PJs, Pizza and Publishing Family Night, 5:30-7:00-A note came home last week. Students are invited to bring a friend to celebrate their hard work as writers. Let me know if you have any questions.

Tuesday, December 15th-11:30 Dismissal

Thursday, December 24-Sunday January 3rd-Winter Break

Six Flag Read to Succeed Book Logs are coming home today. If your child would like to participate, he or she needs to read a total of 6 hours by February 16. 

Curriculum Updates:

Readers' Workshop: We are continuing our reading nonfiction unit. We've been on the look out for key words that are specific to the topics we are reading about to share with our partners. This week we'll be working on rereading using a teaching voice, finding interesting things to share with our partners, reading with feeling and reading like a writer (what can we notice authors doing that we can use in our own All About Information books).

Writers' Workshop: As we continue writing our All About Information books, we will continue to use different kinds of writing in our teaching books such as: how-to writing, persuasive writing and stories, we will also be writing introductions and conclusions to our books, and fixing up our writing using all the strategies we have learned so far (end punctuation, capitals at beginning of sentences, using word wall words and word parts we know to spell the best we can).

Math Workshop: This week we will be focusing on solving mixed story problems. These problems will include both addition and subtraction stories. We've been working on using equations to set the situation up and help us solve the stories. 

Science/Social Studies:  We are continuing to learn about weather through our centers. We keep waiting for snow, but it's been very elusive so far. (Sad for kids, but ok for those of us who have to shovel!)

Word Study: We introduced 5 new word wall words today. The words are: his, her, has, you, see. We will be assessing these words on Friday. These are words we want students to be able to read and write automatically without having to think to sound them out. Students also continue to work on phonics skills and word sorts at their developmental level.

As always, let me know if you have any questions.

Kathy Zobel

First Grade

New Directions Learning Community

Weekly Updates November 23-27

Hello,

With this short week we will have a short update. I hope everyone has a chance to relax over this long Thanksgiving weekend. I am very thankful for all the unique first grade personalities I get to work with everyday!

December Homework Calendars are coming home today. 

Updates:

Wednesday, November 25-Friday, November 27-No School-Happy Thanksgiving!

Monday, December 1st-Kaukauna Christmas Parade

Thursday, December 10th-PJs, Pizza and Publishing Family Night, 5:30-7:00-Look for more information to come home soon.

Tuesday, December 15th-11:30 Dismissal

We will be sharing our turkeys in disguise this week and writing about our disguise. We have lots of creatively disguised turkeys in first grade!

Weather Centers

First graders are busy learning about weather!

Weekly Updates November 16-20

Hello,

I hope everyone had a chance to enjoy the beautiful weather this weekend. It looks like this week will not be as nice! We are digging deep into nonfiction in both reading and writing and students are noticing connections between what they are doing as readers and writers. What an exciting time to be a first grader!

Upcoming Events:

Monday, November 16th-Half Day-11: 30 Dismissal

Tuesday, November 17th-Yoga Family Night sponsored by the PSC 6:00-7:00

Wednesday, November 25-Friday, November 27-No School-Happy Thanksgiving!

Monday, December 1st-Kaukauna Christmas Parade- Look for more information soon on how you can help with the New Directions Float!

Curriculum Updates:

Readers' Workshop: Students are becoming experts on so many topics as they continue to read nonfiction. Today we will celebrate all we've learned so far by having a grown-up party to talk about what we've been reading the new things we've learned. Maybe you can have a talking party at your house to learn all about what your child has been learning! The rest of the week we will be learning how to tackle super hard words in order to keep learning. Some strategies we will practice are: readers can be persistent when reading hard words, they can  "crash" word parts together by reading the beginning, middle and end and putting the parts together, readers slow down to check that words look right and then reread to check that it makes sense, and readers learn new words as they read.  

Writers' Workshop: We are starting the second part of our All About Information books-Nonfiction Writers Can Write Chapter Books! This week we will write table of contents, plan and write chapters, write with details by using comparisons, and use different kids of writing in our teaching books such as: how-to writing, persuasive writing and stories.

Math Workshop: This week we will dig deep into story problems with  a change unknown or a start unknown. We will be pushing our mathematical brains to solve these problems. Students will  work to visualize the story and use  math mountains and equations to help them with their problem solving.  Here is an example of each type of problem:

Change Unknown: Sam had 4 cookies. Kim gave her some more. Then Sam had 7 cookies. How many cookies did Kim give Sam? (4 + ___=7)

Start Unknown: Sam had some cookies. Kim gave her 3 more. Then she had 7. How many cookies did Sam start with? (__ + 3 =7) 

Science/Social Studies:  We are continuing to learn about weather through our centers. Students are becoming weather experts!  Last week we watched a weather forecast and students were super excited about the slight possibility of snow! Oh boy, won't be long.

Word Study: We introduced 5 new word wall words today. The words are: on, had, may big, from. We will be assessing these words on Friday. These are words we want students to be able to read and write automatically without having to think to sound them out. Students also continue to work on phonics skills and word sorts at their developmental level.

As always, let me know if you have any questions.

Kathy Zobel

First Grade

New Directions Learning Community

First Grade Meteorologists Test the Wind

Weekly Updates November 9-13

I am looking forward to meeting with students and their families during our portfolio conferences this week. Students have been working hard in first grade, and this is a great opportunity to celebrate their accomplishments so far and set goals for new learning! Let me know if you need a reminder of your scheduled conference day and time.

Upcoming Events:

Tues. November 10th and Thurs. November 12th-Portfolio Conferences

Monday, November 16th-Half Day-11: 30 Dismissal

Tuesday, November 17th-Yoga Family Night sponsored by the PSC

Monday, December 1st-Kaukauna Christmas Parade- Look for more information soon on how you can help with the New Directions Float!

Curriculum Updates:

Readers' Workshop: This week we are starting our new unit, Learning About the World. This unit builds on students natural curiosity. During the first part of the unit we'll focus on how nonfiction readers become super smart about topics. In the second part of the unit in addition to comprehension, we'll be spotlighting vocabulary. In the last part of the unit we'll be working on building fluency and studying the craft of authors that we can use in our own writing. This week we will focus on previewing our books to get our minds ready, using the details on each page to learn even more, talking with our partners to grow our thinking, and rereading to make sure we understand our books.

Writers' Workshop: We started our All About Information books last week, and students are experts on so many topics! This week we will focus on assessing our writing and setting goals, teaching with pictures and words, focusing on using our spelling strategies to spell tricky words, and using readers to help us add more and take out details. 

Math Workshop: . This week we will continue to focus on solving problems with unknown addition partners and writing our own story problems with missing partners. We will also be relating subtraction problems to unknown partners and solving subtraction story problems.

Science/Social Studies:  We had a great time at the Building for Kids. The weather class provided us with many hands on centers to learn more about air, temperature, fog and clouds. We also enjoyed learning and creating with classmates throughout the museum. See below for photos of our day. Thanks to our great parent volunteers for helping out on our trip!

This week we will continue studying weather by learning more about the wind and then beginning some weather centers at the end of the week focused on temperature, seasons, and clouds. We will be using pebblego, books, thermometers and other materials to help us with our new learning!

Word Study: We introduced 5 new word wall words today. The words are: day, get, of, like, good. We will be assessing these words on Friday. These are words we want students to be able to read and write automatically without having to think to sound them out. Students also continue to work on phonics skills and word sorts at their developmental level.

As always, let me know if you have any questions.

Kathy Zobel

First Grade

New Directions Learning Community

Pumkins, Spiders, and Bats, oh my!

Partners shared their research:

Weekly Updates November 2-6

November 2-6 Weekly Updates

Happy November! It looks like we'll be having a few warm days. This will be a perfect kick off to our weather unit in science, which ties into our Building for Kids fieldtrip.  

Upcoming Events:

Tues. November 10th and Thurs. November 12th-Portfolio Conferences

Monday November 16th-Half Day-11: 30 Dismissal

New Directions is participating in the KHS National Honor Society Food Drive from Oct 26-Nov 6. Please consider donating if you haven't already.

Curriculum Updates:

Readers' Workshop: We will be finishing up our Word Detective unit by being word detectives in nonfiction books. We'll be using clues to help us figure out tricky words and what they mean. We'll continue using our strategies of, "Does it look right? Does it make sense? Does it sound right?" when trying to figure out tricky words. We'll also be sharing our new learning from our nonfiction books with our partners. 

Writers' Workshop: As we finish up our How-To writing, we'll be starting our Nonfiction Chapter Books unit. Writers will be bringing home the How-To books they have written over the past two weeks. In our new unit students will be writing information teaching books. In the beginning they will be writing a basic information book similar to a picture book. By the end of the unit they will be creating multiple information chapter books filled with elaboration, interesting text elements and pictures that supplement the teaching of the words. This week we will find a topic we know a lot about, plan our topic across our fingers, and keep readers in mind when writing.

Math Workshop: We will be starting a new unit, Unknown Numbers in Addition and Subtraction. This week we will be focusing on solving problems with unknown addition partners. For example, We see 9 fish. Five are big. The others are small. How many fish are small?  We will be exploring multiple strategies for solving these problems.

Science/Social Studies:  Students were very excited to create posters sharing their research about bats, spiders or pumpkins. This week we will be starting our weather unit. We'll be spending the week building background, including a weather class at the Building for Kids on Friday.

Word Study: We introduced 5 new word wall words today. The words are: look, make, but, give, all. We will be assessing these words on Friday. These are words we want students to be able to read and write automatically without having to think to sound them out. Students also continue to work on phonics skills and word sorts at their developmental level.

As always, let me know if you have any questions.

Kathy Zobel

First Grade

New Directions Learning Community

Help spread the word!

New Directions Learning Community will be offering a free event

for senior citizens in the Fox Valley.

On Thursday November 5^th  from 8:30 – 9:15 am

seniors are welcome to visit our school.

Coffee and pastries will be served while they

learn about how school is different today than it was when they were young.