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