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Thursday, December 12th 6:00 – Early Childhood Winter Family Night– Children should come dressed in festive attire they feel best wearing. Please drop them off in their classroom by 5:45. Families can then head to the gym and find a seat. The children will perform a special song and then enjoy a story read live by their teachers. The story, Share Some Kindness, Bring Some Light, will then be brought to life in each of the early childhood classrooms. Families will be invited to enjoy refreshments and travel freely around campus while participating in a variety of heartwarming activities sure to bring joy this holiday season!

What a week we had in first grade! We got a special visit from an Elf. She gave our class silly elf names on “Elf Day” and a Grinch balloon experiment on “Grinch Day!” Each day, students got to record her adventures in our classroom in an Elf Journal. We look forward to what she will do next in the upcoming days until break.

Thursday, we got spend the afternoon at the Oglebay Stifle Center for our 29 Hours reward. We created monster pinch pots out of clay. Students got to add their own unique touches to their monster by adding eyes, tails, horns, teeth, and much more. Please allow the clay to harden for at least the weekend. Students can then use acrylic paint to paint their creation.

Please remember to send your children with hats and gloves for the winter months as we still venture outside during snack and recess times. Thank you and have a wonderful weekend!

Karen & Danielle

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How do you save a turkey from ending up on the dinner table you ask?
Well, our friends in first grade became masters at disguising. Students dressed up their turkeys after the main character from their favorite book. Harry Potter, A Penguin, Pig the Pug, were some of the great creations made by our students. Then, they presented their turkeys to the class and explained why the book is their favorite.

In phonics, we focused on the word families of -an and -am. Students practiced this skill using a variety of games inc

Students accepted our Monster Math challenge to practice addition facts to 10. They have worked so hard to build their fluency and have all completed the challenge. This week in math we

We practiced ten frames to 100 with a fun Turkey Race game. Our kiddos were so excited that many asked to play the game again at home and to race a parent!

We read several Thanksgiving books this week including “The Great Turkey Races” and The Very Stuffed Turkey.” Students were challenged to build their own maze for their Turkey (marble) to travel through. They also were tasked with building a table to fit Thanksgiving food.

First grade reached 100% family participation in our 29 hours fundraiser! We can’t thank you enough for your donations and support. Our class raised the most money in the entire school and will receive a special field trip that will be announced soon. Students loved the school wide reward of a PJ day and dance party!

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It’s getting a little toasty for Pumpkin Jack. Our decomposing pumpkin has changed so much within just a week. We are using our observational skills to record the pumpkin’s appearance. We look forward to watching him change over the next few weeks.

On November 11th, we honored our own Officer John and presented him with cards thanking him for his service. We appreciate everyone that has given service to our country!

Many students have completed the Monster Math addition challenge and were rewarded with a certificate of recognition along with a cute monster finger puppet! We have many friends very close to finishing the challenge!

Thank you all for your donations for 29 hrs! Our class reached 100% participation and we couldn’t be more excited for our “Pizza PJ Dancing Party.” We will keep you posted when this will take place.

We hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Danielle & Karen

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We had our own mock election this week! After reading “Duck for President”, students had the opportunity to vote for Duck or Farmer Brown for president. The official voting booth ( the middle room) was run by Miss Brittany! The final tally- Duck-25 and Farmer Brown-5. After voting, the students wrote about why they would make a good president. They selected their own vice president and wrote about a law they would put into practice. The Author’s Chair was a great place for students to share their reasons!

We are tackling doubles and doubles plus one in math. For extra practice, students played games to reinforce this skill. They continued working on automaticity of facts with the Monster Math booklet.

We wrapped up learning about our Floss rule with “ff” and “zz.” Students are progressing right along and are becoming more fluent readers.

What do you do with your Jack-o-Lanterns after Halloween? Well in first grade, we use them for a science experiment! As a class, we watched the story “Pumpkin Jack” and learned about what happens to pumpkins over time and the process of decomposing. We carved our own “Jack,” placed him in a container, and plan to watch him decompose over the next several months. We also plan to watch a regular pumpkin that is not carved to compare. Students became scientists as they made observations about the pumpkins.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Karen & Danielle

CLICK HERE FOR UPCOMING WCDS EVENTS

• November 13th-We are excited to announce that our WCDS Talent Show will be shared as a Viewing Party during our 29 Hours of Giving on Wednesday, November 13th, at 7 PM!
• November 26th- All school Thanksgiving Luncheon and 12:30 Dismissal. No Aftercare
• No School November 27-29. Enjoy your Thanksgiving!
• Monday, December 1st- 10:00 start
• Beforecare is available in the gym from 7:30- 8:20 and aftercare from 3:30-5:00.
• Teacher Email: dfuentes@wcdsedu.com, kmead@wcdsedu.com

We had a fantastic week in first grade! The top highlights were, of course, the Halloween parade, hay ride and haunted gym! Enjoy the pictures below that captured all the excitement!

In Phonics, we learned the FLOSS rule- when /f/,/s/,/z/ or /l/ is heard after a short vowel at the end of a one-syllable word, you double the f,s,z or l! Students are tapping sounds and blending longer words for accuracy. We also read some of our October favorites to the class- Room on the Broom and Creepy Carrots. Both stories ended with a fun fall craft.

Our deep dive in science was all about the pumpkin! Miss Brittney planned a fabulous afternoon where students rotated among fun centers that included painting individual pumpkins, predicting and measuring the circumference of a pumpkin, as well as a sink or float activity! They were all so engaged and learned so much about the life cycle of the pumpkin!

Throughout the month of October, 4 students were selected to join a book club where they read a chapter book, talk about the book, and make predictions about each chapter. The book that the students read was called “October Ogre”. The students worked on their fluency, comprehension skills, and learned new vocabulary. At the end of the book, the 4 students completed a final project where they picked a monster from the book and created a poster all about that monster.

Kindly remember to pack two healthy snacks daily. Protein, veggies and fruit all boost the brain for learning. Thanks in advance!

CLICK HERE FOR UPCOMING WCDS EVENTS

We began our week with the privilege of leading our Monday morning whole school meeting. Four of our students presented the importance of reading and gave examples of ways to make reading fun.

This week in phonics we introduced the digraph -ck! Students learned that -ck appears at the end of a word after a short vowel sound. We are so excited to have unlocked almost 20 secrets. These secrets help students break the code. They are spotting secret sounds as they read and they love recording them in their notebooks.

In math we continued practicing our subtraction skills. Students ventured outside to utilize objects in nature to help with our understanding. We are looking forward to developing automaticity with math facts to 10 with an upcoming math fact challenge.

Our student teacher, Miss Brittany created a whole class behavior incentive. Throughout the last few weeks, students earned a color on the color wheel for demonstrating excellent behavior in whole group settings. They brainstormed rewards they wanted for the year and chose a dance party as their first reward. We danced the end of the day away on Friday! We look forward to our next reward, Kickball!

We had such a great time on our field trip to Simmons Farm! For many, this was the first time they have been on a bus. We spent the day on hay rides, running through corn mazes, flying down slides, tasting apple cider, petting the cutest animals, and searching for the biggest pumpkins we could find! What a great experience for our class.
Enjoy the pictures and have a wonderful weekend!
Danielle & Karen

Important Dates/announcements:

–Talent Show – This is a friendly reminder that your Talent Show videos are due to Mr Alex.  If you still need to do so, please email them to talentshow@wcdsedu.com today.

–October 22nd– Students are encouraged to wear pink to show support for Breast Cancer Awareness this Tuesday! Donations will be collected by classroom teachers and sent to local breast care centers.

October 24th- Simmons Farm Field Trip

October 31st – 9:15 Whole School Halloween Parade. Students should come to school dressed in costume and bring a change of casual clothes to change into afterward. Following the parade the children will return to the classroom and enjoy a special treat and a few fun activities. This will just be for the students and teachers. 

We are SO excited for our first field trip! Please read the above flyer that includes important information. We will send another reminder at the beginning of next week.

We UNLOCKED two more secrets!! Our kiddos learned both th and wh! Wh is worn out from playing so hard all day, becomes out of breath and pants “whhhh”. Th should never be together, EVER! But when they sit side by side they stick out their tongues at each other and say, THHHHHHH!

Subtraction is our newest concept in math. We are using ten frames to help us see how to take away and have a smaller number.

It’s all about community in first grade. We dove a little deeper into learning about community helpers. Students created paper bag helpers then wrote about his/her job. Each student then presented their helper.

We introduced some new friends to first grade- the quiet critters! These critters ONLY come out during times that are quiet and everyone is on task! Ask your child why they cannot touch a quiet critter!

Enjoy the beautiful weekend!

Karen, Danielle and Brittany

Upcoming Events:

October 15th – Reminagine Middle School Night 6:00 – 8:00 P.M. (4th & 5th Grade Families Only)

October 18th – Talent Show Videos due to Mr. Alex!

       We are excited to announce that our WCDS Tallent Show will be shared as a Viewing Party during our 29 Hours of Giving November 13th – 14th! To ensure we have videos in and compiled in time, please send all submissions by October 18th. Videos should be no longer than 60 seconds and sent to talentshow@wcdsedu.com. Please email Mr. Alex at ahill@wcdsedu.com with any questions!

–October 18th – 9:00 am Coffee Conversations on Main Campus

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–October 19th – 9:00 am – 3:00 pm, Fall Campus Refresh! Volunteer for a few hours by swinging by 8 Park Road with gardening gloves to help freshen our campus. Lunch and refreshments will be provided!

–October 22nd – Students are encouraged to wear pink to show support for Breast Cancer Awareness this Tuesday! Donations will be collected by classroom teachers and sent to local breast care centers.

–October 24th– First Grade Field Trip to Simmons Farm (more information to come soon)

–October 31st – 9:15 Whole School Halloween Parade. Students should come to school dressed in costume and bring a change of casual clothes to change into afterward.

First grade is ready for Fall! We love starting our morning with poetry recitation. The students are doing a great job with fluency and expression with our Fall poems!

Gavin the Gator made his appearance in first grade this week. Students learned that Gavin likes to eat GREATER numbers. They used math talk to compare numbers and by the end of they week they became masters at ordering numbers from least to greatest and greatest to least. Ask your child if they can tell you “WHY” a number is greater than another!

This week we UNLOCKED two new secrets!! Students learned that when “c” and “h” get together they make one sound and they “Chugga Chugga like a choo choo train!” They also learned that when “s” and “h” are together at the library they tell everyone to be quiet by making the “sh” sound. Our class LOVES unlocking new secrets and they are excited to unlock more digraphs next week.

We have continued our Deep Dive on community helpers. This week students had the opportunity to rotate to various centers around our entire building. Students were assigned a community helper and were tasked with making a tool their helper would use out of PERLER Beads!

We hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Danielle & Karen

October 7 – No school, Fall long weekend

October 8 – Late start at 10:00 a.m. Before care opens at 7:30 a.m. Regular drop off begins at 9:00. Classrooms will open at 9:20 a.m. Instruction will begin at 10 a.m. 

We are excited to announce that our WCDS Talent Show will be shared as a Viewing Party during 29 Hours this year! To ensure we have videos in and compiled in time, we ask that all WCDS student submissions be sent by Friday, October 18th.
Videos are due by Friday October 18th

• Videos should be no longer than 60 seconds and should be edited and formatted before submission. 
• Any and all talents and skills welcome to submit!
• If there is an issue with your video, I will reach out.
• Please send all videos to talentshow@wcdsedu.com
• IMPORTANT SCHOOL PHOTO INFORMATION
  Parents,
  Thank you for sharing your children and their wonderful smiles and personalities with me for Picture Day this year. We had rain, sun, humidity, cool air- and a ton of smiles.  To view the photos and make a selection for printing please click the link below:
  https://jessicamaxwell.shootproof.com/gallery/22485383
  Once in the gallery, you will be able to navigate to your child’s grade and individual folder. Once inside their folder, please select ONE favorite image by hovering over the image and selecting the star. This will mark this image as your favorite. Please refrain from selecting multiple favorite images as only one will be printed with your package. You have until Monday, October 7th at 12:00 pm to select your favorite image.  If you choose not to select an image, I will select the most natural pose for you.
  Please note that these photos are only rough edited. Dirty faces and shirts will be fixed (within reason) once you select an image. Thanks!
  If you have an immediate question, please contact me via call or text @ 740-296-9700
  If your child was absent for picture day, the make-up day will be Thursday, October 10th. Thank you for trusting me with your wonderful kids!
  

We loved seeing so many special friends on Thursday! This fun tradition brought generations together as students created sunflowers that captured unique memories. It was so great meeting all of your child’s special guests!

In phonics, we continued to master our skills with short vowels and build our stamina when we read silently. Please note every week new red words are added to your child’s folder. Some examples to help your child master these words include flashing the word, writing the word, (shaving cream, sand or air write).

It was all about practicing place value in math. Students quickly mastered teen numbers and surprised us with how far they could build numbers to 99.

Here are a few suggestions to ensure that your child has a great start to the day-

two healthy snacks ( hard boiled eggs, cheese sticks, yogurt , fruits or vegetables or a another source of protein). Please send ONLY water.

See you all back at 10:00am on Tuesday!

Upcoming Events:

Week of September 30th – October 4th:

• October 3rd, Special Person’s Day!
• October 4 – 11:30 am Early Dismissal (No aftercare provided)
• October 7 – No school, Fall long weekend
• October 8 – 10:00 School starts with regular before care 7:30 am before care ends at 9:00. Regular drop off begins at 9:00. Classrooms will open at 9:20. Instruction will begin at 10 am. 
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• We are super excited to welcome special people into our classroom next Thursday! Please RSVP on our talking points the number attending so we are assured every child has a visitor. Also, please be aware that your child may go home early with their guest. Kindly let us know on talking points if your child is going home early!

It’s all about COMMUNITY in first grade! We began a new deep dive and are delving into community helpers. Students thought about what type of community helper they would like to be and then created the perfect building where they would work.

In math, we reviewed combinations of ten, using ten frames and hula hoops. Students had the opportunity to make beaded bracelets that showed a way to make 10. Ask your child to show you the hand motions for ” part, part, whole”. Students are becoming masters of solving addition problems quickly!

In phonics, we dove into our first week of spelling words with all short vowels, introduced 3 red-trick words, and also unlocked the secret of “er.” Looking ahead, please note that spelling words, red (trick) words, and a decodable book will be coming home each week in the yellow folder! Please have your child read the decodable every night to help increase their fluency! Students will be given five words to study as well as five words that follow the weekly phonics skill. We do this to ensure that they can apply the skill rather than memorize the list.

Students learned proper sentence formation in writing workshop. We used our weekly sentence to guide us in a discussion about capitalization, finger spacing, and different types of end marks. Students then had the opportunity to sit in the author’s chair to share their illustrations.