Winter Celebrations

Happy Holidays Team Soar Families,

Thank you to all of you who came last week to our Winter Concert. As you are aware, we have a little problem solving to do! Ms. Wall has posed the question to our students as a math computation where they are asked to come up with solutions so that everyone in our Jefferson Family has an enjoyable time at our future gatherings. This is a great topic of discussion for you and your child!

Yesterday we took our literacy MAPS test; this will be the only winter MAPS test that students will be taking. We will be sharing this information at our upcoming parent teacher conferences on January 22, as the focus for these conferences will be literacy. 

We will be sending home a half sheet today about our upcoming holiday party on Friday, December 19. Please return the slip as soon as possible if you choose to participate.

Next week Tuesday through Thursday (Thursday after school only), students will have the opportunity to shop at a PTA sponsored holiday shoppe. This shop allows students to purchase Christmas items for family members. Slips have been sent home regarding this holiday event.

 

December Already!

Brrr! It sure does feel like winter outside! It is VITAL that students come with warm winter weather attire as students go outside, even when it is cold for recess. Not only do they go outside for recess but they must wait outside until the morning bell rings, and again for parent pick up at the end of the day. If students come unprepared, they will still go outside. We have a limited number of extra supplies for the elements. If you are a family who is in need of warmer clothing, please let us know so we can assist in any way possible.

The Winter Concert will be taking place tomorrow, Thursday, December 4, 2014. The first concert will be a dress rehearsal at 2:30pm which families are welcome to attend. The second concert will take place at 6:00pm the same day; students are to report to the gym at 5:30pm in order to get ready. We ask that families please review the concert etiquette sheet sent home last week.

We have noticed many illnesses being circulated within the Team Soar classroom. Please be sure to review with students proper hand washing and when it is appropriate to stay home from school. As much as we want students to be at school everyday, when they are truly ill (fever, pink eye, throwing up, diarrhea) we ask that you please stay at home until medication has been taken for 24 hours or fevers have subsided for 24 hours. If you choose to send your child with cough drops, please send a note!

Book orders are due Friday, December 5. We have created a link on the side of the blog if you choose to order directly on line. Starting now we are collecting items for our military members and veterans. If you choose to donate, please send your items into school this week!


 

Happy Monday

We would like to send a shout out to the Woppert Family, Wolf Family, and Gahagan Family for their donation to our classroom tissue supply; even the smallest donation is appreciated! Thank you!

We have also collected a significant amount of non-perishable food items for the Student Council Canned Goods Food Drive already. We will continue collecting until the end of this week; Friday, November 21. The class that has the most donations will win a special prize!

As we say EVERY WEEK, reading is your child's homework and responsibility. Research has proven that a mere 20 minutes a day can significantly improve students reading abilities and comprehension. This reading counts towards the PTA reading log as well which can earn them prizes!

We have added a link to the Scholastic website, this gives you the opportunity to order books whenever you choose. The link should send you directly to our team page however if it does not and asks for our code, it is as follows: GNG28

Hello Winter!

Good Morning Team Soar Families,

Well it may not be Winter just yet, but it sure does feel like it! Some students were dressed in clothing that did not keep them warm enough for the elements; shorts and capri pants are not sufficient during the noon hour. Students need to come to school with hats, gloves/mittens, scarves, and warm jackets. Students will have an outside noon hour regardless of the warm clothing that they bring; keeping an extra set of warm weather gear in your students back pack may come in handy! As this cold weather sets in place, we need families to be punctual in picking up students when the school day ends at 3:30pm. We will only wait outside for 5 minutes, after that point, students will be sent to the office and it will be up to you to pick them up from there.

As many of you have started to see, students have been requested to complete additional work at home. The work we send home is to reinforce the work that we have been working on in school. We are seeing inconsistent work from students in the work that we are sending home; students should be completing this work independently. The due date is typically within 2-3 days and is written on the top of the paper.

If your pick up plans have changed for your child, please be sure to not only contact our school, but also the SAFE desk as these students get paged after school.

Right now we have 48 out of 54 report card envelopes returned; 8 more! If you have not returned your report card envelope, please do so as we will use them for report cards throughout the rest of the year.

Some families have asked if Team Soar is in need of any items, well we are! If you have any gently used board games, books, and small items for our prize bin they will be put to good use. Also, we are starting to run low on tissues. If anyone is willing to donate tissues, they will be greatly appreciated.

November update

Good Morning Families,

We have had a busy month so far. We have launched a new inquiry unit on geography and studying different aspects of the world we live in. In writing, we have finished our personal narratives and are now learning how to write like a scientist for our informational unit. Math has shifted from numbers and base ten to operations and algebraic thinking. 

Just a few reminders! If you choose to call Team Soar we request you please call with ext. 1308. Although we have three rooms, room 324 is the teacher's main room; we have more teacher time in this room and are able to check messages faster. Please keep in mind that during the hours of 8:25 until 3:40 is instructional time; it may take us up to 72 hours to respond to phone calls and emails. We cannot take instructional time away from students valuable learning at the sake of responding immediately to phone calls and emails.

Recently we have had several students bring in glass containers and bottles. Pease keep them at home! This is a safety concern as we have had glass break already in the hallway; the process to completely clean the glass up is tediuous and takes away from instructional time. 

Lastly remember to keep report cards at home! They are yours to keep! We just ask that the envelope comes back signed, to school, so we can reuse them throughout the year.

Kids at Work

Ms. Sterkel lead the kiddos in a very creative activity this morning. Ask your student about it, and take a peak below! The last day of MAPS testing is tomorrow!

End of October

Good Morning Team Soar Families,

We would like to remind everyone that students do not have school next week Thursday and Friday, October 30 and 31. We know this can be an exciting time of year and we wish everyone a safe weekend!

Yesterday Team Soar had the opportunity to read to K5 and K4 classes for Read For the Record Day. Students modeled what good readers do and how they read!

Report cards will be sent home next week, please be on the lookout! Also please be sure to sign and return the envelope as soon as possible. 

We a wrapping up our inquiry on communities and will be starting a science inquiry within the next few weeks. With the quarter ending we are also concluding our first math unit, numbers and base ten. Please continue to work with your child on this topic at home! 

Ms. Wall had the opportunity to sit down and recieve personal training on Achieve 3000; which means we were able to sit down and also recieve updated information on this very helpful program. Students who are on Achieve 3000 are reading independently at a level "K" and have demonstrated that skill through their small group instruction as well as their beginning work on Achieve 3000. Even though there are students who are independently reading at that level they may not be on this program because they require additional support and is not an appropriate independent tool for them to use. Students who do use this program should be completing 2 articles within a week; students are given ample time in class to complete these activities, however we encourage carry over at home. These articles are meant to take several days as they are lengthy and require students to think critically when they respond. The goal and expectation is for students to score a 75% or better the first time on the quiz they take at the very end of every article. Please encourage your student to take their time and use this resource to further their own knowledge.

Last but certainly not least, Bear Wear order forms are due this FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24!!!!!!! There are no exceptions and late orders will not be placed. 

Below are several pictures of Team Soar members reading to younger Jefferson Bears yesterday!

November

Good Morning Team Soar Families,
Who read for at least 1 hour and 20 minutes over the past 4 days?! If not, there is still time today and tomorrow morning!!! Remember that, that is you and your child's homework EVERYDAY-20 minutes of reading! It's really not much, but it will significantly benefit your child's reading and vocabulary.

We hope you all had a relaxing and restful extended weekend!!! As you can tell we are shifting from brisk autumn weather to chilly winter weather very quickly. With that being said, students must wait before and after school outside, as well as go outside for recess everyday; students MUST be dressed appropriately for the weather-hats, gloves/mittens, winter coat, scarves, boots, and snow pants. We recommend keeping an extra set of cold weather clothing in your child's backpack as well as a clean extra set of clothing as when snow arrives many students get wet during the noon hour and then have to sit in uncomfortable, wet clothing for the remainder of the day.

Report cards will be going home this week. At Jefferson, we have had a VERY LENGTHY discussion on how we will be grading our reading and how it differs from years previous. In previous years, we have reported students INSTRUCTIONAL (what level students read at when they read in small group with a teacher) level, however, this year we are reporting students INDEPENDENT (what students can read all by themselves with fluency, accuracy, and comprehension) level. This level was determined by formally leveling all students in September; we acknowledge that these levels have changed since the beginning of the school year and that if there were concerns for your students reading level we expressed those concern during conferences. Please rest assured that although the summery achievement grade is one of the few letter grades, students work on a variety of different elements is what ultimately makes up their overall grade.

It has come to our attention that there has been difficulty logging onto some of our educational websites. We have listed below usernames and passwords, as well as specific school login information.

Dreambox:
School login: tfjn9/jeffersone
Username: students choose their class  and click their name, first name and first letter of their last name
Password: each student has a simple 4 letter password unique to them, which they should know

Lexia:
School login: type in any one of the following email addresses to get started phillipsonj@wawm.k12.wi.us; zastrows@wawm.k12.wi.us; wakemanm@wawm.k12.wi.us
Username & password: students lunch number with warm added onto the end of the 5 digit number

Achieve 3000:
Username: 5 digit lunch code
Password: 5 digit lunch code

Mobymax:
School login: type in and find Jefferson Elementary West Allis
Username: 5 digit lunch code and wawm at the end
Password: 5 digit lunch code and wawm at the end

October 17

Happy Friday!!!! Thank you to everyone who attended their conferences the last two days. We had a great turn out, and really appreciated the conversations we had.  Please remember to have your child read EVERY DAY as well as get on Achieve3000, Dreambox, or Lexia for at least 20 minutes a day. We also wanted to share pictures of some of our more recent events that took place at our school.

Team Soar friends who donated a dollar to Heavenly Hats

Team Soar friends "crawling under the fire"

Team Soar with Sparky

Parent Teacher Conferences

Good Morning Families,
We have had to make some changes to our conference schedule. Please note these are the correct times. If you are unable to come to your scheduled conference, please let us know IMMEDIATELY. We will be sending home a hard copy today as well.

Date	Time	Student		Date	Time	Student		Date	Time	Student
Wednesday, October 15	3:45	Kenzie S		Wednesday, October 15				Wednesday October 15
	4:00	Carly			3:45	Ayla			3:45	Katherine
	4:15	Sandra			4:00	Dajuana			4:00	Anthoni O
	4:30	Kaylan			4:15	Kamahdi			4:15	Isaiah
	4:45	Jocelyn S.			4:30	Gavriilia			4:30	Samuel
	5:00	Fisher			4:45	Zoe			4:45	Estrella
	5:15	Des'nee			5:00	Angie			5:00	Murren
	5:30	Nathaniel			5:15	Aliyana			5:15	Aiden
	5:45	Cathleen			5:30	Jessica			5:30	Elizabeth G
	6:00	Iyana			5:45	Natalie			5:45	Paige
	6:15	Ariana			6:00	Anthony B			6:00	Dominic
	6:30	Lillyona							6:15	Lexi
									6:30	Mya B
								MRS. ZASTROW
MRS. WAKEMAN				MS. PHILLIPSON
								Thursday, October 16	Time	Student
Thursday, October 16	3:45	Maya H			3:45	Elijah			3:45	Joseline P
	4:00	Sophia			4:00	Vicky/Joie			4:00	Nathan
	4:15	Willie			4:20	Nico			4:15	Jayvon
	4:30	Lillie			4:35-5:15	OPEN			4:30	Kaida
	4:45-5:15	OPEN			5:15	Alex			4:45	Cal
	5:15	Desmond			5:30	Elizabeth S			5-5:45	OPEN
					5:45	Alyssa
					6:00	Angelus

October News

Good Morning Team Soar Families,

We would like to thank those families who continually read with their students every night; we can not stress the value and importance of what this does for students literacy, math, and writing. Studies have shown how simply reading books on a child's level, at home, every day, will shine through with their work at school. If you are not reading with your child every day, (weekends count too!!!) we request that this start to become of your nightly or even morning routines.

If you are trying to call Team Soar, please make sure you are calling the number on the blog with extension 1308. This is our main phone! Although we have three rooms with three phones, we start our day in this room, teachers have lunch in this room, and we end in this room. We will more readily be able to check for messages and respond to them.

Again, thank you to so many of you that ensure your child comes to school everyday, and on time. We conduct team building meetings every morning that truly set the tone for the entire day. When students miss out on these valuable life skills, they frequently become sad when they come mid-activity.

Lastly, our parent teacher conferences will be different from last year. If you were a member of the Team Soar Family last year you know that all three teachers were present for all 54 conferences. As you can imagine, that process took over a week in order to get through all of them. This year, we have divided students up to a singular teacher. This was done by what teacher works with them the most; please note that just because a student is on a teachers class roster does not mean you will be meeting with that teacher. Please let us know IMMEDIATELY if you are unable to meet at your scheduled time.

Date	Time	Student		Date	Time	Student		Date	Time	Student
Wednesday, October 15	3:45	Kenzie S		Wednesday, October 15				Wednesday October 15
	4:00	Carly			3:45	Ayla			3:45	Katherine
	4:15	Sandra			4:00	Dajuana			4:00	Anthoni O
	4:30	Kaylan			4:15	Kamahdi			4:15	Isaiah
	4:45	Jocelyn S.			4:30	Gavriilia			4:30	Samuel
	5:00	Fisher			4:45	Zoe			4:45	Estrella
	5:15	Des'nee			5:00	Angie			5:00	Murren
	5:30	Nathaniel			5:15	Aliyana			5:15	Aiden
	5:45	Cathleen			5:30	Jessica			5:30	Elizabeth G
	6:00	Iyana			5:45	Natalie			5:45	Paige
	6:15	Ariana			6:00	Anthony B			6:00	Dominic
	6:30	Lillyona							6:15	Lexi
									6:30	Mya B
								MRS. ZASTROW
MRS. WAKEMAN				MS. PHILLIPSON
								Thursday, October 16	Time	Student
Thursday, October 16	3:45	Maya H			3:45	Elijah			3:45	Joseline P
	4:00	Sophia			4:00	Vicky/Joie			4:00	Nathan
	4:15	Willie			4:20	Nico			4:15	Jayvon
	4:30	Lillie			4:35-5:15	OPEN			4:30	Kaida
	4:45-5:15	OPEN			5:15	Alex			4:45	Cal
	5:15	Desmond			5:30	Elizabeth S			5-5:45	OPEN
					5:45	Alyssa
					6:00	Angelus

End of September

Good Morning Families,

The first month of school is over already! We are looking ahead to parent teacher conferences in the middle of October. It is necessary to meet with every family for our first conference. We will be sending home a note TODAY for families to to indicate their preferences in regards to day and time frame. Please check if you would prefer Wednesday or Thursday and one time frame that you would prefer. We will do our best to accommodate you. Please make sure the slip us returned no later than THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2.

Progress reports will be different this year as well. In years past, we sent home four progress reports, four report cards, and held conferences four times a year. As of right now, progress reports will only be sent home if we do not have a face to face conference with families.

We have come across many items that have gone missing lately. Please, be sure that all your students items are labeled with their first AND last name. The lost and found bin will now be located inside our multi-purpose room.

Lastly, we have had many complications with setting up our class iPads. It is crucial that every family have easy access to their students ID and password. If you have changed either username or password, please email us immediately with the updated information as iPads are sitting unused. Also, if you have not set up your students iPad, this needs to be done ASAP as students are unable to make use of any technology based programs. 

Sick Days

Good Evening Families,
We know that illness has been circulating around Team Soar and Jefferson School. If your child misses any school, the best thing they can do at home would be to READ!!! We encourage students to go on school websites and apps such as Achieve 3000, Dreambox, Lexia, and Raz-Kids at home whether they are sick or not. These websites reinforce activities that we do in class; the link to these sites are on the right hand side of our blog labeled, "School to Home Websites."

We will be sending home your students independent  reading level; this means books they can read all by themselves without any support. This level is typically one level LOWER then what we teach aka their INSTRUCTIONAL level.  There is a list on Raz-Kids, at the West Allis Library, and on the website listed below.

Leveled Reading Books

Video

MAPS

We will be taking our first MAPS assessment tomorrow,  Tuesday September 16, at 9:15. We would like to remind families how important it is for students to get a good nights rest as well as a tasty and healthy breakfast to jump start their bodies and minds! Our second test will be held on Thursday, September 18, again at 9:15.

Happy Monday

Good Morning Team Soar Families & Friends,
We hope you all had a relaxing and rejuvenating weekend. We are already in our third week of school and are in the full swing of things. In the first month, we have very rigorous testing and assessments that we use throughout the year to guide our instruction. Students have already finished their Lucy Calkins writing assessments, and are now working on our new phonics program evaluation, guided reading leveling, PALS assessment, and soon MAPS assessments.

As we have gone through and evaluated students current reading levels, we have noticed significant drops in reading levels from the end of last year. Now, this is not true for some students as they have retained their same level as last year and even a few students have shown growth! We applaud you!!!! However, we can not stress the importance of reading for AT LEAST 20 MINUTES a night. A good way to assess students understanding of the reading that they just did is to ask them about the main characters, setting, plot, details about the story etc. Many families and students have asked for homework or the lack there of; reading for at least 20 minutes EVERY DAY if not more, is the homework our school, and district, has found to be the most beneficial for all students.

Once we have completed leveling for all students, we will be sending home your students current independent reading level; this means that this level, is the level that they can read all by themselves without assistance. Our West Allis Public Library has put together an area where books are already leveled and have them listed for easy selection. Also, we will continue to put out the Scholastic Book Orders; most of these books are listed with their level on them as well.

With this in mind, we can not stress the importance of students reading books that are on their level. Reading a book that is too easy or too hard for a student will not impact their reading.

Although it feels like Autumn, it is still Summer! However that doesn't stop cold and flu season. If your child is sick please be sure to call the Jefferson Office (they open at 7:30am) as soon as possible. If there is a scheduled absence; we ask that you either send Team Soar an email or send a note the day before the absence.

September 11, 2014

Good Morning Families,
On this very significant day we would like to remember and thank all the people who have kept us safe and continue to ensure that we lead fulfilling lives in the United States. This morning, as part of our morning announcements, we held a moment of silence in remembrance of those who lost their lives on this day 13 years ago. With inquiring minds, students in the Team Soar classroom had questions about what happened and why we had this moment of silence. We would like you to know that we did briefly talk about the events that took place and told students that there were people who didn't like the USA and wanted to harm us as a nation. Pictures were shown of the World Trade Towers before these events; we did not show any pictures of what had happened that day as we felt it would be better left to your discretion of what you wanted to show your child and let them know about this day in history. We also reassured students of their safety at school as well as out in the community.

Happy Monday

Hello Families!
In your child's folder is an in class assessment we completed last week. We asked students to write their full name, address including city, state, and zip code, phone number, and birthday. Lastly, we watched students tie their shoes, if they were able. We highlighted the areas that students need to work on at home; we will reassess at the end of the month.

If your child received an invitation to after school PASS, it starts tomorrow and runs from 3:40-4:20 Tuesday through Thursday for the next five weeks.

Lastly, we would like to remind families that if you decide to bring a treat in for a birthday celebration we have 54 students on our roster; if not enough treats are provided we will be unable to distribute the treat. We also need all treats to be NUT FREE as we have a nut allergy as well as a MANGO ALLERGY in our classroom this year.

WE ARE TEAM SOAR

Ask your student to recite the TEAM SOAR cheer! Or take a peak below!

As many of you may have seen, we completed our Tickets to go Home today. We had many students remain on green; if students were on GREEN today they had a choice to complete the ticket. Come next week, all students will be required to complete the ticket regardless of color, but being the first week of school we wanted to get a few "practice" tickets going!

Please be sure to check student folders as there were several handouts today! Also, Sophia and Jessica will be our STAR STUDENTS next week! Ladies, start thinking of a school appropriate song that means something to you and decorate your puzzle piece by next week Wednesday!

We would also like to remind families to please partake in our breakfast program. A full belly really helps our kiddos start the day out on the right track!

During the last few weeks of summer we would like to remind families to please dress appropriately for the weather. Please be sure that sandals have a back strap, all tank tops are at least one inch thick, and shorts are long enough that when a student puts there hands to their sides their shorts meet their fingertips at minimum. Water bottles are welcome in our classroom so long as they are labeled with your students name.

Lastly, we encourage students to bring in pictures of their families to keep in the TEAM SOAR classroom. However, if a student brings in a picture it must be in a picture frame. We require this because we do not want to ruin any pictures and they will be placed in a shelf area where only free standing pictures will be housed.

Getting to know you

Dear Families,
In an effort to go paperless at Jefferson Elementary we will be using this blog as our main way to communicate with families. We will be sending home a note about communication today, so please be sure to check red folders. Below is the link to the Google Form we provided at open house, if you have not filled out this form this year, please do so this week!

Have a great day!

Team Soar

Getting to Know You

First Day of School

Can you believe the first day of school has come and gone already?! It was a very busy day in Team Soar which included putting away and organizing classroom supplies. We sent home several items that we had a surplus of including glue sticks, sticky notes, permanent markers, rulers, and a few miscellaneous items. We do request that if your student does not have 4 folders and 4 notebooks that they bring them to school as soon as possible. 

Just a reminder that red folders are to be returned to school, from home DAILY! Please remind your student to check them at school and at home for pertinent information. Today we sent home a book order sheet; all orders must be returned by next week Friday September 12!

Lastly, if your child is having alternative pick-up plans other than what was stated on the "getting to know you" form you filled out at open house, pleas send us a note so that we can ensure end of the day pick-up goes smoothly!

We hope everyone had a wonderful day back!

Welcome

Welcome to Team Soar!