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!