Last Blog Post

Hello,

At this time every year I am filled with pride because of all of the hard work the students put in this year. I had a wonderful year getting to know each student and I am so glad that I get to be a chapter in their life. It was a great year and so much to be thankful for!

A few weeks ago we were having a staff meeting and it was announced that a 2nd grade position was becoming available. I have really enjoyed my 5 years in first grade but decided I was ready for a new challenge and will be moving up to 2nd grade! I will be telling the students on Wednesday and I am so excited for the opportunity to work with this group again. And with you! Thank you for all you do for your kids, they are all a kind, hard working crew. I am excited for this next chapter.

Upcoming Events:
6/4: Field Day and Mini-Courses (You can join for field day in the morning and lunch!)
6/5: Last Day!

Movie: This week we will be watching Monsters University. It is Rated G but please let me know if you would not like your student to watch it, I can have a different activity planned.

Please let me know if you have any other questions for this week or about summer!

Thank you for all you do!
Miss Wittmann

5/28 to 5/31

Hello,

So far the weather looks good for our walking field trip! On Friday make sure students have comfortable walking shoes and are dressing for the weather. It is a fun field trip to end our year!

This week I will start collecting all of the books that have been sent home. If you could please check around the house for books that were sent from school, that’d be very helpful. I will not be sending home reading or math homework for the remainder of the year, the homework will be to check for those missing books! Thanks!

Upcoming Events: 
5/29: Dress like an animal or bring in your favorite stuffed animal
5/30: Dress like you’re going on a vacation
5/31: Enjoy yourself-- dress in something you love
5/31: Field Trip: Walking trip around Kaukauna
6/3: Dress like a character from a fairy tale
6/4: Field Day, dress active for field day
6/5: NDLC wear or neon day
6/5: Early Release: Last Day of School

Reading: This week we will be talking about who our reading partners can be over the summer.  We will also be making reading life posters.  At home you could make a reading plan.  When will reading time be at home? Do you plan to visit the library?  Maybe you will read a book as a family.  I hope that you will continue to keep reading alive over the summer!

Writing: In writing we are going to continue our writing projects. Students are teaching their lessons. They have been doing great! They are teaching the lesson, conferencing with students, and creating a share at the end of the lesson.

Math: In math this week we are going to be finishing up our end of year test. We will also explore all the different areas in math and create a math game to play together.

Social Studies: We are going to create a map of our walk on Friday. We will also prepare for our field trip by creating a memory game to play with the residents at Kindred Hearts.

Here is video from library of students sharing their learning:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1JvYJw_tmMYpch-a9bp9cRRg9FUHO4vNqnv5oov6Wtlk/edit?usp=sharing

Here are some photos of students teaching their writing lessons!

Also, we spread some sunshine to the 4th grade students in Mrs. Streck's class. We sent them a care package for their move to the middle school and the students wrote them this song:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tpRXWHlaz9Gkxbivcqw426kMVUYvjYWt/view?usp=sharing

5/20 to 5/24

Hello! I can’t believe we are in the last days of school...end of year testing, field trips, dress up days...where did this year go?!  This year flew by and as we begin doing our end of year testing it is so fun to see how much this class has grown.  There is so much to be proud of! 

Walking Field Trip May 31st: If you said you were able to join us as a chaperone you are more than welcome to come along.  We do not need to turn anyone away on this trip...the more the merrier, and in fact I could use a few more! If you have a background check on file, we would love for you to join, it really helps with all of our walking to have chaperones throughout our line.  If you can’t join us all day you are welcome to join us for lunch at the park. Let me know!

Upcoming Events:
5/21: Family Night
5/24-5/27: No School for Students
5/28: Hat Day or Crazy Hair Day
5/29: Dress like an animal or bring in your favorite stuffed animal
5/30: Dress like you’re going on a vacation
5/31: Enjoy yourself-- dress in something you love
5/31: Field Trip: Walking trip around Kaukauna
6/3: Dress like a character from a fairy tale
6/4: Field Day, dress active for field day
6/5: NDLC wear or neon day
6/5: Early Release Last Day of School

Reading: We are ending the year with a unit on becoming lifelong readers.  We will be exploring what kind of books we like to read best and how we can continue our reading throughout the summer.  We will think of ways to make realistic goals for our reading and try some journaling.  I will also be assessing students reading levels to pass onto their second grade teachers.

Writing: We are finishing up our independent writing projects by teaching others about the genre that we have been studying.  We will teach the class the important things that they need to include in the their writing and have time each day to try out a different genre. 

Math: We are reviewing the math that we had done all school year.  We will play some review games and take our end of the year math test. 

Science: This week we will be exploring different topics in science each day and solving different science mysteries.

I posted some field trip photos to our school's Facebook page and here are some pictures of sharing our learning in reading with the other first grade class:

And a picture from Mrs. Siegel:

5/13 to 5/17

Hello,

We have our next field trip this Wednesday to the Building for Kids. Students will need to pack a lunch if you did not indicate you wanted a school lunch. Remember to pack a drink with their lunch as well. It is a really fun field trip that the students always enjoy!

LAST BOOK ORDER: If you would like to order any books from Scholastic for the summer this is the last book order. It will only be available to order online: https://clubs.scholastic.com/ Our class code is QJMYM. The orders will be due this Friday 5/17/19. Thanks!

Upcoming Events: 
5/14: Gas Card Orders Due
5/15: Field Trip: Building For Kids
5/17: Last Book Orders Due
5/21: Family Night
5/24-5/27: No School for Students
5/28: Hat Day or Crazy Hair Day
5/29: Dress like an animal or bring in your favorite stuffed animal
5/30: Dress like you’re going on a vacation
5/31: Enjoy yourself-- dress in something you love
5/31: Field Trip: Walking trip around Kaukauna
6/3: Dress like a character from a fairy tale
6/4: Field Day, dress active for field day
6/5: NDLC wear or neon day
6/5: Early Release Last Day of School

Reading: We will begin to share out the information that we learned in our non-fiction books. We will review note taking strategies and make tri-fold posters to share information.  At the end of the week we will share with the other first graders.

Writing: This week we will be revising and editing our writing.  We will use strategies and charts that we have used throughout the school year to help us.  We will publish our pieces at the end of the week.

Math: We will finish up with measuring this week.  We will review and have our test at the end of the week on time, shapes, and measurement.

Social Studies: This week we will finish up our community centers and we will have our field trip to the Building for Kids.

Here are a few photos of our community centers:

5/6 to 5/10

Hello,

I had a great three days of learning at the Wisconsin Math Council Conference with other fellow math team members at our school. It was a wonderful opportunity and I am excited to end this year with a few new math ideas and practices. The guest teacher wrote some very kind notes about the class and I was very proud of them.

Teacher Appreciation Day Sign Up:
https://signup.com/go/bYpfVap

Upcoming Events: 
5/15: Field Trip: Building For Kids
5/24-5/27: No School for Students
5/29: Field Trip: Walking trip around town  Permission slip will be coming this week

Reading: This week in reading we are continuing our non-fiction book clubs.  We will be choosing books  within the same topic. That way students can start comparing the information they are learning and seeing what is the same and what is different.

Writing: The students have been really enjoying our writing project unit. This week we will be talking about how authors within your publishing house can be a great tool to use to help make your writing the best it can be. We will also talk about how mentor authors can do the same thing. Students will start noticing strategies that they are using and thinking about what they are becoming experts on.

Math: In math this week we will continue to study shapes and patterns.  We will identify and compose 3-Dimensional shapes and use them to make a composite shape.  We will end the week with some measuring and comparing lengths. 

Social Studies: This week we will begin our Community centers.  We will design maps, study community helpers, build a community, use technology to research, and read books.

4/29 to 5/3

Hello,

May! This time of the year always seems to go by very quickly because we are doing a lot of exciting things in first grade. We are planning our end of the year field trip and mapping out the end of the year- crazy!

Teacher Appreciation Day Sign Up:
https://signup.com/go/bYpfVap

Upcoming Events: 
5/15: Field Trip: Building For Kids
5/24-5/27: No School for Students
5/29: Field Trip: Walking trip around town  Permission slip will be coming

Reading: This week in reading we are beginning our non-fiction book clubs.  We will be working on writing post-its in our books to help us have conversations about our topics. We will continue our conversations by using “I agree/disagree because…” “I learned…”

Writing: In writing this week we are continuing our new unit Writing Projects. Students are exploring different genres.  They will be choosing a mentor text and creating the materials they need for their genre.  This might mean designing their own writing paper. 

Math: In math this week we will be practicing telling time to the hour and half hour. Then we will end the week with exploring shapes and their attributes. We will learn about squares, rectangles, triangles, and circles. We will also start talking about fractions. How we can split those shapes into equal shares.

Social Studies: This week we will begin our unit on communities. We will learn about Rural, Urban, and Suburban.  We will also design maps and see where our community fits into the world.  We will study community helpers. 

Here are some photos of our stores! Using money to buy things we need and want:

4/23 to 4/26

Hello,

I hope you had a great spring break! The students loved sharing this morning about all the fun things they did over break. I’m excited to be back and to finish out this year strong!

Teacher Appreciation Day Sign Up:
https://signup.com/go/bYpfVap


Upcoming Events: 
4/26: Field Trip Forms Due
5/15: Field Trip

Reading:  We are continuing to explore reading non-fiction cover to cover. We will start off the week learning how to make strong stop and jots and how to give a great retell in nonfiction. We will end the week learning about ways to talk about what we are learning and strengthen up our partnership time.

Writing: This week we will be concluding our Realistic Fiction unit with an On-Demand. We will be starting our next writing unit at the end of the week. The next unit is called: Writing Projects. Students will get to choose the genre of writing that they are interested in and do some writing within that genre. This week we will explore different kinds of writing and different styles that they might be interested in trying out.

Math:  In math we are starting our last unit: Telling Time, Measuring, and Shapes. We will start off by working with clocks. Our goal of this first part is telling time to the hour, to the half hour, understanding how time is organized, and the difference between analog and digital clocks. We will also talk about the difference between a second, a minute, and a hour.

Social Studies: This week we will be opening up our own store! Students will be creating a product to sell to the class. Each student will be given 10 dollars to spend in the store trying to be conscious of things they need vs things they want.

Have a great week!

4/8 to 4/12

Hello,

Thank you for helping study for KAT last week!  It was a fun week and all the students did great.
Our class did a great job and we celebrated with some treats that I brought in for them.
They deserved it after all of their hard work.

We are making our book boxes soon, if you did not have a chance to bring in a cereal box, please do so this week. We will start creating our book boxes tomorrow.

Upcoming Events:

4/15: Family Night 5:30-7:00

4/17: Early Release

4/17: Book Orders Due

4/18-4/19: No School

4/22: No School

Reading:  This week in reading we are beginning a new unit, Reading Non-Fiction: Cover to Cover.  We will begin by sorting our library and getting familiar with the non fiction books that we have.  We will review charts that we have used in past units to help us as we dig into the non fiction books.  Later in the week we will look at text features such as table of contents, headings, pictures, labels and diagrams.  We will make a plan for how to read each section of the text.  

Writing: In writing we are continuing to add to our series books.  We will continue to use a mentor text to help us describe the setting, make action exciting, and give details in both the picture and words. We will work on adding patterns to our book to stretch out parts of our stories.  One way to do that is to work in three details, or three examples, when describing something.  

Math:  In math this week we will continue to work on two digit addition.  Last week we introduced several strategies for students to use.  This week we will continue to practice the strategies and start using the most efficient strategies.  Ask your child to show you which strategy they like best!

Science: We are finishing up our organisms unit and moving on to our social studies unit of needs and wants. 

4/1 to 4/5

Hello,

Happy April and happy KAT week. Thanks for practicing the KAT questions at home, the kids have been really excited about the chance to win a pizza party! The pledges and knowledge-a-thon will be on Friday. Also, maybe see you at the dance on Friday!

For writing next week we will need cereal boxes to create a book box to house all of our series writing. If you could please bring in a cereal box by Friday that would be great!

Today is the last day to order yearbooks!

• To order your yearbook (the deadline is April 1, 2019): 
• Please visit www.networkphoto.net
• Click on the Fall Prepay tab
• Type "New Directions" into the space there
• Click on "New Directions" and follow instructions
• If you have any questions, please contact Network photography or the New Directions Learning Community office

Upcoming Events: 
4/1: Yearbook orders due
4/2: Dress like a star (movie star or star in the sky)
4/3: Dress Unique
4/4: Dress like a KAT question or a cat
4/5:Wear Purple
4/5: Knowledge-a-thon and pledges due, Knowledge-a-thon Dance at night
4/17: Early Release
4/18-4/19: No School
4/22: No School

Reading:  In reading this week we are talking about how books are kind of like fortune cookies. How inside of books there are hidden lessons that the author is trying to teach us. For example some books are trying to teach us to be kind or to persevere. We are going to be looking for lessons and leave them in our books. We will celebrate the end of this unit on Friday with some real fortune cookies and sharing our lessons in our books with another class!

Writing:  This week in writing we will start off the week by looking at an editing checklist and getting ready to share our pieces. We are also going to continue to look at our favorite realistic fictions authors to see what they do to make realistic fiction so realistic. We will also work on turning our books into chapter books: writing a beginning, a middle, and an end. We will end this week with elaborating by using patterns.

Math: In math this week we are starting Unit 8. This unit will go back to adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers. We will learn that there are many ways to solve these problems and make a list of strategies that we could use.

Science: This week in science we will be finishing our organism centers. We will then be picking an organism that we want to research further and create a display that will teach all the we find out. Mrs. Wolf will also be helping them research their organism and create a digital slideshow of all the research they completed.

3/25 to 3/29

Hello,

Thank you for meeting last week for conferences.  It was great celebrating growth and setting goals for the rest of the school year.

This year, New Directions Learning Community has a new way for you to order your yearbooks with Network Photography - ordering online instead of using the traditional yellow envelope.

• To order your yearbook (the deadline is April 1, 2019): 
• Please visit www.networkphoto.net
• Click on the Fall Prepay tab
• Type "New Directions" into the space there
• Click on "New Directions" and follow instructions
• If you have any questions, please contact Network photography or the New Directions Learning Community office

Upcoming Events:
4/1: Yearbook orders due
4/5: Knowledge-a-thon and pledges due, Knowledge-a-thon Dance at night
4/17: Early Release
4/18-4/19: No School
4/22: No School

Reading:  In reading this week we will continue to get to know the characters in our books. We will also start reading fiction books and asking at the end, “What was the author trying to teach us?” We will explore how authors use their characters to teach lessons about friendship, perseverance, bravery, kindness, etc. Any books that the students bring home this week, it would be great for you to ask your child about the underlying message of the story and how did they know.

Writing:  This week in writing we are creating our own narrative checklist to help with reviewing our writing and setting goals.  We will launch into writing a series of stories and including thinking of more than one story for our favorite character and modeling ourselves after famous series writers.  We will focus on writing a book one for our series where we will include a lot of details about our characters.

Math: In math this week we are going to continue working with comparison bars. We will work on listening to story problems that are comparing and see what information we know and what we are missing. We will end this week with our Unit 6 test.

Science: This week in science we will be starting our Organism centers. One center will be looking through books, Mrs. Wolf in the library was very generous with gathering books for us! The other centers include iPad research, modifying umbrellas, experimenting with bird beaks, and matching animals to human inventions, known as biomimicry.

3/18 to 3/22

Hello,

I look forward to seeing all of you at conferences this week. We will also have the Book Fair going on if you are interested. Let me know if you have any scheduling conflicts or questions before conferences. Thanks!

Upcoming Events: 
3/19: Conferences
3/21: Conferences
3/22: No School for Students
4/5: Knowledge-a-thon and pledges due, Knowledge-a-thon Dance at night

Reading:  This week we will learn more about the main character in our books.  We will also learn to pay attention to the relationships that characters have in the story.  We will reread and to get to know the characters better so that we aren’t just following the characters but we practically become the character in our reading.  Our voices can show the character feeling and bring the character to life.

Writing:  This week in writing we are continuing to write realistic fiction books. We have created our characters and have been working on storytelling. This week we will work on getting our characters out of problems and learn spelling strategies to become serious spellers! At the end of the week we will take some time to set goals for our writing, using a checklist.

Math:   In math we will learn more about collecting data and comparing our data points. Students have been really working on questions like: How many more? Or how many fewer ___? We will also introduce a tool called a comparison bar to compare data and find out what is missing. We will start working on story problems that sound like this: Emma runs 13 miles. Brian runs 4 fewer miles than Emma. How many miles does Brian run?

Science: This week, students will be introduced to the idea that the natural world can provide insights for designing products to meet human needs. Students will examine the structures of trees that keep them from blowing down in the wind, using their observations to design umbrellas that can stay up in a strong wind.

You can share another amazing story with your child of how living things can guide the design of man-made materials: the invention of Velcro! This video describes the structure of “hook and loop fasteners” and how the idea for Velcro came from looking closely at seeds, similar to how students’ ideas for improved umbrellas came from looking at trees. http://safeYouTube.net/w/JUBb

Here are a few photos of us creating traps for the Leprechaun:

3/11 to 3/15

Hello,

Conference Meal 
http://signup.com/go/pfBkphc

Book Fair 
http://signup.com/go/kQrXeuw

K.A.T. sign up
http://signup.com/go/nBAoaqP

Here are a few photos from our celebration of the end of poetry.

Upcoming Events:

3/19: Conferences (sign up will be open tomorrow)

3/21: Conferences

3/22: No School for Students

Here is the link to our video of what we are learning this week:

https://youtu.be/8XVji2mWEhg

3/4 to 3/8

Hello,

Penny Wars: This week we will be collecting pennies in our classroom. The class with the most pennies will win a pizza party! You can also bring in silver coins or dollar bills to give to other classrooms to subtract from their penny count. This will end on Friday.

March Madness: This week we are starting our Book March Madness. Each class submitted a book and teachers will be reading all of them to their class. Then they will vote for which books they like best until we find a winner! Ask your child what book our class chose!

Upcoming Events: 
3/4-3/8: Penny War
3/8: Early Release
3/19: Conferences (sign up will be open tomorrow)
3/21: Conferences
3/22: No School for Students

Reading: We are continuing to get to know our characters in our books.  We will begin to describe the character traits and compare the character across books. We will form book clubs and read the same series of books.  We will talk about the characters and spend time performing our books.  We will have to look at the feelings of the characters, the dialogue in the books, and use what we know about the characters personality. 

Writing:  We are completing our centers this week.  We are exploring rhythm, songs, imagery, and sensory poems.  We will then look at using line breaks and repetition in our poems. 

Math: We will work with numbers through 120.  We will begin to look for patterns in the hundreds chart to help with adding and subtracting 10 and then with multiples of 10.  We will end the week with math test. 

Science: This week in science we are starting a new unit: Organisms (Plants and Animal superpowers). We will start this week by asking questions and seeing what we want to learn about organisms. We will then conduct a few experiments this week. The first is asking ourselves why birds have beaks and we will experiment to see why beaks are useful. We will also ask ourselves why baby ducks follow their mother. Throughout the week you could point out different plants and animals you see! You could ask what those animals have that help them survive the winter.

Questions to ask:

• What book series are you going to perform?
• What writing center did you go to today?
• What experiments have you done in science?
• What book did you read for March Madness?
• How many pennies does your class have?

2/25 to 3/1

Hello,

It’s Read Across America week! There are dress up days planned this week and we will be listening to many Dr. Suess books.  If you follow NDLC on Facebook be sure to tune at 7:00 for a live night time read alouds by many of our teachers. 

We also have our Knowledge-a-thon coming up in a few weeks. If you would like to volunteer to quiz students, here is the link to volunteer:

http://signup.com/go/imLqCBE

Upcoming Events: 

2/25-1/1: Dress Up Days (see below)

2/26: Six Flags Sheet Due

2/26: Family Night

3/8: Early Release

Additional Dress Up Days:

Read Across America Week

Feb. 25: dress like your parents

Feb. 26: dress like a game (board game, etc.)

Feb. 27: crazy hair day

Feb. 28: dress like your favorite book character

March 1: camp out with a good book (dress in camping wear, bring sleeping bags, flashlights, etc.)

Reading: In reading we are focusing on getting to know the characters in our books. We will think about how characters change throughout the text, the feelings that characters have and using evidence in our books to support our ideas.  Later in the week we will chart out feeling words and fid ones that specifically match our characters. An example would be using the word joyful or ecstatic instead of happy. 

Writing: In writing this week we are starting a new unit: Poetry! This week we will be listening to poems and songs to see what we notice. We will also record our ideas on a notebook necklace. At the end of the week we will start poetry and song centers. The five centers will be illustrating a poem, listening to songs, finding the rhythm, everyday objects/sensory center, and experimenting with line breaks. 

Math: In math this week we are continuing with Unit 5. We will be listening to math stories and find out what is missing. Is the story missing an addend or the total. This week we will also find efficient ways to count groups of large numbers. This could be something fun to do at home! Have them lay out all of their legos, cars, or shopkins and have them count how many they have. An efficient way to count is to put them into groups of 10 and then see how many are left over.

Social Studies: This week we will be doing a mini-unit around U.S. Symbols.  Each day we will focus on a new symbol and a new note taking strategy. 

2/18-2/22

Hello,

Wow, what a busy past few weeks! We have been having a lot of fun at school celebrating the 100th day and Valentine's Day. Since this is a short week I am going to keep the blog short and share some pictures from our field trip! Thank you so much to everyone that chaperoned! I also want to thank everyone that brought if treats for our Valentine's celebration, the students had so much fun!

We also have our Knowledge-a-thon coming up in a few weeks. If you would like to volunteer to quiz students, here is the link to volunteer:
http://signup.com/go/imLqCBE

Upcoming Events: 

2/21-2/22: No School

2/21: Funset Boulevard Night
2/25-1/1: Dress Up Days (see below)

2/26: Family Night
3/8: Early Release

Additional Dress Up Days:

• Read Across America Week
• Feb. 25: dress like your parents
• Feb. 26: dress like a game (board game, etc.)
• Feb. 27: crazy hair day
• Feb. 28: dress like your favorite book character
• March 1: camp out with a good book (dress in camping wear, bring sleeping bags, flashlights, etc.)