Weikel Newsletter
December
"The strength of the wolf is the pack, and the strength of the pack is the wolf."~ Rudyard Kipling
Welcome to December! There are exactly 15 days left in the quarter before we encounter Winter Break. As we move through the next few weeks of school, many exciting events will take place! The calendar is full.
Students have been working extremely hard in all academic areas! In December, Weikel students in the 2nd -5th grades will have the opportunity to shine and show what they know through the Illuminate Assessment. This assessment provides our teachers with the data needed to determine current achievement levels and educational needs.
This month also holds excellent opportunities for family fun! Weikel Wonderland (Dec. 17th) and the school-wide Holiday Sing-Along (Dec. 21tst) are on the way! Look for more information that will be forthcoming to find out how you can get involved!
As we near the Winter Break, I want to wish you a safe and enjoyable holiday season. As a staff, we are grateful to serve so many wonderful families in this great military environment. We are also very appreciative of all military parents who are currently serving our country away from home.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to our Weikel Community.
Respectfully,
Misty DeHerrera
Reminders:
Attendance:
We understand that emergencies arise and illnesses happen. In case of an emergency, please provide documentation of leave to excuse the absence. If your child is sick for more than three days, please provide a doctor's note.
Important Dates:
December 2nd- Choir Performance and Caroling- 5:30-6:45
December 6th-21st- 12 Days of Christmas
December 7th- PTO Meeting
December 14th- P.I.E. Meeting
December 17th- Weikel Wonderland (more info to come!)
December 21st- Holiday Parties- Sing-a-long
December 21st- Early Dismissal-11:35December 22nd-31st- Winter Break
January 1st-7th- Winter Break
January 10th- 3rd Quarter Begins
Class News
Early Intervention
Weikel Early Intervention loves this time of year! We are looking forward to some fun holiday activities as individual classrooms and as a whole school. Weikel Winter Wonderland will take place on December 17th. This is an exciting Weikel tradition that parents, students, and families enjoy every year. Be on the lookout for more information to come. Early Intervention continues to work on our Balls Study. It’s about that time of year to introduce more concepts related to balls such as Snowballs and Ornaments! As a reminder, there is no afternoon session on Tuesday, December 21st. This begins our Winter Break! We hope you have a nice time over the Holidays with family and friends and return back to school in the new year ready to keep on learning. Thank you for partnering with us in all that you do!
Kindergarten
Wow how is fall coming to an end so soon? Please remember to have your child wear a mask to school and if possible have an extra mask in their backpacks just in case. As the cooler weather draws near please have your child dress for the weather. In Colorado the weather does change quickly and at times unexpectedly, please bring jacket, hat and gloves. Our next Literacy unit will consist of people and places in our neighborhood. We will learn about tools we use at jobs, people in our neighborhood, and pitching in to make our community better. We are going to continue phoneme blending and segmentation, alongside this we will continue practicing letter naming fluency and sight words. In math we will be working on shapes to include: sides, vertex, how to create new shapes, and shapes in real life. Please reach out to your child’s teacher with any questions.
Thank you,
Kindergarten Team
1st Grade
Where has the time gone? The first-grade team can't believe the first semester is almost over. In reading, we will continue our work with decoding words. We will be working on understanding and transferring words/skills we have learned into text. We will also continue our work with sight words. Please be practicing sight words at home. In writing, we will be focusing on building up our writing into 3-5 sentences. In math, we will be working on subtraction strategies to 20. We will begin science this month and students will be completing a few hands-on experiments. We will be doing some fun ways to review all we have learned. During the week of December 13th, we will be including writing letters to Santa, candy cane experiment, grinch day, gingerbread man, and much more. We are looking forward to a great second semester. As always, please let your child's teacher know if you have any questions or concerns.
2nd Grade
Wow! It is hard to believe we are almost halfway through the school year! Second grade will be busy with many learning activities. In math, we will finish Chapter 6 Adding Three-Digit Numbers and start Chapter 4 Subtracting Two-Digit Numbers. For reading, we will continue Unit 3. In this Unit we will continue working on phonemic awareness and phonics skills. We will also be reading several narrative nonfiction stories. Second graders will also be writing a narrative nonfiction piece. Our community service project for the month will be a toy drive benefiting children in need. We appreciate and enjoy getting to teach your child! Thank you for supporting our efforts!
Second Grade Team!
3rd Grade
What do Santa’s Elves learn in school? The elf-phabet! In the month of December our genre of focus will be folktales. Our skills will be problem and solution and synonyms. For math, we will be focusing on multiplication and division patterns/strategies. Please continue to practice multiplication and division facts with your child at home. In science, we will be learning about weather. Brrr, it’s getting cold outside. Don’t forget your jackets. We hope everyone has a holly jolly December! Thanks so much!
Third Grade Team
4th Grade
Fourth graders have been working so hard this quarter! Students have been spending time researching Colorado history from Native American tribes to Spanish Explorers. In math, students are finishing a deep dive with division, as well as area and perimeter. We will soon begin working on simplifying and comparing fractions. Please continue to work on multiplication facts at home, as they are the key to success in 4th Grade math! In reading, we are focusing on finding evidence in text, point of view, and making inferences. In writing, we are incorporating text evidence into our five paragraph essays. In science, students were excited to be learning about energy transfers, including collisions, and have even had a virtual field trip with scientists from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
5th Grade
The fifth grade pack would like to wish you the best holiday season! December is a time where we do a midyear check in reading and writing with district assessments like DIBELS and Illuminate. In reading, we are taking students’ knowledge of point of view and delving deeper by assessing how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text. Our math journey is moving toward mastery of all the decimal operations (+, -, x, and ). Using the scientific method as our constant for discovery, the topic of matter and how it changes keeps us busy in science. In social studies we are about to dive into a research project with our very own librarian, Ms. Vialpando. From our pack to yours, Happy Holidays!
Students receive skill and effort grades in Encore classes. We utilize a proficiency scale for both skill and effort grades. Our goal for students is to be at a proficient level, P, on their report card. Students will have multiple opportunities to demonstrate understanding (skill) and show their positive attitude, participation, willingness to try new things, and to work with others (effort).
Title 1 Corner
At Home Games for Reading Using Index Cards
1. Concentration
To make
Select five to ten words from a book (or books) the child is reading. Print each word clearly and boldly on separate 3x5 inch index cards, making pairs of each word. (The child may be able to help you by copying the words you write.)
To play
Shuffle the cards and place them face down in neat rows. Take turns turning up two cards at a time and reading the words aloud. If the two cards match, the player keeps them and takes a second turn. If they do not match, the cards are replaced face down and the next player takes a turn.
Variation 1
Instead of matching pairs, you can use rhyming pairs: look, book; dark, park.
Variation 2
This game can also be used to build letter recognition and letter/sound association. Paste or draw simple pictures on one set of cards; and on the other set, print initial consonants to go with the pictures. For example, paste the picture of a dog on one card, and write the letter "D" on a matching card.
Note: This game can be adapted to use with older children, or more advanced readers: variations can include vocabulary practice such as using homonyms, (words that sound alike but are spelled differently and have different meanings: cent/scent; dear/deer, etc.) or contractions, (can't; cannot, etc.).
For more easy-to-make index card games to support reading at home visit:
ELL
English Language Development with Mrs. Goodwin
Winter Vacation: 10 Reading Ideas for Families
Winter vacation is a great time to read with your kids. It's also a good time to make reading (and writing) fun! Try some of the ideas below — and remember that it's ok to do these activities in your home language!
· Read together: Look for some time to read together and talk about the books you read. If you have extra time, read a longer chapter book or children's novel out loud to your child. You will enjoy being together and discovering a good story.
· Tell stories: Use some of your holiday time together to tell stories from your childhood. Ask relatives and friends to share their own stories too. Storytelling helps children become better readers. Family stories are also an important part of your child's heritage.
· Visit the library virtually: Visit https://ppld.org/virtual for Virtual Library Services & Programs. There are many great live and recorded programs to keep kids engaged.
· Learn about new traditions/holidays: Look for children's books or Internet articles about holidays you celebrate, special traditions, or other winter celebrations. Your child may have friends at school who celebrate different holidays. You can probably find information about winter traditions around the world, Diwali, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Las Posadas, Three Kings Day, Winter Solstice, and Chinese New Year at the library.
· Give books: Give your child a book for the holidays. It doesn't have be new — you can share one of your favorite books or look for a special old book from a thrift store or used bookstore! If relatives are looking for gift ideas for your child, ask them to give a book this year.
· Look for other reading and writing gifts: Give your child some comic books, magazines, or special note cards for writing letters. This is a great time to find something connected to your child's interests, like sports, nature, or art.
· Make travel fun: If you are traveling during your vacation, look for maps and tourist books about your destination. These are a great way to prepare for the trip — and to pass time in the car or on the plane.
· Listen to audiobooks: If you will be in the car for long trips, rent an audiobook from the library. (You can also buy books from Audible.com or iTunes.) Ask your child to help choose a couple of books for the trip.
· Write letters and thank-you notes: Help your child write letters or e-mails to relatives and friends. Show your child how to write thank-you notes for holiday gifts.
· Make lists: Ask your child to help write shopping lists, activity ideas, or television schedules. This is good writing practice — and a big help to the adults too!
Even if your time is limited, a few extra minutes of reading together can make an important difference to your child. Who knows? You may even create a new reading routine for the New Year!
Adapted from: http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/winter-vacation-10-reading-ideas-parents
By Lydia Breiseth
Desarrollo del idioma inglés con la Sra. Goodwin
Vacaciones de invierno: 10 ideas de lectura para familias
Las vacaciones de invierno son un buen momento para leer con sus hijos. ¡También es un buen momento para hacer que la lectura (y la escritura) sea divertida! Pruebe algunas de las ideas a continuación, ¡y recuerde que está bien hacer estas actividades en su idioma materno!
• Leer juntos: Busquen algo de tiempo para leer juntos y hablar sobre los libros que leen. Si tiene tiempo adicional, lea un libro de capítulos más largo o una novela para niños en voz alta. Disfrutarán de estar juntos y descubrir una buena historia.
• Cuente historias: Use parte de su tiempo de vacaciones juntos para contar historias de su infancia. Pida a sus familiares y amigos que también compartan sus propias historias. Contar historias ayuda a los niños a convertirse en mejores lectores. Las historias familiares también son una parte importante de la herencia de su hijo.
• Visite la biblioteca virtualmente: Visite https://ppld.org/virtual para ver los servicios y programas de la biblioteca virtual. Hay muchos programas excelentes en vivo y grabados para mantener a los niños interesados.
• Aprenda sobre nuevas tradiciones / días festivos: busque libros para niños o artículos de Internet sobre los días festivos que celebra, tradiciones especiales u otras celebraciones de invierno. Es posible que su hijo tenga amigos en la escuela que celebren diferentes días festivos. Probablemente pueda encontrar información sobre las tradiciones invernales de todo el mundo, Diwali, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Las Posadas, el Día de los Reyes Magos, el solsticio de invierno y el Año Nuevo chino en la biblioteca.
• Regale libros: Dele a su hijo un libro para las fiestas. No tiene por qué ser nuevo: puedes compartir uno de tus libros favoritos o buscar un libro antiguo especial en una tienda de segunda mano o en una librería usada. Si los familiares están buscando ideas de regalos para su hijo, pídales que le regalen un libro este año.
• Busque otros dones de lectura y escritura: dele a su hijo algunas historietas, revistas o tarjetas especiales para escribir cartas. Este es un buen momento para encontrar algo relacionado con los intereses de su hijo, como deportes, naturaleza o arte.
• Haga que los viajes sean divertidos: si viaja durante sus vacaciones, busque mapas y libros turísticos sobre su destino. Éstas son una excelente manera de prepararse para el viaje y de pasar el tiempo en el automóvil o en el avión.
• Escuche audiolibros: si va a estar en el automóvil durante viajes largos, alquile un audiolibro en la biblioteca. (También puede comprar libros en Audible.com o iTunes). Pídale a su hijo que le ayude a elegir un par de libros para el viaje.
• Escriba cartas y notas de agradecimiento: ayude a su hijo a escribir cartas o correos electrónicos a familiares y amigos. Muéstrele a su hijo cómo escribir notas de agradecimiento para los regalos navideños.
• Haga listas: Pídale a su hijo que le ayude a escribir listas de compras, ideas de actividades u horarios de televisión. Esta es una buena práctica de escritura, ¡y también de gran ayuda para los adultos!
Incluso si su tiempo es limitado, unos minutos adicionales de lectura juntos pueden hacer una diferencia importante para su hijo. ¿Quién sabe? ¡Incluso puede crear una nueva rutina de lectura para el Año Nuevo!
Adaptado de: http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/winter-vacation-10-reading-ideas-parents
Por Lydia Breiseth
Counselor's Corner
Nurse's Corner
2021-2022 School Calendar
December Breakfast and Lunch Menus
Weikel Elementary School
Email: mdeherrera@ffc8.org
Website: https://www.ffc8.org/domain/279
Location: 6565 Lindstrom St. Colorado Springs, CO, USA
Phone: 719-358-4320
Facebook: facebook.com/weikelelementary