The Eye of the Tiger
Weekly update for 3/1/21
Welcome
Welcome to March, Tigers and Tiger Families! This month is full of excitement: Women's History Month, our Family Festival Night, Girls Basketball, Football, and more. This week is an ORANGE week, which means Monday and Tuesday are A days; Thursday and Friday are B days. Let's make this a GREAT week!
- WGMS FAMILY FESTIVAL NIGHT: This Thursday we will be celebrating our Tiger community from 4:30-5:30pm. The evening will begin with a welcome message and an opportunity to share what we LOVE about WGMS followed by our WGMS History and Trivia prize winner selection (using the Wheel of Names). Next, we will share educator highlights and important community resources. Mrs. Hinrichs will share our school vision before we spotlight some Tiger Pride Students. The night will conclude with a drawing for two large prizes.
- BOOK FAIR: WGMS is partnering with Barnes and Noble for a book fair! You can support our school by making a purchase in our Frederickburg store (March 13th - 18th) and online (March 13th - 23rd). When ordering, be sure to use our code: 12606174. You must mention our code or school for us to receive any profits. Profits from the fair will benefit our school library and our book delivery program.
- PICTURE DAY: Picture day is coming! Save the date(s) - March 30th and April 1st. Details to follow.
WGMS Kindness Ambassadors
Over the past two weeks, we asked our school community to nominate Kindness Ambassadors. Wow! The amount of kindness in our school is AMAZING! We are so proud of our students and staff. Based on the number of nominations, the following Tigers were named as our Kindness Ambassadors:
Sixth Grade: Roselyn Taylor - This student has been named a Kindness Ambassador because she is always nice to everyone.
Seventh Grade: J'adore Barbour - This student has been identified as a Kindness Ambassador because she is always willing to help others, especially her peers.
Eighth Grade: Isaiah Torres - This student is one of our Kindness Ambassadors because he is thoughtful.
Staff: Kimberly Cunningham - Mrs. Cunningham has a positive effect on everyone she encounters, which is why she is one of our Kindness Ambassador.
Faculty: Vera Schooler - Ms. Schooler is a Kindness Ambassador because she works hard to help all of her students.
Instruction: The True Eye of the Tiger
In our previous Eye of the Tiger newsletters, we have shared that our school-wide instructional focus this year is metacognition. Last week we shared six metacognitive skills to help students become active readers. This week, we are focusing on visualizing. Skilled readers visualize by creating images in their minds as they are reading to help them better understand a concept or "see" a story. Visualizing is critical in retention and understanding.
Visualizing helps students:
- Bring prior knowledge into new learning
- Compare mental images to text to gain deeper understanding
- Match text to images to improve processing
- Connect to text in meaningful ways
To support your child in visualizing:
- Ask your child what they are picturing in their mind during and after reading.
- Encourage your child to draw pictures or write words they think of during or after reading.
- Provide your child opportunities to create what they "see" when reading with other materials (clay, string, etc.).
- Read aloud with your child and compare what you each "see" while reading.
Visualization Games:
- Picture this: Describe an animal or setting with as many details as possible (without saying what or where it is) and have your student draw the image - then switch!
- Can you describe?: One person should hold up a picture (without looking) and the other should describe it using imagery and detailed language so that the first person can guess what the image is
- Read with me: Read a passage or poem together then separate to draw imagery from what you read. After 5 minutes, compare your images. Discuss similarities and differences.
Read Across America
Virtual Virginia Opportunities
Virtual Virginia course registration for summer 2021 opens Monday, March 1st, and the 2021–2022 academic year opens Monday, March 15. FCPS does not guarantee your ability to participate, but we do need to know if you and your child are interested so that we can look into reserving a spot and securing funding.
- Online K–12 courses taught by Virtual Virginia teachers
- All students enrolled in Virtual Virginia courses remain affiliated with the local division ADM
- Instruction incorporates daily synchronous opportunities and asynchronous learning experiences
- Part-time and full-time enrollment available
See the link below for course registration information:
Computer Tips and Tricks
A Tiger Tidbit
HAPPY WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH
In March We Celebrate...
- Women's History Month
- Art Education Month
- Music In Our Schools Month
- National Nutrition Month
- National Women’s History Month
- School Social Work Month
- Red Across America Day (March 2nd)
- National School Breakfast Week (March 2-6)