Odyssey Observer
Odyssey Magnet - - Grades 2-5 - - Friday, Sept. 15, 2023
Updates
New Section Below!
Conference Preference Sign up in the Highlands Newsletter (Repeat Info)
Grade 4 and 5 (Repeat Info)
Volunteers Wanted (Repeat Info)
If, say, only Tuesdays work for you, that's okay - we'd love to have you! The same for Thursdays. The more people we have that are interested, the less times you'd work. Email Mrs. Velpel if you are interested: velpelcourtney@aasd.k12.wi.us.
Edit: We have 6 volunteers! Keep 'em coming! We will make a schedule next week. Many hands light work!
Book Recommendations
Here is Mrs. Blattner's gathered Book Recommendations for Ody Students by Ody Students. This is geared more toward 2nd and 3rd graders, as that's who recommended them!
Here is Mrs. Velpel's gathered Odyssey's Epic Book Recommendation List to help you out if you need it. This is geared more toward the 4th and 5th graders because of the maturity level on some of them. Let us know if you think there should be an addition to it and give us your suggestion!
Teacher Spotlight
Ms. Witzeling
Beloved Foods: Just about anything my wonderful husband cooks, Dungeness crab, key lime and pumpkin pie,
Desired Free-Time Activities: Hiking the Ice Age Trail of course! Visiting with family, playing with our dogs Cashew and Hazie, cribbage, reading, tv news, Netflix, projects around the house…
Cherished School Subjects: SCIENCE (especially physical science) and math. In college I also really loved Human Geography.
Self-Proclaimed Nerd About: Oooh… a little bit about a lot of things like… glacial geography and various other science topics.
Something Unique or Awesome About This Human: This is my 30th year of teaching and my 19th with Odyssey. It is a challenging but wonderful job!
Madame Hooyman
Beloved Foods: Salmon, Apple pie
Desired Free-Time Activities: Spending time with family, scrapbooking, travelling
Cherished School Subjects: French... bien sûr!
Self-Proclaimed Nerd About: Grammar
Something Unique or Awesome About This Human: I love organizing! I have gone into the homes/offices of many friends and organized their space.
Ms. Balke
From Ms. Balke - Grades 2 and 3
Homeroom
AGENDAS: Each day, students complete agendas letting you know what we have learned throughout the day. Please be sure to have a conversation about things they have written and sign their agenda each day. They are excited to receive a TOPS ticket for doing this every day!
TOPS TICKETS: Students can receive TOPS tickets for doing GREAT things in class. WE (as a class) decided we would like to work together to get 500 TOPS tickets for a picnic and fun at the KIWANIS Park. So far, we have collected 185 tickets! Let’s keep working and contributing to our efforts for a fun time!
CLASS LINKS: As a class, we can earn CLASS LINKS! When we get a chain of links from the ceiling to the floor, we earn a class celebration! Our class is already doing AMAZING!!
ELA 2/3
SUPERHEROES & SUPERPOWERS: Ask your child “What makes a Superhero?” We’ve been discovering that Superheroes have strengths and weaknesses and we're exploring both!
Caricatures: We have begun creating personal caricatures that will evolve into a superhero persona.
Assessments: To differentiate lessons in ELA we will be pre-assessing: phonics, spelling, handwriting, and on demand writing.
Science 2/3
FAMILY INTERVIEW: Thank you to ev everyone who completed the family interview for our HISTORY OF ME study. If you have not done so, please be sure to complete and return it as soon as possible.
ARTIFACTS: Students will be building timelines of their lives. I will be asking for students to bring in pictures, tokens, and more of their memories that make up THEIR personal history. IMPORTANT: Please make sure you DO NOT send anything that is so important that you don’t want to be lost! I keep very good track of everything, but nothing is FOR SURE here at school!
From Mrs. Blattner - Grades 2 and 3
Homeroom
This year we will use Superheroes to improve our self awareness and citizenship.
This week we focused on Ant Man who reminds us to always be kind.
We are coming together well as an organized and respectful homeroom - we are earning many TOPS links (paper chain links that we piece together…when it stretched ceiling to floor we’ll have a class party!).
Math 2/3
iReady: we took iReady math tests this week to use as a pretest for many of our math units
This week we took notes on what mathematicians DO.
Next week we will begin our first unit: multiplication!
ELA 2/3
Read Aloud: this week we read several picture books to use as mentor texts this year, next week we will start Love That Dog by Sharon Creech
Caricatures: we finished these this week (it’s weekend homework if it’s not done!)
LMC: we visited the school library this week - everyone has a chapter book to read at school
From Mr. Ghiglieri - Social-Emotional Grade 2
From Madame Hooyman - Grade 3
From Mrs. Velpel - Grades 4 and 5
SEL
We discussed being present and what each of us needs to work on to stay present in the classroom
We discussed how our first thought doesn’t have to be our last thought. Our anxieties, fuzzy-thinking, and negative thoughts are only temporary.
ELA 4/5
- We aren't quick moving as quickly as I thought we would, so we had to change some plans.
- We did our first week of spelling. The test was today.
- We wrote about character changes and about a time something was scary for us.
- We did read aloud and DEAR time. Student reading logs are due on Monday!
Life Science (Velpel Homeroom)
- We made some robot fingers to see how our joints work.
- We learned about the strength of bones and bone breaks.
- We learned about ways that doctors and biomedical engineers design items to help heal our bones.
- We made some fake finger casts for fun...and to try to trick our parents!
From Ms. Witzeling - Grades 4 and 5
Homeroom
Homeroom - mastering routines and owl posters
SEL - this week’s themes “Believe in Yourself” and “Be Present”
New Odyssey students soon find that they need to pay attention more than in the past because we move faster and expect more - it’s an adjustment!
Math
KHIM Math 5 (Red group)
Reinforcing the message that our classroom is a safe place to ask questions and learn from each other
Made multiplication fact cards for 8 of the 38 facts we need. Our first strategy is “Double-Double” that works great for 4’s
Started Unit 1 - Volume
KHIM Math 6+ (Silver & Owls)
Reinforcing the message that our classroom is a safe place to ask questions and learn from each other
Multiplication facts should be mastered (through 12 x 12), else hurry and get those down!
Working on making sense of division with decimals - Quiz Mondayish
Next week: Measurement conversions and Powers of 10
Physical Science: (Witzeling Homeroom)
Discussions:
Vibrations create sound
Sound can create vibrations and move things!
Waves
Next up: light
From Mr. Tibbets - Grades 4 and 5
SEL
We discussed being present and what each of us needs to work on to stay present in the classroom
We discussed how our first thought doesn’t have to be our last thought. Our anxieties, fuzzy-thinking, and negative thoughts are only temporary.
Social Studies
This week:
We analyzed our school & classroom rules from the point-of-view of ‘justice.’ Are our rules just? Are they enough? Students did a GREAT job offering suggestions!
We logged onto Chromebooks to make sure that we could! We explored where to find missing work and our academic tiles
We explored reading for information and the importance of COMPREHENSION. Students practiced identifying various parts of non-fiction articles using our subscription to The Week, Jr.
Coming Up:
Students will continue reading (and writing!) for information from ‘The Week, Jr.’
We will learn our roles as archaeologists, anthropologists, and sociologists in our ‘Motel of Mysteries’ introduction!
Earth Science: (Tibbets homeroom)
This week:
We analyzed the earth’s rotation around the sun and how the tilt of the earth gives us seasons
Students modeled sunlight hitting the earth at different points, explaining what season it is based on the tilt
We figured out how FAST we spin!
We got our Naturalist Notebook guidelines and went outside to explore and observe!
Coming Up:
Solstice and Equinox
Eclipse-What is the difference between a lunar & solar eclipse? When is our next eclipse? When is it?
First independent ‘Naturalist Notebook’--free choice!
From Madame DeJarlais - Grades 4 and 5
Phy Ed with Mr. Verheyen
Grades 4 and 5 We Missed You page
Teacher Wish List
Balke - Fine Line Crayola Markers - Basic Colors. Reusable shopping bags (ex: Walmart, Target, Woodmans) for kids to carry their supplies between classrooms.
Blattner - Colored dry erase markers
Tibbets- Thank you for the gallon plastic bags!
Velpel - 🚫
Witzeling - 🚫
Hooyman/DeJarlais - 🚫
Ghiglieri - 🚫
Odyssey Directory
Questions? Concerns?? Compliments???
Please email the appropriate person from this list of Odyssey team members; we'll get back to you!
Jean Balke - Grades 2 and 3: balkewolffjean@aasd.k12.wi.us
Jenni Blattner - Grades 2 and 3: blattnerjennif@aasd.k12.wi.us
Brian Tibbets - Grades 4 and 5: tibbetsbrian@aasd.k12.wi.us
Courtney Velpel - Grades 4 and 5: velpelcourtney@aasd.k12.wi.us
Dory Witzeling - Grades 4 and 5: witzelingdorot@aasd.k12.wi.us
Stephanie Hooyman - French 3: hooymanstephan@aasd.k12.wi.us
Krista DeJarlais - French 4 and 5: dejarlaiskrist@aasd.k12.wi.us
Nate Ghiglieri - SEL Grades 2: ghiglierinatha@aasd.k12.wi.us
Melissa Fields - Music: fieldsmelissa@aasd.k12.wi.us
Kadie Smith - Music: smithkadie@aasd.k12.wi.us
Erin Sjostrom - Art: sjostromerin@aasd.k12.wi.us
Bryce Verheyen - Phy Ed: verheyenbryce@aasd.k12.wi.us
Rachel Richards - Strings: richardsrachel@aasd.k12.wi.us
Matt DePietro - Band: dipietromatthe@aasd.k12.wi.us
Holly Goymerac - Secretary: goymeracholly@aasd.k12.wi.us
Jessica Nesemann - Secretary: nesemannjessic@aasd.k12.wi.us
Kari Krueger - Principal: kruegerkari@aasd.k12.wi.us
David Nitka - Associate Principal: nitkadavid@aasd.k12.wi.us
Going Out of Town?
Upcoming Events at Highlands/Odyssey!
September
18 - PTO Meeting - LMC 6:00 -7:00 pm
21 - HIG/ODY Badger Sports Park Night 4:00-8:00 pm
25 - No School
October
7 - Tough Kid Challenge - Field - Runs all day
9 - PTO Meeting - LMC 3:45-4:45 pm
10-20 - Book Fair
17 - Picture Day/Vision Screening
17 - Parent/Teacher Conferences 4:00-7:30 pm
19 - Parent/Teacher Conferences 4:00-7:15 pm
25 - Ody/Mag Advisory Committee 6:00 - Hig/Ody LMC
27 - No School
November
6- PTO Meeting - LMC 6:00 -7:00 pm
16- Picture Retakes
22-27 No School
December
11 - Odyssey Open House 6:00-6:45 pm
12 - Grades 5/6 Band Concert at Wilson - 6:30 pm
22-29 - No School - Winter Break
January
1 - No School (Last day of Winter Break)
8 - PTO Meeting - LMC 3:30-4:30 pm
15 - No School
22 - No School
26 - Family Movie Night 6:00 pm doors open, movie starts at 6:30 pm
February
5 - PTO Meeting - LMC 6:00-7:00 pm
8 - Odyssey 4/5 Music Concert - Gym 2:45-3:15 pm
13 - Parent/Teacher Conferences 4:00-7:30 pm
15 - Parent/Teacher Conferences 4:00-7:15 pm
19 - No School
21 - Ody/Mag Advisory Committee 6:00 - Hig/Ody LMC
29 - Odyssey 2/3 Music Concert - Gym 2:45-3:15 pm
March
11 - PTO Meeting - LMC 3:45-4:45 pm
20 - Strings/Band Concert - Gym Time TBD
22-29 - No School - Spring Break
April
1 - No School
4 - Odyssey Interim Showcase - 6:00-7:00 pm
8 - PTO Meeting - LMC 6:00-7:00 pm
10 - Ody/Mag Advisory Committee 6:00 - Mrs. Cash's room
18 - Goodies with Grown Ups - Gym 7:00-8:30 am
May
6 - PTO Meeting - LMC 3:45-4:45 pm
7- Odyssey Skate Party - Skate City 5:30-7:30 pm
16 - Fun Run 4:30-6:00 pm
24 - No School
27 - No School
June
5 - Odyssey 5th Grade Farewell - Kiwanis Park 5:00-6:30 pm
6 - Field Day/School Picnic/Kona Ice Day
7 - Last Day of School - dismissal at 11:27 am
Odyssey Magnet School
Odyssey-Magellan Magnet School provides learners that are highly gifted with a challenging study of math, science, communication arts, social studies, and foreign language in a stimulating classroom environment, with experienced and dedicated teachers.
Students in grades 2 through 5 attend school on the Odyssey campus located at Highlands Elementary School. Students in grades 6 through 8 attend school on the Magellan campus located at Wilson Middle School.
Email: velpelcourtney@aasd.k12.wi.us
Website: om.aasd.k12.wi.us
Location: 2037 North Elinor Street, Appleton, WI, USA
Phone: (920) 832-6250
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OMMagnetSchool