The Willis Weekly
September 27, 2019
Grandparents Day
Study Trip to Flat Fork Creek Park
Permission slips are due back no later than Friday, October 4th.
If you want to want to chaperone this study trip, please respond to me by Friday, October 4th. There is no limit to how many chaperones we can have. That said, some parents may have to meet us at the park due to seating availability on the buses.
Liger Mile
Why Writing Workshop? By the Partnership for Inquiry Learning
You may be wondering why we using writing workshop for writing. This article by the Partnership of Inquiry Learning will help answer some of your questions.
Writing workshop elevates writing as a content area.
Writing across the curriculum to support our learning lives is different than writing to communicate original ideas. Both are valuable and necessary skills. When writing is only done inside other subjects—writing up scientific findings or responding to essay questions in history or literature, for example—no time is devoted to teaching concepts and strategies that improve the writing. Lessons in voice, genre, style, structure and craft get pushed out of the way. In writing workshop, these lessons are front and center. Students are not only putting words on paper but also learning how to make informed decisions and use intentional strategies that make the written texts as effective as possible.
This Week in Global Studies
The 2nd grade students read a story called “Ojichans Gift” about a young Japanese girl whom shares special time with her grandfather working in his Zen Garden until he becomes unable to live alone anymore and has to move from his home. She then creates a small Zen garden for him to have with him at all times to remember their times together. So, as a class we made a “Zen garden” for the students to have in their own classroom. This is something they can do when they are feeling really emotional or feel that might need to settle themselves.
Lunch Visitors
Lunch Visitors Are Now Welcome: Visitors with approved background checks and who have also viewed the anti-bullying video may now eat lunch with their child/children. There is a ten visitor maximum, so please be sure to call the TCE office at 594-4310 by 9:30am on the day you would like to visit for lunch.
Mystery Birthday Gift
•School policy states that food may not be sent from home. A great idea is a Mystery Gift: Surprise your child by purchasing a game or book for the classroom on his/her birthday! Have your child bring this wrapped “mystery gift” to the classroom to open with us. I will then write your child’s name in the donated item, and it will be available for each student to use. This is not mandatory; it is only a choice. Your child’s birthday WILL be acknowledged in class, after all, it is a special day!
•If your child would like to hand out pencils, erasers, bookmarks, or any other non-edible item to help celebrate his/her birthday, I will be happy to accommodate a time when this can be arranged.
•It is also school policy that invitations to parties not be passed out at school unless the whole class is invited. Otherwise, they must be mailed from your home.
Library Volunteers
Library volunteers are needed to help with shelving and checking in books in our TCE Library. Volunteering in the library is fun and the schedule is flexible! If you are interested in volunteering, please reach out to Mrs. Hopper, TCE Librarian (lhopper@hse.k12.in.us).
*A safe visitor background check is required for all school volunteers. For more information on background checks, visit https://www.hseschools.org/services/other/school-safety/visiting-and-volunteering.
Book Fee/iPad Rental Update
On September 6, 2019 elementary families will be able to view book fees on Skyward. Pat Lines, TCE Treasurer will email families an invoice on Friday evening as well. Book fees and any ipad rentals payments are due October 4, 2019. For those who qualified for café/textbook/ipad free/reduced assistance, you should see a “Textbook Assistance” (TA Code) plus a fee credit (zero balance for 2019-2020 school year).
Just a reminder, for free/reduced assistance families must apply every year on or after July 1, 2019. If you have any questions about this assistance or if you would like a payment plan, please contact Pat Lines, TCE Treasurer at (317) 594-4310 or plines@hse.k12.in.us.
Wanting to help out at TCE?
Important Information for Next Week
Mark Your Calendar!
October 12th- Fall Break Begins
October 21st- School Resumes from Fall Break
Next Week's Related Arts Schedule
Tuesday, October 1: Day 2 - Global Studies
Wednesday, October 2: Day 3 - Music
Thursday, October 3: Day 4 - Art & Library
Friday, October 4: Day 1 - P.E.
We Are Learning...
Reading
Our reading focus shifted to nonfiction texts this week. We are finding out that to gain the most knowledge from these types of books, we need to look closely at our texts. We need to ask questions based on what we are reading. If we want to learn about a topic, we must look through a book to see if it will provide the information we are looking for. If it doesn't, we need to find other materials that will help us gather information.
Writing
This week we started our non-fiction writing unit. This week in non-fiction writing we learned about the following topics: craft moves, planning, and goal setting. We identified and practiced using non-fiction craft moves such as headers, fun facts, labels, word bubbles, diagrams that compare, and question asking. We discussed how planning for our non-fiction books resembles that of our personal narrative writing in that we can plan across our fingers and then across pages. Lastly, we practiced identifying setting and executing goals.
Math
(e.g. in " 2 x 7 " the number 2 being added to itself 7 times). We learned that fact families are equations that use the same set of numbers. Lastly, we learned that word-problems are stories that involve math. To help us solve word-problems we created a mental pictures in our heads to help understand what we know and how we need to change parts of what we know to find our what we need to know.
Project/Inquiry Work
Mr.Willis
Email: Cwillis@hse.k12.in.us
Location: 14642 E 126th St, Fishers, IN, United States
Phone: 317-594-4310 (2205)
Twitter: @TCEWillis