OSC Weekly Update
January 27, 2023
Top 5 Proud Positives for this week!
5. We have loved playing in the fresh snow!
4. Getting back into small guided groups.
3. Knocking out task list items.
2. Having our OccuPaws friends coming to visit
1. Students researching about their cities for their project!Global School Play Day! Thursday, February 2nd
OSC will be celebrating Global School Play Day on Thursday, February 2nd. The purpose of GSPD is to raise awareness for the importance of unstructured play during childhood. In today’s world unstructured play has become a lost art. With rising safety concerns in our communities, families having busy schedules, higher academic demands and easy access to technology devices there are fewer and fewer opportunities for children to engage in unstructured play. True unstructured play is independent and child directed which helps build skills such as creativity, problem solving, communication, and independence.
On February 2nd we will break up our day into different kinds of (electronic free) unstructured play:
Students May Bring the Following:
Board Games
Legos
Crochet or Bracelet making supplies
Card Games
Craft Supplies
Items that fit into your backpack
No electronics for this time
Anything appropriate to play with during our unstructured playtime!
Valentine’s Day Party
- Students DO NOT have to participate or hand out cards unless they have a desire to.
- IF students choose to, they MUST- make one for each student in their homeroom (20 students). Homeroom list will be send home on Friday, January 27th
-They DO NOT need to make one for all 80 students. They certainly can if they want to.
- IF students would like to hand out to other friends that are not in their homeroom they MUST make one for all 80 students OR hand them out to other students outside of school and not during school hours.
- PrePackaged Snacks- If you and your child would like to contribute to our snack buffet for our celebration they may bring them in as we near February 14th. Thank You!
- Drinks- Students may bring in their own special drink to help celebrate.
Snacks!
Travel Wisconsin - Phase 2: Research
We have now moved to the next phase of our project, Researching! This phase focuses on gathering information about their selected city and focus, as well as establishing an introductory paragraph. Next we will move onto gathering research on the main topic of choice.
The month of February will be all about field studies! What is a field study? A field study is an opportunity for your child to take their learning outside of the classroom and learn from an expert in regards to any aspect of their project. When going on a field study students are encouraged to ask 5-10 questions to ask, take pictures to document their learning (and hopefully display on Project Night), and then reflect on their experience.
Please let us know if you plan on taking your child to their field study topic or if you would like OSC to take your child on a field study related to their topic. While we understand that some of the cities picked for this project can be a hike, please know that attending something closer to home related to their project is great too!! Please fill out this form indicating your preference.
Project Night- Mark your calendars!
We have officially kicked off and started our BIG OSC project and are in the beginning stages. Our official Project Night is scheduled for the evening of Tuesday, March 21st. Students will be at school from 5:00 pm- 6:30 pm while presenting their projects. We will continue to send out updated information regarding specifics related to the evening of March 21st. In the meantime, mark your calendars and enjoy the project process.
Here is a link to some examples of past student projects!
iReady Testing Completed!
All of our students completed the iReady math and reading tests last week, and they did a great job! We saw lots of growth overall for our students.
Weekly Task List
Students will continue to receive a weekly task list that breaks down daily work expectations. Students must complete their work by the end of the week to participate in Friday Fun Day. Students can work on activities at home if they did not get it completed during the school day. Here is an example of what a task list looks like.
A Note From Our School Nurse
Dear Parent(s) or Guardian(s)
LES/OSC is gearing up to conduct 3rd and 5th grade vision screens on Tuesday, February 7th and Wednesday, February 8th. The purpose of the screenings is to identify any potential vision problems.
OSC 3rd graders are on 2/7 from 8:30-9:15
OSC 5th graders are on 2/8 from 8:30-9:15
Vision screening will consist of using a standard Sloan letter acuity chart that helps to examine distance visual acuity-ability to see objects far away and binocular vision to see how well your child’s eyes work together.
If your child wears corrective lenses, they should have their glasses for the eye exam. If your child struggles and is unable to read the critical line of 20/32 then I will email you a referral for further evaluation by your physician or eye care specialist.
If you do not wish your child not to participate in the vision screening, please email sivamja@lodischoolswi.org
Thank You,
Janelle Sivam
Literacy Update
3rd: In third grade literacy groups, we have shifted our focus towards analyzing the craft and structure of informational text. We discussed identifying context clues to help us figure out the meaning of unfamiliar words. Last week, your third grade student should have brought home an Independent Practice to get signed and brought back to school.
A 3rd grade literacy celebration message we received- “We talked about the importance of writing clearly!”
4th: 4th grade literacy groups have been working on using details to describe the settings and events in a story to help better understand the stories their reading.
A 4th grade literacy celebration message we received- “After we reviewed their written response they realized they picked the wrong answer as we talked about the characters and we were able to adjust how they saw the character!”
5th: Students have been working through the hard task of understanding the skill of inference this week. We discussed how our experiences and understanding the text develops our inference abilities. We also are quoting key details from the texts we read to show our evidence of inferring. 5th graders are rocking it! Thank you 5th grade families for going over the Literacy Independent Practice with your child and leaving us a celebration of learning!
A 5th grade literacy celebration message we received- “Learning to slow down in reading to find the key details!”
Math Update
3rd: Students have completed Unit 4! We are moving on to Unit 5. Unit 5 involves fractions and multiplication strategies. Today students received their “homelinks” for this week. The homelinks are a review of all that students have learned since the beginning of the year. The homelinks will be due next week February 3rd. We really appreciate seeing the celebrations families make note of! A 3rd grade math celebration message we received was “Great comprehension of area and perimeter!”
4th: We jumped into Unit 5, which has a heavy emphasis on Fractions! This week we decomposed fractions, identified the whole of fractions, added fractions with like denominators, and added mixed numbers.
5th: This week we started unit 5! This one is tough, because we are heading back into fractions. We have been working on finding common denominators to solve addition and subtraction problems. We are using strategies like listing out equivalent fractions, multiplying the denominators together, and trying to figure out if one is a multiple of the other (ex. adding with denominators of 3 and 9: 3 can be multiplied by something to get to 9.) This is a skill that will likely take lots of practice.
Volunteering in OSC
If you are interested in helping with any of the below volunteer opportunities, please contact your child’s homeroom Advisor (emails are listed at the end of this ENews).
Do you know how to use a sewing machine and want to help students learn sewing skills and create a small project that you have in mind?
Work with students during independent math time (M, T, W, or Th from 10:10-10:55)
Read with students during Literacy Block (M, T, W, or Th from 8:20-8:50 or 11:-11:45)
Become a member of the OSC Board! We are looking to grow our OSC Board! If you are interested in becoming a cheerleader for our students and help to enhance our community and project opportunities, then this is for you!
Important Dates and Upcoming Events
Next Week Lunch Menu
Mon, Jan 30 (Day 1)
Tues, Jan 31 (Day 2)
Wed, Feb 1 (Day 3)
Thurs, Feb 2 (Day 4)
Fri, Feb 3 (Day 5)
Future Dates
Fri, Feb 17 No School for kids
Thur, Mar 02 P/T Spring Conferences
Tue, Mar 07 P/T Spring Conferences
Fri, Mar 17 No School for kids
Tue, Mar 21 OSC PROJECT NIGHT 5:00 pm- 6:30 pm
Mon, Mar 27-31 No School- Spring Break
Mon, April 03 School Resumes
Fri, April 07 No School
Fri, May 05 OSC Musical @ 7 pm
Fri, May 12 No School for kids
Mon, May 29 No School- Memorial Day
Tue, May 30 OSC 5th Grade Graduation during school day
Fri, June 02 Field Day
Tue, June 06 Last Day of School!!
After School Change of Plans
Please include the office staff on any after school change of plans to ensure we receive it. It is very common that we don’t get to our email until after the students have left for the day.
Samantha Dickey dickesa@lodischoolswi.org DeeAnn Kleinschmidt Kleinde@lodischoolswi.org
Thank you!
Grace Zauche leegr@lodischoolswi.org
Grace Schirra Schirgr@lodischoolswi.org
Allie Stone stoneal@lodischoolswi.org
Carly Zick zickca@lodischoolswi.org
Niki Schoenemann: schoeni@lodischoolswi.org
Abbey Ballweg ballwab@lodischoolswi.org