Windsor Oaks Warriors
Quarterly Newsletter
Welcome to the 2017-18 School Year!
So many wonderful things happening at WOES!
IMPORTANT UPCOMING EVENTS:
OCTOBER
Tuesday, October 10th
Schools Pictures
Friday, October 13th
SOLebration and WOES Fall Harvest Festival, 5:30PM-8PM
Wednesday, October 25th
SCA Skating Party, Haygood Skating Center, 5:30PM-8PM
NOVEMBER
Tuesday, November 7th
NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS
Friday, November 10th
SCHOOLS CLOSED
What's happening at Windsor Oaks...
CAFETERIA
Come in and have lunch with your child! National School Lunch Week will be October 9-13, 2017. Join us in celebrating NSLW by having lunch with your child! Adult items are priced a la carte. The regular student price for lunch is $2.85, and the reduced lunch is $0.40.
A nutritious breakfast is also available at Windsor Oaks from 8:20 am-8:35 am. The regular price for breakfast $1.40, and the reduced breakfast .30. The breakfast menu can be found on the vbschools.com website. Have you filled out a free/reduced application? You may pick up an application from the cafeteria manager or the front office. Questions or concerns? Contact the Cafeteria Manager, Mekel Stewart 757-648-4129.
Before we jump in to learning or reviewing the Elements of Art, or the Artist's toolbox, students are creating a drawing that captures a favorite Summer Time Memory! We will hold on to these drawings until June when students will create another similar drawing to compare and contrast. It is always exciting and encouraging for students to see how much they have progressed during a single grade level. Rocking in Art!!!
Music
Welcome to another exciting 2017-18 year of music. Our music department is especially pleased to support the SOLs and reinforce musical skills and concepts for all children. I am excited about helping your child explore music through the use of instruments and singing.
Our fourth and fifth grade recorders will be ordered and all students should have a recorder by October. I am planning the Recorder Karate Program again for fourth grades and also a Level 5 Recorder Karate for fifth grades. All 4th and 5th grade students should have recorders and folders at school for their music lesson day.
Also, fourth and fifth grade students have been joining chorus and fifth grade will have the opportunity to begin strings classes. Our new strings teacher is Mr. Durig and he will be here on Mondays and Wednesdays during P.E. Chorus students will meet on Wednesdays at 7:45am and enter the building through the back door by the cafeteria.
We hope to use many students throughout the year to perform for the PTO. Producing a musical program at school requires much work and many extra hands. Thank you for whatever assistance you can offer this year: at home, at school, or both. Together we can create a musical learning experience for each student that will enrich his or her life for many years to come.
GRADE LEVEL INFORMATION
KINDERGARTEN
Kindergarten is off to a great start!! We are demonstrating being good citizens. In language arts we have been making connections with text, learning our letters, and letter sounds. In math we have been counting and making sets up to ten. We are super excited to be in school FULL DAY!!
FIRST
During the first quarter of school, our new first graders have been working together to build our classroom communities. They are learning how to be good citizens by respecting others, sharing, taking turns, and following directions. In math, we are focusing on counting forward from 0 to 120, counting backward from 30 to 0, and identifying the ordinal position of an object. In reading, the first graders are making connections and identifying the characters, setting, and events of stories. Our first graders are also practicing their writing skills everyday!
SECOND
Second grade has been hard at work in language arts working on making and confirming predictions, making connections, summarizing stories in the correct sequence, and identifying the main idea in both fiction and nonfiction texts. They have starting to work on writing stories and revising their work for clarity.
In math, our students are exploring numeration and developing an understanding of the Base-10 system in numbers through the hundreds. This knowledge will help them in comparing and rounding numbers. They are also working on counting by twos, fives and tens, which will help them recognize and extend numeric patterns. We will begin our geometry unit during this first quarter, too.
Is science our students are studying matter, understanding that it is anything that has mass and takes up space. Through classification and investigation opportunities, students are learning to explain the characteristics of solids, liquids and gases.
In Social Studies we are discussing our country’s culture, contributions of individuals and groups, and the benefits of a diverse community.
THIRD
We are enjoying a wonderful start to our third grade year! In math, we have begun our numeration unit. The students have studied place value, and will move into comparing numbers and rounding. We are studying American society in social studies. The students have discussed the difference between rules and laws, as well as communities and public service jobs. In science we are studying matter. In language arts, we have studied fiction texts focusing on identifying the theme of a story and summarizing important events. Next, we are moving into non-fiction. The students will focus on identifying the main idea and supporting details, as well as starting to use text features.
FOURTH
Fourth graders are hard at work this quarter working with both fiction and nonfiction texts. They are making connections to support comprehension of texts, summarizing during and after reading fiction and nonfiction texts, including important details, and identifying the main idea or theme in various texts. In writing they are using a variety of prewriting strategies and practicing writing for variety of purposes, as well as revising their writing for content clarity.
In content study, our students are investigating the relationship between the sun, the moon and Earth. In our Geography and Weather unit, students are using critical thinking and problem solving as they use the skills of a meteorologist and geographer to interpret maps of the physical world and identify climate patterns.
In math our fourth graders are exploring whole number numeration, building upon concepts they learned in third grade and extending the number system through millions. In addition, we are working on computation of whole numbers and we will study all four operations in and out of the context of real-world problems. Multi-step problem solving and division are being introduced.
FIFTH
We are well into our instruction for the 2017/2018 school year and students are rising to the expectations.
In Reading, the students are creating summary statements and/or summaries of the most important information in a portion of text. In Writing, the students worked on writing friendly letters to the victims of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. The best thing you can do for your child is to read with them and/or make sure they are committing to reading on a daily basis. Thank you for supporting the learning objectives here!
In math we have been working on Numbers & Number Sense. We have been focusing on odd and even numbers, as well as prime and composite numbers.
In Virginia Studies, the students are learning about the relative location and physical characteristics of Virginia's bordering states, regions, and waterways and in Science we have begun our first unit in Force, Motion, and Energy as well.
Many resources have been provided for fifth grade success especially study materials for Science (both 4th and 5th grade objectives) and Virginia Studies. Please help your child to study these valuable materials. Your interest will encourage them to do their best and see the value you place on their school efforts.
Thank you for your support of what we do in the classroom. We appreciate you very much.