Jefferson Elementary Newsletter
November, 2017
Message from Principal Kluver
Welcome to November! Fall is a great time of year. As our temperatures grow colder, be sure your children are ready for recess! Students will go outside, unless the temperature or wind chill is below 0 degrees or because of rain.
As students begin bringing and wearing more clothes, our Lost and Found really starts to fill up! Please label your children’s outside gear so that you or they can easily locate it. If your kids are missing some clothes, please check our Lost and Found located in the cafeteria.
Thank you for coming to our recent fall Parent/Teacher Conferences. We had a great turn out! It was nice to see so many students here actively participating in their conference. Our next round of conferences is scheduled for January 25 and 30. I would like to encourage all students to attend and hear the great things being said about you by your teachers and family.
Student report cards will sent home on Friday, November 10. In addition to report cards, we will also send home several reports about how students performed on our new reading and math standardized testing called FAST testing. Students will receive a report about their reading skills and math skills. We hope you find these informative. If you have any questions about what the information shows, please contact your child’s teacher.
PBIS Place
Upcoming Events
- November 2 - End of first quarter
- November 6 - No school (workshop day)
- November 7 - PBIS assembly at 1:10 p.m.
- November 10 - Report cards come home
- November 13-17 - American Education Week
- November 16 - 4th grade trip to High School for "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate factory"
- November 16 - Title 1 math and reading family night in cafeteria at 5:30-6:30 p.m.
- November 22-24 - No school (Thanksgiving break)
- November 30 - 4th grade field trip to Minneapolis Institute of Art & Children's Theatre
1st Grade
During our reading time we have continued to work on becoming good readers. We began focusing on the Primer Dolch list of sight words after finishing the Pre-Primer list in September. We also finished up the last of the short vowel sounds and moved on to r/l blends and the diagraphs th, sh, and ch. Our mentor text stories for the month are Knuffle Bunny, Otis, How Do Apples Grow? and Diary of a Spider, which we use to work on our reading strategies such as characters, setting, predicting, making connections, and retelling.
In math, first graders finished up Unit 1 about Early Number Activities and took our first unit test. Starting in Unit 2, we began drawing pictures to represent addition and subtraction. We are moving on from concrete objects to more abstract thinking as we explore a variety of addition and subtraction strategies. We also began exploring money using the counting on method to add groups of nickels and pennies.
First grade scientists are learning about living and non-living, the life cycle of an apple, and spiders and insects.
October was also a month of great experiences. On October 10th the New Ulm Fire Department brought three of their fire trucks to Jefferson Elementary for our students to explore during Fire Prevention week. We also had a great opportunity to explore Jack McGowan’s Farm during our field trip on October 18th.
2nd Grade
October has been a busy month for our second grade students! We are so excited to share all of the creative things we have been learning about.
Johnny Appleseed
John Knisley, from Alternative Roots Farming, came to Jefferson to teach us about apples. We learned about the different variety of apples, how they grow, and we were able to taste test them. Then we created a classroom bar graph of our favorite type of apple.
Fire Safety
The students have been busy learning about fire safety. They had a fire drill on Tuesday, October 10th. The fire trucks came to visit our school at this time. The second graders enjoyed taking a tour of the fire trucks and learning import fire safety tips from the New Ulm Firefighters.
Lucy Sletta
This month our students read the story, My Name is Yoon. The story was about a young girl who moved to America from Korea. We were then lucky enough to have Lucy, Mrs. Sletta’s daughter, come to our classrooms to teach us more about the Korean culture, language , and food. What a wonderful learning experience for our second graders!
Meet Mrs. Schmiesing
This is Mrs. Schmiesing’s fifth year in 2nd grade. She previously taught fourth grade in Sleepy Eye for eight years. She is married to her husband, Andy, and has two children, Lauren, (9) and Londyn, (5). Please say hello when you see her around! Some of her favorites: Biking, spending time with her family, swimming at Flandrau, cheesecake, and taco dip!
3rd Grade
Making Connections, Mental Images, Asking and Answering Questions, and learning about Character’s Actions are just a few of the things third grade students have been working on during our reading time! Students have been working hard on increasing their reading stamina during Read to Self time, and seem to be doing great!
In math, we finished our first unit. There was a lot of adding and subtracting going on in our rooms! Multi-digit addition and subtraction challenged us as we learned a number of different strategies to solve each. Unit 2 has us learning about lines, line segments, rays, parallelograms, and quadrilaterals.
Science has been a lot of fun as we finished up a unit on living and non-living things. Students used their 5 senses to observe gummy worms, and then real earthworms. We moved on to learning about plants, and worked on collecting seeds for a seed project.
In Social Studies students worked on a variety of map skills, types of communities (rural/suburban/urban), and started talking about continents and oceans.
Meet the Teacher:
Hello! I’m Gwen Jacobs. This is my second year teaching third grade at Jefferson Elementary. I have taught in three different schools, and multiple grade levels. I am married to Sam Jacobs. We have two children, Paige (14) and Mark (11). My fur baby is Kenny, he is a Dachsund/German Shepherd mix. I enjoy watching movies, working in my garden, and reading. Some of my favorite things are: chocolate, coffee, popcorn, Pinterest, baking, and books!
4th Grade
September and October have flown by! We took a field trip to Lamberton, MN to the U of M's Extension Field Office for a day of learning about farm & electrical safety as well as the water and plant cycles, compositing with worms and the history of our soil.
We have been diving into some new concepts in math while reviewing some old. This month we focused on Geometry, especially finding area and perimeter of quadrilaterals. The kids enjoyed using Cheeze-Its to introduce them to the concepts. Symmetry has been another fun concept to learn more about. Kids had fun using special symmetry mirrors to create different pictures.
In reading we are continuing to use inferences and drawing conclusions that are supported through text evidence. We are also talking about different character traits.
In science students have had fun doing different experiments like the Purple Cow and making slime to discuss density and mass. In social studies we will be focusing on the Midwest Region for the next month.
This month we will be learning about 6 different pieces of art through the Art Adventure program and then taking a field trip to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts at the end of November to see those pieces of art and take in the play The Grinch Who Stole Christmas at the Children's Theater.
Team Spotlight ~ Ms. Dolter & Mrs. Mack
Ms. Dolter is new to District 88 and in her first year of teaching. She graduated from Iowa State with a BS in Elementary Education and minor in Learning Technology. She grew up in Woodbury, MN with her mom and dad. She also has two younger brothers who are avid hockey players. Ms. Dolter lives in Mankato and loves to shop, read and play with her puppies. A fun fact about her is that she was born with 3 missing teeth.
This is Mrs. Mack's 10th year teaching in District 88 with 3 years as teaching 1st grade, 1 year in 5th and 6 years in 4th grade. She lives in New Ulm with her husband Nick, 6 year old daughter Evelyn and black lab Charlie. She enjoys reading, working out, playing basketball, traveling and camping with her family. A few fun facts about her is she is double jointed, dislikes bananas but LOVES banana bread and her favorite color is green.
Jefferson Media Center
Media Minute: The Wild West Book Fair this fall was a HUGE success! Thank you for supporting Jefferson readers! We hit a record and sold $7,000 worth of product! That means we have quite a donation from Scholastic to purchase books, furniture and other supplies needed for our space. The picture is a sampling of the books we purchased from the book fair.
The Scholastic Book Fair will be returning to Jefferson for a one-day event for the Women’s Expo Shopping Day on Nov. 4 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Jefferson Media Center.
Students are always welcome to exchange books before school if they have forgotten, or finished their books. They do not need to wait until their next library day.
Technology Times: In technology classes, students have reviewed digital citizenship and have been working on mouse skills (grade 1) and typing using “home row” and locating the keys (grades 2-4). Grades 3 and 4 have also been reviewing how to get into their Google Drive. Take a look at the new Jefferson webpage. Your child can show you around on sites they have visited or lessons they have done. https://sites.google.com/newulm.k12.mn.us/jefferson-tech
STEM
We have been busy in the STEM lab this month.
The Dash robots were a big hit with the third graders. Dash is a robot that is operated primarily through Blockly coding. Students used code to direct Dash through a variety of challenges.
"Beautiful Oops"
2nd grade students create pyramids
KEVA planks
Art
Literacy Corner
The year is off to a great start! Classrooms are engaging students in many different literacy activities. Talk to your child about the reading strategies that they are learning, to become even better readers. One strategy that you can work on with your child is to back up and reread. If your child struggles understanding what is going on after reading, try having them back up and reread.
Reading Tip: Take children’s books and writing materials with you whenever you leave home. This gives your child fun activities to entertain and occupy him while traveling and going to the doctor’s office or other appointments.
Book recommendations: Wishtree by Katherine Applegate In this story told from a tree’s perspective, readers will learn about what it means to be a friend. Also by Katherine Applegate: The One and Only Ivan
Jefferson Reading Tutors Needed! Do you enjoy working with kids? Do you have a heart to serve and help others? Check out the Reading Corps website for more information. https://minnesotareadingcorps.org/
Please feel free to contact me at anytime: mhunter@newulm.k12.mn.us
Nurse's Notes
1. Does my child have a fever 100.0 or higher?
2. Does my child have a sore throat?
3. Does my child have a cough?
If you answered "Yes" to a fever AND at least one of the other symptoms, keep your child home and let your school know. Keep them home for a least 24 hours after the fever is gone and until they feel well enough to participate in school activities.
Also, remember to get your flu shot, as well your children!
Title I
We began meeting with our students the week of October 9th. Students were screened and then placed in appropriate intervention groups to best meet their academic needs. Each week, they will be assessed with a progress monitor to check if the intervention is helping them to improve their reading and/or math skills.
Our new assessment program, FastBridge, gives us the capability to run many different reports and track our students’ progress. We will be printing a progress report and sharing it with your child’s teacher so that they may send it home with your child’s report card.
SAVE THE DATE!
We will be hosting a Title 1 Family Math Night on November 16th from 5:30-6:30 at the Jefferson School cafeteria. All Title 1 math or reading students and their families are invited. We will send a reminder closer to the date.
Thanks for stopping in to see us during conferences! Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have.
Lisa Thorson, Jean Jore, Dawn Portner
Special Education
- Epilepsy is a chronic brain disorder characterized by recurrent, unprovoked seizures.
- 65 million people worldwide have Epilepsy.
- Epilepsy is the 4th most common neurological disease in the United States.
- 1 in 26 people in the United States will develop Epilepsy at some point in their lifetime.
- Most people with Epilepsy can lead typical lives and enjoy the same opportunities as people without Epilepsy.
Cafeteria
Counseling Connection
October has been busy! I was in the classroom for our 2nd school-wide lesson on “STEP.” STEP is a way for students to solve their problems using a “step-by-step” approach – no pun intended. The first step is S – Say the problem (without blame), second is T – Think of solutions, third is E – Explore consequences and lastly P – Pick the best solution. Ask your student about STEP, and have them explain how it works. Students did an excellent job working through examples using STEP in the classroom, and I strongly believe it will assist students in solving their problems independently.
“Minute Meetings,” are underway, and I will continue to meet with students individually. Small groups are continuing to be formed, and students may work with other students on areas such as: study skills, friendship skills, self-esteem and feeling better about yourself, grief and loss, changing families, and more. If you believe your student would benefit in participating in a small group, and having support from me as well as their peers please contact me, and I will include them when creating group rosters.
If you have any concerns about your student(s) that you believe I may be of assistance with please contact me via e-mail – jrhelget@newulm.k12.mn.us or by phone – (507) 233-3503. Also encourage your student(s) to come and speak with me if they inform you of a problem they are experiencing here at Jefferson.