January

Happy New Year!

We hope the holidays and Winter Break brought peaceful times together for all students and their families. For teachers, it was a chance to recharge the batteries and prepare for the continuation of learning to begin the new calendar year. With much eagerness, we look forward to an enjoyable, productive, and busy second half of the school year.

Preparing for Middle School

With the holidays behind us, new work in the classroom begins with an ambitious schedule of learning.  Some of the best learning and development occurs at this time of the year.  

As a reminder, part of fifth grade is meant to be preparation for middle school.  Beginning later this month, West and Campus counselors will visit fifth graders to begin the registration process. 

After the holidays, we may need to jump-start student's awareness of their responsibilities.  We recognize the instinct of parents to provide as much support and assistance as possible to help students avoid setbacks.  However, setbacks and even failure are building blocks for students to develop resilience and to provide motivation for creating their own success.  Our goal for these students is for them to become independent and responsible learners.  Every day, students are independently responsible for the following:

• Updating planners with ALL homework assignments.

• Bringing the Doc-It and planner home AND consulting the planner before completing assignments.

• Bringing home all materials related to homework assignments, including laptops.

• Completing all homework assignments AND bringing all homework assignments and related materials back to school, including fully charged laptops.

• Advocating for themselves when they need help, or when they are absent. Students should be the ones arranging for makeup work, not parents.

• Bringing lunches and healthy snacks to school.

• Dressing appropriately for school and for winter weather.

• Treating others with respect, courtesy, and kindness.

• Working on all assignments or projects with the very best efforts at school and at home.

Middle School Registration

Counselors from both schools will come to Willow Creek later this month. Counselor meetings are for students only and the objective is to introduce students to course offerings of middle school as well as begin the registration process. Counselors will guide students through the process of online course registration.

WMS Counselor Meeting:  

Thursday, January 22, 2026 1:45 - 2:45 PM

CMS First Counselor Meeting:

Monday, January 26, 2026 1:45 - 2:45 PM

CMS Second Counselor Meeting (Campus ONLY):

Monday, February 9, 2026 2:00 - 2:45 PM

A tour of West Middle School will occur on Tuesday, May 5, 2026. The date of the tour of Campus Middle School is Wednesday, May 6, 2026. Students will ride buses to their respective middle schools. Both tours are from 9:30-11:00 a.m.

The above dates are student events in which students participate independently of their parents. The events are forums for students to get answers to their "burning" questions about lunch menu items, lockers, tardies, homework requirements, school dances, recess, etc. 

Parents are highly encouraged to attend the middle school parent information meetings so they can obtain the information that is pertinent to the parent perspective. 

Please contact your registered-address middle school for information regarding upcoming dates. Your classroom teacher will not have the most up-to-date parent information meeting information. Your home middle school is the best source of information.

If you have questions regarding middle school enrollment, School of Choice, intra district transfers, and related deadlines, please direct them to Beth Perron in the front office.

Many families are making the choice to apply for student acceptance at middle schools besides Campus and West. These schools often have deadlines coming up, if not already, and they require teacher recommendations. Because of the number of requests we receive, the amount of information asked of us, and depth and thought we know you want us to give to these, we require you make these requests at least 2 weeks prior to the deadline. 

Balanced Literacy

Summary of what we have done so far:

• • Reading Literature. Students have read and analyzed increasingly complex literature through short stories and novels. Our focus was on plot structures, character analysis, and conflict/resolution analysis and how these connect to theme. We have studied authors' use of literary devices, such as figurative language and symbolism, to support themes. Students have develop skills in responding to reading through active discussion and written expression using textual evidence.

  • Reading Nonfiction. Developing nonfiction reading skill is heavily integrated within science and social studies content. Our nonfiction reading focus has been on text structure, identifying main ideas with supporting details, summarizing, note taking, consulting multiple sources, and applying concepts read to overall understanding of science and social studies.

  • Vocabulary. Reading comprehension has been enhanced with the study of academic vocabulary acquired through nonfiction and fiction reading. We have also developed comprehension through studying common Latin and Greek prefixes, roots and suffixes to hypothesize the meaning of unknown vocabulary.

  • Writing. We have had a heavy focus on CER and TIQA writing, which are forms of structured expository writing requiring a claim, use of evidence from text, data, or observation, and a reasoned analysis of the evidence. We have used CER writing in response to science and social studies content. TIQA is used for responding to reading but the structure is mainly the same - topic with information from the text, a quote directly from the text as evidence, and an analysis of how the quote shows the topic is true. We briefly touched on narrative writing through small, personal moments.

What's next in January:

• • Reading. Building on the first half of the year, we will read a few short stories to review concepts previously learned, such as identifying theme based on conflict and character change. Next, we turn to historical fiction (American Revolution novels) to continue analyzing character, conflict, and theme and adding point of view as a focus. Nonfiction reading continues with integration in content areas. In particular, students will read information text on the American Revolution, as well as scientific text on plants, systems, and cells. Vocabulary development continues as an integrated component of reading as well as discrete instruction.

  • Writing. Our attention turns to persuasive and argumentative writing this month. We first study persuasive writing which includes emotional appeals as the tool for persuasion. Next, students learn argumentative writing, which utilizes fact, logic, and reason.

Math

The subject of multiplication and division fact fluency was a topic of conversation at many parent-teacher conferences last month. Please see our Math page in the Academics section for further thoughts on learning math facts.

We continue our work with fractions this month. Specifically, we will focus on developing conceptual understanding of multiplying and dividing fractions using visual models, algorithms, and real world problem solving.

Key Concepts

• Multiply fractions and mixed numbers using models and standard algorithm

• Divide unit fractions by whole numbers (e.g., ½ ÷ 3)

• Divide whole numbers by unit fractions (e.g., 3 ÷ ½)

From Colonies to Revolution

With an understanding of the government and economies of the colonization, we turn our attention to the rise of conflict with Great Britain with emphasis on the following:

• The causes and effects of the French and Indian War

• How this war directly contributed to the problems that led to the Revolutionary War

• The Stamp and Sugar Acts, Townshend Acts, Quartering Act, and the Intolerable Acts, with a discussion of the notions of "taxation without representation" and self-government

• Boston Tea Party and the Boston Massacre

• Negative impacts of continued settlements and establishment of the United States on Indigenous Nations 

• First and Second Continental Congresses, and the ascendancy of George Washington

• Siege of Boston and the Battle of Lexington and Concord 

From there, we will proceed with a detailed look at the battles of the Revolutionary War and the major parties involved in the conflict.  The study of the revolution will culminate in a Project Based Learning task.  

All reading and writing instruction will be integrated with our study of the American Revolution.  Students will read a variety of materials, including nonfiction text, short articles, and video narrative of the events of the revolution.