Newsletters
Friday, January 19th
Upcoming Dates:
January 23rd: Spelling Bee (5:30pm)
January 24th: Sacramento State Planetarium Field Lesson (Click here to make a donation towards our first grade field lessons!)
January 26th: Spirit Day- Rainbow Day
Classroom Content:
We had a wonderful week in first grade! We have been hard at work studying place value in math and blends in phonics. We began learning about adjectives in grammar and how we can use them to describe nouns in more detail. We continued learning about patterns in the sky, specifically around the sun and moon. We are eagerly awaiting our field lesson to the Sac State Planetarium next week!
Mrs. Clemmer's Maternity Leave: As my due date quickly approaches, it is time for my maternity leave to begin. My last day with our class will be next Friday, January 26th. I will miss our class tremendously and look forward to hearing about all of the fun things they do, wonderful times they have, and incredible growth I know they will make while I am gone. My plan is to come back for the last few weeks of the school year and finish out the year with our class. This is an exciting time for my family as we begin this new chapter, but your children all hold a special place in my heart and will be missed dearly! The incredible Ms. Jones will be taking over our class in the meantime while I am gone. More communication from our office team about this transition will be coming soon!
Upcoming Field Lesson- Next Wednesday!: Our class is very excited for our upcoming field lesson to Sacramento State Planetarium on Wednesday, January 24th! On the day of the field lesson, please ensure students arrive on time to school. Students only need their lunch (if bringing from home) and a water bottle. Please label both of these items with your child's name. Students will not be taking backpacks on the field lesson. If your child is getting a lunch from school, we will pick it up from the cafeteria before leaving for the field lesson. Please leave all other personal items (toys, school supplies, etc.) at home.
Donations Requested: I am looking for a family who is able to donate 22 individually wrapped pretzels as a snack for students during the field lesson! If you are able to donate and bring them on Monday, January 22nd, please click here to visit our volunteer sign up website! The slot to sign up for bringing the pretzels is listed under Monday, January 22nd. Thank you!
Nightly Reading: To support reading development in first grade, I encourage students to read for 15-20 minutes every night. This can be your child reading independently, reading to someone, someone reading to your child, reading on Raz Kids, or combination of these!
Classroom Volunteers: I am excited to welcome volunteering in our classroom! Please see below if you are interested in signing up.
In-Class Volunteering: We're using SignUp.com to organize our classroom volunteers. The link to access our volunteer calendar is https://signup.com/go/Gkfyanv. In-class volunteers could complete a variety of tasks that may include working with small groups, one-on-one with students, or classroom prep work.
Coming Up Next Week- What are we learning?
Math: Unit 4- Numbers to 99
Phonics: Unit 9- Syllables, Vowel Teams, R-Controlled Vowels
Comprehension: Text Features
Grammar: Adjectives
Writing: Opinion Writing
Thematic Study: Sun, Moon, and Stars
Assessment Information:
Progress Reports were sent home in blue folders this week. If you have any questions on your child's progress report, please let me know!
Our Earth Science Assessment will be given next week, the week of January 22nd.
Schoolwork/Homework Resources:
Math: We have been focusing on numbers with tens and ones in math this week. Use this link to log in to Freckle to help your mathematician practice at home. We are currently focused on the Operations and Algebraic Thinking domain in math (click on the turtle). We are also focusing on the Base Ten domain in math (click on the penguin). Click here for additional information to support your child throughout Unit 4 of math.
Writing: This trimester we are focusing on Opinion Writing. Opinion pieces include stating their opinion, writing 3 details to support their opinion, and ending with a concluding sentence. Please utilize this resource to help your writer at home. Click here to access the documents we will use to organize our writing this trimester.
Phonics: This week in phonics we focused on digraph blends (words that have a digraph but have 4 sounds- lunch, shrub), R- Controlled vowels (ar, or, er, ir, ur), trick words, spelling trick words, Word of the Day (shred, bluffs), and sentence dictation. Please practice tapping out each sound in a word, saying and spelling trick words (her, over, number), writing sentences and scooping them (She fell over the wet bench., Beth has her pink silk dress., Should Stan lift that big pump?, Did he get the frogs?), and dictating words (ranch, drums, sniff, press, flash, gulf, silk). Click here for additional information and activities to support your child throughout Unit 8 of phonics.
Comprehension: We have been focusing on descriptive language to help us visualize what we read and what is read to us. Use this video to help your reader at home.
Grammar: We have been focusing on describing words to help us make sentences interesting and precise. Please utilize this game and video to help your child at home.
Social-Emotional:
This week, in our Sanford Harmony social-emotional learning lesson, we focused on and practiced engaging in conversations. We listened to a story and discussed effective and ineffective ways of maintaining a conversation with someone. We also practiced this skill in conversations with a partner by asking follow-up questions about a topic.
Specialty Class Information:
See weekly email for information on what your children are learning in Specialty Classes, upcoming assessments, and resources to practice at home.
Click here for Specialty teachers' websites and contact information.
Westlake News:
K-12 Talent Show Sign-Up Deadline: NEXT Tuesday, January 23rd: CLICK HERE to sign up to audition to be a host, perform a talent, or be part of the stage crew team! Audition sign ups are due Tuesday, January 23, 2024.
Auditions: Tuesday, January 30, 2024
Talent Show Performance: Friday, February 16th @ 6:00 PM
K-5 Family Dance: Join us for WAVE’s Inaugural K-5 Family Dance entitled “Enchanted Evening” held on Saturday, February 3rd at 5:30 PM. Tickets are $15 each and may be purchased as follows until the event is sold out:
Purchase in person at the Maybrook Gate each morning. Payments can be made with cash or card.
Purchase via Venmo (Username: @wave-foundation). Please include your family name and the number of tickets in the description.
CLICK HERE for the invitation
CLICK HERE to volunteer and to donate food and drinks
CLICK HERE to be directed to WAVE’s Amazon wishlist
Friday, January 12th
Upcoming Dates:
January 15th: No School- Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
January 17th: WAVE Meeting (6:00pm)
January 19th: Coffee Talk (8:30am)
January 23rd: Spelling Bee (5:30pm)
January 24th: Sacramento State Planetarium Field Lesson
January 26th: Spirit Day- Rainbow Day
Classroom Content:
We had a wonderful week in first grade! It was great welcoming students back to school after Winter Break. We began many new units, including in Thematic Study learning about the patterns in the sky, in math learning about numbers to 99, and in phonics learning about blends. Check out the resources sent home in blue folders this week to practice these new skills at home!
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day- No School: There will be no school on Monday, January 15th for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I look forward to seeing your child back at school on Tuesday, January 16th!
Upcoming Field Lesson: Our class is very excited for our upcoming field lesson to the Sacramento State Planetarium on January 24th! Thank you for returning your child's permission slips so they are able to join in on the fun! I will send reminders and updates as we get closer to the date. Click here to make a donation towards our first grade field lessons!
Chaperones: Thank you to all of the families who expressed interest in chaperoning our field lesson! Although we would love to have everyone join us, we are only allowed to take four chaperones on this field lesson. Because of this, a lottery was held to determine which four chaperones we will be taking with us on this field lesson. I have contacted all interested chaperones with the results. If you are interested in chaperoning a field lesson for your child later this year, please be sure to have completed this Volunteer Fingerprinting Packet. You only need to do this once for all of your child's years at Westlake!
Classroom Volunteers: I am excited to welcome volunteering in our classroom! Please see below if you are interested in signing up.
In-Class Volunteering: We're using SignUp.com to organize our classroom volunteers. The link to access our volunteer calendar is https://signup.com/go/Gkfyanv. In-class volunteers could complete a variety of tasks that may include working with small groups, one-on-one with students, or classroom prep work.
Coming Up Next Week- What are we learning?
Math: Unit 4- Numbers to 99
Phonics: Unit 8- Blends and Digraph Blends
Comprehension: Point of View
Grammar: Pronouns/Possessives
Writing: Opinion Writing
Thematic Study: Sun, Moon, and Stars
Assessment Information:
Our Unit 3 Math Assessment (Adding and Subtracting Within 20) was given before break. Score reports and retake information (if needed) were sent home in blue folders this week.
Assessments are being conducted for Trimester 2 Progress Reports. Progress Reports will go home on Friday, January 19th.
Schoolwork/Homework Resources:
Math: We have been solving addition and subtraction problems with tens in math this week. Use this link to log in to Freckle to help your mathematician practice at home. We are currently focused on the Operations and Algebraic Thinking domain in math (click on the turtle). We are also focusing on the Base Ten domain in math (click on the penguin). Click here for additional information to support your child throughout Unit 4 of math.
Writing: This trimester we are focusing on Opinion Writing. Opinion pieces include stating their opinion, writing 3 details to support their opinion, and ending with a concluding sentence. Please utilize this resource to help your writer at home. Click here to access the documents we will use to organize our writing this trimester.
Phonics: This week in phonics we focused on using digraphs (sh, wh, th, ch, ck) to help blend letters (sl, br, -nt, fl, sk, -nk, st) , r-controlled vowels (ar, or, er, ir, ur), trick words, spelling trick words, and sentence dictation. Please practice tapping out each sound in a word, saying and spelling trick words (would, could, should), writing sentences and scooping them (Could mom mend the rip in this dress?, The class should get a flag., Did Beth step on that frog?), and dictating words (limp, stick, plug, mask, pest, vent, thump, cloth, band). Click here for additional information and activities to support your child throughout Unit 8 of phonics.
Comprehension: We have been focusing on point of view in a text we read to help us understand what we read and what is read to us. Use this resource to help your reader at home.
Grammar: We have been focusing on possessive nouns to help us make sentences interesting and precise. Please utilize this resource or this resource to help your child at home.
Social-Emotional:
This week, in our Sanford Harmony social-emotional learning lesson, we focused on listening and responding to others. We listened to a story and discussed the importance of listening carefully and responding to others. We also identified and explained examples of effective and ineffective communication.
Specialty Class Information:
See weekly email for information on what your children are learning in Specialty Classes, upcoming assessments, and resources to practice at home.
Click here for Specialty teachers' websites and contact information.
Westlake News:
Learning Lab: We want to invite 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students to the Learning Lab after school. The Learning Lab is staffed by an instructional aide to assist Middle School students with their classwork and homework. Families can sign up their Middle School student(s) by using School Dismissal Manager. The Learning Lab is open Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 3:15 - 3:45 PM.
K-12 Talent Show Sign-Ups – Due Tuesday, January 23rd: CLICK HERE to sign up to audition to be a host, perform a talent, or be part of the stage crew team! Audition sign ups are due Tuesday, January 23, 2024.
Auditions: Tuesday, January 30, 2024
Talent Show Performance: Friday, February 16th @ 6:00 PM
Thursday, December 21st
Upcoming Dates:
December 22nd-January 8th: Winter Break- No School
January 12th: Sacramento State Planetarium Field Lesson Permission Slips Due
January 24th: Sacramento State Planetarium Field Lesson
Classroom Content:
We had a wonderful week in first grade! We participated in our annual Holidays Around the World celebration with Ms. Mosqueda's fifth grade class. We concluded our study of addition and subtraction and took our Unit 3 math assessment. We finished learning about our classmates' family traditions in our thematic study unit. We also had a blast playing games today for Game Day. Thank you for sending in games for us to play!
Upcoming Field Lesson: Great News- our first field lesson is quickly approaching! In your child’s blue folder today, you will find a packet with important forms that need to be completed for our upcoming field lesson to the newly opened Sacramento State Planetarium. This includes important field trip information and a permission slip. Please be sure to complete all highlighted areas on the forms. The permission slip is due by January 12th. We are very excited for our first ever field lesson!
Chaperones: If you are interested in being on the chaperone list, you will need to have a Live Scan Fingerprinting on file with Westlake Charter School. This does not guarantee that you will be selected as a chaperone for a specific field lesson, but it makes you eligible to chaperone. Potential chaperones need to complete this Volunteer Fingerprinting Packet one month prior to the scheduled field trip. This allows for adequate time for the DOJ to process the information given. If you are interested, please complete and return the packet to the office ASAP. (If you think you have already completed the volunteer paperwork previously through WCS, please check with the Front Office to ensure they have your fingerprints and information cleared and on file. )
Winter Break- No School: I hope you all have a wonderful Winter Break from December 22nd through January 8th. I look forward to seeing your child back at school on Tuesday, January 9th!
If you are looking for resources to practice with your child over break, check out the Winter Reading Challenge sent home in blue folders! Practicing sight words, reading every day, and using Lexia, Raz Kids, and Freckle are also great things to practice during the time off.
Family Traditions: Thank you so much for helping make our Family Traditions Unit a success! I appreciate all of the time and work spent helping your child prepare to share one of their traditions. It was wonderful hearing about so many unique and special traditions from our classmates!
Classroom Volunteers: I am excited to welcome volunteering in our classroom! Please see below if you are interested in signing up.
In-Class Volunteering: We're using SignUp.com to organize our classroom volunteers. The link to access our volunteer calendar is https://signup.com/go/Gkfyanv. In-class volunteers could complete a variety of tasks that may include working with small groups, one-on-one with students, or classroom prep work.
Coming Up After Break- What are we learning?
Math: Unit 4- Numbers to 99
Phonics: Unit 8- Blends and Digraph Blends
Comprehension: Point of View
Grammar: Pronouns/Possessives
Writing: Opinion Writing
Thematic Study: Sun, Moon, and Stars
Assessment Information:
Our Unit 3 Math Assessment (Adding and Subtracting Within 20) was given this week. Score reports will be sent home after break.
Our Family Traditions assessment (Social Studies 1.5) was given this week.
Schoolwork/Homework Resources:
Math: We have been solving subtraction problems in math this week. Use this link to log in to Freckle to help your mathematician practice at home. We are currently focused on the Operations and Algebraic Thinking domain in math (click on the turtle). We are also focusing on the Base Ten domain in math (click on the penguin). Click here for additional information to support your child throughout Unit 3 of math.
Writing: This trimester we are focusing on Opinion Writing. Opinion pieces include stating their opinion, writing 3 details to support their opinion, and ending with a concluding sentence. Please utilize this resource to help your writer at home. Click here to access the documents we will use to organize our writing this trimester.
Phonics: This week in phonics we focused on the glued sounds and adding a suffix (-ank, -ink, -onk, -unk, -ang, -ing, -ong, -ung), marking up glued sounds, trick words, spelling trick words, sentence dictation, and Word of the Day(thinks, fangs) . Please practice tapping out each sound in a word, saying and spelling trick words (too, very, also, some, come), writing sentences and scooping them (The kids are at the rink, too., Mom also has six rings., Can you come here?, She sang some songs.), and dictating words (chunks, lungs, thanks, rings, sinks, tanks). Click here for additional information and activities to support your child throughout Unit 7 of phonics.
Comprehension: We have been focusing on point of view in a text we read to help us understand what we read and what is read to us. Use this resource to help your reader at home.
Grammar: We have been focusing on pronouns to help us make sentences interesting and precise. Please utilize this resource and game to help your child at home.
Social-Emotional:
This week, we spent time focusing on friendships and conflict resolution. We have been practicing how to communicate our feelings to others when we are upset or don't like something. We also concluded our Family Traditions Unit where we learned about diverse traditions, customs, and cultures of our classmates, while building community and making connections.
Specialty Class Information:
See weekly email for information on what your children are learning in Specialty Classes, upcoming assessments, and resources to practice at home.
Click here for Specialty teachers' websites and contact information.
Westlake News:
Attendance: Our First and Eighth grade classes are in the lead! The final winners will be announced in the next Westlake Weekly and will receive a Hot Cocoa Party after Winter Break!!
Family Survey: The Family Survey is taken three times a year. CLICK HERE to answer six questions to rate your family's experience at Westlake Charter School during the 2023-24 school year. The deadline is Tuesday, January 9th.
K-12 Talent Show Sign-Ups – Due Tuesday, January 23rd: CLICK HERE to sign up to audition to be a host, perform a talent, or be part of the stage crew team! Audition sign ups are due Tuesday, January 23, 2024.
Auditions: Tuesday, January 30, 2024
Talent Show Performance: Friday, February 16th @ 6:00 PM
Volleyball Interest 6th - 8th Grade Students: Our 6-8 volleyball season will start the week of January 1/22. Teams are co-ed and open to all ability levels. CLICK HERE to sign your middle schooler up to play. Athlete participant packets are required for all student athletes. CLICK HERE for the digital version or pick up a hard copy from the front office. Reach out to Coach Sterling with any questions at swynne@westlakecharter.com.
Friday, December 15th
Upcoming Dates:
December 21st: Spirit Day- Pajama Day
December 21st: In-Class Game Day
December 22nd-January 8th: Winter Break- No School
Classroom Content:
We had a great week in first grade! We continued learning about our classmates' family traditions in our Thematic Study unit. We published our first piece of opinion writing about our favorite food. We also continued learning about addition and subtraction in math and glued sounds in phonics. We are getting ready for our Unit 3 math assessment next week- check out the "Assessment Information" section of our newsletter below for a digital copy of the study guide!
Game Day- Thursday, December 21st: On Thursday, December 21st (the day before Winter Break), we will be having a class Game Day! I am looking for families that are willing to send in a board game that your child enjoys playing to share with the class. The game will come back home at the end of the school day on December 21st. Click here to sign up to bring a board game.
Upcoming Planetarium Field Lesson- Chaperones: Great News! Our first field lesson to the CSUS Planetarium will take place the week of January 22nd. Each class will take 4 fingerprinted chaperones on this trip. If you are interested in being on the chaperone list, you will need to have a Live Scan Fingerprinting on file with Westlake Charter School. This does not guarantee that you will be selected as a chaperone for a specific field lesson, but it makes you eligible to chaperone. Potential chaperones need to complete this Volunteer Fingerprinting Packet one month prior to the scheduled field trip. This allows for adequate time for the DOJ to process the information given. If you are interested, please complete and return to the office ASAP.
Please Note: If you have previously completed the Fingerprinting and Volunteer process through WCS, you do not need to complete it again. Please check with the Front Office to make sure they have your information on file.
Family Traditions: We had another great week of family tradition presentations! It has been wonderful hearing students share about one of their family traditions. This unit will conclude next week. Your child's scheduled day to share their tradition was sent home on the project information sheet before November Break. Click here for a digital copy of this project information, as well as examples of family traditions shared previously. If you have any questions about this, please let me know!
Classroom Volunteers: I am excited to welcome volunteering in our classroom! Please see below if you are interested in signing up.
In-Class Volunteering: We're using SignUp.com to organize our classroom volunteers. The link to access our volunteer calendar is https://signup.com/go/Gkfyanv. In-class volunteers could complete a variety of tasks that may include working with small groups, one-on-one with students, or classroom prep work.
Library: Our class checked out new books at the library on Tuesday! Please remind your child to bring their library book back to school by Tuesday so they can return it and check out a new book. If students do not return their library book, they are unable to check out a new book for the week.
Nightly Reading: To support reading development in first grade, I encourage students to read for 15-20 minutes every night. This can be your child reading independently, reading to someone, someone reading to your child, reading on Raz Kids, or combination of these!
Coming Up Next Week- What are we learning?
Math: Unit 3- Adding and Subtracting within 20 (Review and Test)
Phonics: Unit 7- Glued Sounds
Comprehension: Point of View
Grammar: Pronouns
Writing: Opinion Writing
Thematic Study: Family Traditions
Assessment Information:
Our Unit 3 Math Assessment (Adding and Subtracting Within 20) will be assessed the week of December 18th.
Click here for a digital copy of the study guide sent home in blue folders previously.
Our Family Traditions assessment (Social Studies 1.5) will be assessed the week of December 18th.
Schoolwork/Homework Resources:
Math: We have been solving subtraction problems from teen numbers in math this week. Use this link to log in to Freckle to help your mathematician practice at home. We are currently focused on the Operations and Algebraic Thinking domain in math (click on the turtle). Click here for additional information to support your child throughout Unit 3 of math.
Writing: This trimester we are focusing on Opinion Writing. Opinion pieces include stating their opinion, writing 3 details to support their opinion, and ending with a concluding sentence. Please utilize this resource to help your writer at home. Click here to access the documents we will use to organize our writing this trimester.
Phonics: This week in phonics we focused on the glued sounds (-ank, -ink, -onk, -unk), marking up glued sounds, trick words, spelling trick words, sentence dictation, and Word of the Day (junk, link) . Please practice tapping out each sound in a word, saying and spelling trick words (put, two), writing sentences and scooping them (Put the cash in the bank., His ship sank in the tub., Thank Dad for the gum., He had the top bunk for his nap.), and dictating words (honk, wink, funk, yank). Click here for additional information and activities to support your child throughout Unit 7 of phonics.
Comprehension: We have been focusing on making connections to text we read to help us understand what we read and what is read to us. Use this video to help your reader at home.
Grammar: We have been focusing on homophones to help us make sentences interesting and precise. Please utilize this resource and game to help your child at home.
Social-Emotional:
This week, in our Sanford Harmony social-emotional learning lesson, we focused on understanding that people can change. We listened to a story and discussed the reasons why people can grow and change in what they like, feel, and do. We also discussed the importance of perseverance and effort toward learning something new.
Specialty Class Information:
See weekly email for information on what your children are learning in Specialty Classes, upcoming assessments, and resources to practice at home.
Click here for Specialty teachers' websites and contact information.
Westlake News:
Family Survey: The Family Survey is taken three times a year. CLICK HERE to answer six questions to rate your family's experience at Westlake Charter School during the 2023-24 school year. The deadline is Thursday, December 21st.
Attendance: Our “HERE FOR THE HOT COCOA!” competition is in full swing! Our 3rd graders continue to lead the challenge but 1st graders are hot on their heels for the hot cocoa! The grade levels with the highest average attendance from 11/27 to 12/21 will receive an exclusive Hot Cocoa party after Winter Break. Let's make attendance a fun thing together!
Spirit Day - Pajama Day: Thursday, December 21st is pajama day! Students and staff can show their spirit by wearing pajamas. Please remember to follow the dress code guidelines below for spirit day:
Clothes must be free of inappropriate wording and images
All shirts must have sleeves, no sleeveless shirts.
All clothing must be free of rips and tears
All clothing must fit properly. Pants around the natural waist, tops completely covering the torso area
K-12 Talent Show Sign-Ups – Due Tuesday, January 23rd: CLICK HERE to sign up to audition to be a host, perform a talent, or be part of the stage crew team! Audition sign ups are due: Tuesday, January 23, 2024
Auditions: Tuesday, January 30, 2024
Talent Show Performance: Friday, February 16th @ 6:00 PM
Friday, December 8th
Upcoming Dates:
December 14th: WAVE Coffee Talk (High School Campus- 8:30am)
December 14th: WCS Board Meeting (6:00pm)
December 21st: Spirit Day- Pajama Day
December 22nd-January 8th: Winter Break- No School
Classroom Content:
We had a wonderful week in first grade! We began our Family Traditions Unit in Thematic Study with some wonderful presentations! We continued learning about addition and subtraction in math and glued sounds in phonics. We also celebrated completing our Positive Passport Chart with a Donut Party. Thank you for your donations!
Upcoming Field Lesson Chaperones: Great News! First grade field lessons are coming up in the new year! For each field lesson, each class will take 4 fingerprinted chaperones. If you are interested in being on the chaperone list, you will need to have a Live Scan Fingerprinting on file with Westlake Charter School. This does not guarantee that you will be selected as a chaperone for a specific field lesson, but it makes you eligible to chaperone. Potential chaperones need to complete this Volunteer Fingerprinting Packet at least one month prior to the scheduled field trip. This allows for adequate time for the DOJ to process the information given. If you are interested, please complete and return to the office ASAP.
Please Note: If you have previously completed the Fingerprinting and Volunteer process through WCS, you do not need to complete it again. Please check with the Front Office to make sure they have your information on file.
Family Traditions: Our Family Traditions Unit is off to a great start! It has been wonderful hearing students share about one of their family traditions. This unit will continue for the next two weeks. Your child's scheduled day to share their tradition was sent home on the project information sheet before November Break. Click here for a digital copy of this project information, as well as examples of family traditions shared previously. If you have any questions about this, please let me know!
Classroom Volunteers: I am excited to welcome volunteering in our classroom! Please see below if you are interested in signing up.
In-Class Volunteering: We're using SignUp.com to organize our classroom volunteers. The link to access our volunteer calendar is https://signup.com/go/Gkfyanv. In-class volunteers could complete a variety of tasks that may include working with small groups, one-on-one with students, or classroom prep work.
Nightly Reading: To support reading development in first grade, I encourage students to read for 15-20 minutes every night. This can be your child reading independently, reading to someone, someone reading to your child, reading on Raz Kids, or combination of these!
Coming Up Next Week- What are we learning?
Math: Unit 3- Adding and Subtracting within 20
Phonics: Unit 7- Glued Sounds
Comprehension: Point of View
Grammar: Pronouns
Writing: Opinion Writing
Thematic Study: Family Traditions
Assessment Information:
Our Unit 3 Math Assessment (Adding and Subtracting Within 20) will be assessed the week of December 18th.
Click here for a digital copy of the study guide sent home in blue folders last week.
Our Family Traditions assessment (Social Studies 1.5) will be assessed the week of December 18th.
Schoolwork/Homework Resources:
Math: We have been finding patterns in addition in math this week. Use this link to log in to Freckle to help your mathematician practice at home. We are currently focused on the Operations and Algebraic Thinking domain in math (click on the turtle). We are also focusing on the Base Ten domain in math (click on the penguin). Click here for additional information to support your child throughout Unit 3 of math.
Writing: This trimester we are focusing on Opinion Writing. Opinion pieces include stating their opinion, writing 3 details to support their opinion, and ending with a concluding sentence. Please utilize this resource to help your writer at home. Click here to access the documents we will use to organize our writing this trimester.
Phonics: This week in phonics we focused on the glued sounds (-ang, -ing, -ong, -ung), marking up glued sounds, trick words, spelling trick words, sentence dictation, and Word of the Day (wing). Please practice tapping out each sound in a word, saying and spelling trick words (why, by, my, try), writing sentences and scooping them (Tom sang my song to the kids., Try to run up that long hill., Why did Bob hang this up?, What is the thing in this jug?), and dictating words (king, gong, sung, fang). Click here for additional information and activities to support your child throughout Unit 7 of phonics.
Comprehension: We have been focusing on retelling and making connections to text we read to help us understand what we read and what is read to us. Use this video to help your reader at home.
Grammar: We have been focusing on using I and me to help us make sentences interesting and precise. Please utilize this resource to help your child at home.
Social-Emotional:
This week, in our Sanford Harmony social-emotional learning lesson, we focused on understanding stereotypes about objects, activities, and roles. We listened to a story and discussed fairness and the limitations that result from stereotypes about things and activities. We also practiced identifying stereotypes in various statements.
Specialty Class Information:
See weekly email for information on what your children are learning in Specialty Classes, upcoming assessments, and resources to practice at home.
Click here for Specialty teachers' websites and contact information.
Westlake News:
2024-25 Lottery Application Window Open Now: Our 2024-25 lottery is open now through January 31st, including our freshman, sophomore, junior and senior classes at Westlake Charter High School! Current students do not need to fill out an application to continue their enrollment at WCS; however, siblings do need to fill out lottery applications to attend. The enrolled sibling preference applies to students currently enrolled in any of our K-12 grades. Spread the word and encourage friends and family to visit JoinWestlake.com to apply today.
Attendance: Our “HERE FOR THE HOT COCOA!” competition is in full swing! Our 3rd and 8th grade Explorers are now in the lead!! The grade levels with the highest average attendance from 11/27 to 12/21 will receive an exclusive Hot Cocoa party after Winter Break. Let's make attendance a fun thing together!
Spirit Day - Pajama Day: Thursday, December 21st is pajama day! Students and staff can show their spirit by wearing pajamas. Please remember to follow the dress code guidelines below for spirit day:
Clothes must be free of inappropriate wording and images
All shirts must have sleeves, no sleeveless shirts.
All clothing must be free of rips and tears
All clothing must fit properly. Pants around the natural waist, tops completely covering the torso area
Friday, December 1st
Upcoming Dates:
December 6th: WAVE Meeting (6:00pm)
December 14th: WAVE Coffee Talk (High School Campus- 8:30am)
December 14th: WCS Board Meeting (6:00pm)
Classroom Content:
We had a great week in first grade! It was great welcoming students back to school this week and picking up where we left off before break! We are continuing to learn about suffixes in phonics and addition and subtraction in math. We concluded our study of light waves in Thematic Study this week. We are excited to begin our Family Traditions unit next week with our first presentations! We are nearing completion of our Positive Passport Chart and should be ready for our donut party next week. If you are interested in donating to this special celebration, please see the link below!
Positive Passport Chart- Donut Party: Our class has worked hard practicing walking in a safe and responsible line as we travel around campus! We are five stamps away from filling our Positive Passport Chart. We should earn this early next week and would love to have our donut party reward on Wednesday, December 6th! Click here if you are interested in donating two dozen donuts, juice, or fruit to our donut party!
Family Traditions: I am excited to begin our Family Traditions Unit next week! During this unit, each student will share one of their family traditions with the class. Your child's scheduled day to share their tradition was sent home on the project information sheet before November Break. Click here for a digital copy of this project information, as well as examples of family traditions shared previously. If you have any questions about this, please let me know!
Classroom Volunteers: I am excited to welcome volunteering in our classroom! Please see below if you are interested in signing up.
In-Class Volunteering: We're using SignUp.com to organize our classroom volunteers. The link to access our volunteer calendar is https://signup.com/go/Gkfyanv. In-class volunteers could complete a variety of tasks that may include working with small groups, one-on-one with students, or classroom prep work.
Library: Our class checked out new books at the library on Tuesday! Please remind your child to bring their library book back to school by Tuesday so they can return it and check out a new book. If students do not return their library book, they are unable to check out a new book for the week.
Nightly Reading: To support reading development in first grade, I encourage students to read for 15-20 minutes every night. This can be your child reading independently, reading to someone, someone reading to your child, reading on Raz Kids, or combination of these!
Coming Up Next Week- What are we learning?
Math: Unit 3- Adding and Subtracting within 20
Phonics: Unit 7- Glued Sounds
Comprehension: Retelling and Reading for Information
Grammar: Using I and Me
Writing: Opinion Writing
Thematic Study: Light Waves
Assessment Information:
Our Light Assessment (PS 4.2/4.3) was given this week.
Our Unit 3 Math Assessment (Adding and Subtracting Within 20) will be assessed the week of December 18th.
Click here for a digital copy of the study guide sent home in blue folders this week.
Schoolwork/Homework Resources:
Math: We have been solving story problems with teen numbers in them in math this week. Use this link to log in to Freckle to help your mathematician practice at home. We are currently focused on the Operations and Algebraic Thinking domain in math (click on the turtle). We are also focusing on the Base Ten domain in math (click on the penguin). Click here for additional information to support your child throughout Unit 3 of math.
Writing: This trimester we are focusing on Opinion Writing. Opinion pieces include stating their opinion, writing 3 details to support their opinion, and ending with a concluding sentence. Please utilize this resource to help your writer start thinking of their opinions at home. Click here to access the documents we will use to organize our writing this trimester.
Phonics: This week in phonics we focused on sounds (s, z ending sounds), identifying words with suffixes with action words, trick words, spelling trick words, sentence dictation, and Word of the Day (pins, ducks). Please practice tapping out each sound in a word, saying and spelling trick words (where, there, here), writing sentences and scooping them (Where are all the shells?, She sits here on the deck.), and dictating words (zaps, dabs, kicks, tugs, quits). Click here for additional information and activities to support your child throughout Unit 6 of phonics.
Comprehension: We have been focusing on retelling informational text to help us gain a deeper understanding of what we read and what is read to us. Use this resource to help your reader at home.
Grammar: We have been focusing on names of days, months, and holidays to help us make sentences interesting and precise. Please utilize this resource or this resource to help your child at home.
Social-Emotional:
This week, in our Sanford Harmony social-emotional learning lesson, we focused on understanding stereotypes about people. We read a story and discussed how stereotypes and over-generalizations can cause people to make incorrect guesses about others and miss opportunities to get to know one another.
Specialty Class Information:
See weekly email for information on what your children are learning in Specialty Classes, upcoming assessments, and resources to practice at home.
Click here for Specialty teachers' websites and contact information.
Westlake News:
Exciting Opportunity to help Build our High School!
NUSD is asking for feedback from the community about which future construction projects are the highest priority. Please make sure your voice is heard.
We encourage you to share your feelings about the need for a permanent high school campus for our students. You can describe why a permanent high school campus is important and what types of features you would like to see. For example, modern safety features, access to high quality athletics facilities, access to green space, and more.
Please take 3-5 minutes to share your thoughts for future construction projects using this NUSD Thought Exchange, before December 9, 2023. You can also “upvote” ideas and feedback left by others to help the district understand what is most important to you.
2024-25 Lottery Application Window Opens December 1st: Our 2024-25 lottery is now open, including our freshman, sophomore, junior and senior classes at Westlake Charter High School! Current students do not need to fill out an application to continue their enrollment at WCS; however, siblings do need to fill out lottery applications to attend. Spread the word and encourage friends and family to visit JoinWestlake.com to apply today.
Toy Drive: We have partnered with the Natomas Chamber of Commerce for their annual Toy Drive. Drop off new, unwrapped toys in either of our Front Offices by Friday, December 8th. No time to shop? CLICK HERE for the Amazon Wish List that has been set up by the Natomas Chamber of Commerce and items will be delivered directly to them.
Attendance: We have kicked off our “HERE FOR THE HOT COCOA!” competition! So far, our 5th and 8th grade Explorers are in the lead with 96% attendance!! The grade levels with the highest average attendance from 11/27 to 12/21 will receive an exclusive Hot Cocoa party after Winter Break. Let's make attendance a fun thing together!
Friday, November 17th
Upcoming Dates:
November 20th-24th: November Break- No School
Classroom Content:
We had a wonderful week in first grade! We participated in Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day, where we walked around the track and paused to read a story about Ruby Bridges' important first day of first grade. We practiced main idea and details with some fun stories in comprehension. We continued to practice suffixes in phonics and addition and subtraction in math. We also voted on our special prize for when we complete our Positive Passport Chart- our class would like to earn a donut party!
Conferences: It was so wonderful meeting with each of you for our Trimester 1 Conferences! I appreciate you taking the time to meet with me and discuss your child's progress so far this year. If you have any questions or concerns that come up, please don't hesitate to email me. I look forward to another great trimester ahead!
November Break- No School: I hope you all have a wonderful break next week from November 20th-24th. I look forward to seeing your child back at school on Monday, November 27th!
If you are looking for resources to practice with your child over break, check out the Thanksgiving Break Reading Challenge sent home in blue folders! Practicing sight words, reading every day, and using Lexia, Raz Kids, and Freckle are also great things to practice during the time off.
Family Traditions: I am excited to begin our Family Traditions Unit the week of December 4th! During this unit, each student will share one of their family traditions with the class. Your child's scheduled day to share their tradition was sent home on the project information sheet today. Click here for a digital copy of this project information, as well as examples of family traditions shared previously. If you have any questions about this, please let me know!
Classroom Volunteers: I am excited to welcome volunteering in our classroom! Please see below if you are interested in signing up.
In-Class Volunteering: We're using SignUp.com to organize our classroom volunteers. The link to access our volunteer calendar is https://signup.com/go/Gkfyanv. In-class volunteers could complete a variety of tasks that may include working with small groups, one-on-one with students, or classroom prep work.
Library: Our class checked out new books at the library on Tuesday! Please remind your child to bring their library book back to school by Tuesday after break so they can return it and check out a new book. If students do not return their library book, they are unable to check out a new book for the week.
Nightly Reading: To support reading development in first grade, I encourage students to read for 15-20 minutes every night. This can be your child reading independently, reading to someone, someone reading to your child, reading on Raz Kids, or combination of these!
Coming Up After Break- What are we learning?
Math: Unit 3- Adding and Subtracting within 20
Phonics: Unit 6- Suffixes
Comprehension: Retelling and Reading for Information
Grammar: Proper Nouns (Names of Days, Months, Holidays)
Writing: Opinion Writing
Thematic Study: Light Waves
Assessment Information:
End-of-trimester assessment data was shared on Trimester 1 Report Cards given out at conferences. If you have any follow-up questions on your child's report card, please let me know!
Our Light Assessment (PS 4.2/4.3) will be given the week of November 27th.
Schoolwork/Homework Resources:
Math: We have been solving addition problems by adding to a teen number in math this week. Use this link to log in to Freckle to help your mathematician practice at home. We are currently focused on the Operations and Algebraic Thinking domain in math (click on the turtle). We are also focusing on the Base Ten domain in math (click on the penguin). Click here for additional information to support your child throughout Unit 3 of math.
Writing: This trimester we are focusing on Opinion Writing. Opinion pieces include stating their opinion, writing 3 details to support their opinion, and ending with a concluding sentence. Please utilize this resource to help your writer at home. Click here to access the documents we will use to organize our writing this trimester.
Phonics: This week in phonics we focused on sounds (s, z ending sounds), identifying words with suffixes, trick words, spelling trick words, sentence dictation, and Word of the Day (shells, ships). Please practice tapping out each sound in a word, saying and spelling trick words (who, what, when), writing sentences and scooping them (What did you get at the shops?, Pam hugs the pup when it is sad.), and dictating words (paths, sheds, necks, pups, pegs, mills). Click here for additional information and activities to support your child throughout Unit 6 of phonics.
Comprehension: We have been focusing on the main idea to help us more thoroughly understand what we read and what is read to us. Use this resource to help your reader at home.
Grammar: We have been focusing on proper nouns to help us make sentences interesting and precise. Please utilize this resource and game to help your child at home.
Social-Emotional:
This week, we focused on friendship. We discussed examples of being a good friend, participated in activities with new partners to practice our friendship skills, and continued to explore ways to problem solve if we are having trouble with a friend.
Specialty Class Information:
See weekly email for information on what your children are learning in Specialty Classes, upcoming assessments, and resources to practice at home.
Click here for Specialty teachers' websites and contact information.
Westlake News:
Attendance: We hope you all have a fantastic break! As we gear up to return from Thanksgiving break, we want to give you a heads-up about a crucial time for attendance. For our K-8 kiddos, this marks the kick-off of the second trimester of learning. We can't stress enough how vital it is for your student to be in school, especially if they're healthy. Missing out can have a ripple effect on their academics and social-emotional well-being. It could even impact their journey to graduating on time from High School.
To add some fun to December, we're turning attendance into a celebration! Introducing "Here for the Hot Cocoa!" The grade levels with the highest average attendance from 11/27 to 12/21 will receive an exclusive Hot Cocoa party after Winter Break. Let's make attendance a fun thing together!
Chili Cook-Off: We are excited for the upcoming and always popular Chili Cook-Off on Wednesday, November 29th from 5:30 - 7:00 PM on our K-8 campus. We invite every family to come sample chili and vote for their favorite! All of our families are a part of making the Chili Cook Off a success. See below for details about how each grade level is participating.
Kindergarten - 5th Grade: CLICK HERE to sign up to bring Desserts, Drinks, Spoons, and Napkins.
6th - 11th Grade: CLICK HERE to sign up to bring Chili or Booth Decorations. Each grade level will decorate one shared booth and have several different chilis to sample.
Come out, sample some chili, and vote for your favorite! The cost is $5 per person to try as much chili as you’d like. Families of four or more are just $20.00. The winner of the Chili Cook-Off will take the Golden Spoon to display with pride for the next year! All proceeds this year will benefit Joey’s Food Locker.
Thursday, November 9th
Upcoming Dates:
November 10th: No School- Veterans Day
November 13th-17th: Conference Week- Dismissal at 1:30pm
November 20th-24th: November Break- No School
Classroom Content:
We had a great week in first grade! We began learning about suffixes in phonics, continued our study of addition and subtraction in math, and learned about main idea and details in comprehension! We also began a new Positive Passport Chart in class working on walking in line safely and respectfully. Students are excited to work as a class to earn stamps that work us toward a class reward of our choosing!
Conference Week Next Week: Thank you for signing up for a conference with me! I am excited to meet with each of you next week to discuss your child's progress so far this year! Conference week will be November 13th-17th, with early dismissal at 1:30pm all week.
Classroom Volunteers: I am excited to welcome volunteering in our classroom! Please see below if you are interested in signing up.
In-Class Volunteering: We're using SignUp.com to organize our classroom volunteers. The link to access our volunteer calendar is https://signup.com/go/Gkfyanv. In-class volunteers could complete a variety of tasks that may include working with small groups, one-on-one with students, or classroom prep work.
Library: Our class checked out new books at the library on Tuesday! Please remind your child to bring their library book back to school by Tuesday so they can return it and check out a new book. If students do not return their library book, they are unable to check out a new book for the week.
Nightly Reading: To support reading development in first grade, I encourage students to read for 15-20 minutes every night. This can be your child reading independently, reading to someone, someone reading to your child, reading on Raz Kids, or combination of these!
Coming Up Next Week- What are we learning?
Math: Unit 3- Adding and Subtracting within 20
Phonics: Unit 6- Suffixes
Comprehension: Main Idea/Details
Grammar: Proper Nouns
Writing: Opinion Writing
Thematic Study: Light Waves
Assessment Information:
End-of-trimester assessment data will be shared on Trimester 1 Report Cards given out at conferences.
Schoolwork/Homework Resources:
Math: We have been solving to find the difference in subtraction in math this week. Use this link to log in to Freckle to help your mathematician practice at home. We are currently focused on the Operations and Algebraic Thinking domain in math (click on the turtle). Click here for additional information to support your child throughout Unit 3 of math.
Writing: Next trimester, we are focusing on Opinion Writing. Opinion pieces include stating their opinion, writing three details to support their opinion, and ending with a concluding sentence. Please utilize this resource to help your writer at home. Click here to access the documents we will use to organize our writing this trimester.
Phonics: This week in phonics we focused on sounds (s, z ending sounds), tapping to read words, trick words, spelling trick words, sentence dictation, and Word of the Day (jobs) . Please practice tapping out each sound in a word, saying and spelling trick words (are, were), and dictating words (Mack, bugs, sad). Click here for additional information and activities to support your child throughout Unit 6 of phonics.
Comprehension: We have been focusing on the main idea to help us more thoroughly understand what we read and what is read to us. Use this resource to help your reader at home.
Grammar: We have been focusing on plural nouns to help us make sentences interesting and precise. Please utilize this resource and game to help your child at home.
Social-Emotional:
This week, in our Sanford Harmony social-emotional learning lesson, we focused on having empathy. We listened to a story and discussed how having empathy and understanding how someone feels can help us respond in caring ways.
Specialty Class Information:
See weekly email for information on what your children are learning in Specialty Classes, upcoming assessments, and resources to practice at home.
Click here for Specialty teachers' websites and contact information.
Westlake News:
K-8 Conference Week: Our goal is for 100% of families to attend their Parent-Teacher Conference this week! CLICK HERE to schedule your conference. As of November 8th, 74% of families had signed up. The online scheduler is available through November 12th, so reserve your conference time now! CLICK HERE for instructions on how to use the online scheduler. Remember, during Conference Week, Kindergarten will dismiss at 1:00 PM and 1st–8th grade will dismiss at 1:30 PM. Our BASE program will be open after school until 6:00 PM each day.
Supporting Your Student and Their Academic Habits, K-12: On Wednesday, November 15th, from 6:00 - 7:00 PM, our counselors will be facilitating a workshop for parents/guardians geared towards building student academic habits. Topics such as time management, study habits, perseverance, and advocacy will be covered. Come for an evening of learning and collaboration! CLICK HERE to RSVP, which is encouraged but not mandatory to attend.
Friday, November 3rd
Upcoming Dates:
November 8th: WAVE Coffee Talk (8:30am)
November 9th: Spirit Day- Mix and Match Day
November 9th: WCS Board Meeting (6:30pm)
November 10th: No School- Veterans Day
November 13th-17th: Conference Week- Dismissal at 1:30pm
Classroom Content:
We had a wonderful week in first grade! In Thematic Study, we concluded our study of sound waves and participated in some fun experiments! We are now moving on to our study of light waves. We also began two new units in phonics and math. We are learning about glued sounds in phonics and continuing to study addition and subtraction in math. Check out the new family support packets sent home in blue folders this week for resources to practice at home!
Conference Scheduler: Canyon Creek, our online conference scheduler, is open and ready to schedule your Trimester 1 Conference! Conference week will be November 13th-17th, with early dismissal at 1:30pm all week. If you haven't already, please click here to access the instructions and sign up for your child's conference. I look forward to meeting with you!
Classroom Volunteers: I am excited to welcome volunteering in our classroom! Please see below if you are interested in signing up.
In-Class Volunteering: We're using SignUp.com to organize our classroom volunteers. The link to access our volunteer calendar is https://signup.com/go/Gkfyanv. In-class volunteers could complete a variety of tasks that may include working with small groups, one-on-one with students, or classroom prep work.
Library: We will return to our regular Tuesday library visits next week! If your child has not already returned their book to the classroom, bring it back by Tuesday to ensure they can check out a new book!
Nightly Reading: To support reading development in first grade, I encourage students to read for 15-20 minutes every night. This can be your child reading independently, reading to someone, someone reading to your child, reading on Raz Kids, or combination of these!
Coming Up Next Week- What are we learning?
Math: Unit 3- Adding and Subtracting within 20
Phonics: Unit 6- Suffixes
Comprehension: Main Idea/Details
Grammar: Plural Nouns
Writing: Review/Assessments
Thematic Study: Light Waves
Assessment Information:
Our Sound Waves Assessment (P.S. 4.1) was given this week.
End-of-trimester assessments are being conducted. Results for these assessments will be shared on report cards given out at Trimester 1 Conferences.
Schoolwork/Homework Resources:
Math: We have been relating counting to addition in math this week. Use this link to log in to Freckle to help your mathematician practice at home. We are currently focused on the Operations and Algebraic Thinking domain in math (click on the turtle). Click here for additional information to support your child throughout Unit 3 of math.
Writing: Next trimester we will be focusing on Opinion Writing. Opinion pieces include stating their opinion, writing 3 details to support their opinion, and ending with a concluding sentence. Please utilize this resource to help your writer distinguish between fact and opinion at home. Click here to access the documents we will use to organize our writing this trimester.
Phonics: This week in phonics we focused on sounds (am, an), tapping to read words, trick words, spelling trick words, sentence dictation, and Word of the Day (ham) . Please practice tapping out each sound in a word, saying and spelling trick words (from, have, do, does), and dictating words (quick, man, fan, shell, ham). Click here for additional information and activities to support your child throughout Unit 5 of phonics.
Comprehension: This week we reviewed comprehension concepts taught up to week 11 of school. Visit Raz Kids to review your skills. My teacher username is sclemmer2.
Grammar: This week we reviewed grammar concepts taught up to week 11 of school. Visit the ABCya website and play a game to review your skills.
Social-Emotional:
This week, in our Sanford Harmony social-emotional learning lesson, we focused on relating thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. We read a story and discussed the different thoughts and feelings that different characters experienced and how those thoughts and feelings impacted the characters’ behaviors. We also discussed how we can have different thoughts and feelings than our peers.
Specialty Class Information:
See weekly email for information on what your children are learning in Specialty Classes, upcoming assessments, and resources to practice at home.
Click here for Specialty teachers' websites and contact information.
Westlake News:
Supporting Your Student and Their Academic Habits, K-12: On Wednesday, November 15th, from 6:00 - 7:00 PM, our counselors will be facilitating a workshop for parents/guardians geared towards building student academic habits. Topics such as time management, study habits, perseverance, and advocacy will be covered. Come for an evening of learning and collaboration! CLICK HERE to RSVP, which is encouraged but not mandatory to attend.
Fall Food Drive: Our annual Fall Food Drive benefiting Joey’s Food Locker, and in partnership with the Natomas Chamber of Commerce, is in full swing and runs through November 13th. CLICK HERE for more information about our K-8 Competition.
K-8 Conference Week: Conference week is November 13th - 17th. CLICK HERE to schedule your conference. The online scheduler is available through November 12th, so reserve your conference time now. CLICK HERE for instructions on how to use the online scheduler. Kindergarten will dismiss at 1:00 PM and 1st–8th grade will dismiss at 1:30 PM. Our BASE program will be open after school until 6:00 PM each day.
Supply/Field Lesson Donations: Families, we need a little help! We have paid for all of our field lessons and school supplies in advance, but parent donations have not all come in! We know the start of the school year can be a whirlwind, so we are sending out a reminder to please CLICK HERE to donate to the student supplies and field lesson campaigns. There are options for one time, or monthly donations. Without your support, we are not able to send our students on field lessons, nor design such engaging in-class learning opportunities, so thank you for any support you can offer!
Friday, October 27th
Upcoming Dates:
November 1st: WAVE Meeting (6:00pm)
November 8th: WAVE Coffee Talk (8:30am)
November 9th: Spirit Day- Mix and Match Day
November 9th: WCS Board Meeting (6:30pm)
November 10th: No School- Veterans Day
Classroom Content:
We had a great week in first grade! Students have been working hard on many end-of-trimester assessments as we prepare for Trimester 1 report cards and conferences! We have had a blast learning about sound waves in our new Thematic Study unit. We have also had some great conversations about making healthy choices for our body and mind in this year's Red Ribbon Week!
Conference Scheduler: Our Trimester 1 Conferences are quickly approaching! Conference week will be November 13th-17th, with early dismissal at 1:30pm all week. Canyon Creek, our online conference scheduler, will open on Monday, October 30th. Click here to access the instructions to sign up for your child's conference. I look forward to meeting with you!
Classroom Volunteers: I am excited to welcome volunteering in our classroom! Please see below if you are interested in signing up.
In-Class Volunteering: We're using SignUp.com to organize our classroom volunteers. The link to access our volunteer calendar is https://signup.com/go/Gkfyanv. In-class volunteers could complete a variety of tasks that may include working with small groups, one-on-one with students, or classroom prep work.
Fall Food Drive: Our annual Fall Food Drive benefiting Joey’s Food Locker, and in partnership with the Natomas Chamber of Commerce, has begun and will run through November 13th. Next week, October 30th - November 3rd, our K-8 students will participate in a competition to see which grade level (K-5th) or Advisory class or (6-8th) can bring in the most donations! At the end of the week the winning classes win a popsicle party! Click here for more information.
Library: Due to the Book Fair this week, our class did not check out new books at the library on Tuesday. Students can keep their books or bring them to the classroom to hold until the next time we visit the library.
Nightly Reading: To support reading development in first grade, I encourage students to read for 15-20 minutes every night. This can be your child reading independently, reading to someone, someone reading to your child, reading on Raz Kids, or combination of these!
Coming Up Next Week- What are we learning?
Math: Unit 3- Adding and Subtracting within 20
Phonics: Unit 5- Glued Sounds
Comprehension: Review/Assessments
Grammar: Review/Assessments
Writing: Review/Assessments
Thematic Study: Sound Waves
Assessment Information:
Our Unit 2 math assessment was given this week.
End-of-trimester assessments are being conducted. Results for these assessments will be shared on report cards given out at Trimester 1 Conferences.
Schoolwork/Homework Resources:
Math: We have been solving equations and story problems in math this week. Watch this video to learn more about the concepts covered in Unit 2. Use this link to log in to Freckle to help your mathematician practice at home. We are currently focused on the Operations and Algebraic Thinking domain in math (click on the turtle). We are also focusing on the Measurement and Data domain in math (click on the frog). Click here for additional information to support your child throughout Unit 2 of math.
Writing: This trimester we are focusing on Personal Narrative Writing. Personal Narratives have a Topic Sentence and a sequence of First, Next, and Last. Please utilize this resource to help your writer at home. Click here to access the documents we will use to organize our writing this trimester.
Phonics: This week in phonics we focused on sounds (all, ll, ss, ff), tapping to read words, trick words, spelling trick words, sentence dictation, and Word of the Day (chill, call) . Please practice tapping out each sound in a word, saying and spelling trick words (I, they, you, your, was, one, said), and dictating words (chill, lash, puff, fall, lock). Click here for additional information and activities to support your child throughout Unit 4 of phonics.
Comprehension: We have been focusing on asking questions to help us understand what we read and what is read to us. Use this resource to help your reader at home.
Grammar: We have been focusing on plural nouns to help us make sentences interesting and precise. Please utilize this resource or worksheet to help your child at home.
Social-Emotional:
This week, we participated in Red Ribbon Week as a school. This week focuses on making healthy choices for our bodies and minds. You may have seen our classroom door that was decorated with the theme, "We scare away unhealthy choices!" We engaged in conversations this week during our Morning Meeting about making healthy choices for our body and mind, setting boundaries, what medicine and drugs are, and what is safe to eat or drink and what is not.
Specialty Class Information:
See weekly email for information on what your children are learning in Specialty Classes, upcoming assessments, and resources to practice at home.
Click here for Specialty teachers' websites and contact information.
Westlake News:
Fall Food Drive: Our annual Fall Food Drive benefiting Joey’s Food Locker, and in partnership with the Natomas Chamber of Commerce, has begun and will run through November 13th. Next week, October 30th - November 3rd, our K-8 students will participate in a competition to see which grade level (K-5th) or Advisory class or (6-8th) can bring in the most donations! At the end of the week the winning classes win a popsicle party! CLICK HERE for more information.
K-8 Conference Week: Conference week is November 13th - 17th. The online scheduler is available to families on October 30th - November 12th so reserve your conference time now. CLICK HERE for instructions on how to use the online scheduler.
Friday, October 20th
Upcoming Dates:
October 21st: Fall Festival! (3:00pm)
Classroom Content:
We had a wonderful week in first grade! We participated in "Start with Hello Week" as a school, focusing on bullying prevention and preventing isolation! We concluded our study of American Symbols by learning about the Liberty Bell and the White House. We also had fun participating in Role Model Day for our school spirit day! The Fall Festival is this weekend! Thank you to everyone who donated to our class basket and a big thank you to our Classroom Ambassador, Christine, for putting it all together!
Online Curriculum Access: Thank you for your collaboration and patience as we rolled out access to our online curriculum platforms utilizing Clever! Many of our online learning platforms can be utilized at home for addtional practice via Clever. Once students log into their Clever account, it allows them access to our online learning platforms. Lexia, Freckle, Raz Kids, and Epic can be used for additional reading and/or math practice at home! (Please note: Epic can only be used between the weekday hours of 7am and 3pm.) In blue folders last week, I sent another copy of the information to log into Clever, as well as the class codes for Raz Kids and Epic that need to be entered the first time each platform is used on a new device. If you have any questions or need any support accessing our online learning platforms, please let me know!
Links and additional online resources information can be found on our class website here.
Library: Our class checked out new books at the library on Tuesday! We will not check out new books at the library for two weeks, due to the Book Fair. Check out the Book Fair details below in the "Westlake News" section of our newsletter.
Nightly Reading: To support reading development in first grade, I encourage students to read for 15-20 minutes every night. This can be your child reading independently, reading to someone, someone reading to your child, reading on Raz Kids, or combination of these!
Coming Up Next Week- What are we learning?
Math: Unit 2- Addition and Subtraction Story Problems
Phonics: Unit 4- Bonus Letters
Comprehension: Nonfiction/Ask and Answer Questions
Grammar: Plural Nouns
Writing: Narrative Writing
Thematic Study: Sound Waves
Assessment Information:
Our American Symbols (SS 1.3) assessment was given this week.
Our Unit 2 math assessment will be given the week of October 23rd.
Click here for a digital copy of the study guide sent home in blue folders last week.
End-of-trimester assessments are being conducted. Results for these assessments will be shared on report cards given out at Trimester 1 Conferences.
Schoolwork/Homework Resources:
Math: We have been solving equations with unknowns in math this week. We have been solving equations and story problems in math this week. Watch this video to learn more about the concepts covered in Unit 2. Use this link to log in to Freckle to help your mathematician practice at home. We are currently focused on the Operations and Algebraic Thinking domain in math (click on the turtle). We are also focusing on the Measurement and Data domain in math (click on the frog). Click here for additional information to support your child throughout Unit 2 of math.
Writing: This trimester we are focusing on Personal Narrative Writing. Personal Narratives have a Topic Sentence and a sequence of First, Next, and Last. Please utilize this resource to help your writer at home. Click here to access the documents we will use to organize our writing this trimester.
Phonics: This week in phonics we focused on sounds (ff, ll, ss, zz), tapping to read words, trick words, spelling trick words, sentence dictation, and Word of the Day. Please practice tapping out each sound in a word, saying and spelling trick words (you, your, I, they, was, one, said), and dictating words (bill, cuff, quiz, fuzz). Click here for additional information and activities to support your child throughout Unit 4 of phonics.
Comprehension: We have been focusing on comparing and contrasting to help us understand what we read and what is read to us by finding similarities and differences. Use this game to help your reader at home.
Grammar: We have been focusing on common nouns to help us make sentences interesting and precise. Please utilize this resource, game or resource to help your child at home.
Social-Emotional:
This week, we participated in "Start with Hello Week" as a school. This week focuses on bullying prevention and reducing isolation for students. We discussed and practiced how if we see someone alone, we can reach out and help, and if we don't know what to say, we can start with hello. We also participated in Mix it Up Day at lunch on Thursday where we sat with students in other classes and practiced getting to know new people!
Specialty Class Information:
See weekly email for information on what your children are learning in Specialty Classes, upcoming assessments, and resources to practice at home.
Click here for Specialty teachers' websites and contact information.
Westlake News:
Book Fair: Our Scholastic Book Fair opens this Saturday, October 21st at the Fall Festival and will end Thursday, October 26th. The schedule is as follows:
Saturday, October 21st from 3:00 - 6:00 PM: Opening Day at the Fall Festival
Monday, October 23rd from 3:00 - 4:30 PM: Parent Shopping
Tuesday, October 24th from 3:00 - 4:30 PM: Parent Shopping
Wednesday, October 25th from 1:30 - 3:30 PM: Parent Shopping
Thursday, October 26th from 3:00 - 6:00 PM: Parent Shopping
CLICK HERE to set up your student’s e-wallet as cash is not accepted at the book fair.
Students will have the opportunity to visit the book fair during their regularly scheduled library visit and/or after school with a parent/guardian at the times listed above.
Fall Festival: Our 11th Annual Fall Festival is TOMORROW, Saturday, October 21st from 3:00 - 6:00 PM. This family event is open to the entire community with games suitable for all ages! The Fall Festival features food, a treat walk, games, and the ever popular silent auction baskets where all proceeds go directly to the classrooms.
CLICK HERE to view our flier
CLICK HERE to volunteer for the event day
Fall Food Drive: Our annual Fall Food Drive benefiting Joey’s Food Locker, and in partnership with the Natomas Chamber of Commerce has begun and will run through November 13th. Our students will participate in a competition the week of October 30th to see what advisory class or grade level can bring in the most donations! At the end of the week the winning classes win a popsicle party! CLICK HERE for more information.
Friday, October 13th
Upcoming Dates:
October 17th: WAVE Coffee Talk (6:00pm)
October 19th: Board Meeting (6:30pm)
October 20th: Spirit Day- Role Model Day
October 21st: Fall Festival! (3:00pm)
Classroom Content:
We had a great week in first grade! We began a new personal narrative writing cycle about a time we were a good friend. Students have had such wonderful examples of how they have been kind, helpful, or nice to someone! We continued learning about American Symbols in Thematic Study and explored the Liberty Bell. We've also been working hard on story problems in math! Check out blue folders this week for helpful math resources to prepare your child for our upcoming math assessment.
Fall Festival Basket: The annual Fall Festival is quickly approaching! Our wonderful classroom ambassador Christine (Camila's mom), is coordinating our class's Fall Festival Basket. Click here to view the previously sent communication with details about donating to our class basket! If you have any questions about the information or donating to our Fall Festival Basket, please feel free to email Christine at cnguyen23@gmail.com. Thank you all for your support!
Online Curriculum Access: Thank you for your collaboration and patience as we rolled out access to our online curriculum platforms utilizing Clever! Many of our online learning platforms can be utilized at home for addtional practice via Clever. Once students log into their Clever account, it allows them access to our online learning platforms. Lexia, Freckle, Raz Kids, and Epic can be used for additional reading and/or math practice at home! (Please note: Epic can only be used between the weekday hours of 7am and 3pm.) In blue folders this week, you will find another copy of the information to log into Clever, as well as the class codes for Raz Kids and Epic that need to be entered the first time each platform is used on a new device. If you have any questions or need any support accessing our online learning platforms, please let me know!
Links and additional online resources information can be found on our class website here.
Library: Our class checked out new books at the library on Tuesday! Please remind your child to bring their library book back to school by Tuesday so they can return it and check out a new book. If students do not return their library book, they are unable to check out a new book for the week.
Nightly Reading: To support reading development in first grade, I encourage students to read for 15-20 minutes every night. This can be your child reading independently, reading to someone, someone reading to your child, reading on Raz Kids, or combination of these!
Coming Up After Break- What are we learning?
Math: Unit 2- Addition and Subtraction Story Problems
Phonics: Unit 4- Bonus Letters
Comprehension: Compare and Contrast
Grammar: Nouns
Writing: Narrative Writing
Thematic Study: American Symbols
Assessment Information:
Our American Symbols (SS 1.3) assessment will be given next week, the week of October 16th.
Our Unit 2 math assessment will be given the week of October 23rd.
Click here for a digital copy of the study guide sent home in blue folders this week.
Schoolwork/Homework Resources:
Math: We have been comparing addition to subtraction and solving equations and story problems in math this week. Watch this video to learn more about the concepts covered in Unit 2. Use this link to log in to Freckle to help your mathematician practice at home. We are currently focused on the Operations and Algebraic Thinking domain in math (click on the turtle). Click here for additional information to support your child throughout Unit 2 of math.
Writing: This trimester we are focusing on Personal Narrative Writing. Personal Narratives have a Topic Sentence and a sequence of First, Next, and Last. Please utilize this resource to help your writer at home. Click here to access the documents we will use to organize our writing this trimester.
Phonics: This week in phonics we focused on sounds (sh, ch, th, wh, ck), tapping to read words, trick words, spelling trick words, sentence dictation, and Word of the Day. Please practice tapping out each sound in a word, saying and spelling trick words (as, has, to, into, we, he, she, be, me, for, or), and dictating words (quick, puck, shock, rack, moth). Click here for additional information and activities to support your child throughout Unit 3 of phonics.
Comprehension: We have been focusing on story elements and plot to help us focus in and understand what we read and what is read to us. Use this resource to help your reader at home.
Grammar: We have been focusing on nouns to help us make sentences interesting and precise. Please utilize this song, game or resource.
Social-Emotional:
This week, in our Sanford Harmony social-emotional learning lesson, we focused on predicting and explaining feelings. We read a story and discussed how to use physical and situational clues to understand someone’s feelings. We also engaged in a lesson around being a good friend. We discussed attributes of good friends and how we can practice being a good friend to others.
Specialty Class Information:
See weekly email for information on what your children are learning in Specialty Classes, upcoming assessments, and resources to practice at home.
Click here for Specialty teachers' websites and contact information.
Westlake News:
Book Fair: Our Scholastic Book Fair opens Saturday, October 21st at the Fall Festival and will end Thursday, October 26th. The schedule is as follows:
Saturday, October 21st from 3:00 - 6:00 PM: Opening Day at the Fall Festival
Monday, October 23rd from 3:00 - 4:30 PM: Parent Shopping
Tuesday, October 24th from 3:00 - 4:30 PM: Parent Shopping
Wednesday, October 25th from 1:30 - 3:30 PM: Parent Shopping
Thursday, October 26th from 3:00 - 6:00 PM: Parent Shopping
CLICK HERE to set up your student’s e-wallet as cash is not accepted at the book fair. Students will have the opportunity to visit the book fair during their regularly scheduled library visit and/or after school with a parent/guardian at the times listed above.
Fall Festival: Our 11th Annual Fall Festival is just over a week away on Saturday, October 21st from 3:00 - 6:00 PM. This family event is open to the entire community with games suitable for all ages! The Fall Festival features food, a treat walk, games, and the ever popular silent auction baskets where all proceeds go directly to the classrooms.
We’re looking for Classroom Ambassadors to help our teachers put together their class baskets. CLICK HERE to sign up to be a classroom ambassador.
Do you or someone you know own a business they would like to share with our community? Sign up to host a sponsorship booth at our Fall Festival! CLICK HERE to download the sponsorship packet.
Planning is well underway but there is still plenty of time to get in on the fun. If you're interested in joining the planning committee please reach out to Toni Elgamiel at wavewcs@gmail.com.
CLICK HERE to view our flier
CLICK HERE to volunteer for the event day
Friday, September 29th
Upcoming Dates:
September 29th: Trimester 1 Progress Reports Sent Home
October 2nd-6th: Fall Break- No School
October 11th: WAVE Meeting (6:00pm)
October 12th: Picture Retake Day
Classroom Content:
We had a great week in first grade! We had a blast at our on-campus Life Long Ago field lesson! (See below for pictures!) We learned about digraphs (wh, ch, sh, th, ck) in phonics as we began a new unit in our curriculum. We continued practicing addition and subtraction with story problems in math and continued studying story elements in comprehension. What a busy and fun week!
October Break- No School: I hope you all have a wonderful October Break from October 2nd-October 6th. I look forward to seeing your child back at school on Monday, October 9th!
If you are looking for resources to practice with your child over break, check out the Fall Break Reading Challenge sent home in blue folders! (Click here for a digital copy). This is optional, but a fun way to encourage students to practice reading at home over the break. In addition, utilizing the new phonics packet sent home (see below), reading every day, and using Lexia and Freckle online are also great things to practice during the time off.
New Phonics Unit- Packet Sent Home: This week, we began a new phonics unit. In blue folders this week, I have sent home a family support packet that includes information for you on what students are learning in this new unit, as well as resources to practice at home if you are interested!
Field Lesson Pictures: Click here to check out pictures from our Life Long Ago field lesson on Tuesday! Students had a blast learning about transportation, school, and home life from long ago, as well as playing games from long ago!
Nightly Reading: To support reading development in first grade, I encourage students to read for 15-20 minutes every night. This can be your child reading independently, reading to someone, someone reading to your child, or combination of these. Our Fall Break reading challenge is a great way to encourage reading over break!
Coming Up After Break- What are we learning?
Math: Unit 2- Addition and Subtraction Story Problems
Phonics: Unit 3- Digraphs
Comprehension: Story Elements (Plot)
Grammar: Nouns
Writing: Narrative Writing
Thematic Study: American Symbols
Assessment Information:
Progress Reports were sent home in blue folders this week. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns on your child's progress report!
Schoolwork/Homework Resources:
Math: This week, we have been solving story problems where we find “how many more” or “how many fewer.” Watch this video to learn more about the concepts covered in Unit 2. Play Shake and Spill and Shake, Spill, and Cover to further develop these concepts at home. Use this link to log in to Freckle to help your mathematician practice at home. We are currently focused on the Operations and Algebraic Thinking domain in math (click on the turtle). We are also focusing on the Measurement and Data domain in math (click on the frog). Click here for additional information to support your child throughout Unit 2 of math.
Writing: This trimester we are focusing on Personal Narrative Writing. Personal Narratives have a Topic Sentence and a sequence of First, Next, and Last. Please utilize this resource to help your writer at home. Click here to access the documents we will use to organize our writing this trimester.
Phonics: This week in phonics we focused on sounds (sh, ch, th, wh, ck), tapping to read words, trick words, spelling trick words, sentence dictation, and Word of the Day. Please practice tapping out each sound in a word, saying and spelling trick words (as, has, to, into, we, he, she, be, me, for, or), and dictating words (shop, ship, chin, chat, thud, thin). Click here for additional information and activities to support your child throughout Unit 3 of phonics.
Comprehension: We have been focusing on plot to help us focus in and understand what we read and what is read to us. Use this resource to help your reader at home.
Grammar: We have been focusing on exclamatory sentences to help us make sentences interesting and precise. Please utilize this resource, game or worksheet to help your child at home.
Social-Emotional:
This week, in our Sanford Harmony social-emotional learning lesson, we focused on recognizing feelings. We read a story and discussed how everyone has many emotions, which can change how they look and sound on the outside and how they feel on the inside. We played a game called “Guess My Emotion” where students guessed the emotion their partner was showing using their face and body.
Specialty Class Information:
See weekly email for information on what your children are learning in Specialty Classes, upcoming assessments, and resources to practice at home.
Click here for Specialty teachers' websites and contact information.
Westlake News:
Fall Break: Both campuses will be closed for Fall Break Monday, October 2nd through Friday, October 6th. We look forward to welcoming staff and students back on Monday, October 9th. Our BASE program will also be closed during Fall Break.
Fall Festival: Our 11th Annual Fall Festival is approaching quickly on Saturday, October 21st from 3:00 - 6:00 PM. This family event is open to the entire community with games suitable for all ages! The Fall Festival features food, a treat walk, games, and the ever popular silent auction baskets where all proceeds go directly to the classrooms.
We’re looking for Classroom Ambassadors to help our teachers put together their class baskets. CLICK HERE to sign up to be a classroom ambassador.
Do you or someone you know own a business they would like to share with our community? Sign up to host a sponsorship booth at our Fall Festival! CLICK HERE to download the sponsorship packet.
Planning is well underway but there is still plenty of time to get in on the fun. If you're interested in joining the planning committee please reach out to Toni Elgamiel at wavewcs@gmail.com.
CLICK HERE to view our flier
CLICK HERE to volunteer for the event day
Picture Retake Day – Thursday, October 12th: Our Picture Retake Day is Thursday, October 12th. Retakes are for the following:
Students who are new to our school since the original picture day
Students who were absent on the original picture day
Students who would like to retake their photo, please return the original picture package
CLICK HERE to order pictures
Friday, September 22nd
Upcoming Dates:
September 26th: On-Campus Life Long Ago Field Lesson
September 28th: WAVE Coffee Talk (8:30am)
September 29th: Olympic Triathlon Event Day!
September 29th: Trimester 1 Progress Reports Sent Home
October 2nd-6th: Fall Break- No School
Classroom Content:
We had a great week in first grade! We learned some fun new math games as we studied addition and subtraction story problems. We practiced reading and writing CVC words and sentences in phonics. We are wrapping up our study of Life Long Ago as we prepare for an on-campus field lesson from Sutter's Fort next Tuesday. We are very excited for this special day!
Library: Our class checked out new books at the library on Tuesday! We will not be visiting the library next Tuesday as we will be participating in our on-campus field lesson from Sutter's Fort. Students can keep their book and return it after Fall Break, or bring it back to school and I will hold it for them until we visit the library again.
Nightly Reading: To support reading development in first grade, I encourage students to read for 15-20 minutes every night. This can be your child reading independently, reading to someone, someone reading to your child, or combination of these!
Coming Up Next Week- What are we learning?
Math: Unit 2- Addition and Subtraction Story Problems
Phonics: Unit 3- Digraphs
Comprehension: Story Elements (Plot)
Grammar: Exclamations
Writing: Narrative Writing
Thematic Study: American Symbols
Assessment Information:
Our Life Long Ago (SS 1.4) assessment was given this week.
Schoolwork/Homework Resources:
Math: This week we solved put-together/take-apart story problems with missing totals or addends. Watch this video to learn more about the concepts covered in Unit 2. Play Shake and Spill and Shake, Spill, and Cover to further develop these concepts at home. Use this link to log in to Freckle to help your mathematician practice at home. We are currently focused on the Operations and Algebraic Thinking domain in math (click on the turtle). Click here for additional information to support your child throughout Unit 2 of math.
Writing: This trimester we are focusing on Personal Narrative Writing. Personal Narratives have a Topic Sentence, First, Next, Last, and a Closing Sentence. Please utilize this resource to help your writer at home. Click here to access the documents we will use to organize our writing this trimester.
Phonics: This week in phonics we focused on tapping to read words, trick words, spelling trick words, sentence dictation, and Word of the Day. Please practice tapping out each sound in a word, saying and spelling trick words (the, a, and, is, his, of), and dictating words (lug, nap, zap, yes, beg, fix, quit, rob, hit, mud). Click here for additional information and activities to support your child throughout Unit 2 of phonics.
Comprehension: We have been focusing on comparing and contrasting to help us understand what we read and what is read to us by finding similarities and differences between texts or within one text. Use this link and video to help your reader at home.
Grammar: We have been focusing on question sentences to help us create sentences that are interesting and precise. Please utilize this video and resource to help your child at home.
Social-Emotional:
This week, we continued to focus on building community. We discussed ways we can respect and value our classroom community, including appropriate ways to interact with each other and our environment.
Specialty Class Information:
See weekly email for information on what your children are learning in Specialty Classes, upcoming assessments, and resources to practice at home.
Click here for Specialty teachers' websites and contact information.
Westlake News:
Olympic Triathlon: We are so excited for our Olympic Triathlon event day on Friday, September 29th! Be sure to create your family’s website or prepare for our in-person drop off days! We have one week left until event day and have raised 34% of our fundraising goal.
Bring donations to our K-8 campus on Wednesday, September 27th for our last in-person drop-of day
CLICK HERE to set up a family donation page
CLICK HERE to sign up to volunteer on event day. We are especially in need of volunteers to support the afternoon for our K/1 and 6/8 events
K-8 Yearbooks: CLICK HERE to order your K-8 yearbook directly through TreeRing and get two pages to personalize with your own pictures! Use code 101667583471473 or see the email with the link to purchase. Get 10% off your purchase until 10/31. Need help? Contact: Mrs. Liechti, kliechti@westlakecharter.com.
Fall Break: Both campuses will be closed for Fall Break Monday, October 2nd through Friday, October 6th. We look forward to welcoming staff and students back on Monday, October 9th. Our BASE program will also be closed during Fall Break.
Picture Retake Day – Thursday, October 12th: Our Picture Retake Day is Thursday, October 12th. Retakes are for the following:
Students who are new to our school since the original picture day
Students who were absent on the original picture day
Students who would like to retake their photo, please return the original picture package
CLICK HERE to order pictures
Friday, September 15th
Upcoming Dates:
September 22nd: Spirit Day- Sports Day
September 29th: Olympic Triathlon Event Day!
October 2nd-6th: Fall Break- No School
Classroom Content:
We had a wonderful week in first grade! We are continuing our study of Life Long Ago in Thematic Study. Students are enjoying learning about how homes, schools, and transportation have changed over time! We started a new personal narrative writing cycle, including brainstorming our ideas and writing our rough draft. We also practiced comparing and contrasting using Venn Diagrams this week.
New Phonics and Math Units- Packets Sent Home: This week, we began new units in both our phonics and math curriculum. In blue folders this week, I have sent home family support packets that include information for you on what students are learning in these new units, as well as resources to practice at home if you are interested! I will send these packets home every time we begin a new phonics or math unit.
School Dismissal Manager/After School Clubs: With after school clubs getting underway, please make sure your child's School Dismissal Manager is up to date! You can update your child's dismissal preferences on the School Dismissal Manager website using this link: SDM website. I cannot release your child from our classroom at the end of the day, including to an after school club, if their dismissal has not been updated. If you have any questions or trouble updating your School Dismissal Manager, you can also email admin@westlakecharter.com for assistance!
Library: Our class checked out new books at the library on Tuesday! Please remind your child to bring their library book back to school by Tuesday so they can return it and check out a new book. If students do not return their library book, they are unable to check out a new book for the week.
Blue Responsibility Folders: Blue Responsibility Folders are sent home with students every Friday! Please review and remove the papers in the "Keep at Home" side of the folder and return the empty folder to school on Monday.
Nightly Reading: To support reading development in first grade, I encourage students to read for 15-20 minutes every night. This can be your child reading independently, reading to someone, someone reading to your child, or combination of these!
Coming Up Next Week- What are we learning?
Math: Unit 2- Addition and Subtraction Story Problems
Phonics: Unit 2- CVC Words
Comprehension: Compare and Contrast
Grammar: Questions
Writing: Narrative Writing
Thematic Study: Life Long Ago
Assessment Information:
Our Unit 1 Math Assessment was given last week. Student score reports showing how they did on the assessment were sent home in blue folders this week. If students have skills they are still working on, I sent home reteach information as well for things you can practice at home!
Our Life Long Ago (SS 1.4) assessment will be given next week.
Schoolwork/Homework Resources:
Math: We recently began Unit 2 in our math curriculum. Watch this video to learn more about the concepts covered in this unit. We have been writing expressions and equations to solve story problems and showing our thinking with drawings and numbers. Play this addition game and this subtraction game to further develop these concepts at home. Use this link to log in to Freckle to help your mathematician practice at home. We are currently focused on the Operations and Algebraic Thinking domain in math (click on the turtle). Click here for additional information to support your child throughout Unit 2 of math.
Writing: This trimester we are focusing on Personal Narrative Writing. Personal Narratives have a Topic Sentence, First, Next, Last, and a Closing Sentence. Please utilize this resource to help your writer at home. Click here to access the documents we will use to organize our writing this trimester.
Phonics: This week in phonics we focused on sound review, tapping to read words, tapping to spell words, and reading sentences in the correct order. Please practice tapping out each sound in a word and then tapping to write out a word (lit, lip, lap, rap, rip, nip, sip, sit, set). Click here for additional information and activities to support your child throughout Unit 2 of phonics.
Comprehension: We have been focusing on comparing and contrasting to help us understand what we read and what is read to us by finding similarities and differences between texts or within one text. Use this link and video to help your reader at home.
Grammar: We have been focusing on statement (telling) sentences to help us make our writing interesting and precise. Telling sentences always end in a period. Please utilize this resource to help your child at home.
Social-Emotional:
This week, in our Sanford Harmony social-emotional learning lesson, we focused on building community. We discussed what it means to be in a community and how we all belong to our classroom community.
Specialty Class Information:
See weekly email for information on what your children are learning in Specialty Classes, upcoming assessments, and resources to practice at home.
Click here for Specialty teachers' websites and contact information.
Westlake News:
Olympic Triathlon: We are so excited for our Olympic Triathlon event day on Friday, September 29th! Be sure to create your family’s website or prepare for our in-person drop off days! We have two weeks left until event day and have raised 26% of our fundraising goal.
Bring donations to our K-8 campus on Wednesdays at drop-off: 9/20, 9/27
CLICK HERE to set up a family donation page
CLICK HERE to sign up to volunteer on event day
Classroom Ambassadors: We are looking for one or two family members from each K-5 class and Middle School Advisory class to act as a liaison between the school and families. Ambassadors will help in ensuring important information gets to every family and help volunteer needs get met. CLICK HERE to sign up.
K-8 Yearbooks: CLICK HERE to order your K-8 yearbook directly through TreeRing and get two pages to personalize with your own pictures! Use code 101667583471473 or see the email with the link to purchase. Get 10% off your purchase until 10/31. Need help? Contact: Mrs. Liechti, kliechti@westlakecharter.com.
Friday, September 8th
Upcoming Dates:
September 14th: WCS Board Meeting (6:30pm)
September 15th: WAVE Bingo Night (6:00pm)
September 22nd: Spirit Day- Sports Day
September 29th: Olympic Triathlon Event Day!
Classroom Content:
We had a great week in first grade! We concluded our review of letters and sounds in phonics and will begin a new phonics unit next week! We continued our study of Life Long Ago as we learned about what schools were like long ago versus today. In addition, students worked very hard on their NWEA MAP Math test this week! We are now done with our first NWEA assessments of the year. These will be taken again later in the year to track student growth.
School Dismissal Manager/After School Clubs: With after school clubs getting underway, please make sure your child's School Dismissal Manager is up to date! You can update your child's dismissal preferences on the School Dismissal Manager website using this link: SDM website. I cannot release your child from our classroom at the end of the day, including to an after school club, if their dismissal has not been updated. If you have any questions or trouble updating your School Dismissal Manager, you can also email admin@westlakecharter.com for assistance!
Library: Our class checked out new books at the library on Tuesday! Please remind your child to bring their library book back to school by Tuesday so they can return it and check out a new book. If students do not return their library book, they are unable to check out a new book for the week.
Blue Responsibility Folders: Blue Responsibility Folders are sent home with students every Friday! Please review and remove the papers in the "Keep at Home" side of the folder and return the empty folder to school on Monday.
Nightly Reading: To support reading development in first grade, I encourage students to read for 15-20 minutes every night. This can be your child reading independently, reading to someone, someone reading to your child, or combination of these!
Coming Up Next Week- What are we learning?
Math: Unit 2- Addition and Subtraction Story Problems
Phonics: Unit 2- CVC Words
Comprehension: Compare and Contrast
Grammar: Telling Sentences
Writing: Narrative Writing
Thematic Study: Life Long Ago
Assessment Information:
Our Unit 1 Math Assessment was given this week.
Schoolwork/Homework Resources:
Math: We have been surveying, looking at data, and answering questions about data in math this week. Use this link to log in to Freckle to help your mathematician practice at home. We are currently focused on the Operations and Algebraic Thinking domain in math (click on the turtle). We are also focusing on the Measurement and Data domain in math (click on the frog). Click here for additional information to support your child throughout Unit 1 of math.
Writing: This trimester we are focusing on Personal Narrative Writing. Personal Narratives have a Topic Sentence, First, Next, Last, and a Closing Sentence. Please utilize this resource to help your writer at home. Click here to access the documents we will use to organize our writing this trimester.
Phonics: This week in phonics we focused on the letters v, x, x, y, z, and qu. We learned about correct letter formation and which line to write a letter, how to grip our pencil, and how to extend the vowels. Please practice writing, saying, and using these letters in things you write, read, and see. We have been practicing how to tap to read words. Please practice tapping out each sound in a word (sad, sat, sap, sip, sit, mop, map, mad, mud). Click here for additional information and activities to support your child throughout Unit 1 of phonics.
Comprehension: We have been focusing on setting to help us understand and visualize what we read and what is read to us. Use this resource to help your reader at home.
Grammar: We have been focusing on the telling part of a sentence to help us make sentences interesting and precise. Please utilize this resource to help your child at home.
Social-Emotional:
This week, in our Sanford Harmony social-emotional learning lesson, we discussed the value of diversity, shared what makes us unique, and learned what makes our classmates unique. We read a story and played a game where we celebrated differences between ourselves and our partner.
Specialty Class Information:
See weekly email for information on what your children are learning in Specialty Classes, upcoming assessments, and resources to practice at home.
Click here for Specialty teachers' websites and contact information.
Westlake News:
Olympic Triathlon: We are so excited for our Olympic Triathlon event day on Friday, September 29th! Be sure to create your family’s website or prepare for our in-person drop off days!
Bring donations to our K-8 campus on Wednesdays at drop-off: 9/13, 9/20, 9/27
CLICK HERE to set up a family donation page
CLICK HERE to sign up to volunteer on event day
Middle School Dance: Our student leadership team is preparing for our first Middle School dance of the year! The music, food, and photo booth fun will take place on Friday, September 22nd from 3:30 - 5:00 PM in the gym. We need families to volunteer for this event. Please CLICK HERE to sign up if you are able to help set up, chaperone, clean up or donate food/drinks. Thanks for your support!
Classroom Ambassadors: We are looking for one or two family members from each K-5 class and Middle School Advisory class to act as a liaison between the school and families. Ambassadors will help in ensuring important information gets to every family and help volunteer needs get met. CLICK HERE to sign up.
Friday, September 1st
Upcoming Dates:
September 4th: No School- Labor Day
September 6th: WAVE Meeting (6:00pm)
Classroom Content:
We had a wonderful week in first grade! We concluded our unit on Friendship and Citizenship in Thematic Study and began our new unit focusing on Life Long Ago. We continued reviewing letters in phonics and focused on working with data in math. Students also worked very hard on their NWEA MAP Reading test this week!
No School: There will be no school on Monday, September 4th in observance of Labor Day. I look forward to seeing students back at school on Tuesday, September 5th!
Library: Our class had the opportunity to check out library books for the first time this week! Students were able to check out a book if all of their library books from last year had been returned. If you have any library books at home from last year, please return them ASAP! Students had the choice to keep their new book at school or bring it home. If your child brought their book home, please remind them to bring it back by Tuesday so we can return our old books and check out new ones!
Blue Responsibility Folders: Blue Responsibility Folders are sent home with students every Friday! Please review and remove the papers in the "Keep at Home" side of the folder and return the empty folder to school on Monday.
Nightly Reading: To support reading development in first grade, I encourage students to read for 15-20 minutes every night. This can be your child reading independently, reading to someone, someone reading to your child, or combination of these!
Coming Up Next Week- What are we learning?
Math: Unit 1- Adding, Subtracting, and Working with Data
Phonics: Unit 1- Letter Review
Comprehension: Story Elements (Setting)
Grammar: Sentences (Telling Part)
Writing: Narrative Writing
Thematic Study: Life Long Ago
Assessment Information:
Our Unit 1 Math Assessment will be given next week.
Click here for a digital copy of the Unit 1 Home Support resource sent home in blue folders this week.
Our Citizenship (SS 1.1) Assessment was given this week.
BPST and Sight Words (Trick Words) are being assessed during the first few weeks of school to gather baseline data for students.
NWEA assessments are being given over the next two weeks. Students did an awesome job on their MAP Reading Assessment given this week on Wednesday! The MAP Math Assessment will be given on Wednesday, September 6th.
Schoolwork/Homework Resources:
Math: We have been surveying and looking at data in math this week. Watch this video to learn more about the concepts covered in this unit. Use this link to log in to Freckle to help your mathematician practice at home. We are currently focused on the Operations and Algebraic Thinking domain in math (click on the turtle). We are also focusing on the Measurement and Data domain in math (click on the frog). Click here for additional information to support your child throughout Unit 1 of math.
Writing: This trimester we are focusing on Personal Narrative Writing. Personal Narratives have a Topic Sentence, First, Next, Last, and a Closing Sentence. Please utilize this resource to help your writer at home. Click here to access the documents we will use to organize our writing this trimester.
Phonics: This week in phonics we focused on the letters e, r, p, j, l, h, k. We learned about correct letter formation and which line to write a letter, how to grip our pencil, and how to extend the vowels. Please practice writing, saying, and using these letters in things you write, read, and see. Click here for additional information and activities to support your child throughout Unit 1 of phonics.
Comprehension: We have been focusing on story elements to help us understand the different aspects of what we read and what is read to us. Use this resource to help your reader at home.
Grammar: We have been focusing on the naming part of a sentence to help us make sentences interesting and precise. Please utilize this resource to help your child at home.
Social-Emotional:
This week, in our Sanford Harmony social-emotional learning lesson, we discussed how talking and getting to know others can help us discover commonalities- even with those that we may not think we have anything in common with. We read a story and played a game where we made connections with our partners.
Specialty Class Information:
See weekly email for information on what your children are learning in Specialty Classes, upcoming assessments, and resources to practice at home.
Click here for Specialty teachers' websites and contact information.
Westlake News:
Supply Donations: CLICK HERE to make your donation today! Great News! First grade has already reached 42% of our School Supplies goal. Note: When you make a monthly donation, our grade level campaigns are credited for the entire year in advance on our goal thermometer!
Olympic Triathlon: We are so excited for our Olympic Triathlon event day on Friday, September 29th! Be sure to create your family’s website or prepare for our in-person drop off days!
Bring donations to our K-8 campus on Wednesdays at drop-off: 9/6, 9/13, 9/20, 9/27
CLICK HERE to set up a family donation page
CLICK HERE to sign up to volunteer on event day
Middle School Dance: Our student leadership team is preparing for our first Middle School dance of the year! The music, food, and photo booth fun will take place on Friday, September 22nd from 3:30 - 5:00 PM in the gym. We need families to volunteer for this event. Please CLICK HERE to sign up if you are able to help set up, chaperone, clean up or donate food/drinks. Thanks for your support!
Enrichment Sign-ups:Our fall Explorer Enrichment programs are starting soon! CLICK HERE to see the catalog of course offerings and information about how to sign up. Email achavez@westlakecharter.com with scholarship inquiries.
Middle School Explorer Athletics: HOOPS are here! All 6th, 7th, and 8th Grade Explorers are invited to come play basketball! The season starts the week of September 5th. Athlete packets, including a doctor’s physical clearance, are required for participation.
CLICK HERE to sign up your middle schooler for basketball!
CLICK HERE for the digital athlete packet, or pick up a hard copy from the front desk or Coach Sterling.
Email swynne@westlakecharter.com with any questions and check back next week for schedules and more information!
Friday, August 25th
Upcoming Dates:
September 4th: No School- Labor Day
September 6th: WAVE Meeting (6:00pm)
Classroom Content:
We had a great week in first grade! We had our Fall Picture Day on Tuesday- be on the lookout for new student ID cards in your child's blue Responsibility Folder! We continued to review letters in phonics, we started our first piece of personal narrative writing, and we began working with data in math by sorting and categorizing shapes. We had a busy and fun week!
Back to School Night: It was so great to see many of you at our Back to School Night this week. Thank you for attending! Click here to view the slides that were presented at Back to School Night. Please let me know if you have any questions!
Blue Responsibility Folders: Blue Responsibility Folders are sent home with students every Friday! Please review and remove the papers in the "Keep at Home" side of the folder and return the empty folder to school on Monday.
Family Survey: If you have not already done so, please click here to fill out a short family survey so I can learn a little more about your child and your family. I look forward to partnering with you throughout this school year to make your child's year a success!
Nightly Reading: To support reading development in first grade, I encourage students to read for 15-20 minutes every night. This can be your child reading independently, reading to someone, someone reading to your child, or combination of these! RazKids is a great online resource to find books at your child's level.
Coming Up Next Week- What are we learning?
Math: Unit 1- Adding, Subtracting, and Working with Data
Phonics: Unit 1- Letter Review
Comprehension: Story Elements (Characters)
Grammar: Sentences (Naming Part)
Writing: Narrative Writing
Thematic Study: Friendship and Citizenship Wrap Up/Begin Life Long Ago
Assessment Information:
BPST and Sight Words (Trick Words) will be assessed during the first few weeks of school to gather baseline data for students.
Our Citizenship (SS 1.1) Assessment will be given next week.
Over the next two weeks, students will be completing their fall NWEA MAP assessments in class on Chromebooks. The MAP Reading Assessment will be given on Wednesday, August 30th and the MAP Math Assessment will be given on Wednesday, September 6th.
Schoolwork/Homework Resources:
Math: We recently began Unit 1 in our math curriculum. Watch this video to learn more about the concepts covered in this unit. We have been exploring addition and subtraction in math this week. Click here for additional information to support your child throughout Unit 1 of math.
Writing: This trimester we are focusing on Personal Narrative Writing. Personal Narratives have a Topic Sentence, First, Next, Last, and a Closing Sentence. Please utilize this resource to help your writer at home. Click here to access the documents we will use to organize our writing this trimester.
Phonics: This week in phonics we focused on the letters c, o, a, g, d, and s. We learned about correct letter formation and which line to write a letter, how to grip our pencil, and how to extend the vowels. Please practice writing, saying, and using these letters in things you write, read, and see. Click here for additional information and activities to support your child throughout Unit 1 of phonics.
Comprehension: We have been focusing on asking questions to help us understand what we read and what is read to us. Use this link to support your reader at home.
Grammar: We have been focusing on the different parts of a sentence to help us make sentences interesting and precise. Please utilize this resource to help your child at home.
Social-Emotional:
This week, we focused on friendship and citizenship. We discussed how we can show citizenship at home, in our community, and at school. We continued to focus on friendship and problem-solving with our friends. We also began our Sanford Hamony social-emotional learning lessons. In our lesson this week, we discussed what it is like to start new things and get to know new friends. We read a story and discussed our feelings on starting a new school year.
Specialty Class Information:
See weekly email for information on what your children are learning in Specialty Classes, upcoming assessments, and resources to practice at home.
Click here for Specialty teachers' websites and contact information.
Westlake News:
Olympic Triathlon: We are so excited for our Olympic Triathlon event day on Friday, September 29th! Be sure to create your family’s website or prepare for our in-person drop off days!
Bring donations to our K-8 campus on Wednesdays at drop-off: 9/6, 9/13, 9/20, 9/27
CLICK HERE to set up a family donation page
CLICK HERE to sign up to volunteer on event day
Enrichment sign-ups: Our fall Explorer Enrichment programs are starting soon! CLICK HERE to see the catalog of course offerings and information about how to sign up. Email achavez@westlakecharter.com with scholarship inquiries.
Middle School Explorer Athletics: HOOPS are here! All 6th, 7th, and 8th Grade Explorers are invited to come play basketball! The season starts the week of September 5th. Athlete packets, including a doctor’s physical clearance, are required for participation.
CLICK HERE to sign up your middle schooler for basketball!
CLICK HERE for the digital athlete packet, or pick up a hard copy from the front desk or Coach Sterling.
Email swynne@westlakecharter.com with any questions and check back next week for schedules and more information
Friday, August 18th
Upcoming Dates:
August 22nd: K-12 Picture Day
August 23rd: K-8 Back to School Night
September 4th: No School- Labor Day
Classroom Content:
We had a wonderful week in first grade! It was our first full week of the new school year. We began our phonics curriculum reviewing letters and began our math curriculum learning about addition and subtraction this week. We continued building classroom community and learned about friendship and qualities of a good friend. We are looking forward to Picture Day next week!
Blue Responsibility Folders: Blue Responsibility Folders (Friday Folders) went home with students today! Please review and remove the papers in the "Keep at Home" side of the folder and return the empty folder to school on Monday.
Fall Picture Day: Fall Picture Day is Tuesday, August 22nd. All students will be photographed for the yearbook and student IDs. This will be a uniform picture day. Please see the "Westlake News" section below for more information on Fall Picture Day.
Back to School Night: I hope to see you at our Back to School Night on Wednesday, August 23rd at either 6:00pm for Session One or 6:40pm for Session Two in our classroom, C-106! Please see the "Westlake News" section below for more information on Back to School Night.
Family Survey: If you have not already done so, please click here to fill out a short family survey so I can learn a little more about your child and your family. I look forward to partnering with you throughout this school year to make your child's year a success!
Coming Up Next Week- What are we learning?
Math: Unit 1- Adding, Subtracting, and Working with Data
Phonics: Unit 1- Letter Review
Comprehension: Ask and Answer Questions
Grammar: Sentences
Writing: Narrative Writing
Thematic Study: Friendship and Citizenship
Assessment Information:
BPST and Sight Words (Trick Words) will be assessed during the first few weeks of school to gather baseline data for students.
Schoolwork/Homework Resources:
Math: We recently began Unit 1 in our math curriculum. Watch this video to learn more about the concepts covered in this unit. We have been exploring expressions and sums in math this week. Click here for additional information to support your child throughout Unit 1 of math.
Writing: This trimester we are focusing on Personal Narrative Writing. Personal Narratives have a Topic Sentence, First, Next, Last, and a Closing Sentence. Please utilize this resource to help your writer at home. Click here to access the documents we will use to organize our writing this trimester.
Phonics: This week in phonics we focused on the letters t, b, f, m, n, i, u. We learned about correct letter formation and which line to write a letter, how to grip our pencil, and how to extend the vowels. Please practice writing, saying, and using these letters in things you write, read, and see. Click here for additional information and activities to support your child throughout Unit 1 of phonics.
Comprehension: We have been focusing on asking questions to help us understand what we read and what is read to us. Use this link to help your reader at home.
Grammar: This week we focused on the components of complete sentences.
Social-Emotional:
This week, we focused on friendship and building classroom community. We discussed qualities of a good friend, how we can be a good friend to others, and things we value in our friends. We also co-created our Community Agreements together as a class.
Specialty Class Information:
See weekly email for information on what your children are learning in Specialty Classes, upcoming assessments, and resources to practice at home.
Click here for Specialty teachers' websites and contact information.
Westlake News:
Back To School Night: Our K-8 Back to School Night is on Wednesday, August 23rd. To the best of our ability, we would like to keep this event distraction free by encouraging families to make this a non-student event. This will allow for teachers and families to connect in a distraction-free environment. For families that need supervision, our BASE program will be available to help, however, space is potentially limited. If you know that you will need childcare to attend this event, please CLICK HERE to RSVP for BASE as soon as possible so that we can properly prepare.
Kindergarten through 5th grade families: We have two identical sessions, you only need to attend one. Session one is 6:00 - 6:30 PM, session two is 6:40 - 7:10 PM. You will watch a video from your child's specialty teacher.
6th - 8th grade families: We have two identical sessions, you only need to attend one. Session one is 5:00 - 5:40 PM, session two is 6:00 - 6:40 PM. During these sessions, you will meet with your student’s core teachers and specialty teachers. Your students are creating your schedule for the evening.
Food Trucks: Cafe a laMode, Game Day Grill, and Kado’s Asian Grill food trucks will be available on the blacktop from 5:00 - 7:10 PM, for you to purchase dinner.
School Supply Donation: Each grade level has purchased all the school supplies that your students will need for the entire year. We get a great discount as a school, so we like to purchase everything in advance. We ask each student for a $35 donation toward school supplies. CLICK HERE to donate toward school supplies and grade level field lessons.
Fall Picture Day: Kindergarten-11th grade picture day will be on Tuesday, August 22nd at both campuses. This is a uniform picture day for our K-8 campus. All students will have their picture taken for the yearbook and student IDs, even if they don’t purchase a picture package. CLICK HERE to pre-purchase your pictures online. Group pictures will be available to add to your package for Kindergarten to 5th grade classes only.
Friday, August 11th
Upcoming Dates:
August 16th: WAVE Meeting (6:00pm)
August 18th: Coffee Talk (8:30am)
August 22nd: K-12 Picture Day
August 23rd: K-8 Back to School Night (5:00pm)
Classroom Content:
We had a wonderful first week of first grade! We spent time learning each other's names, building classroom community, and exploring spaces in our classroom and around campus. We reviewed our numbers to 20 in math and spent time familiarizing ourselves with our Fundations phonics curriculum. We will start reviewing our letters in more depth next week. It has been great getting to know you and your children this first week of school. I look forward to collaborating with you for a wonderful first grade year!
Family Survey: If you have not already done so, please click here to fill out a short family survey so I can learn a little more about your child and your family. I look forward to partnering with you throughout this school year to make your child's year a success!
School Dismissal Manager: At Westlake, we use School Dismissal Manager to safely dismiss students to the appropriate location each day. If you haven't already, please update your child's School Dismissal Manager for this school year to indicate how your child will be getting home each day. If you need any support with updating your child's dismissal preferences, please email admin@westlakecharter.com.
Specialty Classes: Our specialty classes began this week! Our class is very excited for Spanish, Art, and PE! Students are in cohorts for Specialty Classes (Red, Orange, Yellow, and Green). Specialty class schedules went home at Meet the Teacher and can also be found here!
Coming Up Next Week- What are we learning?
Math: Unit 1- Adding, Subtracting, and Working with Data
Phonics: Unit 1- Letter Review
Comprehension: Ask and Answer Questions
Grammar: Sentences
Writing: Narrative Writing
Thematic Study: Friendship and Citizenship
Assessment Information:
BPST and Sight Words (Trick Words) will be assessed during the first few weeks of school to gather baseline data for students.
Schoolwork/Homework Resources:
Math: We have been focusing on number writing in math this week. Practice writing your numbers to 20 at home!
Phonics: This week in phonics we focused on letter review. Use this link to help your reader improve their letter sound knowledge.
Writing: This trimester we are focusing on Personal Narrative Writing. Personal Narratives have a Topic Sentence, Sequence of Events (First, Next, Last), and a Closing Sentence. Please utilize this resource to help your writer at home.
Social-Emotional:
This week, we focused on getting to know our classmates and learning their names. We will continue to work on building classroom community and learning about our classmates in the following weeks.
Specialty Class Information:
See weekly email for information on what your children are learning in Specialty Classes, upcoming assessments, and resources to practice at home.
Click here for Specialty teachers' websites and contact information.
Westlake News:
Fall Picture Day: Kindergarten-11th grade picture day will be on Tuesday, August 22nd at both campuses. This is a uniform picture day for our K-8 campus. All students will have their picture taken for the yearbook and student IDs, even if they don’t purchase a picture package. CLICK HERE to pre-purchase your pictures online. Group pictures will be available to add to your package for Kindergarten to 5th grade classes only. We are looking for six volunteers to help with picture day. Email admin@westlakecharter.com if you are available to be at either campus from 8:00 AM - 2:00 pm on August 22nd - volunteers receive a free picture package.
Free and Reduced Price Meals: Families, each year it is incredibly important to our school that we are able to account for every student during this form collection process. We are authorized by the Natomas Unified School District and as a part of our partnership, we commit to collecting these forms from every family. So, please, complete this form for every student in your family. While meals remain free for all students this school year, this is important data for our Charter authorization.
CLICK HERE to complete the Free and Reduced Price Meals (FRPM) acknowledgement form which will allow us to ensure everyone has received this information. Even if you don’t think you qualify for free or reduced priced meals, please complete the form for our tracking purposes.
CLICK HERE to complete the FRPM application.