Have a relaxing,
      safe, fun, Memorial Day 
                                   Weekend!

8 more days of school and we plan to finish strong!

Week of April 18

Classroom Highlights

K4 - Students are learning about seeds, plants and butterflies.  They are also working on a special Mother's Day surprise!

K5 - Kindergartners completed a research project on animals using computers.  They are in the process of putting together animal books.  They are also focusing on "Writing for a Reason", and serving as critics on topics involving restaurants, movies and toys.

Grade 1 - First graders just wrapped up a unit on geometry and are getting ready for fractions.  They are also learning new comprehension strategies.

Grade 2 - Second grade students are learning about money and making change.  They will be having a guest speaker to talk to the children about banking.  They are also working on Google slide presentations involving habitats.

Grade 3 - Third graders are working in cooperative groups exploring inventions.  They are planning a field trip to see Tom Sawyer next week.

Family Movie Night

Save the Date...

Willow's Glen's Second Annual Family Movie Night

Featuring The Mouse and the Motorcycle

Friday, April 29

Hope that you can join us!

More info will be coming.

Week of March 14

Important Dates for Next Week...

Spring Break begins on Friday, March 25

PTO Dinner on March 28 - Please watch your Take Home folder for more information!

        

   

DID YOU KNOW...

The St. Francis School District has the highest performing 3rd graders in reading and math, as compared to our two, neighboring school districts?

BE PROUD OF OUR SCHOOL!!!

Week of February 29

It has been a busy week at Willow Glen!

Thank you to all who attended our Green Eggs and Ham Breakfast on Wednesday.  We served nearly 400 guests!

Third grade students celebrated their Fairytale Writing Unit with families. 
We welcomed more than 50 family members to hear great  stories, eat delicious treats, and enjoy the friendship and sense of community at Willow Glen School!!

Week of February 22

Each blog, I share highlights of the students' week, including grade level activities and new learning.  Today, I would like to share with you some highlights involving what our teachers are learning and doing, which positively impacts your child...

PBIS Tier 2 Training

Several times this school, our PBIS Team is meeting in Waukesha to grow our skills and knowledge with PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports).  Willow Glen and Deer Creek staff members join PBIS Teams from districts across our area, to develop plans of implementing Tier 2 interventions for our students.  As you may be aware, both schools were awarded the honor of being "Schools of Merit" for their success with the first tier of implementation of PBIS.  Currently, we are learning about deeper, focused strategies for reaching some of our more reluctant students.  After each PBIS meeting, we return to Willow Glen and put our new learning into practice.  The students are benefiting from this adult professional development, and we have enjoyed watching the climate improve at WG, with fewer behavior incidents and happier children!

Leadership and Coaching for RtI (Response to Intervention)

We have a team of educators from across the district, who gather in Oconomowoc a few times per year, to learn more about the impact of coaching on student achievement.  In these sessions, we are introduced to the tools needed for teacher leaders to coach other educators.  These gatherings have been of high value, as we grow to understand the process of coaching, with immediate, actionable ideas to take back to our buildings. Together, we are creating a coaching vision, and developing a work plan.  

Early Literacy Service (ELS)

More than 10 teachers have been formally trained in ELS.  This is a full year program, offered in the evenings, which addresses researched-based strategies for supporting our struggling readers.  Select students at Willow Glen are receiving this intervention on a daily basis.  We have seen students excel to meet and exceed grade level benchmarks, as a result of their participation in this program.

WILLOW GLEN TEACHERS ARE LIFE-LONG LEARNERS AND DEDICATED TO PROVIDING STUDENTS WITH HIGH QUALITY EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCES!

Week of February 8

Valentine's Day activities abound at Willow Glen!

Graphing conversation hearts, writing poems, sharing stories, exchanging cards, and many, many treats...

Traditional, festive, holiday activities infused with lots of learning!

Week of February 1

                     Happy 100 Days of School!

      100 days of learning, friendship, and community...

             Please follow me on Twitter for pictures of today's celebrations!

Week of January 18, 2016

Classroom Highlights

GREAT learning activities are taking place in all classrooms!  Here are a few tidbits from each grade level...

K4 - Children are engaged in snow-related activities.  They had indoor snowball fights (using paper) and have even ice-skated across the classroom (also with paper!).  K4 students are learning about the letter P, which is Mrs. Picciolo's favorite color!  In math, they are working on story problems, focusing on penguins.

K5 - Kindergartners are working with word families.  They are ready to start a new science unit titled, "Materials in Our World", and they are skip-counting up to 100.

Grade 1 - First graders are completing their non-fiction book during writing class.  They are working on number scrolls up to 1000, and they are learning all about "heroes".

Grade 2 - In Science class, second graders are starting a new unit called, "Solids, Liquids and Gases".  They are learning subtraction strategies and are ready to publish their non-fiction books.

Grade 3 - Third graders are showcasing their Native American Dwelling Projects.  They learned how to use Google Draw to create pictures about the water cycle.  In math, they are learning about place value and decimals, all the way into the millions!

Continue to stay warm as we enter the last week of January!

Welcome to 2016!

A few tidbits as we begin 2016...

MAP testing has begun and will continue through the end of the month.  Please encourage your son/daughter to do their best, as they embark on this benchmark assessment in reading and math.  We can't wait to compare the fall student data with the winter data...We are expecting much   G R o w T H !!!

Be sure send your child with warm jackets, hats, mittens, snow pants and boots.  The American Academy of Pediatrics strongly supports outdoor recess every day!

December News...

Highlights of the past 2 weeks include...

4K - Students have been busy learning to group and sequence numbers.  They have also learned the letters "T" and "S".  Celebration:  Children are becoming more independent putting on their coats, as the colder weather is upon us!

5K - Children are studying new word families, as well as new strategies in reading.  They are creating books in writer's workshop, and learning about holiday traditions around the world.

Grade 1 - Students are working on retelling stories with details.  They are also wrapping up their science unit on light and sound.

Grade 2 - Lots and lots of learning, but the highlight for this grade level would have to be their television debut on Channel 12, as "Morning Shout Out Classrooms"!

Grade 3 - Children are learning how to be informational writers.  They have researched animals and have applied their new learning to create non-fiction books.  


Tuesday, December 22 children will participate in an all-school sing-a-long.  Holiday joy is everywhere at Willow Glen!

Enjoy winter break!

Week of December 7

A HUGE thank you to all the parents that joined us on December 3 for our annual Holiday Program!  The theme was "Light up the Night".  The students dazzled us with a wide variety of seasonal songs.  Mrs. Neuman, Music Teacher,  led the children in a spectacular evening of music and dancing lights!

Willow Glen in the news...
Each of our second grade classes will be featured on WISN Channel 12's School Shout Out, in the coming weeks!
Mrs. Michalski's class will be on TV December 9.
Ms. Skenadore's class will be on December 11.
Mr. Groth's class will be on later in December (date will be provided shortly).

Additionally, Second Grader Hana Nahib, showed tremendous generosity and compassion for the less fortunate, by organizing a shoe drive for the Milwaukee Rescue Mission. Her goal was to collect 100 pairs of shoes for the homeless, and she far exceeded her goal by collecting over 300 pairs of shoes!  Channel 4 will be airing a story on Hana's act of giving.  I will share the link to this newscast, as soon as I am able.  Way to go, Hana!!!!!

Week of November16

A HUGE thank you to all the parents who supported the Willow Glen Book Fair!

We sold over $2000 worth of literacy materials (books, bookmarks, pens, posters, etc.).  Our school receives a good portion of that money, which means your children will benefit from new books in their classrooms!

CONGRATULATIONS to Mrs. Boening for being recognized as WISN, Channel 12's Teacher of the Month!  Sally Severson, WISN Meteorologist, and her news crew surprised Mrs. Boening on Thursday with the very special award.  The video from this event will air on November 30.  Tune in!

Week of November 2

Our annual Fall Harvest Parade was enjoyed by all!  In the event you were unable to join us last Friday afternoon, please follow me on Twitter...I posted several pictures of the students!

Classroom Highlights

K4 - The children are learning about numbers 0-5.  This includes counting groups of these amounts and sequencing the numbers.  The students are also learning the following letters: Bb, Li, Tt.  Learning about fall and Thanksgiving are also highlights in K4!

K5 - The students are finishing up on their science unit about trees and leaves.  In Social Studies, they are discussing communities, community helpers, and where they live.

Grade 1 - In math class, the children are learning about visual patterns and number patterns.  They are also continuing to develop their time-telling and money-counting skills. During Writer's Workshop, first graders are publishing small moment stories, and they are looking forward to their upcoming writer's celebration.  The children are using Chrome Books during Gator Time, in which they are have the opportunity to engage with Compass Learning.

Grade 2 - The second graders are practicing collecting data.  They are using tallies to record their findings, and then creating picture and bar graphs to display the information. In writing, students are learning a variety of technology skills as they type their stories using Google Docs.  They have been writing small moment stories, and are practicing important keyboarding skills to publish their documents, including how to import pictures and making drawings on the finished piece.  This adds a fun visual effect to their completed work!

Grade 3 - Third grades celebrated their small moment stories last week.  They are looking forward to researching animals for their upcoming non-fiction books that they will be publishing.  In science, the students are excited about hands on experiments, in which they are learning about water and climate.

Week of October 19

We are all looking forward to our Annual Fall Harvest Day Parade to be held at 2:00pm on Thursday, October 29!

Hope to see you there!

Pictures will be Tweeted!

Week of October 12

Time for some...

Classroom Happenings...

K4:  Our youngest Gators are learning Mother Goose rhymes and working with shapes and patterns in math class.

K5:  Kindergartners are busy learning about trees and leaves.  They enjoyed a visit from the St. Francis Fire Department, as they learned about fire safety.

Grade 1:  First grade students are learning about sound and  light.  In writer's workshop, they are writing personal narratives. They are also gaining confidence and skill in selecting their "good fit books" for independent reading time.

Grade 2:  We have geologists in second grade! Students are studying the properties of rocks, and learning about their composition and history...Every rock has a story!  In writer's workshop, children are stretching their wonderful moments into narratives.  They will be publishing these narratives using Google Docs.

Grade 3:  Third graders are completing their personal narratives.  They are learning about the revision process and adding various types of "author's craft techniques" to their stories.  In reading, they are connecting deeply with the characters in their fiction books by asking questions, and examining character traits.

Week of September 28

Happy October!

Last week we enjoyed our first PTO meeting.  Visitors learned about current events at Willow Glen and Deer Creek, as well as participated in making decisions regarding classroom financial requests.  The group was also introduced to our new Superintendent, Blake Peuse. Everyone was treated to pizza, compliments of Palermo's!

Please consider joining us for the next gathering.  Watch the weekly folders for the next opportunity!

The month of October brings many fall activities, sprinkled into learning.  I will capture some of the highlights and Tweet them out.  What a fun time of year!

Week of September 14

Parent Advisory Committee Updates

The purpose of the Willow Glen PAC is to share information regarding educational opportunities, and areas of high interest.  It is also an opportunity for me to gain valuable parent insight required to inform decisions and programming related to instruction and culture.

The first PAC meeting of the year was scheduled for September 17.  The agenda included the following:

• District Communication Guidelines
• School Goals
• Literacy and Math Framework

In the event that you missed this gathering, but would like information on any or all of the topics mentioned above, please feel free to give me a call.  I'd be happy to meet with you.

Our next PAC meeting is scheduled for November 12.  All are welcome to attend!  Watch for more information in our school newsletter.

Fall Assessments

This is the time of year that teachers spend getting to know your students, as learners. Children in grades K5-3 are engaging in literacy, math and writing assessments, during the month of September.  Staff will use this data to plan for instruction, as well as to identify students who may be in need of additional support or of extensions.  The results of these assessments will be discussed at parent-teacher conferences.  

Spirit Days

Fridays are designated as spirit wear days.  Students are invited to wear school/sport/activity spirit wear.  These are enjoyable days to show pride in particular interests!

Week of September 7

Thank you to all our parents who attended Open House last week!  The teachers enjoyed the opportunity to share classroom information with you, and answer any questions that you may have.  Please do not hesitate to contact the school if there is anything that we can help you with!

Here are some highlights from the week...

Open House - "How to Help Your Child Succeed in School"

Our first Early Release Day was a success!  Students were released one hour early, as teachers engaged in professional development.  The staff spent time learning more about the online features of our new science program.  They also collaborated on the integration of technology standards into their instruction.  The time was well spent, and the students are benefiting from the new learning by adults!

Second Grade students engaged with Chromebooks

Thank you for visiting my blog!

Welcome Back to School!

The 2015-2016 School Year is off to a great start!  

You may chose to follow me on Twitter, as I often post pictures of our amazing Willow Glen students.  I can be found at Laurie Pogorzelski@wg-principal.

Here are a few highlights from our first week:

Open House - Sept. 3, 5:00-7:30
     Our Annual Open House also includes a Literacy Meeting.  This is an opportunity for parents, in all grade levels, to learn how to best support their young readers at home.  In the event you are unable to attend, the presentation will be posted on our district website.

PBIS All-School Assembly/Kick-off  -  Sept. 3, 2:30pm (Students and Staff)
     This is a special event planned to renew the excitement around PBIS.  All schools in our district were awarded, "School/s of Merit" for our successful implementation of this program. We will revisit behavior expectations, and discuss celebrations for making good choices.

Newsletter - The first Wednesday of each month, you will find a "Principal's Corner" newsletter.  This piece of communication will provide you with school information on the coming month.  The newsletter also offers articles in Reading and/or Math.  These articles give parents and caregivers suggestions on how to extend learning into the homes. Partnering with one another, contributes to high achieving boys and girls!

Please stop back to this blog weekly.  I update it on Fridays, and you will frequently find the most current updates on the wonderful things happening at Willow Glen!