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.