Weekly Update 12.10.16-12.20.16

Deck the Halls Contest: A special thanks for participating in the fun!  Our school looks so festive, and this really promoted a sense of community and pride.  

1st Place: Mrs. Turek and Mrs. Schaefer's room

2nd Place: Ms. Bozdeck's room

3rd place-Mrs. Tilley and Mrs. Bushman's room

Visitors this Week:

We will have several visitors in the building this week. On Monday and Thursday morning, educators from Washington, MO will be visiting to learn about Writer’s Workshop.  They will be touring the building with Liz and Megan.  In addition, Dr. Simpson will be doing walkthroughs with me on Thursday morning as well.

Staff Meeting:

Get ready to have some fun!  Here is a hint that will serve as our agenda:

Winter Holiday Party Information:

Block schedule for the day:

8:55-9:25	5th Grade
9:25-9:55	1st Grade
10:05-10:35	Kindergarten AM/Full Day
10:45-11:15	3rd Grade
11:20-11:50	4th Grade
11:55-12:25	2nd Grade
12:55-1:20	Kindergarten PM

Reindeer Races: 1:30 p.m. in gym

Holiday Parties:

• K a.m. at 10:30 a.m.
• K-5 @ 2:00 p.m.

What will you do this week to lift others up? This would be a great discussion topic for your morning meeting.  

Be sure to visit EPIC for some great online holiday stories!

A special thanks to everyone for all of your efforts with the Helping Hands donations.  It is so powerful on pack up day to see all of the items put together for each family!  Thank you to the families who sent in food, money, and gifts.  A special thank you to our classroom parent organizers and to to Jennifer Abercrombie for organizing this event.

Angie Out:

Wednesday, 12.14.16 Admin Leadership Mtg. @ Moore 9:00 a.m.

Friday, 12.16.16 Principal Mtg. @ Moore 1:00 p.m.

via Instagram http://ift.tt/2gFIWMV

FitBit math in Action!

via Instagram http://ift.tt/2gJ0nPD

Weekly Update 12.3.16-12.10.16

Flyer Family Activity: On Wednesday, we will meet in Flyer Families from 9-10.  

Assembly: The focus for the month will be “Synergize.”  We will start with a this video.   Then each team will make a Human Knot.  We will discuss how a growth mindset helps you to accomplish the task.

***After the assembly, 5th grade strings students will be leaving to go to their practice so please have them bring their instrument to the hall outside the gym.***

Family Team Activity:  Here is a sample activity.  Please feel to do this activity with your group or any other growth mindset activities that you might want to focus on.

The Dot by Peter H Reynolds

• Before reading the book, have a talk with your students about how we feel when we are starting something new.
• How do we feel when things seem difficult to do?
• Ask how many students like to draw.
• Tell them you are going to read a story about a girl who does not think she is good at drawing and what happens to her when she goes to art class.

• Read The Dot or watch Video that is audio of book

• Follow the reading with a discussion about the story.
• Provide students with half sheet of paper with a dot in the middle. Students take the dot and turn it into anything they want. There are no limits, like Vashti!
• Collect dot pictures. We will make a school wide collage of dots so put your papers in Angie’s Mailbox.
• Family Crest- each family member draws a dot and signs his/her name

Here are some titles that support our assembly topic of SYNERGIZE:

• Ox-Cart Man by Donald Hall
• Swimmy by Leo Lionni
• A Chair for my Mother by Vera Williams
• Clifford’s Spring Clean-Up by Norman Bridwell
• How the Second Grade Got $8205.50 to Visit the Statue of Liberty by Nathan Zimelman
• Chicken Sunday by Patricia Polacco
• The Chalk Box Kid by Clyde Robert Bulla (chapter book)
• The View From Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg (chapter book)
• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle (chapter book)
• Ruby Holler by Sharon Creech (chapter book)

Holiday STEM challenges

5 apps to Transform Learning

Thank you to everyone who participated in decorating for the “Deck the Halls” contest.  As a special reward, Marco and I will be coming around to read a book to EACH of your classes for 100% participation.  It is so fun to walk through the school and feel the festive spirit!  Let’s have a “holiday” spirit day on Monday to celebrate.  

Winter Festival- thanks to all who participated in the lunch with a teacher raffle!

Parents-Wednesday is  Early Dismissal (@1:35) AND our Flyer Family Activity so please be sure to wear your team shirt.  

“Deck the Halls” Door Decorating Contest:  Be sure to check out this link.   Our Concord teachers and students have been busy participating in our deck the halls holiday door decorating contest. You will be amazed with all of the creative efforts of our Concord Community! Please share with friends and family. We ask that you "LIKE" your favorite door(s). Voting on Facebook will take place until next Friday, December 9th. Happy Holidays!

Angie Out:

Monday 12.5.16  @EdPlus for Crisis Intervention Training 8-12

Fitbit Math

Talk about real world math!  Students in Mrs. Martin's room are using the Fitbits from her Target Grant to estimate, add, and solve word problems.  Engaging AND motivating activity.

via Instagram http://ift.tt/2fYfG3s

Sticky Note Math

via Instagram http://ift.tt/2fu7o7w

Math Centers

What I love about these math centers is that they each focus on a different concept.  Here you see mutliplication, logic, and real world problem solving. 

Does McDonald's Serve Cheese Burgers Rapidly?

Wowsers-Check out the color coordination for math steps in long division!

Anchor chart organization

via Instagram http://ift.tt/2fJtHEL

Flexible Seating for Writing

via Instagram http://ift.tt/2gCGDe9

Celebrating Success!

via Instagram http://ift.tt/2gpaxSQ

Revising and Publishing in Action

via Instagram http://ift.tt/2gCBOSr

Weekly Update 11.27.16-12.3.16

Friends~

I hope you enjoyed the long break with family and friends and took some time to renew your spirit.  I chose this quote because I want us all to find time to be joyful this holiday season.  With just a short 3 ½ weeks until our next break, it is the time to focus our energy on a strong finish for 2016 and to find ways to inspire others with our daily actions.  What will you do today to find and share joy?

Learning Labs:

We will meet in the conference room during your block with the exception of 4th grade who will meet in Gastreich’s room. Kindergarten and 1st will be talking about building number sense.  Please download this app and bring your iPad.   2nd-5th will be talking about design thinking.  

PD Reminder:

When participating in professional development, ensure you've entered the session in My Learning Plan at least a week before.  When teachers enter their workshop a day or two prior to the event, administrators don't receive timely enough notice to approve the absence so that a sub can be assigned.  Last minute submissions and approvals have resulted in a shortage of substitutes that requires building secretaries and principals to scramble for a solution.  Thank you for helping to solve this problem.  

Change in Block Schedule for this week ONLY:

Monday, Nov 28 be a B day and  Wednesday, Nov 30th will be an E day.   Please put this reminder in your parent news email so kids have the correct shoes.

Observations:

Don’t forget to invite us  in when you are working on something related to your PGPs so we can give you feedback.

Lindbergh Teacher Grants:

Grants are due Thursday, Dec 1st.  It Use  this link for more information.    It takes about 15 minutes to complete and most grants are fulfilled.    http://www.lindberghfoundationstl.com/

Galileo:

The next window for Galileo CBAS #2 is Nov 21- Dec 16. Please feel free buddy up with a teacher to share the cart to split the test into two days. Second grade will take the test on their own this time.

So let’s have a little team building fun!  We are going to have a door decorating challenge starting Monday, November 28th.  We will “judge” the doors on Friday, December 2nd at noon and the top 3 winning classes will get a holiday read aloud from Dr. Mariscal and myself.  Here are some ideas to get your creative minds copying (I mean thinking).

3 Tools for Teaching Critical Thinking

• Want to think more about critical thinking and how to develop it in your students?  This is a lengthy article but well worth the time spent for some new ideas to easily integrate throughout the day.  Check out these 3 tools:
• Ladder of inference
• Pro/Pro charts
• Causal Models

A special thanks to all who attended the trivia night.  It was such a fun event!

Angie Out:

Tuesday, 11.28.16 @ CO 10:00 a.m.

Friday, 12.2.16 @ Moore 1:00 p.m.

Weekly Update 11.13.16-11.26.16

I want to personally take a moment to say thank you for all of your efforts over the past few days.  It seems like a complete whirlwind as we are already in mid-November and looking forward to a full week of school before Thanksgiving.  Take a moment to look around today and be thankful for all the awesomeness surrounding you.   

Staff Meeting: Tuesday, 11.15.16 in the library at 7:45 a.m.  Brian McKenney and Chuck Triplett will be sharing the financial state of the district.  

Teacher Grants: Be sure to apply for a teacher grant for up to $500.00 today!  They are due by December 1st.  

Open Enrollment: Don’t forget to take of this.  EVERYONE must enroll or decline benefits for the medical, dental, vision and life insurance programs.

Veterans Day Success!  What a wonderful, heartfelt assembly we had on Friday.  It takes many people to accomplish such an incredible gathering of so many guests.

A few thanks to the following people:

• Mrs. Creech for the music
• PEGS and Mrs. Goedde for the artwork
• Ms. Schweitzer for the slide show
• Eric Benting, manager of Sunset Hills Chick-Fil-A
• All the parents who prepared the food
• Boy scouts and Girl scouts for the pledge
• Teacher Committee
• Parent Volunteers-especially organizers Stacy Zobrist, Leigh Niemann, Jennifer Abercrombie
• Photographer: Kristie Deeter, Erica Keating, Emily Cook, and Nichole Simos
• Colin Davitt for his speech
  

Pictures can be found at Walgreens using this link or on Facebook.

Video by Audrey Norman-thanks for your efforts on this!

Congrats to our 1st Concord Robotics team at their first competition on Saturday!  

As you continue to discuss with your students the importance of sharpening the saw, here are a few ideas that might be fun to create with kiddos.

Angie will be out Thursday and Friday for a Math Workshop.