This morning as I was getting ready for work I looked outside to see a beautiful rainbow! Did you see it too? I loved seeing that this morning and am taking it as a good sign for this new year! With that, I selected this rainbow welcome mat to usher in 2021. I hope your first day back has been wonderful.
As we welcome this new year, tiptoeing in softly, we will also tiptoe back into our literacy focus and three year plan. It feels like this year has been all safety and distance learning planning and not much else... as it should be. However, now that we are going to continue in distance learning for the time being we'll be revisiting writing and phonics starting this week. Of course, in the midst of a pandemic we won't be able to (nor should we) tackle everything in our three year plan. We will find one or two things we can move forward with between now and May knowing that returning to in person eventually will still pop up from time to time.
Something we haven't done in awhile is write together! This week we will get a chance to do this! You don't need to bring anything, but you can be thinking about your hopes for this coming year. We will do some different activities to generate ideas and then you get to choose what you will create.
Dates & Details
1/6 Professional Learning/Staff Meeting 1:30 Agenda link
1/13 Professional Learning/DBE & EO Data chats and SIPPS planning
Holiday spirit days this week! Fun for students, staff, and families!
On Tuesday, it's a day to wear your favorite holiday hat or hairband! No excuses, you all received one. Of course if you have a bigger and better one, by all means! And Friday is the BIG day. Wear all of your holiday stuff. Sweaters, tinsel, lights, antlers, scarves, bells-- let's BLING IT ON and send 2020 packing with all the glitter and cheer we can handle!
Also, normally we would have a staff holiday get together this week to celebrate the season. I have high hopes for the new year, so let's take a raincheck until we can get together in 2021 and say cheers to a fabulous new year!
Cheers to Kathy!
Kathy Colagrossi is retiring... her last day is this Friday! Since it's tricky to pass around a card, I created a little Padlet for her in case you would like to wish her well. I haven't been here long, but I know Kathy has and will be missed! Here is the link... https://padlet.com/jkloczko19/cheerstoKathy
Waggoner PD Schedule- this Wednesday
There are no "district" zooms this week. I do have a brief teacher check in at 9, and then a whole staff classified and teacher zoom at 10:10 to discuss some site safety. The tech trainings in the afternoon with Juli and Raena are with Rominger, or you can Choose Your Own Adventure from the Winter Tech Wonderland doc linked in the schedule. I am looking forward to learning about Seesaw and Peardeck ;) We will have room setup time in January...
Winters Joint Unified Mid-Year Professional Development
Welcome back, everyone! I hope you had a restful break. It's hard to believe that December is almost here! We have just three school weeks left in 2020 and I look forward to 2021 with hope and anticipation of a new year. Starting December 7th, we will kick off the Waggoner Ten Days of Cheer! I had fun reimagining this since we are virtual this year. A big bag of cheer will be ready this Friday the 4th in the office for all staff, packed with ho-ho-holiday fun. I hope you feel appreciated all year round! Below is a sneak peek of the ten days, and a December Padlet to post to :)
December Birthdays!
December 8th Angela Hofstrand
December 13th Kathy Lester
Dates & Details
December 2nd No staff meeting - makeup Discretionary Time from last time.
December 4 Report cards go home this week
December 4 Laura Numeroff Zoom! One link for all Zooms... I will send out to families also! EVERY child receives a book!
Today is World Kindness Day! On this day that looks a little dreary outside, I hope you are finding joy in the little faces on your screens and that love and kindness comes your way today. This is not an easy time to be an educator or just a person navigating this world. Sending virtual hugs your way.
Also, I want to be sure that you know as much as we love our work, your people are the most important. I am here to support you. If you need to take care of family, the answer is always yes, at a moment's notice, and if you need help with anything please let me know.
Robin Preiss Glasser is coming to Waggoner this Wednesday!
9:10-9:50 TK / K ZOOM
10:00-11:00 1st and 2nd grade ZOOM
I have ordered 16 hardback copies of Escape Goat, plus 60 assorted paperback Fancy Nancy Books and I will draw one name per class who attends for Escape Goat and 20 random names per grade of the Fancy Nancy paperbacks. The Zoom link is below, and also in the teacher/staff calendar. I have also emailed you some images and pdfs to send to families. They are also linked here: TK/K or 1st and 2nd.
Allstudents will get a Laura Numeroff book when she visits in December.
Robin Preiss Glasser visit details below:
From Robin: Since The TK/K group is shorter and they're little, I won't take questions, I'll just show them my slides which have pictures to look at and then read the book Escape Goat to them. If they want to do a project ahead of time, they can show me what they made, and I will ooh and ahh, and everyone can take photos of their screens. One school had all the little ones color on napkins to make kerchiefs and the kids held those up for me to see. Or they can just draw pictures of goats or lambs or their favorite farm animal and hold those up for me to see.
***For 1st and 2nd grades, here is a video of me reading the book to share!***
From Robin: The 2nd session is longer and they are older. I'd love them to read the book ahead of time (Escape Goat) and be prepared with questions for me about the themes in the book, like telling the truth, and taking responsibility if you make a mistake. Or they can just ask me questions about making books. It's good if they have prepared a question ahead of time and the host (is that you?) can call on them so there is some order to it. ***Please have kids prepare questions - you can choose one from your class to send me and I will call on as many per grade as I have time for--- Jennifer Happy Birthday to you-- November!1 Zoe Adams 7 Laura Macay 8 Christine Carlisle 9 Nicole Saporito 14 Carrie Graf 22 Joanie Bryant 23 Stephanie Hernandez
Robin Preiss Glasser is coming to Waggoner November 18th!
9:10-9:50 TK / K ZOOM
10:00-11:00 1st and 2nd grade ZOOM
I have ordered 16 hardback copies of Escape Goat, plus 60 assorted paperback Fancy Nancy Books and I will draw one name per class who attends for Escape Goat and 20 random names per grade of the Fancy Nancy paperbacks. I will send that info and the zoom link this Friday!
Allstudents will get a Laura Numeroff book when she visits in December.
Robin Preiss Glasser visit details below:
From Robin: Since The 1st group is shorter and they're little, I won't take questions, I'll just show them my slides which have pictures to look at and then read the book Escape Goat to them. If they want to do a project ahead of time, they can show me what they made, and I will ooh and ahh, and everyone can take photos of their screens. One school had all the little ones color on napkins to make kerchiefs and the kids held those up for me to see. Or they can just draw pictures of goats or lambs or their favorite farm animal and hold those up for me to see.
***For 1st and 2nd grades I will make a video of me reading the book to share! -- Jennifer (this will be done by Tuesday)*** From Robin: The 2nd session is longer and they are older. I'd love them to read the book ahead of time (Escape Goat) and be prepared with questions for me about the themes in the book, like telling the truth, and taking responsibility if you make a mistake. Or they can just ask me questions about making books. It's good if they have prepared a question ahead of time and the host (is that you?) can call on them so there is some order to it. ***Please have kids prepare questions - you can choose one from your class to send me and I will call on as many per grade as I have time for--- Jennifer ***
Info to share with kids: Robin Preiss Glasser has had two careers, the first as a professional ballet dancer and the second as a children’s book illustrator. With over 100 books to her credit, and winner of the Children’s Book Council’s “Illustrator of the Year Award” in 2013, Robin is best known as the illustrator of the Fancy Nancy series. Books in the series have been on the New York Times Bestseller list for more than 330 weeks, selling over 43 million volumes. Nancy now stars in her own Emmy-nominated Disney television animated series that premiered in 2018. Lambslide, and Escape Goat, written by international best-selling novelist Ann Patchett, are Robin’s most recent books. Robin has two grown children, Sasha and Benjamin, and lives in San Juan Capistrano, California, with her husband, attorney Robert Berman.
Here is a video where the Author Ann Patchett & Robin Preiss Glasser share about their latest book, Escape Goat!
Happy Birthday to you-- November! 1 Zoe Adams 7 Laura Macay
8 Christine Carlisle
9 Nicole Saporito 14 Carrie Graf 22 Joanie Bryant
23 Stephanie Hernandez
Dates & Details
November 11 - No School / Veterans Day & No staff meeting
And just like that, it's November! November is one of my favorite months- I love fall leaves, family, and cooking. I also love the spirit of Thanksgiving and really focusing on finding things to be thankful for. Each day, I try to post or share one thing I am grateful for. Some days are harder than others, for sure. Today, I am grateful for our Waggoner team! I love how you all come together, whether it's dressing up for a fun event or digging deep to provide the best for our kids and families. Happy November! May your days be filled with things to be thankful for!
Dates & Details Oct 26-Nov 8 Waggoner Book Fair continues https://www.scholastic.com/bf/waggonerelementaryschool November 3 9:00-10:30 Jennifer @ Leadership November 4 K-5 ELAC on zoom 6-7 PM November 11 No School - Veterans Day November 18 Robin Preiss Glasser is coming! November 23-27 Thanksgiving Break December 4 Laura Numeroff is coming! November 21-29 Thanksgiving Break December 19-January 4 Winter Break
