Whoa, what a temperature drop we had this past week!  With indoor recess all week, we are all ready for some warmer temperatures so we can get outside! Please help your child to remember all their outdoor gear this week.

Upcoming Events:

January 9th: PSC Meeting

January 16th-20th: Celebrate New Directions Week!
January 16th: Pajama Day; Family Art Night from 5:30-6:30
January 17th: Crazy Hat/Hair Day
January 18th: No School for Students (Staff development for teachers)

January 19th: Sports Day; Family Gym Night/Jump Rope for Heart from 5:30-7

January 20th: Book Character Day; 

                     Half day for students - Teachers will be working on records

                     End of First Semester

                     Yearbook orders due    

                               

MAP testing dates:

Tuesday, January 17 - Reading MAP test - 1:10-2:20

Monday, January 23 - Math MAP test - 9:30-10:40

Don't forget that the Six Flags Six Hour Reading Program deadline is slowly approaching! If your child is participating this year, all forms are due on February 16. Your child will earn a Six Flags Great America ticket after completing six hours of reading at home. If you need another log, please let me know.

Curricular updates:

Reading and Writing ~ We are continuing to work with fiction in both reading and writing.  The students are learning ways that readers pay close attention to characters feelings, character changes, and lessons the characters learn.  This ties right into our writing fictional stories and using mentor authors to learn ways that authors develop their characters and how there are lessons in fiction stories.

Math ~ We have been busy counting money at school. Please continue this work at home as often as you can. We will begin this week working on finding unknown addends for 100 using many different methods. This will lead into 2-digit subtraction later in the week.

Word Study ~ Students will come home with new high frequency words tomorrow. We'll be starting to work on homonyms as well, so the new list will be three weeks instead of two. The homonyms that we will start with are there, their, they're, its and it's.

Content ~ We are starting an exciting unit in Social Studies – Wisconsin and Kaukauna Geography!  The students are extremely excited to be learning about our state!

Don't forget...January is a big month for our school!  There are many informational events taking place to help others learn more about New Directions.  Please share these dates with anyone you think may be interested in hearing more about what a great place New Directions is for students to learn and grow!

Thursday, January 12th-6:00-7:30 PM District-Wide Info Session held at Tanner Early Learning Center

Monday, January 16th-6:00 -7:00 PM Info Session at New Directions

Wednesday, January 18th-10:00 AM-1:00 PM Open House for prospective families at New Directions

Tuesday, January 24th-6:00-7:00 PM-Info Session at New Directions

Families can also call Mrs. Frischmann at 766-6116 to set up individual tours.

Have a great week!

Lisa