Happy Holidays!

I hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas! The time got away from me and I wanted to post sooner, but we've been busy enjoying the break. How quickly we can fall into vacation mode!
I wanted to thank those of you who sent in juice and popcorn for our treat last Friday. It was a short notice, and we had a short amount of time, but we loved the treat. Thank you!
It is important to relax and unwind and enjoy break like it's meant to be. It is also important to feed your mind over break too. I hope you had a chance to hear the family journal already so you can hear what your child is most looking forward to over break. I loved hearing the variety of ways everyone celebrates the holidays. It was amazing to hear many children say they were most looking forward to spending time with their family. I'm asking each child to write to me once over the break in the family journal. They can write anything they want that tells me about how they spent Christmas or what they're doing over break. I can't wait to hear all about it! I know the break is busy, but for every time you do XtraMath I will give a horseshoe and one point to be added to the next math test. If you're really adventurous please do some 2-digit addition to keep up with the skill over break. Children can comment on here too (with parent approval)-I'd love to hear from you all! Thank you!
Wishing you and your family a fun break! Happy New Year!  Mrs. Montes

Presentations



Ryan teaches us about his family from Ireland.



We finished up our presentations today. Here are a few more pictures to share. They were so much fun. We really enjoyed learning about all of our cultures. My cell phone died so I could not upload the other one. If you came in and have pictures to add please email them to me so I can put them up here on the blog. Thanks!



Anita shares a license plate from her mom's car from Germany.




Presentations are going well and are so much fun. Thank you for your hard work into helping the children learn about their ancestors, heritage, and customs and traditions within their culture. I have learned so much about each and every one of our families.  I just love their comfort with the vocabulary words. They are doing a fantastic job of answering questions asked by their classmates. I will share some pictures on here for you to see. Thank you again. They are fantastic!!!




Here is Frank telling us about his dad coming here from France.

 



Vicki teaching us about Italy and her great grandfather.




Victoria teaching us about her grandmother coming from Mexico.



Vince teaches us about his Filipino Heritage.











Winter Weather!!! (Finally)

The Winter Wonderland just may be making its way through Woodstock finally! Just some reminders about proper gear for wearing outside at recess. Today the children came in with some rosey cheeks for the first snowy recess. Please make sure your child has the proper snow gear to play in the snow. Otherwise, they will be asked to play on the blacktop. Thanks!
hat     mittens/gloves    snow boots      snowpants   warm jacket 

On Friday we will have a small holiday celebration in our classrooms. We are asking for donations of cheese popcorn, butter popcorn, caramel popcorn, 2 dozen Christmas cookies, and juice boxes. If you wish to donate please comment here on the blog or email me. Thank you!

Have a fantastic day.
Mrs. Montes

Monday Updates

Dear Families-With a very challenging weekend behind us, I cannot help but be reminded how truly precious our children are to us, given the events that took place in Connecticut.  An event like this can cause us to grieve individually, as a school community, and as a nation. Our hearts and prayers go out to the families, the community, and the first responders affected by the tragedy in Connecticut. As tragedies like this occur,  we want to reassure you that we want our children to feel safe when they come to school, and that we understand the importance of our role in the event of an unlikely emergency. If you feel your child has any concerns or questions please talk to them about what they are wondering so they hear it from an adult so they are not mislead into sharing false information with others. We encourage them to talk to their parents or teachers if they feel the need to. I know this was difficult to talk to my own children about over the weekend, but we wanted to talk to them first before they heard anything misleading at school.
We will not be sending home any homework this week, but would still like Xtra Math to be completed on Wednesday. We hope that you can still do Xtra Math or flashcards 2-3 times a week over break. We are working on 2 digit addition in class now, so feel free to make up some problems for them to practice over break. I can send some home for you too if you let me know you would like some. Thank you.
Presentations are off to a great start! Please remember to bring the Culture Questionaire sheet with you when you present. The work should be done in your child's handwriting for their presentation, but you may guide them in what to say. We are really enjoying this project.
What a busy week ahead of us we have. We have presentations, holiday read alouds around the school Wed-Fri, and the Mustang March and holiday sing along Friday. If you are unable to volunteer this week due to holiday preparations I totally understand. We will be in and out of the classroom so I would have volunteers do flashcards and sight words. Thanks!
Have a fantastic Monday.
Mrs. Montes

Updates

Wow! We have a lot of things going on at Olson in these last weeks before Christmas/Holiday break. We are finishing up our last rotation of Culture today and tomorrow. Hopefully, the children will be experts on holiday celebrations in England, Italy, Mexico, the USA, and Germany. Next week we will spend most of our time on presentations to teach the class about their heritage and culture. I am really looking forward to these exciting presentations the children keep talking about. Presentations will be in your native language, unless you have been asked to do them in both. We will also compare/contrast ourselves to another country and compare/contrast two countries we learned about. In addition, the children will be persuading their families which country would be best to visit.
We have had a lot of children sick these past two weeks. The flu is passing through our school/classes so please remember to keep your child home if they are sick. When they come to school they are so likely to pass it along to everyone. We are very mobile throughout the day, and these children are all over the place spreading germs. We remind them to do lots of handwashing throughout the day here at school. If your family hasn't been touched yet, consider yourself lucky! Wishing all our families well.
Mrs. Montes

Welcome December

What a beautiful weekend this has been! I hope you and your family are enjoying the 60's in December!
This week the Appaloosas will be taking their MAP tests in the computer lab. We will not follow normal volunteer schedules, but we can always use help doing sight words and practicing math flash cards with 1-2 children at a time. If you would still like to come in and do this that would be great. Thank you.
The culture presentation notes will be going home this week also. We will attach the culture questionnaire you filled out, and a rubric to show how the presentations will be graded. Please begin practicing with your child. They will need to organize their presentation and choose the important information to share. Each presentation should be less than 5 minutes long. The presentations will begin Monday, December 17 and go through the 21st. We will assign each child a day to present.
Have a fantastic week!
Mrs. Montes