Outside Fun!

The snow fun has been in full effect! Please remember to send your child with a coat, boots, snow-pants, hats and gloves each day! If you need assistance getting those, please let us know! We want the students to be warm and also allowed onto the snow areas each recess. 

It is also a good idea to have ALL of these items labeled. We have already had a bunch of mistaken snow-pants and several lost mittens! A good way to help your child identify their common black snow-pants is to put a piece of colorful yarn on the zipper pull, or even a piece of colorful duct tape or electrical tape on them somewhere where they can be sure to find the right ones. 

If you are looking for some fun activities to do outside in the snow this winter, check out these links: 

Slice of Ice at Red Arrow Park: Ice Skate Rentals Available

Freezing Bubbles!

Snow Graffiti

Go Sledding! Here are some local hills

Holiday Party

Our holiday party was a huge success! This month the students had been learning about some of the various winter holidays including Solstice, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Years & St. Lucia. We wrapped up this inquiry unit by having our own celebration! 

We made sun sun-catchers to welcome the return of the longer days, photo holder gifts for our loved ones, orange & clove table decorations, gingerbread houses, and Christmas cookies!

We would like to give a special thank you to the parents who helped us with the projects and for sending items into to make it all possible. We really appreciate it and the kids had a wonderful afternoon celebrating and eating some treats! 

PBIS Updates

Hello Team Inspire Families! We hope you are all staying warm! Our students are busy protecting what it means to be respectful, responsible, and safe every day here in school. It's our PBIS motto!  

Our PBIS Team would like to share their blog with you all! Here is the link! 

Also, here is the December PBIS Newsletter!: 

Favorite Book Character Day!

We participated in Student Council's Pay-To-Play dress up day, which raised money for The United Way.

Here are the Team Inspire participants: 

At the end of the day we all went to an assembly where several students from each floor won a book! 

Fire Safety!

The West Allis Fire Department came in October to talk to the students about fire safety! They shared important information such as: 

• Know where and how to escape from your bedroom (2 different ways!)
• Replace your smoke detector every 10 years. 
• Having a designated meeting place outside of your home for all of your family. 
• Check your smoke detector every month. 
• Sleep with your bedroom door closed. 

The students got to watch one of the firemen get his protective fire gear on and climb the big truck's ladder. 

Then, they got to meet Sparky! 

Routines

Greetings Team Inspire family and friends! 

We are busy here in first grade! We are getting our routines all figured out and are hard at work now!

We spend our first week working on the Week of Inspirational Math. This brought up great new ways to look at math, and allowed for interesting math conversation as we got to know each other. 

We also learned a lot of new math games! A lot of these games can be played at home too! Ask your child what their favorite math games are. Bump, sparkle, poison, are a few they might mention. 

They really enjoy working on math using playing cards and dominos. We practice addition right now with them, and will use them later for subtraction. 

We made a fun fall math activity on the first day of fall. We got them displayed just in time for Family Night the next evening! 

In between our work in the classroom, we work on social skills playing group games and playing on the playground. 

On Fridays we get the chance to meet with our buddies. We do reading activities, games, and read together. 

First Week of School!

We have had a wonderful first week of school! The students have been working on the Week of Inspirational Math, meeting book buddies, and learning the expectations of their new classrooms. 

Fall MAPS tests help us see student's current and updated data, to help guide us as their teachers. We will be beginning MAPS testing on Thursday, September 15th. It will continue on Friday, September 16th and the following Thursday (22nd) and Friday (23rd).  Please make sure your children are well rested and ready for those mornings of hard work! If you would like them to eat breakfast at school those days, or any days, they can do so in the field house anytime between 8:05-8:25. 

Welcome Back!

Welcome to First Grade! 

Ms. Kerekes (kerekesj@wawmsd.org) & Mrs. Novitski (novitskim@wawmsd.org) are so excited to be teaching Team Inspire this year. 

Here are some important upcoming dates: 

• Thursday, September 1st- First Day of School
• Monday, September 5th- No School (Labor Day)
• Friday, September 16th- International Dot Day (We will be celebrating this as a school. Dress in dots that day, if you have them!)
• Friday, September 16th- Wilson Family Outdoor Movie Night
• Thursday, September 22nd- Family Night & Ice Cream Social