April 30th - May 4th
Field Trip permission forms (signed) and payment are due this Friday, May 4th! As a reminder, we will be going to the St. Croix River to ride the Paddleboat and then go to McCullough Park in Shoreview for a picnic. These festivities will happen on Thursday, June 7th on the last day of school and our last day together as a class.
Math - We have finished Chapter 10, have completed our review/study guide, and will be testing on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning. Study Links are due on Friday, May 4th.
Reading - We are completing some Unit Testing, our Weekly Assessment for Unit 3, Week 5, and will continue working with our new novel, Swindle. There will be a spelling test on Friday, May 11th for Swindle, but not this coming Friday (May 4th).
Social Studies - We are now learning about the Midwest Region in our room. Along with the Midwest Region, we will be incorporating the study of our great state - Minnesota! There will be a States/Capitals Test on Monday, May 7th.
**Your child should have brought home information regarding the upcoming Walk-A-Thon which will be held on Friday, May 18th. This year, the motto is "i-walk for iPads." Very creative and fun!
**We are participating in a Food Shelf CLASSROOM CHALLENGE!! May 8th is the LAST Food Shelf donation day, and because the Food Shelf runs very low on items during the summer months, we are hoping to stock it up before school is out! On May 8th, the top 3 classes that bring in the highest number of food items (not by weight) will receive a popcorn party donated by the Student Council. Thank you for your kindness and generosity in helping others - what a great feeling!
Art Adventures start on Friday, May 4th! Thank you to Mrs. Hoglund for dedicating her time and energy to our classroom - the kids are so excited and we are ALL extremely appreciative for her help!!
One last note, I will be gone on Thursday, May 3rd and Friday, May 4th, but the kids are in great hands with Mrs. Holler. I will be attending a workshop on the new Minnesota State Standards for Social Studies Curriculum across the district.
Have a great week and an excellent weekend!
Mrs. Waldvogel
April 23rd - 27th Update
Thank you to everyone who came to the BHE Carnival on Saturday - it was a great day and so much fun was had by all! A special thank you to the many of you that volunteered your time and energy to help make the BHE Carnival such a huge success!! Blue Heron is an amazing community to be a part of - I am so proud and happy to be a part of it. :)
Reading - We have began a new weekly story, Snowflake Bentley. We are talking about precipitation and all different kinds of storms, along with learning many skills and strategies, while enjoying a very fun story to boot!
Math - We started Chapter 10 this week and have been learning about transparent mirrors, lines of reflection, symmetry, etc. Please remember to keep doing the Study Links each night! This isn't a very long chapter - it will go quickly!
Social Studies - We are continuing to learn about the West Region with Mr. Christensen. Bare Books are due on Friday of this week! (April 27)
Field Trip Forms - Please make sure you sign and return them as soon as you can! It should be a wonderful last day of school!
Have a great week!
Mrs. Waldvogel
Monday, April 16th
Don't forget!! MCA Testing starts tomorrow, Tuesday, April 17th and continues on Wednesday, April 18th. We will be doing 4 separate segments of the Reading Test, so we will be testing both morning and afternoon of both days. Some helpful tips for preparing your child for the test include: being well rested, having a healthy and filling breakfast, stay hydrated (water will be provided), and use the tips and strategies that we have been working on throughout the year. Frontloading, pre-reading, highlighting, double checking your answers, taking your time, and just simply DOING YOUR BEST!! :) Carnvial - Thanks again to everyone who contributed to our classroom "basket donation" - which you can view in the case outside of the Library. A 3DS was purchased to be auctioned off and it looks pretty spiffy! Thank you also to the many of you who have sent in the 2 liter bottles of pop that will be used for game prizes at Carnival. Keep them coming - we can use more! Just as a reminder, the Blue Heron Carnival will be held on Saturday, April 21st from 12-4pm.
***The Blue Heron Carnival is still in need of several volunteers in order to make the carnival a success!! If you are able to help out, please contact Denise Berger (651.785.9262), Rachel Chiappetta (651.334.0704) or Correne Johnson (763.780.0650) or go to the Blue Heron website, bhevolunteers@yahoo.com to sign up to help! Thank you so much for your help - Blue Heron wouldn't be the great place that it is without so many wonderful parents supporting us!
Sounds like the chilly weather is here for a bit - please make sure that your children have appropriate clothing for whatever weather is upon us!
Have a great week!
Mrs. Waldvogel
Monday, March 26th
Wednesday, April 11th
We have been super busy the past week and a half - preparing for the upcoming MCA's in Reading, and learning about all kinds of things in every other subject as well! There is never a dull moment in an elementary classroom - that is for sure!
First and foremost - the MCA's!! Your child will be taking the Reading portion of the MCA's next Tuesday, April 17th and Wednesday, April 18th, so PLEASE make every effort that you can to have your child in attendance on those days. Having a good night's sleep and a healthy, filling breakfast are also great additions to helping your child be successful on those days. We are working through some practice tests, along with reviewing many reading strategies that we have already learned this year, and also some that we aren't real familiar with as of yet. Testing time can be a very stressful time for children (and adults), so please just encourage your child to "do their best" - read each question carefully, think about what could and could not be right, delete the answers that you KNOW are wrong, and just do their best to try and come up with the answer that they believe is right. Double checking their answers, if they have time, is also a good thing! If you have any questions about the upcoming MCA's, please do not hesitate to call or email me at any time. I want your child to be successful and they will if they do their best and know that we all support them!
Reading - We have finished the story, "Mystic Horse" this week and will be completing the Weekly Assessment today. Tomorrow we will begin the story, "Snowflake Bentley." I hope we don't see any snowflakes while reading this story and learning some new skills! :)
Math - We are nearing the end of Chapter 9, and will be sending home the Study Guide to complete and review over the weekend. Our final test will be on Monday, April 16th. We will then move on to Chapter 10 which is usually a pretty fun chapter for the kids!
Social Studies - We continue to study the West Region from Mr. Christensen.
Well, it certainly has been a long time since I've updated this website! I apologize greatly - what a month we've had! Pneumonia, conferences, spring break, and finally, the death of my Mother-In-Law all combined - sure made the last 3-4 weeks fly by with craziness. Fortunately, things at school just kept plugging along with Ms. Molin being here for a few days before spring break, and Ms. Holler being here part of last week. The kids were in great hands and that was a blessing for me to know. I hope the craziness was not too upsetting for your child and/or yourselves as well!
First and foremost - CONFERENCES!! There are a few of you that have not yet completed your child's conference time with me. Several of you returned the note that I had sent home, indicating how/when you would be able to complete the missed conference. Thank you so much! Those of you that chose to do an email or phone conference will be hearing from me this week. A few of you requested to meet with me, and we will schedule those for next week, so you will be hearing from me as well. Please check your child's planner, as I will jot down some meeting times for you to choose from. Thank you! Again, please accept my sincere apologies for the short notice cancellation.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank so many of you for the nice notes, memorials, emails, and phone calls in response to the death of my Mother-In-Law. She was an amazing woman who filled our world with so much love and joy. She is greatly missed by all of us. While her illness and death were very unexpected, she lived her life to the fullest right up to the day she passed on from this life. There is definitely some comfort in that. Thank you again for your kindness, it is so greatly appreciated. Your children made me the most beautiful and touching cards (individually) and I took them home over the weekend to share with my husband's entire family. Many tears were shed and many smiles and chuckles were had at the innocence and sweet notes from your children! What a gift! As the minister said at my Mother In Law's death - surround yourself with the children, who are the gifts of this world that remind us that "life goes on" (as it should) and give us so many reasons to keep smiling, laughing, and loving. So true!! I am happy to be back with them and know for sure that I am better by being with them!
Lastly, I hope you all had a wonderful spring break! The beautiful weather was just awesome and I hope that you and your family had time to enjoy that weather, each other, and a much deserved break for your children, and perhaps some of you as well! :) - Mrs. Waldvogel
UPDATE ON WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE CLASSROOM!!!
Math - We have completed Chapter 8, reviewed the Study Guide today (Monday, March 26th) and will be having the Chapter 8 Assessment tomorrow. The Study Links will be due tomorrow as well! We will start Chapter 9 on Wednesday.
Reading - We are almost done with the Shredderman novel and study guide. We will finish our website creations and the final test and move on to "Mystic Horse" on Wednesday.
Social Studies - We continue to study Science in Mr. Andrew's class until Friday. After that, we will go to Mr. Christensen's class.
Math - We are nearing the end of Chapter 7 - Decimals and Fractions. Please continue doing the Study Links, as they will be due next week towards the end of the week. We will plan on our final exam the end of next week as well.
Social Studies - We will finish studying the Southwest Region with Mrs. Nyren this Friday. Next week, we will move on to Mr. Andrew's room for Life Science!
Have a great week!
-Mrs. Waldvogel
****MCA UPDATE*****
Wednesday, February 22nd
First and foremost, the kids worked really hard on the MCA's and did a fabulous job with the online version for the very first time! You will receive your child's MCA score when you come to conferences the first of March, along with a variety of other informational tidbits as well! :)
Thank you for returning your conference slips - we have scheduled all conferences (siblings, etc.) and you will be receiving your confirmation date in the next few days. I look forward to meeting with all of you at conference time!
This is a BLUE HERON CARNIVAL year (we have one every other year) - so it's BASKET TIME for all classrooms! Our classroom will be doing a "Money Basket" which means donations will be made to win our basket! Our chosen item will be for a brand new, fun for all Nintendo Wii! All we have to do as a class - is bring enough money to purchase one to donate. So, if each child would be able to donate $4-$5 to purchase a Nintendo Wii to be auctioned off, it would be much appreciated! Donations can be taken starting tomorrow, so please help us out, if you can, and be a part of this fun basket for our classroom! Thanks!
The kids are busy at work....keep reading to find out what we are doing!
Reading - We are doing Biography Novels and creating a fun project to present to the class, that will teach our friends about the person we have been assigned to study. It's a fun project and the kids are really working hard at them! They are creating Photo Scrapbooks, Fascinating Fact Files, Poster People, and finally, when they present, they will be "dressing up" as their character and completing our final "WAX MUSEUM" presentations. Ask your child about their person of study!
Our MCA Testing dates have been changed! We will now be testing on Wednesday, February 8th and Thursday, February 9th. We will be doing the Math portion of the test online in the computer lab on both days. Please make sure your child is ready to go that day with appropriate sleep and a healthy, fulfilling breakfast!!
Happy LAST DAY of January!!
We have been very busy the past week (I apologize for not updating the website last week - crazy busy as always, along with my little guy being sick) and are continuing to have an equally as busy week this week!
The WARM WEATHER sure has been a hit! The kids are anxious to be outside for recess and excited for the end of the day too. We sure are being "spoiled" with this warm weather, but what a bummer for the winter enthusiasts who are missing out on the snow and winter related activities! A good mix of both would most certainly be perfect!
Here's an update of what's going on in our room -
Math: We are nearing the end of Chapter 6, and will be testing by the end of the week. Please note that the STUDY LINKS will be due FRIDAY. If your child is already done with them, send them in early! This has been a challenging chapter for many students. When I send the Study Guide home on Wednesday, it would be very helpful if you spent some time reviewing the concepts that were taught/learned in Chapter 6, and work through them together, even if to just "double check." After this week, we will move on to Chapter 7 and prepare for the upcoming MCA's as well.
Reading: We are currently on the "Roadrunner's Dance", which is the first story in Unit 3. The theme for Unit 3 is: Making A Difference. In our first story, we are exploring how animals need each other sometimes, and why it is important to have friends and foes. Some of the skills that we will be learning about include: Author's Purpose, Foreshadowing, Symbolism, Synonyms, Verbs, Quotation Marks, and Dialogue.
Spelling: Final Test (Roadrunner's Dance) on Friday, February 3.
Social Studies: We are studying the Southwest Region with Mrs. Nyren through the month of February.
MCA's - We will be doing the upcoming Math MCA's online this year. We will continue to practice, using the online practice Tutorials, as well as classroom reviews/practice sheets, until the time of our test. As I told the students last week - ALL students will be required to have headphones during the online testing, so if you do not have headphones at school yet, you need to have them for the MCA's!! We do have some that can be used at BHE if needed.
MCA's Practice - We will be having our practice preparation time on Wednesday, February 1st from 1:05 - 1:35 during our keyboarding time.
MCA's Tests - Waldvogel's class will be taking their MCA's on Wednesday, February 15th and Thursday, February 16th from 10:45 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. Please plan to have your children here on those days and ready to go! :) More on that to follow before that time.
Valentine's Day - We will be having a small celebration for Valentine's Day in the afternoon of February 14th. If you would like to donate Vanilla Ice Cream (2 buckets), Pop (Rootbeer or Strawberry), Cups, Napkins, Spoons, or Wafer Cookies, please let me know. We are going to keep it simple and fun - as we will be preparing for the MCA's that we will be taking the next two days after Valentine's Day.
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to call or email me at any time.
Have a great week!
Mrs. Waldvogel
Friday, January 13th
Wow! When "Winter" decided to visit us, it sure came in with a blast! It has been very chilly this week, and I see that many students are still not properly dressed for these temperatures! Please remind your children to bring hats, gloves, mittens, and even snowpants for some. They are coming in from recess with cold bodies!! For those of you that love winter - I hope the snow comes soon! If it's going to be cold, we may as well have SNOW!!
Don't forget - Monday, January 16th is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day so there is NO SCHOOL!
Update on our very busy week!
Math: We started Chapter 6 - Multiplication and Division Story Problems. We have also been working on completing the District 4th Grade Common Assessments that are used for the upcoming report card. The areas that are tested include: Numbers and Operations, Geometry, Algebra and Data
Analysis. We have also been testing on Multiplication and Division Facts. I cannot stress enough HOW IMPORTANT it is for your child to be studying and MASTERING their basic facts! It is used in all areas of math, and the more they know them - the easier it is for them to master other areas.
Reading: We are just ending our story learning about Benjamin Franklin and electricty. We will be doing the Weekly Assessment on Tuesday. We had great fun learning about Figurative Language (Alliteration, Metaphors, Similies, and Idioms) and were excited to share our projects. Our next story is called, "Dear Mr. Winston", which is a Humorous Fiction story that I think the kids will really like. We are also working in our small literature groups reading appropriate leveled chapter books for each group. Ask your child about the chapter book that they are reading!
*Book Report - Details will be coming out next week for our Biography Project.
Writing: We are finished with our sloppy copy of our Personal Narrative and will be editing and doing the final copy next week. Then we will share them! We will be starting our next writing, "My Immigration Story" very soon!
Social Studies: We continue to learn about the Southeast Region from Mr. Andrews. Please watch the Planner each day for assignments and updates from Mr. Andrews.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to call or email me at any time. I would like to take this opportunity to wish you and your family a wonderful weekend - enjoy the extra day off for those of you who have it!! Stay warm!!
~Mrs. Waldvogel
swaldvogel@isd12.org
763.792.6266
Happy New Year!!
I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you a very Happy New Year! I hope that 2012 brings much happiness, peace, and all kinds of fun and interesting things to your lives. I also hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season!
It’s hard to believe that we are already at this point of the year…time sure does have a way of flying by. The kids came back eager to learn and get back into the swing of things on Tuesday, and we have picked up right where we left off. I want to make a HUGE APOLOGY in regards to the website. I “updated” the website on Tuesday afterschool, with new spelling words and an update as to the happenings of the week. Being I am new to this website, and all of my updates were there, I assumed I was good to go! Well, lo and behold, due to a question by a parent – I looked at the website and nothing “new” was there. After further checking into this, I found that I had not used the correct password when updating, and it doesn’t tell you that it didn’t work – it simply accepted it when I “saved” the update. I believe it has been corrected now, and if you are reading this announcement, then it most definitely has! J
This week was a very busy week for homework, and I do apologize for things all coming together at once. On a positive note, the kids did know before we went on break that the Study Links for Math Chapter 5 would be due the first week back, so hopefully they were up to date on those! Because of the “flub” on the website, I am going to extend the spelling test to Monday, as I know some of you refer to the words on the website and they simply were not there. I hope that will help ease some stress for a few of you!
Quick update on our week–
*We attended the National Geography Bee in the cafeteria yesterday and cheered on the 10 finalists. Congratulations to 5thgrader, Carter Shoquist on his big win! J
*We will be taking the Math Chapter 5 Test today. Study Links are due today!!
*We are learning about Benjamin Franklin’s inventions in Reading. Some of the skills we are focusing on include: Comprehension (Problem and Solution), Figuarative and Alliteration Language, Idioms, Possessive Nouns (Singular and Possessive), and we have started our Literature Circles. Ask your child about the book they are reading, who is in their group, and what activities they are doing with their book each day.
*We are studying the Southeast Region with Mr. Andrews. Please refer to the Planner for homework and updates for Social Studies.
*The weather has been unusually beautiful for January, but sounds like the cold could be moving in soon! Please remember to send the appropriate clothing with your child each day. J
*Several students have run out of school supplies at this point of the year. Take a minute and ask your child what they need for the remainder of the year. Pencils, color crayons, pencil sharpener, and highlighters would top the list! Thank you for re-stocking!
*Book Report/Project– I will be sending home a project next Friday for the kids to start working on. If you want to plan ahead and find a good chapter book – be on the lookout! J
Have a great weekend everyone!
Mrs. Waldvogel and gang
swaldvogel@isd12.org or #763.792.6266
Friday, December 23, 2011
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…..
Okay, so not really! But, we did see some snowflakes this morning!
It’s so hard to believe, but we are closing up the year of 2011 at Blue Heron Elementary. We have been learning a lot this year and have worked hard, while still taking the time for some fun! J When we return in 2012, we will start up right where we left off. Here’s a quick update!
Math– continuing to work on Chapter 5
Reading– We will start a new story about Benjamin Franklin.
Social Studies– Mr. Andrews, learning about the Southeast Region
Writing– Immigration Writing Project
Please take a minute and look at ourclassroom’s newly revised website. I switched the blog to a website, which I hope will be easier to use, and will have the opportunity to include more useful information. You can find it on the school website (www.isd12.org/bhe) or you can go directly to the website at http://teacherweb.com/MN/BlueHeronElementary/stephaniewaldvogel/
I would also like to take this opportunity to wish all of you a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS and a wonderful NEW YEAR!! Thank you for sharing your children with me – they are all amazing little people and I feel blessed each and every day to have the opportunity to work with them!!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Waldvogel