Homecoming

On Friday afternoon, our superintendent, Mr. Truebenbach, shared a special moment with the school this week on our announcements. On Thursday, a parent serving our country, returned home and surprised his children in school. To Daughter's "Home", we were able to watch ...

With tears in my eyes, may you have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Please share a thought or prayer for our family who experienced a loss yesterday.

Gifts

Ms. Leom gave her students in both classes gifts of a new book, a pencil, an eraser, and a candy cane. There was a Sharpie marker on the table for students to write their name on their new materials.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Class of 2026!! Read, write, and erase! The new year is just around the corner, and I can't wait to "read" the stories you write for yourself!

Lost and Found

This morning, we started our day with a visit to the Milaca Elementary Lost and Found.

Pretty lucky teacher to be seen around school with this great group of students!!

Festive

It was a festive week in school. The staff had dress up days. On Monday, we wore Christmas colors. On Tuesday it was Tie Dye Tuesday. Wednesday was Christmas Sweater Day. Thursday was represent your college day, and Friday was Flannel day. For the students, they enjoyed Tie Dye Tuesday, and on Friday, they were invited to wear pajamas.

Fellow fourth grade teacher, Ms. Hakes-Anderson and I were pleased to find ourselves dress the same three years later, in the same Christmas sweaters ...

We were thinking we were rather festive ... until our Phy-Ed teacher, Mrs. Elness arrived ...

Ms. Elness redefines festive clothing.

Elf Workshop

We ran an Elf Workshop all week ...

It is likely not a surprise, "What happens in the workshop, stays in the workshop." Top secret work happening here.

Science

Human Body

by JE

In Science, we are learning about the human body. We know that food and water are really important. The left side of the heart exchanges carbon dioxide for oxygen. Cells in our body grow at least 1,000,000 times every 2 seconds! The slower your heart beats, the more athletic you are. You should be more athletic, so you can be healthy. Maybe you can give your organs to other people when you die.

Blogging

Within Ms. Leom's flex groups, during flex time, she is extending the classroom learning. On Monday, we learned how to write in a shared Google Document. On Tuesday, we practiced sending emails to a classmate. Today, we explored blogging. Ms. Leom invited students to check out the Leom Sun Blog. Then, she invited students to add to our classroom blog and write their own articles about parts of the school day that Ms. Leom may not know about ... Science, Math, Media, Phy-Ed, Music, or Art. 

Many students want to write about Grinch Week or other topics that are already posted. Or students write one sentence that is a great idea, then talk about personal experiences or plans. We are communicating through email to develop and encourage various ideas. 

Once an idea is developed, students are encouraged to write a paragraph. We have been working on this skill in our weekly journaling, Student of the Week pages, and more. Students are encouraged to add details. Then it is time to add a picture or image to help the reader visualize their experience. 

This authentic learning opportunity is one more example of how Ms. Leom's masters classes are directly impacting our class learning. Stayed tuned to see blog posts from our students.

Winter Project

Ms. Leom's "elves" are busy working on several top secret projects in the the workshop. There is glue, scissors, yarn, and other materials all over. The "elves" are busy at work ... 

Word at our workshop says we are only able to offer the hand delivery option for our projects ... just another of our adventures this week ... 

Reading Buddies

On Tuesday, Ms. Leom's class was able to get together with their first grade reading buddies of Ms. Anderson's classroom. We haven't been able to make our schedules work in the past month, so it was very exciting to spend some time together!

It is a good day when we can spend time together with our Book Buddies!

Jigsawing

Today in Reading we participated in a Reading Jigsaw activity. "Jigsaw" in education is a strategy where the reading is divided among a group. Each person is responsible to read a certain section or topic. The groups are rearranged, and students share the part that they read.

Ms. Leom prepared and organized the articles ...

Each folder had several articles, and students were invited to read one of the articles and complete a response page to organize the information.

 Ms. Leom and adults in the room worked with students to support their learning.













In our second step, students were reorganized, so at least one student represented each topic. They shared their information and discussed what was the same about their texts.

Staff were very involved in these discussions.

In our third step, we sat down as a group to pull together our learning. We created a graphic organizer from scratch to help us organize our learning. All students were encouraged to participate.

We talked about why we needed to remember this ...
* It is important.
* It is history.
* People weren't being treated fairly.
* It was cruel.
* We don't do it to others.
* If we don't learn about it, how will we know what happened?
* If people talk about it, we won't know what they are talking about

What do you want to do about this?
* Can't help them now ...
* To be ready for when it happens again
* To help prevent it by ...
-- treating others the way we want to be treated
-- if we have these books (they were articles), we could read and see how they survived
-- stepping up when we see bullying now

Portfolios

We have started our Grinch Portfolios. Often times when people hear we are spending the week with "Grinch Activities", they might imagine it is one extended party. That is not the case. We are building portfolio folders to showcase our Grinch learning.

D.E.A.R.

At 9:05 AM this morning, we had an Elementary School-wide Drop Everything And Read (D.E.A.R.) time.

A view in Ms. Leom's classroom during D.E.A.R..