Washington Family Connection
December 2025
Stuff Your Stocking on December 15th
Visit the FHS to collect treats and goodies in the spirit of the holiday season. Thank you to our local businesses who will be participating your genours donations will make this season brighter for our kids and our community.
- Monday, December 15th
- 5:00–6:30 PM
Preschool Recipients
William Sutherland, Celsius Emry, Kwinton Money, Saylor Almon, and Parker Willman
Kindergarten Recipients
Justice Yarberry, Anne Pedrick, Evelyn Ihrke, Case Lynn, Lily Besco, Wyatt Raymond, Alex Boatman, and Gwen Lange
First Grade Recipients
Chleo Clark, Lucas Pool, Lennon Laux, Payton Stevenson, Audrey McAllister, Kelsi Warren, Jaxsen Price, and Oliver Humble
Take a peek at our learning adventures!
Counselor News
Preschool students learned from the Al’s Pals Curriculum about differences and how they make each of us special, along with practicing stopping and thinking before we do or say something we will feel sorry about later. Our kindergarten and first grade students continued to practice and learn about empathy from the Second Step curriculum. The Students have papers called home links that are sent home occasionally from their lessons, which explain more of what the students are learning in class.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at (641) 472-2110 or Kelsie.roland@fairfieldsfuture.org.
Reading Corner Reading Matters!
According to Nagy and Herman (1987), students who read for just 20 minutes a day are exposed to about 1.8 million words each school year — that’s 3,600 minutes of reading! In contrast, students who read only five minutes a day are exposed to around 282,000 words (about 900 minutes per year), and those who read just one minute a day see about 8,000 words (only 180 minutes a year).
This difference adds up quickly. By the end of 6th grade, a student who reads 20 minutes a day will have experienced the equivalent of 60 additional school days of learning, while a student who reads five minutes a day will have gained only about 12 days.
Daily reading has a powerful impact on students’ oral language development, vocabulary growth, and overall academic learning — so please, READ, READ, READ!
The Fairfield Library offers free books and fantastic resources — including games and activities — for families to enjoy over the holiday break. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at (641) 472-2110 or rebecca.thompson@fairfieldsfuture.org
Preschool:
Preschool students have been very busy, in November we moved into our clothing unit and had visitors who came to share their uniforms and clothing that they wear to work. The students have had lots of questions and input on clothing. This is a great time to work with your child on buttoning, zipping and putting on their own outdoor gear (coats, boots, hats and gloves). December will be exploring bread. We will learn about the science of yeast and different types of bread and how people make and eat it. The letters that we will be focusing on in the month of December are Oo, Qq, and Gg. Daily practice on writing and recognizing the students' names continues.
We also have been working very hard to recognize the numbers 1-5 and being able to subitize them (immediately recognizing small quantities usually up to 5 without any mental processing, like seeing a pattern on a dice.) Leader in me is a focus in the classrooms daily. At this point the students have been exposed to all the habits and are focusing on how to integrate these habits in their daily lives.
Kindergarten:
Hello Parents,
November went by so quickly. We are thankful for our students and how far they have grown this year. With only three weeks till Christmas break, our focus will be on getting faster on our Letter Sounds and blending and segmenting words. Handwriting is still at the top of our list and we will continue to focus on correct letter formation. Students will be encouraged to sound out words on their own and begin to form sentences independently. In math, we will finish our Unit 3 on shapes and really focus on teen numbers and sequencing. Daily practice of writing numbers will also be our intention.
To go with the season of Christmas, we will have a week of Gingerbread stories and will be comparing their differences and similarities. We are currently working on identifying elements of stories such as characters, setting and plot. Knowing where to find the title page, front and back cover of a book and the roles of authors and illustrators are also part of our lessons.
Please work with your child so they can get independent putting on snow gear and zipping coats, etc. With our current class sizes, it takes considerable time for staff to assist each child with dressing and after lunch, our students are dismissed and get their coat for outside recess independently. Thanks for your understanding and have a wonderful holiday season!
1st Grade:
December in First Grade is a busy month! We will be learning about holidays around the world! The students will learn a little about each country's traditions, make a craft, and visit (virtually) each country to see what it looks like. We will then compare the holidays to each other to see similarities and differences.
We are also still learning about the early civilizations of Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt. The students are learning about the components of a civilization and how they are different to our modern times.
In Math, we are working on solving story problems using addition and subtraction. We are busy working on math facts from 0 to 20.
Each teacher will be having a Holiday party before Winter break. A sign up sheet will be sent home by each teacher asking for donations a week before the party.
As always, please send hats and gloves with your child everyday. If here is snow on the ground they will need snow pants and boots as well.
Happy Holidays from the First Grade Teachers!
Winter Attire-Student Handbook
Below 32 degrees, students must have a winter coat to go outside. If it’s below real feel 10 degrees all students will stay inside. Students must have snow boots, snow pants, and gloves or mittens to go off hard surfaces. If students just have snow boots they can play on hard surfaces only. Students must stay near the wall if they do not have snow boots or another pair of shoes to change into. There will be no throwing snow or sliding on the ice.
