Wasmer Weekly Update
September 14, 2025
Wildcat Families,
This week, our teachers spent their Tuesday PLC (Professional Learning Communities) centered around math instruction! When grade levels meet each Tuesday for their PLC planning, there is a special education and english learner teacher present to ensure that every single child is in mind when thinking of how to improve our instruction in the general education classroom. When we say ALL, we mean ALL! Here are some mathematical concepts that your student has been working on:
Kindergarten: Counting 0-30, writing numbers to 0-10, and matching objects up to 10.
1st Grade: Counting on--this means students can see a number and continue to count instead of starting at 0. We observed students using domino's to also make addition equations! Students were able to use a sentence stem to share their thinking while using academic vocabulary.
2nd Grade: Preparing for students to read, write, and say three-digit numbers. Students will be writing numbers in expanded form (100+20+6=126), word form (one hundred twenty-six), using a drawing (base ten blocks), and then identify where that number would go on a number line! 2nd graders are also working on telling time!!
3rd Grade: Using the standard algorithm to add a three-digit plus a three-digit number (126+341). Students are rocking being able to explain their thinking using place value words as academic vocabulary. 3rd graders are also using this skill to solve word problems!
4th Grade: Our teacher's are planning a spiral review for our students. This means the teachers are pulling math concepts that have been taught already to provide an additional opportunity to practice. An example would be writing four-digit numbers from greatest to least, using their knowledge of place value to read, write, and say up to six-digit numbers while also being able to identify where this number would go on a number line. See how this has built from 2nd grade! Our 4th graders have been working very hard on adding four-digit numbers.
5th Grade: Using standard algorithm to multiple up to a four-digit number times a two-digit number (2,349 x 21), solving multiplication word problems, and beginning to use order of operations to solve equations. The conversations around order of operations and solving multiplication equations were off the charts! Students were explaining their thinking using place value terms and referencing their prior knowledge of addition and subtraction!
Click here to see the September breakfast and lunch menu.
Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpré by Anika Aldamuy Denise
An inspiring picture book biography of storyteller, puppeteer, and New York City’s first Puerto Rican librarian, who championed bilingual literature.
The Rainbow Tulip by Pat Mora
Stella loves her family and her Mexican heritage, but she doesn't always like being different from the other kids at school. Now her class is going to dance around the Maypole at the school's May parade, and Stella wants her tulip costume to be special, even if she won't look like the other girls at school. Sometimes being different can be exciting. This touching story that celebrates diversity is based on author Pat Mora's mother's childhood and is brought to life by Elizabeth Sayles's evocative paintings.
César: ¡Sí, Se Puede! Yes, We Can! by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand
Born in 1927 in Yuma, Arizona, César Chavez lived the hard-scrabble life of a migrant worker during the Depression. Although his mother wanted him to get an education, César left school after eighth grade to work. He grew to be a charismatic leader and founded the National Farm Workers Association, an organization that fought for basic rights for farm workers. In powerful poems and dramatic stylized illustrations, Carmen T. Bernier-Grand and David Díaz pay tribute to Chavez’s legacy helping migrant workers improve their lives by doing things by themselves for themselves.