October 2024 Newsletter
Starting this year, the principals will be sending a monthly newsletter with information and upcoming important dates for all the great things happening in our school. This helps you have one place to look for important information. We’ve been enjoying getting into classrooms to see teachers engaging your children with our new SAVVAS English Language Arts curriculum. It’s a high-quality, standards-based curriculum connected to the Science of Reading, and our teachers are working so well with it..
Please let us know of any future topics you might find helpful in our newsletters!
ImportantDates
- 10/21-Late Start
- 10/28-Late Start
- 10/31 & 11/1-Verona Smiles Dental Clinic
- 11/1-End of 1st Quarter
- 11/4-Late Start
- 11/7-Community Gathering & Picture Retake Day
- 11/11-Late Start
- 11/11-PTO Meeting
- 11/14-Books for Kids
- 11/18-Late Start
Faces of our Families
Maybe you noticed this long hallway feature when you were here for Open House? We are inviting ALL families to participate. Simply email a family photo to galvana@verona.k12.wi.us or have your child bring it to Ms. Galvan in our front office. This display i’s a wonderful way for us all to appreciate the many loving families that come together to make up our Sugar Creek community.
Mr. Brunner all tangled up!
The Teacher Tangle
Fun Run Wrap Up
We had an exciting all-school parade and pep rally on Friday, October 4th, followed by the Fun Run on Saturday, October 5th. The Fun Run was amazing - great turn out, super weather, and our school community raised some $29,000 for Sugar Creek! This wonderful event takes many helpers to become a reality. We’d like to thank the following (including many former Sugar Creek students, staff, and family members) for all their support and hard work (sorry if we missed anyone!):
Planning Team: Kaite Baus, Alissa Dyreby, Bridget Jelle, Courtney Meyer, Derek Burgenske, Diana Bhatoya, Diana Castellanos, Jill Scheibel, Justin Beirowski, Kate Beirowski, Katie Baus, Kelly Borelli, Kevin Scully, Kia Mills, Maria Hackbarth, Nancy O'brien, Nicole Beringer, Regan Vanden Boogard, Sarah Wirtz, and Sheryl Berndt.
Pep Rally Volunteers: Kia Mills, Sarah Wirtz, Jenny Han, Michelle France, Mandy Auger, Kellie Covert, Kevin Scully, Dana Gardener, Katie Lewellin, and Bridget Jelle.
Volunteers at the Run: Leah Grudzinski, Lydia Banwarth, Dang Chonwerawong, Katelyn Premo, Connie Islas, Maja Thiesen, Mandy Auger, Grant Ehle, Michael Graveen, Kylee Colstad, Kevin Scully, Richie Martinez, Alice Hartsfield, Emma Auger, Alissa Dyreby, Brennan Sullivan, Paula Moran, Heidi Baus, Sara Milhans, Lily Brandt, Layla Bergh, Dominic Jacobson, Regan Vanden Boogard, Sierra Posey, Lily Abell, Norah Ehle, Lilly Lambrecht, Zoe Brattlie, Dominika Ziemba, Will Scharenbroch, Evie Barrios, Addy Buzzell, Helen Milhan, Antonio Punzo, Tate Blum, Briana Colstad, Nicole Beringer, Jordy Martinez Perez, Naomi Hardin, Todd Hardin, Nariaha Middlebrooks, Jessica Mena, Kayla Moore, and Sarah Wirtz.
Staff Volunteers at the Run: Ann Kruse, Lexi Weckerly, Gabriela Freire, Jacquelyn Middleton, Yamileth Reyes, Joanna Van Handel, Laura Marquardt, Linda Weaver, Justin Beirowski, Jaclyn Vitela, Tiffany Laxton, Jeanette Newberry, Kelly Borelli, McCaley Laube, Chloe Fagan, Marie Kyle, Mai Thao, Lisa Jaehn, Ryan Kroenke, Kirstin Houghan, Heidi Steiner, Katie Wallace, Laurie Tackett, AND WILDCAT.
Reading Corp
For the third year, VASD and Sugar Creek have a partnership with a branch of the AmeriCorps called the Reading Corps.
Reading Corps is a proven program that began in Minnesota more than 15 years ago. They’re volunteers are trained to help children learn to read.
Reading Corps has one goal – to help every child become a successful reader. There are more than 2,000 tutors serving 40,000 students in elementary and preschools across twelve states and the District of Columbia. Reading Corps provides:
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Research-based tutoring with 1:1 or 1:2 ratios.
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Daily reading practice on skills a child needs.
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Reading activities to try at home – families will see their progress first-hand!
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Check-ins after students “graduate” to be sure they’re still successful.
Families have shared how Reading Corps made a real difference as students develop stronger reading skills and more confidence in everything they do.
Our school is lucky to have two Reading Corps members for the entire school year: Owen Bauer and Abby Lane (pictured above). They are an integral part of our school and partner closely with our staff. Our two Reading Corps members work on reading skills with an average of 35 Kindergarten, First, Second or Third Grade students each week, so it’s possible that at some point this year many children in these grades may meet or work with them.
If your child will ever work with a Reading Corps volunteer, Ms. Real will follow up with you with additional information.
Little Free Library
Sugar Creek now has three Free Little Library locations in our building for students to get free books every day! We use donated books to stock these free libraries. If you would like to donate books we are looking for:
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Popular chapter books (Dogman, I Survived, Baby Sitters Club, Graphic novels etc.)
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Animal books
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Sports books
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Spanish language books
Students can keep or donate the books back. If you have any questions or feedback please contact Mrs. Doberstein (doberstr@verona.12.wi.us ) or Mrs. Hoffman (hoffmant@verona.k12.wi.us). Happy Reading!
Custodial Team
We have an amazing custodial team, including left to right: Jason, Jim, Tashi, James, Alejandro, Monique, and Jason. The cleanliness of our school is frequently complimented on staff and family surveys, and the team is always ready to lend a hand to anyone who needs it. In August, we celebrated them with lunch and additional special acknowledgements to show them how much we appreciate them.
Counselor Lessons
Counselors have introduced Kelso's Choice this month as a problem solving tool. You might see Kelso's Wheels up around our school.
The idea behind Kelso is to empower our students and teach them to problem solve independently. First they identify if the problem is a small problem (self-managed) or a big problem (anything that is scary or dangerous, thus adult-managed). If it's a small problem, they choose one of Kelso's Choices and if that doesn't work, they try a second one. If they still can't solve the problem, they can come to an adult and ask for help (which isn’t tattling) problem-solving and then working through the problem with a little more guidance. If you have any questions or feedback please contact Ms. Valdivia (valdivie@verona.k12.wi.us) or Ms. Waisbrot (waisbroj@verona.k12.wi.us)
Typing Club
Students in Grades 2-5 now have access to a program called Typing Club. Typing Club offers standards-aligned, grade-based typing courses with impactful cross curricular content. Lessons are differentiated for each grade, from the length, to the WPM (Words Per Minute) requirements, to the content itself. Students may also use the program on home devices by signing in to Clever.
Principal Designees
We have several respected staff members who step in to be principal designees when our principal or associate principal are out, including Ms. Heidi Abrams, Ms. Briana Lenzlinger and Ms. Kaite Mohr. It’s a wonderful opportunity for them to grow their own leadership abilities and provide an important service to our school community, and we thank them!
New this year! Birthday Book Cart!
This year on their birthdays, students will have the opportunity to choose a book from the new Sugar Creek Birthday book cart! Ms. Houghan wrote a grant with PTO Fun Run donations. You will get an email with your child’s photo on the day they select their birthday book!
Communication Matters
Every teacher in our school communicates out a family newsletter each full week of school, which will also include a link to our PTO’s weekly newsletter. Reading these is an excellent way to be informed, and you will often find ways to support your child’s learning and for you yourself to be involved in school.
Fire Department partners with Sugar Creek
Sugar Creek Elementary School invited the Verona Area Fire Department to observe the school's first fire drill of the year, on September 13th. Fire Lieutenant Kevin German (Mr. Brunner's former student) led the team of four local fire personnel, some of whom are new hires and had never been inside a VASD school or part of a fire drill before.
SAVVAS
VASD elementary schools are in the first year of adoption of a standards-based literacy curriculum aligned to the science of reading. SAVVAS: My View Literacy (English) and Mi Visión (Spanish), which is used in monolingual and Two Way Immersion classrooms, so all students in our school benefit from this. This is a major shift for our teachers, and comes with a big learning curve for students and staff as the look of our literacy instruction is much different now. The teaching design follows a Gradual Release Model (GRR), “I Do” (teacher instructs and models a strategy), “We Do” (teacher and students practice the strategy together), “You Do” (students work in small groups,pairs or individually to practice the strategy themselves). Throughout the units, students are expected to demonstrate higher-order thinking, make real-world applications, and are encouraged to take ownership of their learning. Each unit ends with an Inquiry project in which students have the opportunity to show their learning.
If you missed our most recent PTO meeting, here is a link to a slideshow that Ms.Mohr presented around Savvas.
Both the district and our school, under the careful planning of our School Based Leadership Team of 15 staff members, have provided time and support to teachers to the learning of this new curricular resource.
Further, VASD is partnering with Elmbrook School District, which is in year two of adoption of SAVVAS, so that we can learn from their experiences.
Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month
As a diverse school that strives to create an equitable and welcoming environment for all, Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month is an opportunity for us to learn about - and from - our large number of Hispanic staff, students and families. We celebrated Hispanic/Latinx Heritage month at Sugar Creek in a variety of ways at Sugar Creek. At our October Community Gathering we read the story “Adela’s Mariachi Band” to help students learn both about Growth Mindset (our October Second Step focus) and the importance of the Mariachi to Mexican culture. Classrooms also decorated their door with flags and the contributions of folks from Spanish speaking countries! It was great to see this learning happen in classrooms, across our school, and at events such as the Community Gathering.
Golden Awards
For many years we have awarded classrooms that have super lunchroom behavior with the Golden Lunchtray. Our Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports team (led by Ms. Laube and Ms. Houghan) came up with a new take on this and now, at each Community Gathering, we will award role model classrooms with Golden Shoe, Golden Dustpan, Golden Recess, and Golden Lunchtray. Students earn these by following our Fantastic 4 in different spaces throughout the school. Our September winners were:
Golden Shoe-3TWI Golden Recess-Ms. Fagan
Golden Dustpan-Mr. Shrader Golden Lunchtray-Ms. Pustina
Related Arts Fall News
Art
All students in grades Kindergarten -3rd grades are required to wear art shirts to class. Artists in 4th-5th grades are given the responsibility of choosing when they wear their shirts. We encourage all 4th & 5th students to have one available.
We are often asked by families how they can donate supplies in our two art rooms. In response, we’ve created a supply list of items which are always beneficial: Art Room Wish List
Both art classrooms are busy exploring art standards with a variety of tools and materials. Please explore this link to find the Wisconsin State Art & Design Standards used in VASD: Art Standards
Library
Check out these awesome digital library resources for reading and research in English and Spanish at home! Link - Sugar Creek 24-25 Library Databases and Passwords.
At SC we are committed to giving students access to amazing books in a welcoming library environment. All students visit the library weekly with their classes. The library is also open before school. Many students visit daily - go Sugar Creek!
Music
In music class we enjoy singing, playing classroom instruments, creating music, performing, responding, connecting and moving to music. We want each learner to gain the knowledge and skills to achieve a lasting enjoyment, appreciation, and understanding of music. Parents please be on the lookout for information coming soon about donating to a new digital keyboard!
Physical Education
In physical education, we are all athletes and love moving/exercising, following activity rules, and trying our best! Students have had a great start to the 24-25 school year. We are looking forward to our up and coming P.E. units!
We appreciate students being prepared for class with appropriate shoes. More detailed information can be found in the link above.