Woodbury Elementary will be on winter break from December 23, 2024 through January 10, 2025. School will resume on Monday, January 13. Have a wonderful and restful three weeks off.
Today our class had a fantastic last day before winter break. Our morning started off with snow falling from our Woodbury rooftops. Santa and his Elf were waving to students from behind a snow flurry early in the morning! It was such a fun and magical start to the school day!
For our winter party, our wonderful parent volunteers, Mrs. Kudrin, Mrs. Lin, Ms. Shilpa, Ms.Jane, and Mrs. Kwok, organized a fantastic winter party. Students enjoyed hot chocolate with marshmallows and made colorful slime with special winter charms! The Big Buddies also made gingerbread house cards and glittery slime to give to their Little Buddies.
A huge thank you to all of our class parents who donated and organized items for all of our holiday activities— from the hot chocolate, cups, baking soda, saline, spoons, glue, marshmallows— everything was used. Also thank you to our parent volunteers who assisted today. It made a huge difference to have your help! I hope you enjoyed spending some time with our class and your kids.
The class did such a great job performing the History of Orange County play! I am so proud of each and every one of them for practicing and memorizing their lines and all of the songs. They did a great job on stage. Thank you, Parents and Family Members, for coming to watch the performance! If you missed the show, here is a recording of 2024’s performance!
2022 Performance is available on IUSD TV.
2021 Performance is available on IUSD TV.
Parents: In an effort to help you get the best possible view of your child during the students' History of Orange County play, here is a picture of their stage placements. You may want to sit on the corresponding side of the audience seats so you can take the best pictures and videos.
The class did such a great job working on their family gifts. We can’t wait for parents to open their surprises during winter break. I won’t post pictures of the gifts here yet so that we don’t spoil the surprise! Parents— you are going to love their gifts to you. :0)
The Teacher of the Year is nominated and selected by the teaching staff each year. In 2022, I had the great privilege of being selected as Woodbury’s Teacher of the Year. It is a very special honor. This year, Mrs. Fabro (who was the Teacher of the Year for 2024) and I had the honor of helping to announce this year’s Teacher of the Year— Mrs. Ehlers!
Mrs. Fabro teaches 4th grade, and she is incredibly dedicated to her class. It was so much fun surprising her with this special recognition during a morning staff meeting. She is so incredibly deserving of this honor. Mrs. Ehlers will be celebrated at a formal district event in the spring.
Congratulations, Mrs. Ehlers! We love you!
While studying the history of Orange County, and how our local land came to be, students have learned that our city of Irvine used to have acres after acres of farmland and orange groves. Navel and Valencia oranges grew in great abundance.
With the countless types of orange varieties today, many of our students have never tried more than one or two types. Thanks to family donations from the Nolan, Ko, Kwok, Jarfa, Huang, and Diamante Families, our class had such a fun time trying five different types of oranges— Blood oranges, Cara Caras, Mandarins (“Cuties”), Navel, and Valencia oranges. Students loved some varieties and strongly disliked others. By the end of the tasting, students were begging for extra slices of their favorites!
Students ranked the oranges by sweetness, tartness, and juiciness, then decided which ones were their favorites and least favorites. Afterwards, students practiced writing an opinion paragraph about the best tasting orange.
Thank you, Parents, for donating oranges, plates and napkins to our class!
Wednesday, November 27th through Friday, November 29th is Thanksgiving Break. The school will be closed. Please enjoy this time with your family and be reminded of all that we have to be thankful for. Be sure to stay safe and practice proper health precautions as we are still battling the pandemic. We want all of our Woodbury families, students, teachers, and staff to return to school healthy and ready to learn!
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. I am personally thankful for my amazing family, friends, and coworkers. I am also thankful to have the opportunity to teach such a wonderful group of students. I feel so blessed.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
As part of our social studies unit, students are learning about the history of our local community area. We traveled back in time to learn about the original Native Americans, the explorers who traveled from Spain and England who mapped the California coastline, and how the land was later utilized as ranchos and farming. Later, towns were formed and the land that we now know as Irvine and Orange County was slowly formed.
Parents, you can help your child understand their local city as well as neighboring cities by taking your family out to explore. Point out to your child when you pass by different Orange County cities or when you travel down streets that are named for famous people or important landmarks.
In class, we have learned and discussed the following neat details:
Anaheim: the first city in Orange County; started by a German man named George Hansen
Tustin: named after Columbus Tustin; he named the streets numerically and alphabetically; you can see a statue bust of Columbus Tustin in Old Town Tustin.
Santa Ana: founded by William Spurgeon; he helped form railroads in the city to help with transportation
Orange: named by Andrew Glassel; he and Alfred Chapman played a game of poker to decide who got to name the town; other possible town names were Olive, Lemon, and Almond; if you travel to the city of Orange, you will see streets with the same names.
Newport: named by Captain Dunnells who sailed through the new port; the name was later changed the McFaddens Landing by the McFaddens brothers from Santa Ana; if you drive down the 55 freeway, you will also see an exit named McFadden!
El Toro: name means “the bull;” many bulls were raised in the area; the area also had a lot of sycamore trees; the Spanish word for sycamore is “aliso;” the city name was later changed to Lake Forest
Laguna Beach: the town was originally named Canyon de los Lagunas by the Spanish; many artists came to paint the beautiful seascapes. Laguna Beach became an art colony and there are still many art galleries there today!
Westminster: started by Reverend Webber; the town was mainly a farming community
Buena Park: the word “buena” means “good” in Spanish; Walter Knott started a berry farm in Buena Park, which later became the amusement park
Fullerton: started by George and Edward Amerige; the Atherton Ostrich Farm raised ostriches in the town
“Nellie Gail”: Lewis F. Moulton bought Rancho Niguel to raise sheep and cattle; the streets Moulton Parkway and Moulton Ranch were named after him. When he died, his wife took over the ranch. The community of Nellie Gail is named after her
“Modjeska”: Madame Helena Modjeska was a famous actress who lived in Orange County; she built a home in the canyons near Saddleback Mountain, and the area is now known as Modjeska Canyon
Students have been learning about the History of Orange County, and as part of our studies, they will be performing a play on stage! Ask your child about the various facts they’ve learned about the first towns and cities in Orange County such as Anaheim, Santa Ana, Tustin, Orange, El Toro/Lake Forest, Laguna Niguel, Newport, and of course, Irvine!
Take a look at some of these Google Slides that we have been studying. Parents who grew up in the area might also find some of the facts quite interesting!