Book Wizard

Book Wizard is a tool on Scholastic’s website to help parents find books for their child based on their Lexile reading ranges. It also helps to sort books according to your child’s interests.

Scholastic Book Orders

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About once a month, I will be sending home book order magazines from Scholastic's Reading Clubs. Reading Clubs are a great way to build a high-quality home library that is both interesting and relevant to students. While I highly recommend ordering from these catalogs, participation is completely optional. The main purpose of these book orders are to help your child better develop an appreciation for reading and to help them build fluency and accuracy. Additionally, since many parents have asked me what books would be appropriate for their child to read, Scholastic Book Orders make it easy to browse through many titles that would be a great choice for our grade level!

All book orders are placed online through a fast, easy, and secure process. No money/checks are sent to school. Use the information below to access the Scholastic Reading Clubs website.

Instructions:

  1. Visit the Scholastic Book Club.

  2. Sign-up for a username and password, using our unique Class Activation Code: HX7LG. This code ensures that your order is sent to our classroom. You will only have to enter the Class Activation Code once.

  3. Select the books you'd like to order from over 500 titles available, and take advantage of online-only specials and discounts.

  4. Submit your order online by the 17th of every month. I will submit any pending orders at the end of each month. Books will always be delivered directly to our classroom.

Our whole class benefits thanks to the free books we can earn with every online order. Thank you and happy reading!

Lexile Ranges and Library Books

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Students will be checking out books from the library on Thursdays . They are allowed two books at a time. We will be encouraging students to check out books at their reading level based on their Lexile range (provided in their Renaissance Learning reading assessment).

Most of the books have a colored sticker dot on the spine matching it to the colored chart above. Please encourage your child to read EVERY DAY in order to improve their reading fluency, accuracy, and comprehension.

Parents may also use the website Book Wizard to find books at their child’s Lexile reading level.

Music Class

Our primary music teacher is Ms. Gonzalez. She is a talented music educator with a beautiful singing voice and it is easy to see she enjoys her job. The kids loved learning the new songs. This year, students are so lucky because they get to now have music occurs EVERY week in comparison to previous years that was every other week. Room 14 will have music on Wednesday mornings.

California Regions

As part of our social studies unit, the students learned about the four main California regions- coast, valley, desert, and mountain. Students read through unit lessons, took notes, and are working to create beautiful flip books showcasing the four California regions.

Students should have all notes on the inside completed, then use the directed drawing video to draw each of the covers for the four regions. All pictures should be fully colored and fully outlined. Samples are below.

Grade Level PE

Every year, Woodbury students love Grade Level PE! This is a program that is led by our PE Paraprofessional staff. They teach our children important gross motor skills by leading various stretches, games, relays, obstacle courses, and exercises. The kids always love playing the games, and the staff is great at keeping the kids engaged while exercising to stay healthy. 

Please be sure your child wears comfortable closed-toe shoes everyday for their safety, and especially on PE days. We will have PE every Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays. Your child will especially need good sneakers to run in, a water bottle (with their name on it), and sunscreen as necessary. If your child is ever injured or doesn't feel well enough for PE, please be sure to send a written note or email requesting an excusal. 

Typically, PE is done outside on the field. If the weather is too hot or rainy, then PE is done in the multi-purpose room or in the classroom. 

Back to School Night 2025

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UPDATED 8/7/25: Thank you to all of the families who attended BTSN! The kids loved getting the special 3-2-1 notes you wrote them. Take a look at the pictures of several of them discovering the notes when they walked into class the next morning. If you did not attend, you may view the presentation slides online. Additionally, your child will be bringing home important papers that were distributed.

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Mark your calendars: Wednesday, August 6th is Back to School Night. The meeting will held on campus in our classroom, Room 14. The meeting is for parents to attend only.

- Grades 4-6: 5:45 - 6:30 PM
- Grades 1-3: 6:45 - 7:15 PM

Vistors' Badges

Woodbury Elementary loves its parent volunteers and campus guests, but we really love and value the safety of our children a great deal. The children are our number one priority. Please be sure to sign in at the front office and wear your visitor's badge whenever you come on campus as a parent volunteer or a classroom visitor. All visitors must have their driver's license scanned into the front office's Raptor system the first time, and then visitors will sign in and out at the front office computers every time after. 

Thank you for your cooperation and support. 

Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset

Woodbury Elementary and IUSD is committed to teaching students to maintain a "growth mindset." What is a growth mindset? It means that someone believes they can learn or grow to be good at something or to get better at something through practice, repetition, and hard work. Someone who believes in having a fixed mindset believes that people are only born with as much ability or intelligence as they could possibly have, and that they cannot get better at something. 

In the classroom, we want the children to fail occasionally. Making mistakes is a natural and NECESSARY part of learning. As their teacher, I want my students to know that I make plenty of mistakes all the time-- but that's because we're all human. And it's okay to make mistakes as long as we learn from them! I maintain a growth mindset because I know that with dedicated time and effort, I can learn many new things and grow in many different abilities. The children should be encouraged to feel and believe that they can learn and grow too. They need to believe in a growth mindset. 

Tips for promoting a growth mindset in kids (adapted from Sarah McKay; yourbrainhealth.com):

  1. Help children understand that the brain works like a muscle. It can only grow through hard work, determination, and lots and lots of practice.

  2. Praise the process and not always the outcome. It's effort, hard work, and practice that allow children to achieve their true potential.

  3. Don't always focus on the outcome or results, whether it is good or bad.

  4. Embrace failures and mistakes. Children sometimes learn the most when they fail. Let them know that mistakes are a big part of the learning process. There is nothing like the feeling of struggling through a very difficult problem, only to finally break through and solve it! The harder the problem, the more satisfying it is to find the solution.

  5. Encourage participation and collaborative group learning. Children learn best when they are immersed in a topic and are allowed to discuss and advance with their peers.

  6. Encourage competency-based learning. Get kids excited about subject matter by explaining why it is important and how it will help them in the future. The goal should never be to get the "correct" answer, but to understand the topic at a fundamental, deep level, and to want to learn more.