Timberwolf Times - October 10, 2022

T. Clay Wood - Facts at your Fingertips

Welcome to T. Clay Wood ES

Welcome Back to School - 2022-2023

"It's A Great Day to be a Timberwolf""

Dear Timberwolf Families,

Please note that Monday, October 10, 2022 is a Teacher Professional Development Day. There will not be school for students on this day.

This Tuesday, October 11, 2022 will be Back to School Night for 2nd and 3rd grade Families and for families in Mrs. Curry's 4th grade classroom. 2nd grade teachers have invited their students. Families should arrive and go directly to their student's class.

T Clay Wood ES is partnering with Prince William Food Rescue to create a Food Share Table. A Food Share Table is a way to prevent the waste of uneaten food. It is something that has been implemented at other schools in the country. We were the first school in the county to implement this program when it started in 2022 Every day a great deal of food is thrown out that is uneaten. The food share table will help take this food and connect it with a local food pantry.

The program was explained to students and staff. They know that they can only put in unopened food items such as milk, yogurt, cheese sticks, pudding, etc. We are discouraging students at first who bring lunch from home to donate their left over food. Instead we want them to bring the uneaten food back home so parents know what students are eating and not eating. We are also encouraging all our students to eat all their lunch. The food donated should be food that students are just not able to eat. We have reminded students with allergies that they should not pick up any food that they are allergic to or any students who pick up extra food to be mindful of which they table they are sitting. Cafeteria hostesses will move cold items to the cooler as the lunch period goes on.

Once lunch is over, student leaders will bag the food and transport the food to the office. Food will support students in our school and in the county. Someone from a local food pantry will come by to pick up the bagged food. We are excited about doing our part to support food insecure families.

We could use additional plastic or paper bags to use to collect the items to send out of school. Thank you

We are looking for additional Kitchen Workers - please apply at https://jobs.pwcs.edu/jobs

Starting pay is now $14.34/hour

At T. Clay Wood Elementary School, we love to have visitors and volunteers every day. To help ensure the safety of our students, visitors to Prince William County Schools are expected to report promptly to the school’s main office when entering school buildings. Visitors and volunteers will be asked to provide a valid government issued photo identification. There are no exceptions. Every visitor to our school must bring with them a photo id. Visitors will then be issued a temporary identification badge. We will not permit any visitor or volunteer into the building without this identification. Our main goal is to ensure the safety and security of our students and staff at school.

2022-2023 – Back to school information: https://www.pwcs.edu/parents/backtoschool

2022-2023 – Calendar link: https://www.pwcs.edu/cms/one.aspx?pageId=654031

Code of Behavior link: https://www.pwcs.edu/cms/One.aspx?portalId=340225&pageId=767701

Link to Family Life Education objectives and Opt out - https://www.pwcs.edu/academics___programs/science___family_life_education/family_life_education

PLEASE NOTE - if Packers/Lunch Bringers would like to purchase school milk, the cost this year is $1.00. If a student who has purchased lunch, would like a 2nd lunch, the cost this year for the 2nd lunch is $4.00

Masks will continue to be optional if students would prefer to wear them.

We truly do Everything Better Together as a Community of Leaders and Learners Achieving Excellence.

I hope you all have a wonderful week.

Dr. Andrew Buchheit

Principal

#TimberwolvesROCK

“Like the Sun, I am here to Shine”

Back To School Nights – Save the Date (All future dates are subject to change):

Back to School Nights will be held at on the following nights at 6:30 pm:

Tuesday, October 11 for 2nd and 3rd and Mrs. Curry's 4th grade class.

Monday, October 17 for Kg and 1st grade.

Dear Timberwolf Families,

I want to thank everyone for a great start to the school year. If you have not yet completed the Back to School Packet in ParentVue, please do so right away. This information helps us ensure the safety of all our students. Please also make sure that we have your correct information in ParentVue.

I want to remind you that we are holding our Back to School Night Parent Information Meetings in October. These nights are important meetings for you to attend. Your children’s teachers will review school procedures, grade level routines, and classroom expectations. It will also give you a chance to see your child’s classroom and meet the teacher.

Except for Kindergarten and 2nd grade: These Back to School Nights are just for adults so we ask you to please leave your students supervised at home. Each Back to School Night starts at 6:30 pm. Please be sure to arrive on time. As always, I encourage carpooling or being dropped off if possible due to the limited parking that we have. Please do not park in the bus loop between Patriot and T. Clay Wood or in the car loop.

The schedule is as follows

Tuesday, October 11 at 6:30 pm is for the parents and guardians of all 2nd and 3rd grade students and Mrs. Curry's 4th grade students. Second grade teachers are also inviting all their students to attend their Back to School Night presentations.

Monday, October 17 is set aside for the parents and guardians of kg and 1st grade students. Kindergarten teachers are also inviting all their students to attend their Back to School Night.

I am asking that all parents try to attend your child's Back to School Night presentations. Please remember that except for 2nd grade and Kindergarten classes the rest of the presentations are just for parents.

Please consider carpooling if possible. Please do NOT park in the bus loop or in our car drop off/pick up loop. Parking in these spaces is a serious safety concern. Please also do not park in the gated bus driver parking lot. You can park in our parking spaces in the front and side of our building or in any of the open spaces in the Patriot parking lot.

Once again, thank you for a great start to the school year and for working in collaboration with your child’s teacher. I know that no matter which class your child is in they are with an outstanding teacher and will have an Awesome school year.

What's Happening at T. Clay Wood during the week of October 10 -14, 2022

Monday, October 10, 2022 Day --

Teacher Professional Development Day - no School for Students.

Tuesday, October 11, 2022- Day 2

Back to School Night for 2nd, 3rd, and Mrs. Curry's 4th graders. - 6:30pm

Wednesday, October 12, 2022 - Day 3

Thursday, October 13, 2022 - Day 4

PTO SPIRIT NIGHT - Mod Pizza

Friday, October 14, 2022 -Day 5

2022-2023 Calendar - As a reminder, due to current supply chain issues with paper, the Communications Department will not be printing the 2022-23 School Guide and Calendar at this time. A printable PDF version of this year's School Calendar and Reference Guide, as well as a printable PDF Month-at-a-Glance Calendar, are available on the PWCS Calendar webpage.

Chess Tournament

Scholastic Chess Tournament this Saturday, October 15, 2022 at Forest Park HS starting at 8am.

Enter through Door #4

$5.00 donation requested at the door.

To register: complete the form at pwcschess.org by Thursday, October 13, 2022.
Open to all students kg-12th.

Book Fair will be here in a few weeks

Dear Parents and Families:

We’re excited to invite you to our upcoming Scholastic Book Fair. Hosted by our staff, this event is an opportunity for students of all ages to build their home libraries and further their love of reading. As always, all purchases benefit our school.

Student Shopping:

Monday, October 17th-9:30-3:30

Tuesday, October 18th- 9:30-3:30

Wednesday, October 19th- 9:30-3:30

Thursday, October 20th- 9:30-3:30

Friday, October 21st- 9:30-12

Family Shopping:

Wednesday, October 19th-5-7:30pm

Payment Options:

-cash

-checks made out to TCWES

-credit card

-eWallet

Our Book Fair offers eWallet, a safe and secure alternative to cash. Simply create a free account to add funds and/or invite family and friends to contribute so your child can select their own books. Any unused funds can be spent at The Scholastic Store Online or to fund a future eWallet.

If you can’t make it to the Fair, then shop at our school’s Online Book Fair. All orders ship directly to your home, and shipping is free for book orders over $25. Your online orders will also benefit our school.

Visit our Book Fair homepage to learn more and get started with eWallet and online shopping:

https://www.scholastic.com/bf/tclaywoodelementaryschool

We’re excited to celebrate our love of books together at the Book Fair. We look forward to seeing your child there!

Happy reading,

Mrs. Rice

Librarian

riceml@pwcs.edu

Coat Drive

Dear Parents and/or Guardians,

T. Clay Wood Elementary School (TCWES) is having a coat drive this year and will be collecting new and lightly used coats for students at Mullen and Ellis Elementary Schools. We need a variety of size for both girls and boys although Mullen has requested particularly larger sizes like 8/10, 10/12 and Adult Smalls since they will sometimes get donations of smaller size coats. We will be collecting the coats beginning the week of October 3rd and you can send coats in with your student or bring them into our front office for drop off.

We are glad that our Timberwolf families will be able to donate coats to support local schools in our community where students are in need.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me using the contact information below.

Thanks!

Katy McHugh, LCSW

School Social Worker

703-594-3815 phone

mchughkh@pwcs.edu

Save the Date: Picture Days are scheduled for November 1 and November 2. Your child's teacher will let you know the date your child has pictures as we get closer to the end of October.

Volunteer Corner -

Interested in Volunteering at T. Clay Wood? You can first check with your student's teacher. Then you can also look into these areas:

1. Welcome Table:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0F4FAFAD28A4F5C52-welcome

2. Library Volunteers -

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090C4AA4AF2AA5F94-library

3. Book Fair- -

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090C4AA4AF2AA5F94-tcwes2

Online tutoring available to all PWCS students free of charge

PWCS has partnered with Paper to provide K-12 students with unlimited tutoring, 7 days a week—at no cost to families.

Students can get help with their homework, receive feedback on their writing assignments, or ask questions about any academic subject. Experts are available to assist students with any subject or content area via a secure, chat-based platform.

Tutors are currently available to help students in English, Spanish, French, and Mandarin.

You can access Paper right from your student's Clever Account. Or you can use this Link to Access Paper: https://paper.co/

Learn how to use the Free Online Paper Tutoring Service by clicking on this PWCS Link: https://www.pwcs.edu/departments/Instructional_technology/paper

LEXIA

Dear Parents,

T. Clay Wood ES and Prince William County Schools has purchased an incredible reading program for your student for this school year. It is entirely free for your student to use this year. We are encouraging all students to use the program each day.

Lexia is a program to help your student with reading. We are encouraging all students to use Lexia for 10-20 minutes per day. (at least 40-60 minutes a week). Lexia is engaging and works at your students personalized reading level.

All students have been shown how to access Lexia. Please help your student remember to log on to Lexia and work on Lexia each day.

Below are the 3 step directions to access Lexia:

1. Go to https://clever.com/in/pwcs

Log in - Clever

https://clever.com/trust/privacy/policy. https://clever.com/about/terms

clever.com

2. Log in with Office365

3. In Clever, scroll down until your see the blue globe for Lexia Core 5- Click on the Lexia

DIRECTIONS FOR ACCESSING LEXIA:

-Login to your child’s Office 365 account

-Click on the 9 dots (also called the “waffle”) on the top left-hand side of the screen

-Click on “Clever”

-Scroll down to “Apps purchased by schools”

-Click on “Lexia Core5”(The app with the world)

OR

-Login to Canvas

-Click on account

-Click on “Clever”on the right-hand side

-Scroll down to “LexiaCore 5” under “PWCS Resources”

-Click on “Lexia Core5” (The app with the world)

Transportation Department

Our Prince William County School Transportation Department continues to update and implement some tools to help us all when it comes to buses. I have included some helpful links below that are now on their PWCS Transportation Webpage. I believe these will help families throughout the school year. Please take a moment to check these out.

1. The main Transportation Website - most of the below links can be accessed from this site: PWCS Transportation

2. Delayed Bus Page will inform you of any buses that are expected to arrive at least 15 minutes late. Delays will be removed after 12pm for morning runs and after 5:30 pm for afternoon runs. Bus Delay Site

3. Here Comes the Bus APP - See real-time map location for students' buses and get push notifications when the bus gets close by - Info on Here Comes The Bus App

4. Looking for your student's bus schedule? Remember it is located in the Hub which you can access in your ParentVUE account -

5. Transportation Contact for T. Clay Wood (PWCS Western Area Transportation): trns-westernbusroutes@pwcs.edu or 571-374-6593

Some reminders

Early Dismissal

We encourage all families to avoid, when possible, taking students out early from school. Instruction and learning continues until the end of the day. If you need to pick up your child for an appointment, please notify your teacher and school office at cwes-timberwolf-attendance@pwcs.edu and plan to arrive before 3:15pm.

Please park and report to the office. Please do not leave your car unattended in the pickup line. All parties picking up a student from the office must show a photo id.

Please do not make changes to your child’s dismissal time after 3pm. Anyone other than parent/guardian must have prior written approval to pick up a student even if listed on the emergency card.

Dress Code Reminders

All students are expected to dress appropriately and maintain a reasonable appearance. The Prince William County Schools’ Code of Behavior has addressed several areas that are considered improper dress in any Prince William County school. Please refer to the Parent Handbook in the Timberwolf Folder and the School Division’s Code of Behavior.

Volunteering

Please feel free to coordinate times to volunteer in the classroom with your child's teacher. Teachers and students appreciate our volunteers. Thank you again for everything you are doing to help us build our Positive School Community. I want to formally invite all parents to become involved in your child’s education at T. Clay Wood Elementary School. It has been shown that strong parental involvement and interest in education is a crucial factor in student success. There are many ways to volunteer at T. Clay Wood Elementary School as well. Joining the PTO or Advisory Council, helping out in your child’s classroom, volunteering in the library, working at our Welcome Table Counter and chaperoning field trips are just a few of the many, many ways you can become a part of our Community of Leaders and Learners. Please review the regulation on volunteering: Regulation 511-10

Classroom Interruptions

In order to limit interruption to the teaching and learning environment and protect instructional time, if you drop off forgotten lunches, homework or materials, we will ask you to leave these in the front office. We will inform the teacher who will pick it up at a more convenient time. We want to thank you in advance for your understanding of this procedure and hope you know that our only intent is to maximize your children's instructional time.

Change in Transportation Home

If a situation occurs which makes it necessary for your child’s transportation home to change, please send in a note with your child in the morning giving clear directions as to how your child should go home at the end of the day. Only a parent/guardian can change their child’s transportation plan for any given day. A note from the parent must be received by the office AND the teacher before noon that day indicating the change. This is for the safety of the children and will alleviate any confusion at the end of the day.

Bus Passes

If it is necessary for a student to ride a bus home other than the one he/she is normally assigned, a bus pass is required and must be approved by the office. A note must be sent to school indicating the bus number that the child should ride and a phone number to verify the information. Thank you for helping us ensure the safety of all our students.

Drop Off and Pick Up

Drop off and Pick Up - When dropping your students off in the morning, please drive all the way around to the front of the drop off area in front of our school. Please do not allow students to exit your vehicles until staff members are outside. If you will be picking your students up frequently, please come into our office to sign up for a car pick up tag. You can get a tag on August 19, 2022 during the Open House Meet and Greet and Orientation times. If you choose to park in the parking lot, you will need to park your car and walk your student to the cross walk.

Drive Carefully

Drive Carefully - Drive carefully and obey the posted speed limits around our parking lot and the neighboring streets. Please pay close attention to posted speed limits and reduced speed limits during the start and ending of our school day and Patriot High School’s day. There are many students and families driving in our two parking lots and around these neighborhoods. Please be extra careful and follow all signs and cones and directions. Please do not enter the parking lot through the exit lane. Car drop offs and pick up should enter through the T. Clay Wood Entrance and not through Patriot HS.

Student Inclement Weather and Emergency Dismissal Plan

In the event of inclement weather, power failure or any situation in which we are faced with an early closing of our school; we will activate our Automated Auto Dialer Calling system to inform our parents of the early closing. We will send out both a phone message and email message with the early closing information. Please make sure your phone number and contact information is updated. We will also place this information on our school website, Facebook and Twitter sites.

I encourage you to sign up for PWCS Weather alerts from PWC Schools. You can access this link from the PWC website or by this link:

https://www.pwcs.edu/departments/communications/p_w_c_s_weather_alerts_subscription

Kindergarten teachers will contact their students’ parents to confirm dismissal.

If schools close early, the SACC program will not open. Parents of students who attend SACC will be contacted by our SACC staff. Parent of SACC students should have an Emergency Back-up Plan.

When school does close early, we will send your children home via their regular dismissal method for that day, unless we hear differently from you.

Please contact the school office immediately in case of a change to their dismissal procedures

Device Reminders

All Students in Prince William County Schools will be issued a school laptop or similar device. Students and their families are responsible for the safe and appropriate usage of the devices.

Families can opt to purchase low cost insurance to protect the device in case of accidentally damage. Here is the link for information on the optional digital device insurance. https://securranty.com/pwcs If purchased, the insurance covers unlimited repairs or replacements for everything from broken screens, lost chargers, and accidental damage, with a zero deductible for one year on a school-issued HP device. The insurance cost is $32.95, which may be significantly less than repair or replacement costs without insurance.

I do encourage all families to consider the optional low-cost insurance. After last year, I observed it was very beneficial for families to purchase the insurance PWCS was offering for the devices.

As we get ready to start using the devices again, please look for emails from Mr. Taylor about how to reset passwords, etc.

Also this is a good time to remind all families to always know what your students are doing when they are on the internet, using devices to complete their school work, using social media, texting with friends, or playing online games. We continually are reminding our students about appropriate and acceptable use of technology. I encourage all parents and guardians to regularly check what their students are doing on the internet and while using technology -(school devices, gaming systems, home devices, phones, etc). Just as you monitor where your children go in person, I encourage you to monitor where they go on the internet.

I would also encourage all families to consider adding parental controls on their personal devices that students use. If you have any questions about student devices, please feel free to reach out to Mr. Taylor, our Instructional Technologist at TaylorBi@pwcs.edu. Thank you.

Phones - Reminder: If students bring in phones to school they must remain in their backpack and turned off. Please let all your family members know not to call your elementary school student during the day. If you need to change dismissal, please let our front office know by calling 703.594.3990.

Also I recommend that all parents and guardians turn off the Air Drop feature on their Iphones. I have heard of students at secondary schools air dropping inappropriate photos into all phones that can receive airdrop and then other students accepting those photos. You can turn this off on your students' device.

PWCS is now a fully one-to-one School Division; laptops are provided by PWCS for every student and all instructional staff. As such, the use of personal devices by students and staff for any instructional or official PWCS business is strongly discouraged. The PWCS technology support will not support issues with Personal Technology Devices.