Woodlawn Early Years School

February is always a busy month at Woodlawn School. It is I Love to Read month. We also have our Winter Fun Day happening on February 14. We have managed to pack in a lot of fun and engaging learning experiences in this short month!

For I Love to Read month we have been busy planning fun activities for the students to help foster a love of reading. In February we like to celebrate reading and literacy and have some fun while we are at it. One of our goals as an early years school is to ensure that all of our students not only become literate, but that they develop a joy of reading. This work takes place everyday in all of our classes. Teachers use a variety of tools when teaching reading including guided reading using levelled texts. These texts at the student's level help the teacher guide the learning and teach new reading strategies. While guided reading is a valuable classroom tool it is equally important that children are exposed to high quality children's literature. Teachers do this by reading high quality literature out loud to their students. Not only do teachers model good fluency and decoding skills, but they can use questioning and class discussions to help students improve their comprehension. Comprehension is more important than decoding as understanding and learning from text is the reason we read in the first place.

We, the staff at Woodlawn School value the partnerships that we have with our families. We count on parents to help support reading at home. It is extremely beneficial for young children to read every day at school and at home. Reading at home should be for fun. Parents can read books with their children and work on those comprehension skills by asking questions and talking about the story. Being read to allows children to be exposed to text that is above their decoding levels which improves comprehension. Being exposed to high quality children's literature helps children really learn to love books. This is what will help them to become life long readers.

Happy Reading!

Karen Fraser

Some of our classes have been using storytelling as a way to help foster and develop oral language and creativity. During play, teachers are collecting stories from students. It is amazing to see the rich vocabulary and ideas that come out of their play. Then as a class, they act out the stories together. We know that sometimes when students sit down to write a story, sometimes they get stumped for ideas or maybe the pencil to paper is difficult, but through play and the teacher capturing the story, these barriers are removed. This is a great activity to do at home with your kids when they are playing. Ask them to tell you a story and write it out for them. This is a great way for kids to see themselves as writers.

Are you looking for a more convenient way to let the school know about your child's attendance? You can enter your child's appointments and absences on the Parent Portal. You can even enter them ahead of time. The link to the Parent Portal is further down the newsletter. Check it out and give it a try!

If your child is eligible for Kindergarten Registration (must be five years of age on or before Dec. 31, 2020), and you have not yet registered, please do so by March 1, 2020. Our new online registration process takes only a few minutes to complete. To begin, visit the HSD Kindergarten Registration page at https://hsd.ca/schools/kindergarten-registration/

If you do not have access to the Internet, please visit our school and we will assist you in completing the registration form on a school computer.

Registering early will assist our school in preparation and planning for the upcoming school year. Early registration also provides parents/guardians with the opportunity to participate in upcoming orientation activities.

BOOK FAIR HOURS

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5

8:30-8:55

11:05-11:55 - (Kindergarten, Grade 1 & Grade 2)

1:10-2:00 - (Grade 3 & 4)

3:45-6:30** Open late only on Wednesday

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6

8:30-8:55

11:05-11:55 - (Kindergarten, Grade 1 & Grade 2)

1:10-2:00 - (Grade 3 & 4)

3:45-4:30

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7

8:30 8:55

11:05-11:55 - (Kindergarten, Grade 1 & Grade 2)

1:10-2:00 - (Grade 3 & 4)

3:45-4:30

Students will be browsing Monday, February 3 and Tuesday, February 4, 2020.

Check out the preview flyer going home soon for a taste of what will be at the fair. Don’t forget to bring your ballot in (from the back of the flyer) when you visit the book fair with your child(ren).

Many of our Woodlawn students already LOVE to read, which is fantastic! All of us (adults and children) will have many opportunities to read and listen to books together during I love to read month in February. Our theme will be Arctic Adventures.

Family and friends can greatly influence a child's love of reading. Time spent enjoying books together is so valuable and memorable. You know your child best and can help to find reading materials that pique his/her interests. Please spend time during I Love to Read month exploring new reading materials and revisiting old favourites about the Arctic or any other topic, author or genre in order to continue to grow your child's love of reading and being read to. Remember to check out the Book Fair Feb 5-7 with your child too!

As a celebration of I Love to Read Month, on Monday March 2nd, we will have "Dress as a Book Character or an Arctic Animal" day. We look forward to seeing some Gerald and Piggies, polar bears and Arctic hares and many other fun costumes!

The HSD Parent Portal is a communications tool designed to enhance and increase parent/guardian involvement in the education of their children by providing secure online access to their child's student information. With a single username and password you can access data for each of your children attending an HSD school. If you have not received the Access ID along with setup instructions for your student please call the school office at 204-326-6110.

Please take a few minutes to review the student information and contact information for your child. It is important that the school has current address and contact information for your child in case it is necessary to reach someone during the school day. Changes can be made through the parent portal. Parents can access their child's report cards, attendance information and permission and consent forms through the Parent Portal.

For additional information please click on the button below.

To ensure the safety of our students and due to the congestion of our staff parking lots and bus loop areas, parents are not to enter those areas between 8:00-4:30. If you are dropping off or picking up your child, please park on the street or on the church yard (do not block entrances) across from the school. Please do not park in the parking lot of the Envision home on Penner Street.

For the safety of your child, we request that you escort your child across Henry Street, Barkman Street and Penner Street.

Walking students and those dropped off by parents should arrive at school after 8:30 in the morning. Teacher supervision is provided starting at 8:30. Any students arriving on the playground before 8:30 will not be supervised and responsibility for the student belongs with the parent/guardian.

Students arriving at school before 8:53 are to go directly to their playground to play until the bell rings. Students are permitted to enter the building when the 8:53 bell rings. In the event of indoor recess, a sign will be posted on school doors.

Students are required to leave for home by 4:00 in the afternoon unless prior arrangements have been made.

At times, parents or designated others pick up their children during the school day or at the end of the school day. Most homeroom teachers recognize the parents but at times we have guest teachers or the children are in Music or Phys. Ed. It is virtually impossible for these teachers to recognize all the parents or the designated “picker-uppers”. So in order to provide a safer environment, parents are asked to report to the office to sign out their children during the school day. The secretary will be happy to call your child(ren) to the office for you.

If she is unfamiliar with you she can check our files to ensure your child is being picked up by the correct person.

If you are sending a different "picker-upper" than usual at the end of the school day please write a note in your child's agenda or phone the school office before 3:00. This applies to both walking and bus students. Please work with us as we continue to implement this method and bear with us when we ask you to check with the office if you forget and show up at the classroom door.

As a school safety is of utmost concern to us. We have security cameras in various locations on the premise, both inside and outside. We have an extensive crisis plan in place and a crisis team who reviews the plan on a continual basis. We practice lock downs twice per school year in order to prepare our staff and students for a real crisis should it ever happen. All of our staff are trained to be on alert for anything or anyone suspicious and report it to the Principal immediately.

It is the time of year again when many students become ill with a cold or flu. We ask that parents/guardians notify the school if their child will be absent or late. There are many ways to report your absent or late child:

- Parent Portal Account

-Phone the school at 204-326-6110 between 8:00 and 9:00 am

-Leave a voicemail at 204-326-6110 before or after school hours

-Email woodlawn@hsd.ca

-Email your child's teacher (email addresses are available at woodlawn.hsd.ca. Select the About tab, select Staff)

Students arriving after 9:05 or returning from an appointment during the school day are to report to the office for an entry slip before heading to their classroom.

Thank you to everyone for cooperating in reporting to the office when picking your child up from school during the school day.

All students in grades 3 and 4 will have the opportunity to go skating. We will be skating March 16th and 17th. Permission slips will be sent out through parent portal so please watch out for that closer to the date. Parents are asked to have helmets fitted and skates sharpened in preparation for the fun. If you absolutely cannot beg, borrow or buy the equipment, we do have some basic skates and helmets as a back up at the school. I welcome any parents who have any extra equipment they may want to share or donate to call me so that all students can join in the fun!

Jesse Adams

All school busses that are running late or cancelled will be posted on the Hanover School Division website at www.hsd.ca
Under the Departments tab you will find Transportation, Bus Delay Bulletins, and a list of affected busses.

The transportation department will no longer be calling individual homes when busses are delayed. When a bus route is cancelled due to weather or road conditions it may be cancelled for the a.m. and p.m. runs. If you drive your students to school, you will need to confirm whether or not your bus is operating in the afternoon. Please call transportation at 204-320-2347.

Parents will be expected to obtain information, if needed, on the status of their bus through the website. Busses that are running more than 10 minutes late on a given day will have the bus number and estimated lateness posted on the page. Homes that do not have computer access to the web should make arrangements with another family on the route whom they could contact.

Email: woodlawn@hsd.ca
Website: www.woodlawn.hsd.ca
Location: 411 Henry St, Steinbach, MB, Canada R5G 0R1
Phone: 204-326-6110
Twitter: @WoodlawnHSD