February PreK-4 Newsletter

As we enter the second half of the school year, it's a great time to help your child build momentum for continued growth and success. Encourage a consistent routine at home, ensuring your child gets enough rest, healthy meals, and time for both study and play. Create a positive homework environment by minimizing distractions and offering guidance when needed, but allow your child to take ownership of their learning. Stay connected with your child’s teacher to track progress and address any concerns early on. Most importantly, continue to foster a love of learning by celebrating small victories and reinforcing the idea that mistakes are part of the process. Your involvement and encouragement play a key role in your child’s confidence and achievement throughout the year.

We are looking for more parents to join the Parent Teacher Organization. The mission of the PTO is to enrich the educational experience of students, support staff, and connect families and the community.The PTO has plans for various fundraisers and fun activities for students. PTO Meets the first Thursday of each month at 5:30 PM. Come join us for one or all meetings!

Windom Area Elementary will host a child development information and activity session on Tuesday, February 11 from 5:45-7:00 PM. The event is open to parents of children birth through age 9. Come get a free meal and check out the various activities we have to promote child development! Please sign up by clicking this picture.

There will be no school on February 14 for a staff development day.

Thanks to Officer Dana for keeping our staff, students, and buildings safe! No only does she serve our school community as School Resource Officer, she also plays trombone with the bands, supports our arts and athletics, and teaches our students about ways they can stay safe in our community. Thanks Officer Dana!

Vocabulary knowledge varies greatly among learners. Here are a number of ways to help students have a richer, fuller vocabulary:

• Language rich home with lots of verbal stimulation
• Wide background experiences
• Read to at home and at school
• Read a lot independently
• Early development of word consciousness (help students be aware of new words)

Children who have been encouraged by their parents to ask questions and to learn about things and ideas come to school with very large oral vocabularies. Without a large vocabulary, the knowledge gap grows ever larger as students proceed through school (Hart and Risley, 1995).

In an effort to best serve our students in a safe, productive, and positive environment, there have been a few small updates to our Elementary Student Handbook. Please review the handbook and remind your child of any important information.

As the weather gets colder, we want our students to stay warm and healthy. If the "feels like" temperature is above zero, and it isn't actively raining, kids will go outside. When there is snow on the ground, students will need appropriate snow gear including snow pants, boots, hats, and gloves to play anywhere there is snow. If you need help getting these items, please contact Melissa Pletcher or Cassie Muskie at the elementary school. mpletcher@isd177.com or cmuske@isd177.com.

Snow days are likely in Minnesota. In the event of a snow day, please listen to or read the announcement to see if it an E-learning day. In the event of an E-Learning day, your child has work to complete for each teacher they see. These days are counted as student contact days, so work completion counts as attendance on E-Learning days. Look for e-learning work in your child's take-home folder. Thank you for supporting your child's education.

Breakfast and lunch menus can be found on the Windom Schools Website. Go to Family->Food Service->Printable Menu. Here is the page to get you started.

Our Windom Nursing Department consists of District Nurse Jessica Matt & Elementary Nurse Jacki Larson. Both Nurse Jessica & Nurse Jacki care deeply for the well being of students and they have put together a great resource website for your use. You can click on the image to view the site.

Windom Elementary has a new attendance email. attendanceelem@isd177.com is a place where you can send a note if your child will be absent, late, or needs to leave early. You can also continue to call in to 507-831-6925 Ext 443 or 441 (Ext 311 for Spanish)

Look for Windom Area School District-ISD177

Most current information can be found on our website: https://www.windom.k12.mn.us/

Are you connected with your child's SeeSaw? Most information about upcoming events is shared there. Ask your child's teacher for a link.