Woodlawn Early Years School

It's hard to believe we are in the last month of the school year! There are several exciting year end events planned for June. We encourage our students to continue to engage with their learning and be inspired by all the activities right until the end of June!

We will be having our annual school family picnic on June 27 this year. In the morning our students will participate in Summer Fun Day activities with their teachers. Parents are invited to join their children for a picnic lunch starting at 11:45. Parents will pick their children up from their classrooms. Be sure to bring blankets or lawn chairs to sit on. In the event of rain we will picnic inside the school. This year we will be offering Santa Lucia pizza for families to eat at the picnic. You will be able to order through Munch a Lunch. The PAC has been busy organizing a basket raffle. Ticket sale information is below in the PAC section and the draws will be made around 1:00. We encourage all children to stay after the picnic and spend the afternoon with their teachers and friends. If you will be taking them home after the picnic you must sign them out at the office.

Report cards will be available on June 27 on the parent portal at 3:45. Thank you to all of you for continuing to support our school and staff. We really appreciate the learning partnership we have with each of you.

Karen Fraser and Tara Reimer

And just like that… we are nearing the end of another school year! This June will be a particularly memorable one for me, as I will be retiring from my full time position as school counsellor, to work on my Masters in Counselling Psychology! I am very excited for this next chapter in my life, but will sincerely miss working with all of your precious children. It has been a great honour to work alongside them, and you, over the past ten years as a school counsellor at Woodlawn School. Every child I have had the privilege of getting to know has brought me joy and delight and I know I will miss their presence in my life.

Rebecca and I would like to take this opportunity to wish you many moments of joy and delight with your children this summer. These moments are mostly found when we take a few extra minutes to truly see and connect, right in the middle of an ordinary day, but here are a few simple ideas to have some fun. But as always, the most important piece is you. Take care!

Sandy Caners (school counsellor) and Rebecca Mackie (school counsellor)

Looking for a game to play to help your child strengthen their addition and subtraction skills? I Have You Need is a game that is easy to play and can be adapted for any age and developmental level in numeracy. You decide on a value that is appropriate for your child (e.g., 10, 20, 100, or even the value of 1 and using fractions). You as the leader say: I have (and then pick a number) and they say the partner to the agreed value. E.g., if you are playing to 100: I have 25, You Need? (They would say 75).

It is good to start with numbers closer to the value and friendly numbers (ie: 90 vs 82) and then slowly get more challenging.

This game helps kids visualize and think about the connections and relationships between numbers. Recently I was at a grocery store and something happened with the register. I had given him a $20 bill and they had to make change. The cashier froze and a look of panic came over their face. I was thinking of how valuable this game would be to help with that mental math skill of making change. I had a charge close to $17.86. If you play to 20, 50, etc. you can add in decimals to help deal with money. I Have $19.50, You Need $0.50, I Have $17.86, You Need $2.14.

At the last board meeting, 5 students from 3/4A taught this game to the trustees and did a wonderful job!

Summer is almost here! Let the fun begin! It’s important to relax and take a break from school pressures. But we also know that summer is a perfect time for families to enjoy, explore and create together. A lot of this can be done in active and meaningful ways that include literacy - reading, writing, viewing and representing all the great things that happen in the summer.

Some great ideas for summer literacy projects and activities are here and here. Consider these:

• Read to/with your child everyday. Also make family reading time a regular priority (when everyone has a book that they read/look at). It could be called your DEAR time (Drop Everything and Read).

• Journal at the end of each day/week

• Play board games or build puzzles together. Explore old and new places in your community or further out of the way

• Go for a walk and play I Spy with things that start with a particular letter of the alphabet

• Make a shopping list and then go shopping together

• Cook a new/favourite recipe together

• Read a book together and then watch the movie

• Create a scrapbook together about a trip or fun thing you did in the summer

Another idea is to get involved at Jake Epp library this summer. The library has lots of exciting summer programming for kids. They typically have weekly programs for K-grade 8, reading contests, storytime in the park, book clubs and movie nights. Online registration begins in June. For those who live out of town, a family membership for the summer is just $20.

We hope you have a wonderful summer filled with lots of relaxation, creativity and fun!

We are really excited to announce that sisters Charisma and Kimberly Mason will be joining our physical education classes on June 17, 18 and 19 to teach our students about hoop dancing. All students from Kindergarten to grade 4 will get to participate in this wonderful cultural opportunity.

Your friendly neighbourhood PAC here, I hope everyone is having a lovely spring. The leaves on the trees always breath a little extra life into my day.

Thanks so everyone who participated in the Rocco's fundraiser this spring we made $5000 that is going towards our playground project,

And on the note of the playground project we are very excited to be moving forward with this, watch for an email coming your way soon sharing all the wonderful details.

And as we look towards the end of the year we are looking forward to holding our annual basket raffle. This draw takes place at the end of year picnic on June 27th. All the details for the raffle will be sent out by June 6th.

And last but not least thank you to all the parents for your donations for our May teacher appreciation "Thanks for helping us Bloom", we were able to bless the teachers with some yummy treats.

As always if you have any questions or concerns please contact us at woodlawnelementarypac@gmail.com

Enjoy your June,

Angela Plett

Woodlawn PAC Chair

The Woodlawn Parent Advisory Council (PAC) are excited about the 2024 Basket Raffle. We will be collecting items for a basket raffle that will take place at the school picnic on June 27th. Please feel free to donate an item(s) that supports the theme of the basket that's assigned to your child's classroom. The classroom who collects the most items will get freezies on the 27th. Items are due by June 18th.

Class Themes:

1. Art & Creativity 4K 3R 1/2H

2. Backyard Fun KG1&2 3/4D

3. Baker's Delight 1M KL2 3K

4. Beach day 1S KM1&2

5. Sports 3/4A 2W 2KF

6. Dress up 1/2JC 3CK 4F

7. Family night 4G 2PR 3/4M

8. I love to read 1B 1/2AC Staff

If you prefer to send us an etransfer we can do the shopping for you :) Please send to woodlawnelementarypac@gmail.com and put "Basket Raffle and your child’s class” in the notes, so we can add it to their classes item count.

Tickets for the gift baskets will be sold at the school June 24-26 during the morning (11:05am - 11:55am) and afternoon (1:10pm – 2pm) breaks. As well as at the picnic on June 29th from 11- 12:15pm.

Ticket prices

10 for $2

25 for $5

All funds raised from the raffle will continue to move us forward in our goals for adding to outdoor play structures for our kids. Phase 1 is already in the works, look for those exiting details coming soon.

The PAC has also had a set of Jets Tickets for the 24/25 season donated to us to raffle off as well. Tickets for those will be sold at the same time as the basket raffle and will be $5 a ticket.

Draw Date for both the Basket Raffle and Jets Tickets will be June 27th at 1:00pm

With the weather warming up, it is important that the kids have water to drink. Please make sure that your student has a water bottle at school. Also, as the weather gets warmer, our students get more active and often require more food in their lunches for their growing bodies. Also, please send them with a hat and sunscreen (lotion).

On June 17 and 18, we are excited to have the annual Bike Rodeo. The biking portion of this event is for grades 2-4 only and is put on through MPI. Each class will have roughly 30 min to learn about bike safety and then go through an obstacle course with their bike or on foot. The grade 1 classes and 1/2 combined classes will participate in the obstacle course without bikes. This is all done on our playground. We would encourage as many grades 2-4 students as possible to bring their bikes to school on the day their class is participating in the bike rodeo. We encourage bikes to be locked up in the bike cage. Parents may also choose to transport bikes to school in a vehicle if riding to school is not an option for your family. Please remember that helmets are now required by law and we will not be able to let students participate without a helmet.

If your child does ride to school, please send a lock along with them to lock their bike during the school day.

Classes Participating on June 17: 1M, 3/4A, 2PR, 1/2JC, 1B, 4K, 3CK, 3/4D, 1/2H

Classes Participating on June 18: 3K, 2W, 3/4M, 3R, 2KF, 4G, 1S, 4F, 1/2AC

The grade 4s will be going to a movie at Keystone Cinema on Tuesday June 25 in the afternoon. The cost of the movie and snacks will be covered by the school. The classroom teachers will be sending more information home shortly.

The grade 4 farewell will take place on Wednesday, June 26 at 10:00 in the gym. Families are invited to join us in celebrating these amazing grade 4 students. After the farewell, the students will be treated to a chicken finger lunch in the learning garden. Families are welcome to bring their own picnic lunch and join us in the learning garden until 12:00.

Kindergarten Registration is open online. If you live in Woodlawn’s catchment area and plan to send your child to Kindergarten in September 2024 but have not registered your child yet, please follow the link on our website. Please pass this information along to any friend, neighbor or relative who may have children eligible for Kindergarten and who might not be aware of the registration process. To be eligible for Kindergarten children must be 5 years of age on or before December 31, 2024.

Here is some additional information for those registered for Kindergarten 2024/2025

• Please send in your Step 2 documentation if you have not done so already. Please email it to woodlawn@hsd.ca.
  
• Before the end of June, you will receive information on what day of the cycle your child will come to Kindergarten as well as a picture of their teacher!

Will your student be starting a new school in fall? Click HERE for some great information for parents to help their children succeed when moving to a new school.

For over a decade, Woodlawn students and their families have been involved in harvesting root vegetables for Southeast Helping Hands. We started with a Woodlawn Community Garden, and have since transitioned to inviting our families to donate from their own gardens, or to purchase and donate vegetables in the autumn. These vegetables have benefited families in need from our local community.

We are inviting Woodlawn students and their families to participate in our annual: Grow a Row for Those in Need gardening campaign. We are looking for root vegetables like: potatoes, carrots, onions, turnips, beets, pumpkins and squash.

Participating families are asked to bring their produce to Southeast Helping Hands in the autumn, located at 525 Main Street in Steinbach.

If you don’t plan on having a garden, but would still like to donate some root vegetables, your contribution is greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your willingness to participate! We are excited to continue Woodlawn’s legacy of giving back to our local community and teaching children how to be generous, thoughtful, and caring citizens.

Report cards will be available on June 27 at 3:45. We will not be printing report cards. They can be viewed on the Parent Portal. Parents have the option to download the report card and save it or print it at home if they wish.

If your child will not be attending Woodlawn for the 2024-2025 school year please contact Mrs. Melissa Thiessen at the school office at 204-326-6110 or by email to woodlawn@hsd.ca as soon as possible.

Dear Parents,

At Woodlawn we collect a School Supply Fee of $40. Our teachers order the school supplies for all of the students. This way all of our children have the same supplies. All fees can be paid on parent portal after July 3. If you require assistance with the cost of school supplies, please contact the Steinbach Family Resource Centre at 204-346-0413 or complete the attached form and drop it off at their building.

Our school has moved away from using agendas. Your child's teacher will let you know the best way for ongoing communication.

As parents you will need to supply the following:

• 1 pair of labeled indoor running shoes
• 1 labeled plastic water bottle
• 1 extra change of clothes (for accidents or if they fall outside in the mud/water)
• 1 labeled backpack
• 2 boxes of Kleenex

Some specific classes may ask for headphones that would be returned at the end of the year.

All student library books are due on Friday, June 14.

Have a great summer!

Mrs. Sandy Loewen

Please make sure your students have what they need to eat their lunches. We are having more students come to the office asking for cutlery to eat their lunches, and we have a limited supply that we are able to hand out.

Reminder to families who are moving/changing locations during the summer months to please contact the Transportation office at 204-320-2347.

The transportation office is open all summer long.

The Hanover Parent and Child Community Program (HPCCP) invites parents and their preschool children to attend free parent-child programming! This program is provided to promote school readiness. Children will have the opportunity to play, learn, create, sing, and develop skills to prepare them for kindergarten. Parents will be able to visit with other parents and participate in activities with their children. Programming is free and snacks will be provided. Families can attend once or twice a week or drop by when able. HPCCP in Woodlawn will be Tuesday morning from 9 - 11:30 am and Thursday afternoon from 1 - 3:30 pm.

Please feel free to come and look at our lost and found section. Any items left here at the end of the school year will be donated to local organizations.

Are you looking for part time employment and want to start a new career? We are looking for spare school bus drivers for all areas of the division. You do not need experience or a class 2 license. We provide training with little cost to yourselves. You can drive as little or as much as you want. In the future regular positions can become available. Please call our office

(204-320-2346) and talk to Robert if you have more questions.

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