March at Woodbrook

Dear Woodbrook Families,

Hooray for our precious Woodbrook Children!

Our talent show was SPECTACULAR! It was such a joy to watch our children perform on our stage again! It was made extra special by all of the friends and families that came to cheer during the show! Thanks to the PTO for their support!

We are all enjoying the week of Read Across America festivities by guessing the identities of our incognito "Mystery Readers" and dressing up day by day for our theme week. We will be culminating the week with guest readers and our traditional Woodbrook school wide read out. A special thanks to Mrs. Barros for coordinating the week's events!

We have kicked off the Exact Path Trophies Contest! Students will try to earn as many trophies as possible by completing reading and math activities on Exact Path. The classes with the most trophies on each grade level will earn a free period of fun! Good luck everyone!

We are thrilled to share that we are back to our usual tremendous number of science invention fair participants. This year, we will have almost 400 participants! All participants will receive a follow up email to determine if they plan on attending the optional in person night presentation (with or without partners). All participants must submit their video presentation to their classroom google form no later than SUNDAY, MARCH 13.

As you know, beginning Monday, March 7, masks will be OPTIONAL for Edison staff and students. If your child is exhibiting any COVID symptoms, we will still need the child to quarantine until a negative PCR test is provided. If a person has COVID and returns after 5 days, that person is still REQUIRED to wear a mask for days 6-10. We expect that many families will still instruct their children to wear their masks. This is completely reasonable, and we all respect one another's decisions.

As warmer weather approaches, inevitably, our children become a bit more social. Please remind children to be kind and patient with one another. We also typically see children begin to use their Chromebooks for social purposes (emailing and chatting with one another). Please be sure to remind your children that school apps and devices are for school assignments only.

Thank you to all the families who participated in the chocolate fundraiser! The PTO is busy finishing up with the accounts. Please forward all payments for any boxes which you took to the PTO. ($60 per box cash or check payable to Woodbrook Elementary School PTO).

Looking forward to seeing you and your children at all of the upcoming events.

Mrs. Cirillo

Get ready to be entertained by the Woodbrook Drama Club!

Friday, April 8

7:00 – 8:00pm

Come Show Your Support and cheer on your friends!!

$5 per person to support the show

Be on the lookout for information about spring photos/portraits

taken here at Woodbrook on Friday, March 18.

Siblings are permitted to take pictures with other Woodbrook (only) siblings for spring photos.

Please note whether you are signing up for a virtual conference or an in person conference.

Some slots have been reserved for virtual, others have been reserved for in person,

look carefully at the "location" when choosing.

If you select a virtual conference, your teacher(s) will send you a link for your conference before your conference date OR the link may already be posted in the parent portal when you sign up.

Click for: Directions to Schedule a Conference in Parent Portal

If your child has the following teachers, you will meet them together, at the same time in one conference...only sign up for one date.

• Mrs. Taxeras and Ms. Rosato - just sign up under Ms. Taxeras's conferences (no slots will appear for Ms. Rosato)
  
• Ms. Anwander, Mrs. Rossi, and Mrs. Mitchell - just sign up under Ms. Anwander’s conferences (no slots will appear for Mrs. Rossi, or Mrs. Mitchell)
  

If your child has the following teachers, you must sign up for a conference with each teacher individually (one for math/science and one for ELA/SS).

• Ms. Vallancourt, Ms. Burkholz or Ms. Schlachter
  
• Slots will appear under each one of their names
  

• Be on the look out for your teacher's conference link in an email.

• It is important that you join the meeting using your child’s Edison gmail & password so the teacher can admit you into the conference.

• Teachers will have a waiting room set up, therefore, please wait to be admitted.

• Conferences are 10 minutes long, please be conscious of the time to allow all families access to conferences. Log on early in case you need an extra minute to connect.

• Unless you require a conference with a specialist for art/music/Spanish/PE, do not be concerned if you cannot meet with them - they each teach over 850 students, therefore, they cannot possibly meet with the majority of families.

We are thrilled that we have started to book our class trips for the late spring.

We will need vaccinated PTO members to join us for the class trips as many of the venues require ADULTS to be vaccinated.

Dates so far pending approval:

Kindergarten - Tuesday, May 17 Von Thuns Farm

1st Grade - Friday, April 29 Turtle Back Zoo

2nd Grade - Tuesday, May 24 Turtle Back Zoo

3rd Grade - Thursday, May 19 Liberty Science Center

4th Grade - Wednesday, June 8 Bronx Zoo
5th Grade - Thursday, June 2 Historical Philadelphia

Payments for school trips will only be accepted on our school Community Pass - not the township recreation department's community pass.

Many families of students in grades 3, 4 & 5 (or older) should have received their community pass letter and code earlier this year if you ordered 5th grade Camp Bernie shirts or paid for math club.

Please complete the form below if you did NOT login and set up your community pass account earlier this year. Open form HERE if form below does not work.

All NJ students in grades 3, 4 & 5 will take the following standardized tests.

Monday, May 9 & Tuesday, May 10 ELA

Wednesday, May 11 & Thursday, May 12 MATH

GRADE 5 ONLY Friday, May 13 SCIENCE

You may use the following items from previous tests with your children:

https://nj.digitalitemlibrary.com/home

Click for the District Calendar

March

• Early Dismissal - Wednesday, Mar 2

YES, we will still hold math club at 7 p.m.

• Early Dismissal

Optional In Person Science Fair Presentations

• Grades 3 & 5 Monday, March 14⋅5:30 – 6:30pm
• Grades 1 & 4 Tuesday, March 15⋅5:30 – 6:30pm
• Grades K & 2 Wednesday, March 16⋅5:30 – 6:30pm

Friday, March 18, Spring Portraits & Fifth Grade Photos

Tuesday, March 22 (Parent Teacher Conferences)
Thursday, March 24 (Parent Teacher Conferences)
Thursday , March 31(Parent Teacher Conferences)

April

• Early Dismissal - Wednesday, April 6
• Mary Poppins - Friday, April 8 7pm

School Closed

• Friday, April 15 - Friday, April 22 (Spring Break)

May

School Closed

• Tuesday, May 3 (Eid)
• Monday, May 30 (Memorial Day)

Tuesday, May 24 Spring Concert 6 p.m.

• 4th & 5th Grade band, strings, chorus

RAINDATE:

Wednesday, May 25

Harini Murali

Woodbrook's Scripps Spelling Bee Champion

Good luck in round one of the

Regional Spelling Bee!

Reyansh Sappa

Fourth Grade Student Won

Strongest Speech

All vehicles should be electric by 2035

Virtual Debate Tournament

We Crossroads info@wecrossroads.org

Click here to order your Free Fifth Grade Party T Shirt Due March 4

Sizing is as follows: Medium = 10/12 Large = 14/16 Extra Large= 18/20

Fifth Grade Pictures, Friday, March 18...wear your Blue Woodbrook Shirt

Fifth Grade Party Thursday, June 9 (pending approval)

Fifth Grade Promotion Ceremony Tuesday, June 14, 2022 10:00 – 11:30am

Presenting the Fifth Grade Yearbook Covers

Front Cover Design (Tree of Knowledge) by Ishaanvi Shete

Back Cover Design (Smiles, Sunshine & Rainbows) Jacqueline Bi

Please recycle your batteries by sending them to school with your child.

Batteries should be placed in the battery bin

located in front of our library.

recyclemybattery.org

This organization was founded by former student Nihal Tammana here at Woodbrook

and our current students are working hard to keep it going!

Dismissal

• Please do not park in spots around the circle, park in the stop & drop lot or on Robin Road.
• Please do not leave your engines running. Turn the cars off while waiting.

Morning Club Arrival

• Thank you to almost everyone for parking in the stop & drop lot for morning clubs.
• No one is permitted to drive around the circle for club drop off.

Morning arrival 8:40 a.m.

• Pull all the way up to the next available spot in line before letting your child out of the car.
• Do NOT let your child out by the woods, near the garbage or where there is snow, mud and grass.
• ONLY let your child out on the PASSENGER side of the car and only on the sidewalk where our Woodbrook staff stands each morning. This is for the safety of the children.
• NO U turns by the flag pole circle...no parking in the visitor spots by the flag pole circle.

Lateness

• When students are late to school and no staff members are outside to greet them, ALL parents must park in a legal spot and sign their children into the school.
• No one may drop off children and drive away.

On rainy days students are still expected to walk down the sidewalk into the building. Please do not try to change the procedure and drop children off closest to the building because it is raining. Instead, pull up in the stop & drop lot and ensure your child is wearing rain boots and using a child size umbrella.

Thank goodness the numbers have been trending in a positive manner!

MASKS

• Optional as of March 7, 2022

SYMPTOMS

• If your child has symptoms, please have them tested and remain home while awaiting the test results.
• Keep siblings home if someone is symptomatic in the house until the symptomatic person has a negative test.

COVID POSITIVE

• Students and staff who have COVID must stay home as follows: day 0 first day of symptoms of if no symptoms, the day you test positive. Quarantine for the NEXT 5 DAYS, return on day 6

CLOSE CONTACTS

• If your child is two weeks beyond the 2nd of the vaccine, your child does NOT need to quarantine IF there are no symptoms.

The days of just "monitoring" your child for a day or two and then sending them back to school are gone for the time being.

If your child is showing symptoms, a PCR test is in order. Many of our students who tested positive after Thanksgiving were kept home for a day and then sent to school only to be sent to the nurse and turn out to be positive exposing everyone around them.

These are some the signs of COVID as experienced by our students - NOTE, they only had one symptom:

• headache
• nausea/stomach ache
• runny nose
• sore throat
• congestion

While fully vaccinated students/staff are permitted to attend after being in close contact with a COVID positive individual, considering there are many break through cases, it is always a good idea to get a PCR test on days 3- 5 after exposure to that person.

When you report that a child was a close contact to a positive individual/is positive case/or is experiencing symptoms, please include the following information:

Child's first & last name

Child's teacher

Siblings' names & teachers (inform other schools if older)

Date of exposure to close contact and/or date of symptoms and date of PCR test collected (not reported)

Send a screenshot of the PCR report when you receive it

The district has moved away from our individual letters to a dashboard which will be updated each Friday on the district website. You will no longer receive letters from the school.

VACCINES

• Vaccines are now readily available for all children ages 5 and up.

MASKS

• Send children in with clean CHILD SIZED masks daily. (Adult masks are not appropriate and do not fit.)

STAY HOME

• If a household member is sick or awaiting PCR test results, keep all children HOME.
• Keep sneezing and coughing children home.
• If you are questioning if your child is possibly ill, STAY HOME
• As per the district protocol, if a member of your household is symptomatic, all Edison students must stay home until that household member tests negative.
• These absences will be excused
• A doctor's note to return to school due to allergies/strep if a child was symptomatic is not sufficient. A negative COVID test must accompany the doctor's note.
• Do NOT give your children cough medicine and fever reducers and send your child to school. We are trying to keep everyone healthy.

COVID TESTS

• NO HOME TESTS are acceptable.
• If you take a rapid test, please also take a PCR test which is much more reliable.
• You must remain home while awaiting results of your PCR tests

CLASSROOM LINKS

• Only students who the school requires to stay home are permitted to listen via a classroom link. It is not available for everyone.
• This is not hybrid. There is no interaction between the students and teacher.
• The camera will only stay on during whole class instruction.