December 2- Late Start (11:00 Arrival)

December 4- Chipotle Dine-Out Night

December 5- 3rd Grade Orff Concert

December 6- Grinch Day

December 18- Breakfast with Santa

December 23-Jan 5- Winter Break: NO SCHOOL

January 6- Late Start (11:00 Arrival)

i-Ready is an integral part of our curriculum for reading and mathematics. It enables your student's teacher(s) to identify their specific needs, personalize their learning, and track their progress throughout the school year. By meeting your student exactly where they are, i-Ready empowers your teacher(s) to enhance your student's learning gains. How to access my students' results.

* Login to your Parent Portal account and click on LunchTime
* You will see an option for "items, Fees, & Invoices"
* Click on that and "select" School Lunch Heroes
* Type in the donation amount and click "Add to Cart"
* Process payment as you normally would

Our school's Measurable Results Survey (MRA) data is in! Thank you to our families, staff, and students for participating in this survey. This survey has helped us identify strengths as well as areas where we can improve and track our school's overall progress. Click here (add your google doc link - ensure it is viewable to the public) to view our school's highlights. View district-wide survey results here.

Has your child's teacher made a significant impact on their education and life? Do you want to recognize a staff member who goes above and beyond? The WSD rolled out a new way to honor our staff, and it only takes a few minutes to do. Nominate a teacher or employee for a Wentzville Wow Factor Award anytime throughout the school year to let them know they are making a difference! Nominate a Staff Member.

As we approach the colder months, we want to re-share the District communication that has information regarding the WSD's inclement weather procedures for the 2024-25 school year. This year, snow days one and two will be traditional snow days. After our second snow day this year, we will switch to AMI (alternative methods of instruction) for snow days three through seven. Read more on what to expect this winter here. View AMI assignments here.

Dear Journey Elementary Family,

Throughout the duration of the academic year, the Wentzville School District partners with community agencies that specialize in providing students, families, and educators with preventative education. Agency presenters are credentialed, coordinated through the District, and under the supervision of building administrators. Presentation topics are targeted toward specific grade levels. All students will participate in each program unless you choose to opt your child out of the lesson(s). If you are interested in opting your student(s) out of the presentation(s), please click the appropriate link(s) below.

Kindergarten Opt-Out Form

First Grade Opt-Out Form

Second Grade Opt-Out Form

Third Grade Opt-Out Form

Fourth Grade Opt-Out Form

Fifth Grade Opt-Out Form

If you have additional questions, please reach out directly to your student’s guidance counselor.

Thank you,

Emily Dittmer, Principal

Elizabeth Herbert, Assistant Principal

Pam Lueders, K-2 Counselor pamelalueders@wsdr4.org

Abby Pedano, 3-5 Counselor abigailpedano@wsdr4.org

Erika Kennedy, Educational Support Counselor

If you're not receiving emails from WSD staff or schools, they might be landing in your spam folder. Learn more on how to fix that. You'll want to make sure you familiarize yourself with the district email domain: All district emails are delivered from: noreply@sis.wsdr4.org.

Important: In Focus, not all emails allow replies, depending on who sent them. Teacher communication: You can reply to emails from your student’s teacher(s). School / District communication: These emails may not receive replies directly and you may need to contact them directly.

This fall, teachers and reading interventionists will be conducting reading assessments with all students. These assessments help us plan lessons and identify students who might benefit from extra reading support. In addition, our building reading specialists will work with small groups of students. These flexible groupings are not the same as Reading Intervention, families will be contacted directly by their child's teacher if he/she qualifies for Reading Intervention. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to your child's classroom teacher.

If your child will need to take prescription or non-prescription medication during the school day, please contact Nurse Paula. Here is a link to the forms that must be filled out annually in order for us to administer medication at school. If you have any questions regarding medication or health services, our nurse’s email is paulamorrisey@wsdr4.org

Gingerbread Storytime Contest

Our Gingerbread Storytime contest begins December 2 and will end on December 16!

To enter into this contest, students will create a scene from their favorite picture or chapter book (no video games, tv shows, or movie entries will be accepted. Please note the book must have been created first, even if there is a movie) using gingerbread and other edible components to create a fun representation of this scene (Please no toys or other items that students did not create or decorate).

***Please note that books can be holiday themed, but do not have to be.***

Here are some book series/books (but not all the books) that WILL WORK for our contest:

Series:

Individual Holiday Book Ideas:

Here are some ideas that WILL NOT WORK:

• Characters from:

• Disney

• Marvel/ DC

• Lego

• Barbie

• My Little Pony

• Minecraft

• Sonic

• Mario

• Star Wars

• Scooby Doo

• Pokemon

• Anime Shows

If you are worried at all about your student’s choice of book feel free to email me BEFORE you begin creating your Gingerbread Scene. Right now there are a large variety of gingerbread kits at Hobby Lobby, Michaels, Target, Walmart, and even a few at Aldi's! After decorating their entries, students will bring in their gingerbread scenes with a copy of the book or a picture of the book and the entry form.

Entries will be split into categories based on grades and the winner of each category will receive a free book of their choosing and 100 house points! All students who enter will receive house points for participating and a goody bag of prizes.

Our categories will be:

• K-1

• 2-3

• 4-5

• Friends/Family

• Staff

• Best Reason Why

We encourage all students that enter to do their own decorating in our age specific categories in order to keep everything fair for each age group. In our family category students are encouraged to work with you and the rest of your family members to create one fun entry. Student groups will be entered in the family category if there are no other student friend entries to be judged against.

3rd-5th grade Reading Challenges:

3rd Grade: 30-book reading challenge

JES library is excited for our ongoing 30-Book Genre Challenge for 3rd grade! This year-long project is designed to push students beyond their current comfort levels as readers and encourage them to explore the wide variety of books available.

*Your student will be encouraged to participate and have a goal of reading 30 books over the course of the 2024-25 school year.

*Students will choose their books to read within each genre criteria and complete a book review, where your parent signature is required. The genre requirements are as follows:

2 - Adventure

2 - Fantasy

2 - Historical Fiction

2 - Scary

2 - Humor

2 - Mystery

2 - Realistic Fiction

5 - Nonfiction

4 - Biography

3 - Poetry

1 - Graphic Novel

3 - FREE Choice

*Once a book has been read, students will complete a book review and obtain a parent signature. The book review will be turned into the library, where the student can track their progress on their participation log.

*Students who complete this reading program will be celebrated in the Spring.

We want to encourage students to discover a love for reading and appreciate your support of this new program! Should you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please email: christineblecher@wsdr4.org

4th-5th Grade: Mark Twain Awards:

We highly encourage our 4th and 5th grade students to read Mark Twain Award nominees. If your student reads four of the nominees and passes their quizzes they will get to come to our party in March and get to vote! Here is more information on the Mark Twain nominees, and how to earn our party.

Hummingbird Virtual Author Visit:

We are incredibly excited to announce that Natalie Lloyd, author of Mark Twain award nominee Hummingbird will be chatting with our 4th and 5th grade students on Wednesday December 11! Some teachers have already begun reading the novel with their students, if they have not we encourage your students to read the book on their own before our visit as we will have a questions and answers session with Mrs. Lloyd during our virtual visit. You can find the book in our library, on Sora, and at the public library ( I loved listening to the novel on Sora as Mr

Visitors:

• Eat lunch with your child
• Attend a class party
• Attend assemblies
• Be a guest speaker

How can you participate as a visitor?

Visitors can show up on the day of the event/activity/lunch and check in to our buildings using Raptor, a visitor management system designed to assist with building security. Part of keeping students and staff safe is knowing who is in our building at all times.

• When you arrive in a WSD building as a visitor, you will be asked to scan your ID and complete the management system’s check-in process.
• Raptor will screen the information against sex offender databases and locally customized lists of banned or potentially threatening individuals, instantly alert school officials to a threatening presence, and maintain a searchable log of all visitors.
• Once approved, you will get a customized visitor badge to wear while in the building.

Thank you for your support of our enhanced school safety protocols!

Volunteers:

• Work with students individually or in small groups under the supervision of the teacher or staff member
• Work inside the school, assisting staff with projects (PTA/PTO Officers, etc.)
• Work/organize field day activities
• Be a room parent, organize class parties
• Attend field trips - work with students individually or in small groups under the supervision of the teacher or staff member

How can you participate as a volunteer?

• Volunteers must register with the Family Care Safety Registry (FCSR). It provides a more extensive background check than our Raptor system, and is needed for volunteers who spend more individual time with students than our visitors.
• One-time, lifetime fee of $15.25. It is the responsibility of the volunteer to cover this one-time, lifetime fee. The online registration process can be found at FCSR-BSEES - MO.gov. (NOTE: This registration process CANNOT be completed on a mobile browser/device.)
• Once FCSR online registration is complete, you must submit a paper WSD Volunteer Registration Form A and B to the school office. When you arrive in a WSD building to turn in your forms, you will be asked to scan your ID and complete the Raptor visitor management system’s process as part of your volunteer registration. If you send your forms in to school with your child, or send them to the school office via email, please include a copy of your valid personal ID.
• Your approved volunteer status is accessible district-wide; you only need to turn in your forms to one WSD school.
  
• A new WSD Volunteer Registration form will be required each school year to run a current background screening if you would like to participate in volunteer opportunities.

Please note, the wait time for the FCSR Registration to be processed and for the District to be notified can be up to four weeks. We recommend completing this process as early as possible.

For complete information on volunteering in WSD schools, please visit the District website.

Emily Dittmer-Principal

emilydittmer@wsdr4.org

Liz Herbert-Assistant Principal

elizabethherbert@wsdr4.org

Journey Elementary

2000 Interstate Drive

Wentzville, MO 63385

636-445-5190