February was fast and furious! It is hard to believe there is only ONE more week left until spring break and then we will be in the 4th quarter already!

We had a lot of fun this month with our Pie in the Face assembly (pictures and videos coming soon!), Valentine's Day parties, Starbase for 5th grade, Preschool's 100th day, and National School Counselor Week! We also did a lot of learning and focused on working together to take our learning deeper! We are so glad we got to share all of the amazing things that your students are doing during Parent/Teacher Conferences this month as well! Over 96% of families showed up on the two conference days! It takes a village to help students be successful so we are so grateful for your partnership!

We also saw over this past month or so, evidence that Whitson is a special community that supports each other like a family and it is clear in some stories you'll read more about below!

There are a LOT of events coming up in March and they start next week so please read carefully!

Warrior families,

Mr. Ramon has officially retired and is no longer at Whitson in the building operator capacity. We are so happy for him to have more time with his family, but sure miss that smile around here! We are hoping he will get to come back in a "foster grandparent" type role so we will still get to see him sometimes! 🤞 Please join us in wishing him well in this next chapter!

WOW! The goal for this fundraiser was to raise $1,000 for the Reynolds family, but we surpassed that goal in just one week. The final total was just over $2,500. We are so, so proud to be part of a community that shows up for each other in times of need. Thank you to everyone who donated and to Miss Holmes for organizing this event. The Reynolds family is beyond grateful for Whitson's generosity! Isaac also drew this thank you card especially for our Whitson community!

Hannah, in 5th grade, won 2nd place in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Living the Dream art competition! Check this out!

Miss Putthoff taught her Kindergarten class a structure called Rally Coach, where students coach each other. Look how well they are working together!

5th grade has been having a great time at Starbase this month!

Whitson had fun during our Valentine's Day parties! Check out a couple pictures from Miss Holmes in 3rd grade and Ms. Wodtke in Kindergarten!

February is dental health month so Mrs. Schwinn has been researching about animal teeth facts and comparing to our teeth with 2nd grade. They read the book picture below and then tried on some animal Teeth to see how they would look with those types of teeth.

Preschool celebrated their 100th day of school. They counted out 100 cheerios, counted to 100 while exercising and made fabulous hats! Preschool is 100 days smarter!

We celebrated our most recent Staff VIP Winner… Miss Kristy! Miss Kristy always has a smile and a positive attitude and is such a bright light for everyone she comes across. She is an integral part of our STRIVE program and cares so deeply about our students! Recently she was overheard having a “You’re the best!” “No, you’re the best!” battle with a student - this is just a small glimpse into how she is able to build relationships with students and how much they love her! Congratulations, Miss Kristy! We are so proud to have you at Whitson!

Whitson is full of some rockstars! Thank you to Miss Jacobs and Ms. Ridley for organizing a ROCKING spirit week! It's safe to say students had fun with the photo booth!

Mrs. Dayo and Mrs. Bolejack’s 5th grade class did a science experiment! They loved it! We loved hearing the “space talk” and vocabulary between the kids.

Our students loved the tumbling and gymnastics stations in PE! Check out these photos from Kindergarten and 1st grade and this video from 3rd and 4th grade!

We celebrated our most recent second chance drawing winners and the beautiful weather with ice cream sandwiches outside! Way to go, Warriors!

Ms. Navas’ 2nd grade class has been working on an Andy Warhol inspired art project and ELA activity!

Drop Everything and Read (DEAR) time in Miss Mendez’ 4th grade class! They are using Beanstack to track their minutes and reading and are loving it!

Miss Rowan’s 2nd grade class had a guest speaker - Aspen! She taught them how to write a story using the story of breakfast. During the fall she is in the Fae Realm at the Renaissance Festival.

It took Stuco multiple days to pack all of the items from the food drive into boxes. We couldn't have done it without their leadership! Check out how many boxes it takes 1,865 items to fit into!

Check out Whitson in the news! We were featured on WIBW’s Good Kids segment!

Our Certified Support Staff

Our certified support staff includes a wide range of people and expertise that helps all of our Warriors be successful on a daily basis! From speech language pathologists to interventionists to mental health professionals and everywhere in between, these staff play a huge part in what we do here at Whitson! While they have the areas they specialize in, they are also always willing to jump in to help at a moment's notice and, without them, students would not be able to make the progress they do! We are so grateful for all that they do to support our Warriors!

Click each picture below to learn more about our incredible certified support team!

• March 1: Pie in the Face Assembly!
• March 4-8: Spirit Week
• March 4: PTO, 6:00-7:00 - DATE CHANGE!
• March 5: 2nd and 3rd Grade Music Program, 6:00-7:00
• March 7: Papa John's Night
• March 11-15: NO SCHOOL, Spring Break
• March 18: NO SCHOOL
• March 18: Kindergarten Spanish Enrichment Application Day
• March 26: Whitson Chick-Fil-A Night! Cow and Spin the Wheel from 5:00-7:00
• March 27: SPMT, 4:00-5:00
• March 27: Indigenous Family Night at Jardine Middle School, 5:30-6:30
• March 29: NO SCHOOL

• April 1: Grace Med Dental
• April 2: PTO, 6:00-7:00
• April 4: Papa John's Night
• April 11: Kindergarten Orientation, 5:30-6:30
• April 18: Field Day
• April 19: NO SCHOOL
• April 22-26: BOGO Book Fair
• April 23: Pie Five Whitson Night
• April 23: Middle School Orientation for 5th Grade Families, 5:30-6:30
• April 23: K-1 Music Program, 6:00-7:00
• April 25: 3-5 Breakfast with Buddies, 7:45-8:30 AM
• April 26: Warrior Run and Carnival, 5:00-7:30
• April 29: NO SCHOOL

Want all of these dates easily accessible and to be able to check if anything changes? Access our school calendar on the Whitson website! There, you can add the calendar to your own or even sign up for email alerts if something changes using the menu with the < sign above Saturday!

Keep an eye out for this year’s yearbook order form to come home! You can also use the link or QR code to place an online order.

https://link.entourageyearbooks.com/my/whitson2024

You should have received information about school fees at parent/teacher conferences. You can log in to Synergy to pay them online or bring a cash or check to the office and pay them here. Please contact the office with any questions!

Do you have a passion to help others and work with children in your community? Do you need the flexibility to choose your own days and hours? YWCA Northeast Kansas needs you to come and help us to grow! We are looking for awesome people to help us staff our Kids Quest before and after school care programs. Kids Quest programs are located at specific elementary schools in the 501 district. Pay starts at $15 per hour. Flexible hours, employee discount. View openings here.

Did you know Topeka High has a clinic that is open to all USD 501 students and their household family members? Check out the photo below for more information as well as this video.

We are going to focus on:

• Kindergarten: Learning and speaking the magic words in Spanish.
• 1st grade:: Learning and speaking interesting things about our brain.
• 2nd grade: Speaking how to use less energy in our daily lives.
• 3rd grade: Reading and writing about life in Peru.
• 4th grade: Learning and writing about times of the day.
• 5th grade: Reading and writing about strange plants.

One strategy that we use frequently at Whitson is precorrection. This strategy is all about anticipating what might be challenging for a student and getting ahead of it by reminding them what we expect to see. This could be as simple as giving a student or whole class a reminder that it is almost time to clean up and transition from an activity. See the examples below of how we might use precorrection here at Whitson.

This comes directly from our Ci3T (Comprehensive Integrated 3 Tiered Model of Support) plan, which supports the whole child, from academics to socially-emotionally to behaviorally. You can learn more about the whole plan here.

At Whitson, we practice the Warrior Way at all times, which is:

• Self-Awareness
• Compassion
• Respect
• Responsibility

The Warrior Way helps us make good choices with our behavior and show kindness to others. This month our focus is on RESPECT. Check out the picture below to see all the ways we show respect at school and talk with your Warrior about how you can show respect at home or out in public. We cannot wait to see who our Outstanding Warriors in Respect will be!

In addition to the Warrior Way, at Whitson, we also believe our learning is P.R.I.C.E.less, which stands for

• P - Perseverance
• R - Reflection
• I - Innovation
• C - Curiosity
• E - Embrace the Challenge

Our P.R.I.C.E. language describes how we learn at Whitson. This month and next we are focusing on EMBRACING THE CHALLENGE. Look below for what we expect from our Warriors when embracing the challenge. Then, talk with your Warrior about times you have embraced challenges and how it has helped you learn more. We cannot wait to see who will win the P.R.I.C.E. award for being an Outstanding Warrior in Embracing Challenge!

Save the date! Enrollment for the 2024-2025 school year will open online in April 2024. Families are encouraged to register early, as we anticipate classes filling up quickly again this year.

Information regarding enrollment, school supply lists, and other items for families to prepare for next year will be available in April at topekapublicschools.net. View the 2024-2025 Academic Calendar here.

As a reminder, returning families will receive an email to register their students from Synergy Student Information System and enroll through ParentVue. Families new to Topeka Public Schools will create a new account and register online.

Click the link below to view the calendar in both English and Spanish for the 2024-2025 school year.

TEXT MESSAGING SERVICE SENDS ALERTS TO TOPEKA PUBLIC SCHOOLS FAMILIES

Topeka Public Schools utilizes the SchoolMessenger system for web services and to deliver text messages to families in the district. Alerts come straight to your mobile phone with important information about school events, school closings, and more.

Parents and guardians can participate in this free service by sending a text message of "Y" or "Yes" to the TPS short code number, 67587. You can also opt-out of these messages at any time by simply replying "stop" to one of our messages.

View our communications document to learn more about how Topeka Public Schools communicates with families throughout the school year. Don't forget to follow us on social media! We're active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

Please see the document below to learn all about the crisis drills we do at Whitson so that we are prepared in the case of emergency. These drills are mandated for us to do by the state of Kansas.

Synergy Mail has been amazing for us because we can send messages from our phones; however, Synergy does not have the capability to send text messages.

You can:

• Sign up for School Messenger and receive texts that way by sending a text message of "Y" or "Yes" to the TPS short code number, 67587. You can also opt-out of these messages at any time by simply replying "stop" to one of our messages.

AND/OR

• Download the Parent Vue app from your phone's app store and set up push notifications so those notifications appear directly on your phone.

To complete the review:

1. Go to greatschools.org
2. Locate the school through the search bar
3. Click on the review icon.

Thank you for helping promote the many positives in our schools.

Dear Parents,

We would like to invite all of the parents of Whitson students to attend our PTO meetings. These meetings are held on the second Tuesday of each month at 6pm in the library. We believe that the partnership between school and home is critical to student success and truly believe that YOU can make a difference. Please consider joining us!

PTO helps raise funds for many school projects such as PE and recess equipment, classroom libraries, and field trips! Come to a meeting or contact us to see what options are available for extra help.

Please e-mail us with questions! ptowhitson@gmail.com

Thank you,

Whitson PTO

President: Chelsea Douglas

Vice President: Taylor Phelps

Secretary: Katherine Phelps

Treasurer: Helen Swan

This dynamic resource will take advantage of leading technology resources to connect with parents, students, and other community members. Using existing tools, streamlining access to information, allowing parents and the community to customize the information they receive and engage users with timely and responsive news and conversation about our schools and students.

The TPS Mobile App is free and available for both Apple and Android devices. Just search for Topeka Public Schools in the App Store or Google Play, or click on the convenient links below to go directly to the app download.

TPS will be partnering with Kansas Central School Bus in implementing a free school bus routing parent notification App and website service. This program will allow you to view the real-time location of your child's school bus on your device.

This App is free and available for both Apple and Android devices. Just search for Here Comes the Bus in the App Store or Google Play, or click on the convenient links below to access the app download site.

More information regarding this service will be mailed to you along with you bus route information the first full week of August.

How to get signed up:

1. Visit www.herecomesthebus.com or download the app to your smart phone or table from the Apple Store or Google Play.

2. Click the 'sign up' button.

3. Enter school code 29036 and click 'Next' followed by 'Confirm.'

4. Complete the 'User Profile' box.

5. Under 'My Students,' click 'Add.' Enter your child's last name and student ID number. If you do not know your student's ID number, please call Ms. Perkins in the office.

6. Once you confirm your information, you're ready to begin using Here Comes the Bus!

Email: kpierce@tps501.org
Website: https://whitson.topekapublicschools.net/
Location: 1725 Southwest Arnold Avenue, Topeka, KS, USA
Phone: 785-438-4570
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whitsontps