The Maple Glen Gazette

Maple Glen families,

We made it through a whole week of school! It has been such a joy to watch the magic of our staff combine with the excitement of your kids as they begin to really know their routines and know their classroom communities. A true team effort from school and home is necessary, especially here at the beginning of the school year!

We hope you'll join us next week for Parent Information Night for grades 1st-4th on: Thursday, August 22nd

Session 1 is 6:00-6:30

Session 2 is 6:35-7:05.

*Both sessions are the same and allow for flexibility if you have more than one child.

Also, if you ever notice a staff member going above and beyond for our school or your child, please don't hesitate to nominate them for a Rock Strong award! You can use this link to submit your nomination. These are awarded quarterly.

Have a great weekend as you welcome home some tired kids after a full week of school!

In partnership,

Mary Beth Fischer

Hello families!

What a great start to the year. It has been a great week of reconnecting with kids and meeting new students! Every once in a while I will share some information regarding safety, testing, or other building information.

Parent Drop off

Our parent drop offs in the mornings have been running smoothly so far this year! Both our kindergarten drop off and grades 1-4 drop off have settled into great routines. Continue to encourage your child to be ready to get out of the car when you pull up, and make sure they are getting out when you enter the drop off zone. This keeps our line moving.

So far, timing has been great in both areas. We start letting kids in the door at 7:35 for 1-4 and 7:40 for Kindergarten. Students are expected to be inside by 7:50. Please know that if you are pulling up at that time, students will be considered tardy. We do suggest being in line by 7:40 to assure on-time arrival.

If you pull up, and the drop off doors are already closed, please pull around the front and walk your child into the office. You will need your phone handy to sign them in.

Safety Snippet

This year as we have our safety drills, I will let you know in the newsletter so you know what we practiced.

We had our first fire drill of the year earlier this week! Everyone did a great job. To prepare the kids, we reviewed our procedures on announcements and reminded students (especially our kindergarten friends) that it was just practice. We tell students that their job is to stop, look, and listen to the teacher. They will quietly line up and evacuate the building. Once we get outside, they stay quiet and our teachers and staff will work to ensure everyone is accounted for. The kids always do a great job with these drills!

This year, we will conduct monthly drills. Most often we will have fire drills, but we will also have an ALICE drill and Severe Weather drill each trimester. I will be sure to share more information about these as we get closer to our first ones.

If you ever have any questions about our safety drills and procedures, please feel free to reach out to me.

Testing Tidbits

Next week, our window for NWEA begins for grades K-4. MAP Growth is an adaptive assessment that measures your childs' achievement and growth in math and reading. The results help us understand how your children are performing, track student progress, and inform instructional strategies.

We will work to get this completed over the next few weeks. Once the district window closes, we will share results with families. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me.

Have a great weekend and I look forward to seeing our kiddos next week!

Libby Baud

Assistant Principal

317-896-4700 Ex) 17012

baudl@wws.k12.in.us

Dear families,

This year I will continue to offer small skill-based groups for our students. Group counseling is an excellent way for children to learn new skills, develop self-confidence, become more aware of others’ views, practice new behaviors, and better understand how to deal with problems life presents. Groups will be based on skills that have been identified as a need, such as coping skills for anxiety, friendship skills, resilience, and regulation.

The first group I will offer is called F.I.S.H. for K-4 students who are coping with Families In Separate Homes. This group is geared towards students whose families have recently gone through a separation or divorce. We will discuss feelings related to family changes as well as connecting with others who have had similar experiences. The groups will run for 6-8 sessions, each lasting about 20 minutes during the school day at a time that works best for the teachers and students. If you would like your child(ren) to participate, please fill out this FISH Google Form by August 30th. Fill out one form per child.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Thank you,

Nicole Newman

NewmanN@wws.k12.in.us

We are happy to announce that we will continue to offer food support again this year for families who can benefit from this assistance with the Nutrition Club! Through the Nutrition Club, our goal is to help feed our kiddos on the weekends when school breakfast and lunch is not available. We are so thankful to Open Doors of Westfield and Merciful HELP in Carmel for helping make this happen.

At the end of each week, your child will receive a small sack of food in his or her backpack. The sack will have two small breakfast meals, two small lunch meals, as well as a couple of snacks and drinks. All foods are shelf-stable, which means they do not need to be refrigerated. Examples of items are cereal, granola bars, macaroni and cheese, spaghettios, dried fruit and crackers.

The food is collected and distributed by Merciful HELP and Open Doors. If you have a concern about allergies or the quality of a product, please remove the item from the sack and contact me. We will do everything we can to assist you.

If you would like your child(ren) to participate in the Nutrition Club, please fill out this GOOGLE FORM. If your child(ren) participated last year, they are already on the list! If you do NOT want your child(ren) to participate this year again, please let me know.

We look forward to having your child participate in the program! If you have any questions or choose to no longer participate, please contact me at 317-896-4700 ext 17006 or NewmanN@wws.k12.in.us.

Thank you,

Nicole Newman

School Counselor

Grades K, 2, 3 will follow the Gold Schedule

Grades 1, 4 will follow the Green Schedule

If your child will be absent or late - Please call the attendance line and leave a message (317) 896-4700 ext 17001, or email mgesattendance@wws.k12.in.us

Please do this even if you let your child's classroom teacher know about the absence. This will ensure that our attendance secretary receives the information.

If you have a dismissal change, please let the front office know by 1:00pm. This gives the office enough time to notify your child is where they’re supposed to be at the end of the day! Please DO NOT leave dismissal changes on the attendance line.

To notify the front office of a dismissal change, call (317) 896-4700 ext 17011, or email:

mgesattendance@wws.k12.in.us

Maple Glen PTO is looking for room parents! Room parents are a vital part of a classroom and play a key role in communication between teachers/staff and parents. As a room parent you will lead class parties, contact additional volunteers to help with parties and other events, coordinate donations for the classroom’s carnival basket and plan birthday, holiday and Teacher Appreciation gifts/treats.

Please use the Sign Up Genius to volunteer by August 20.

Join us at Penn Station! See below for details!

We can't wait to welcome lunch visitors this year! Watch this space for a Sign Up Genius link in Late August!

A new application must be completed each school year. The Application for Free or Reduced Meals and Other Benefits is now available on-line by clicking the button below. You can also come to the Administration Building between the hours of 7 am - 4 pm to complete an application on-line. Please feel free to contact Suany Mariona Miranda, at (317) 867-8000 or via email at marionamirandas@wws.k12.in.us.

In an effort to constantly improve and enhance school safety, we use a visitor management system at all nine WWS schools. This comprehensive system will enhance our school entrance security and better ensure that every visitor to our schools is permitted and authorized to be in our school buildings.

Background checks are good for four years at any school in the district. These background checks will cost $12.95 and can be acquired via the link below.

Talking Points Messaging Service

Westfield Washington Schools is now using TalkingPoints to communicate with families! TalkingPoints allows for seamless multilingual two-way communication between teachers and families. Families can choose to receive messages via SMS text messaging or through the free FAMILIES | TalkingPoints mobile app for Apple or Android.

This platform has enhanced translation capabilities, so families can receive and send messages in their preferred language. Additional tools like speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and closed captioned videos make this program accessible to all of our Westfield families.

The most important thing you can do to ensure you are receiving messages from your child’s teacher is to make sure your contact information for the “Father” and “Mother” fields in PowerSchool is correct. When a teacher sends out a message, TalkingPoints will automatically use those two phone numbers. If you’d like to add additional contacts, please reach out to your child’s teachers.

The WHS softball team is hosting their 2nd annual skills camp for 3rd-6th graders. Please check out the flyer for more information. Link to register is below.

https://westfieldsoftballcamp.com

Website: mge.wws.k12.in.us
Location: 17171 Ditch Road, Westfield, IN, USA
Phone: 317-896-4700
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Maple-Glen-Elementary-153896671714866/
Twitter: @shakeleaves