Wildcat Weekly!
Our first full week was amazing! Our arrival procedures to school each morning have been exceptional and safe! We thank you for your help in getting your students here and on time.
The Kindness Kickoff/Spirit Week was a success! Mr. DeMarco and Mrs. Norcross (pictured at left) spoke to all grade levels this week about our school wide expectations, what being responsible, respectful, and safe looks like, and outlined what it looks like to be kind. We have various Kindness initiatives planned for the school year...Random Acts of Kindness tickets, putting the 'I' in Kind (see picture below), and other programs focused on the overall theme of being kind to each other every day. Our students were amazing during these assemblies! They were able to verbalize 'what it looks like' to be safe, respectful, responsible, and kind in many different situations.
This week we received a very generous donation of school supplies from representatives from the Clark's Landing Yacht Club, The Mill Lakeside Manor, and The Bradford Estate. Mr. DeMarco accepted the donation from Ms. Nicole Hoffman on Thursday (pictured below). Walnut Street thanks you for this random act of kindness!
Back to School Night will be on September 19. Please view the letter on ParentSquare. Parking will be in the back of the school and please enter through Door 12. Members of Toms River High School North's Hispanic Heritage Club will be on hand. Please visit our PTO Table, our Scholarship Committee Table, and our PBSIS Committee Table. Fundraising items will be on sale. We will see you there!
As you know, in every newsletter you will see a 'PTO Corner' below for PTO happenings and events.. Please follow their Instagram handle...it is incredible!
Free and Reduced Lunch information links are below in English and Spanish:
- Links in English:
School Cafe Website - https://www.schoolcafe.com/
Instructions for Filling Out Free and Reduced Lunch Forms - https://www.trschools.com/parents/docs/2022/08/22_23-SchoolCafe_Eligibility_Quick_Card.pdf
Letter from District - https://www.trschools.com/parents/docs/2024/08/2024_2025-CEP-School-Meals-and-Summer-EBT-Application-_-English.pdf
En Espanol:
School Cafe Website: https://www.schoolcafe.com/
Instructions for Filling Out Free and Reduced Lunch Forms: https://www.trschools.com/parents/docs/2022/08/SchoolCafe_Eligibility_Quick_Card___Spanish.pdf
We are excited to bring monthly Kindness themes into the school year. Students will learn about Kindness, Respect, Gratitude, Generosity, Citizenship, Compassion, Forgiveness, Inclusion, Integrity, and Social and Self Awareness over the course of the school year. These themes will be reinforced by classroom lessons but forth professionals from Preferred Behavioral Health, an organization that serves Monmouth and Ocean Counties. The program COMPASS will be for grade levels and will occur for one period each month on one Friday per month. We are excited to have this as a resources for our students this year.
Download the ParentSquare app today! Please see fliers below.
Next Friday we will begin our Positive Behavior Support System to recognize our students who are Responsible, Respectful, and Safe. Each week we will have teachers and staff give tickets to students who they see showing responisble, respectful, and safe behavior. Students place their tickets into our bucket by grade level and each Friday, we randomly pull tickets to recognize our students. They win fun prizes and are featured in each week's newsletter. Tickets are then placed in our school wide ROAR ticket bin (pictured below)...check out how many tickets we earned last year.
Have a great weekend!
Buy a Birthday Gram and Bucket of Fun Today!
'Birthday Grams' are on sale now and we be available for sale at Back to School Night (please bring cash to purchase). You can also purchase by viewing the flier below. Birthday Grams are a way to recognize your child's birthday. For only $5, your child will receive a birthday message from you and receive a special goodie bag filled with trinkets and a birthday message.
Buckets of Fun is also a great way to get involved and will be exciting for your child. This is a raffle where students can win fun and exciting prizes. Raffle prizes include: teacher assistant for a period, lunch with a teacher, extra art class, McDonald's Happy Meals, 5th Grade Moving Up Ceremony VIP parking (5th grade only), front row seating for the 5th Grade Moving Up Ceremony (5th grade only), preferred seating for the fall and spring chorus concert, preferred seating for the band/orchestra concerts, and preferred seating for the school Drama Production. Tickets will be on sale at Back to School Night.
All proceeds will support our PBSIS Committee and our many Walnut Street positive behavioral and social/emotional initiatives!
As you know, district and school communication are vitally important. Here at Walnut Street Elementary School, we use various means of communication. ParentSquare is a communication app that we use to get information out quickly to our school community. It is a great idea to download the ParentSquare app to your Smartphone and make sure you use banners, sounds, badges, and push notifications so you know a message was sent. ParentSquare also sends an email to you when something is posted and can also translate into any language. Please download the app today!
Finally, the school has an active Instagram Account that we post the many happenings at Walnut Street. This account has over 360 followers. On this handle, we post amazing pictures and video of the goings on during the school year. Please follow us on Instagram: @wsewildcats
Mrs. Yodonis received a "Engaging Through Flexible Seating" project for her classroom from Donors Choose.
We would like to thank the following donors:
Jason Richards (New Jersey)
Mrs. Parks received a "Classroom Essentials Shipment" for her classroom from Donors Choose.
We would like to thank the following donors:
Anonymous (Somerset NJ)
Mrs. Decker received a "Classroom Essentials Shipment"" for her classroom from Donors Choose.
We would like to thank the following donor:
Mehadi Chowdhury
Ms. Anello received a "Self-Sooth and Self-Regulate" project for her classroom from Donors Choose.
We would like to thank the following donors:
Rosemarie Anello
Eugene Valendo (Maryland)
Frank Valendo (New Jersey)
Marilyn Huschak (New Jersey)
Anonymous (New Jersey)
Rezoe Family foundation
Raymond James Financial services
