Warrior News

April was a busy month and the rain/weather definitely impacted some of our plans, but as Warriors, we were able to be strong together and make the most of it! We had our BOGO book fair, our carnival, breakfast with buddies, and got to celebrate important staff!

May is filled with many fun activities, but we also still continue learning so please remember that attendance is critical to your student's success! We need students in school all day every day for these last couple weeks together! Students have already started doing their final round of MAP testing to see how much they've grown this year in both Math and Reading. Many field trips are also coming up. May will be fast so let's enjoy these last moments of the 2023-2024 school year together! Don't forget, the last day of school will be a HALF DAY on Tuesday, May 21st. Students will be dismissed at 11:30 am.

Online registration for the 2024-2025 school year is now open for students in grades PreK-12! Returning TPS families may register their students at this link or through the ParentVue app on a mobile device. Here is a how to for parents.

Families NEW to Topeka Public Schools will create a new account and register by following these instructions.

Families can view important dates for the 2024-2025 school year, a school supply list, and more at topekapublicschools.net on the Online Registration page

• May 2: Field Day Make-Up
• May 2: Papa John's Night
• May 2: Band and Strings Concert, 6:00-7:00
• May 3: Spirit Sticks for Sale, 9:00-9:35
• May 3: Camp Qu-Tu for 5th grade
• May 6-10: Teacher Appreciation Week
• May 7: PTO, 6:00-7:00
• May 10: Spirit Sticks for Sale, 9:00-9:35
• May 10: Talent Show, 1:00-3:00
• May 13-17: Spirit Week
• May 14: Panda Express Whitson Day
• May 15: Battle of the Books, 1:00 PM
• May 16: Preschool Graduation, 2:00 PM
• May 17: Spirit Sticks for Sale, 9:00-9:35
• May 17: Last day of Preschool
• May 20: 5th Grade Promotion, 2:00 PM
• May 21: Last day of school, day ends at 11:30 AM

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!

Our very own Miss HALLIE HURST received her distinguished staff award in the paraprofessional category during a beautiful ceremony at Bishop professional development center. Congratulations Miss HALLIE your Whitson family is so proud of you!

We celebrated our AMAZING paraprofessionals! If you haven’t spent much time in a school, you don’t realize how essential they are to its functioning. They are truly the glue that holds Whitson together. They show up daily with a smile and support students, helping them be successful both in and out of class. Without them and what they do for students, we would be lost. One day of celebration is not nearly enough to show them how much we appreciate them and their dedication, but we hope they felt how grateful we are a little extra!

We celebrated school lunch hero day! We could not function as a school without these wonderful ladies making sure that lunch and breakfast are always prepared and ready for students. Those times go smoothly because of everything they do. They get to know kids, do fun activities with them, and are always a positive face and smile each day. Thank you for everything you do, you truly are lunch heroes!

We celebrated Principal’s Day and we had so much fun sending Mrs. Pierce on a wild goose chase where she had to complete missions around the school with all the grade levels! This allowed her to be having fun with the kids, one of her favorite parts of the job! We are so grateful to have Mrs. Pierce leading us and helping cultivate the Whitson family we all love so much!

Her missions included:

📖Reading a book to preschool and kindergarten

🎢Being a kid again at recess with 1st grade

💃Doing a GoNoodle dance video with 2nd grade

🎤Singing karaoke with 3rd grade

📣Getting into a cheer battle with 4th grade

⭐Showing her Whitson pride and leading 5th grade in a school chant

It was a fun day! Thank you for everything you do for us, Mrs. Pierce!

We would like to give a huge THANK YOU to everyone who helped organize and make the carnival successful and those that came out to support! We know rescheduling wasn’t ideal, but safety is our top priority and it ended up being such an amazing day with an incredible turnout! Thank you to all of our vendors, sponsors, and volunteers!

Miss Courtney’s son Icarus is part of the teaching pathway at Topeka Center for Advanced Learning & Careers. For the Educator’s Rising competition, he wrote and illustrated his very own children’s book and won! Now he gets to go compete at the national competition in Washington, D.C.! As part of that, he had to read his book to real students so he can talk about how it went - Mrs. Burgardt’s 2nd grade class volunteered! It was so cool to watch how engaged students were and how they saw themselves represented throughout the book! Good luck at nationals, Icarus!!

Mrs. Lyndelle's 4th grade class had so much fun at their fourth class shield party! Shaving Cream, Glue, Paint, Confetti, Taki/Cheetos fingers and Hi-fives made for lasting memories at their class Messy party!!

We had so much fun showing all of our incoming kindergarteners how we are so Wild About Whitson at kindergarten orientation!

Preschool had a big Friday! Both classes got to make lightening bugs with glowsticks to wrap up our unit on bugs. Both classes earned their class reward, a bubble/chalk party! The PM class was joined by Miss Holmes' 3rd graders for their party. Miss Holmes has the coolest bubble gun! A fun-filled spring day!

In library, students have done a lesson on animal hybrids in 2nd-3rd grade using the book Animal Mash-Ups and then used Canva AI to create their own animal hybrid book cover. Here are some results.

5th grade enjoyed practicing their math skills in a collaborative team game with a mini deck of cards.

Kindergarten has had fun counting down the last days of school with their annual ABC countdown! Pictures include bubbles (B), chalk (C), and fitness (F)!

3rd grade had so much fun at the zoo!

Students got to test out their mini golf skills featuring Ms. G's very own putt-putt course! So fun!

There were some creepy crawlers in kindergarten and first grade's music program! They did such a great job and we loved getting to see them shine!

Spanish enrichment students have been building a 3D House that ended up looking so beautiful!

Text Features About Me ELA Project in Ms. Navas’ 2nd grade class!

Stuco worked hard to plant the new native flowers and plants in our Monarch Waystation garden. Thank you to the Topeka Zoo for this opportunity!

Even though we had to have Field Day inside, it was still such a fun day thanks to the amazing planning of Ms. G! Kids were definitely exhausted by the end of the day (and staff too)! Thank you to Ms. G and everyone else who helped make it such a success!

Our 3rd Grade Team

Third grade is often referred to as the year where kids switch from "learning to read" to "reading to learn," which means that this is a big transition year for students. With that transition often comes a lot of big feelings because learning is more challenging and they are going through so many changes. Our third grade team embraces and loves on students through those challenges. They help them continue to love learning, even when it is hard, and help students excel! They do so much for students and we are so grateful for them!

Click each picture below to learn more about our incredible third grade team!

As the weather gets nicer, please remember that there are no staff supervising out front during arrival until 8:15 AM. Please do NOT drop students off prior to this. THANK YOU!

Camp Season is upon us and the fact that it is getting closer and closer to summer makes this time of year fun and exciting!!

It is with EXCITEMENT that we wanted to invite you and your incredible athletes to our Youth Camp, that will be held on May 29th - May 31st from 9:00am-12:00pm at Lee Arena! The Boys & Girls Youth Camp will focus on core skill development, competitive game play, teamwork, and having fun! Washburn Basketball players will work with the coaching staff to provide specific instruction and demonstrations. All Campers will receive a t-shirt and a camp report card!! Camp specific details are listed below:

Grades: 2nd - 8th

When: May 29th - May 31st

Times: 9:00 am - 12:00 pm

Where: Lee Arena, Petro Allied Health Center, Washburn University Campus

Cost: $90 per camper

Walk up registration will be accepted however t-shirt sizes are limited.

Use this link to register: www.wusports.com/wbbcamps

We hope to see all of you there!! Go Bods!

Washburn Athletics is thrilled to announce our exciting lineup of summer camps, these are designed specifically for elementary and middle schoolers.

Our summer camps offer a unique opportunity for anyone to engage in a variety of sports activities and meet the student-athletes also, while making new friends and creating lasting memories.

Spaces are limited, so don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to have an unforgettable summer experience at Washburn Athletics. Enroll today to secure a spot!

All sports are offering camps this summer:

• Baseball

• Men's Basketball

• Women's Basketball

• Soccer

• Softball

• Football

• Volleyball

For more information and to register, visit the link below. We can't wait to welcome you to Ichabod Nation this summer!

Washburn Camps - Washburn University Athletics (wusports.com)"

Go Bods

News from Mrs. Schwinn will be in this section.

News from Ms. G will be in this section.

We are going to focus on:

Kindergarten: Learning about hobbies.

1st grade:: Learning about living places and building a house.

2nd grade: Reading and writing about living places and building a house.

3rd grade: Working on a project about a country in pairs and making a presentation.

4th grade: Working on a project about a country in pairs and making a presentation.

5th grade: Working on a project about a country in pairs and making a presentation.

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

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

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