Southwood School News
December 2022
Grades 3 and 4 -- Winter Concert - December 8 - 2:00 p.m and 6:30 p.m - Grace Mennonite Church
Please attend the 2:00 p.m. show if you are able to. Seating at the Grace Church is limited to 400 guests per showing and we want to accommodate each students' immediate family members. So having some family attend the afternoon show will help us do that. Doors open at 1:30pm for the afternoon show and at 6:00 pm. for the evening show.
When arriving, students should go directly downstairs to their spots to get ready with their teachers. There will not be enough room for them to sit with their parents since we expect that seating will be limited. At the end of the concert, please wait a few minutes till all of the students are off the stage and back downstairs before you pick up your child. Since there are no costumes for the concert students should feel free to wear comfortable clothes for the concert. They may wear their "holiday outfits" if they wish for this event.
Celebrations Around the World -- Afternoon Show
Thursday, Dec 8, 2022, 02:00 PM
Grace Mennonite Church, Third Street, Steinbach, MB, Canada
RSVPs are enabled for this event.
Celebrations Around the World -- Evening Show
Friday, Dec 2, 2022, 06:30 PM
Grace Mennonite Church, Third Street, Steinbach, MB, Canada
RSVPs are enabled for this event.
Celebrating Southwood Diversity Through Out the Year
And every morning we gather as a school community via our Zoom announcements. We connect for 5 - 8 minutes, review the events for the day, tell a few jokes and sing O'Canada. In the new year, we are planning to create a weekly spot in our announcements to feature another language, cultural celebration or tradition. If you or your child would like to volunteer to help us do this, please let your child's teacher know. Your contribution would be featured in the morning announcements. Please let your child's teacher know if you or your child would like to contribute to our weekly representation of Southwood students and their families.
Collections for Helping Hands this Holiday Season
A Parent's Guide to Helping Your Child Learn to Read
Southwood School is committed to teaching your child to read. Lately we've been really focusing in on the methods we use to teach reading in order to do our job of teaching your child to read more effectively. As teachers, we've been studying phonics for the purpose of ensuring we know our stuff so that we can help students who struggle to make sense of the complexity of the English language. We've been working on creating a really great, balanced literacy program in each of our classes, using a tone of resources. Did you know that the Manitoba Government recommends that 35% of an elementary students' day is spent learning to read and write?
So how does home reading fit into this effort? According to many Literacy gurus, reading at home supports students learning in a bunch of ways. See the following excerpt from the Child Ventures Early Learning Academy...
Reading with your child offers the following benefits OUTSIDE of them simply learning to read:
- Letter recognition
- Memory
- Curiosity
- Language skills
- Motivation
- Attention/ concentration
- Emotional management
- Colour recognition
- Develops imagination
What is also true is that families are super busy. Many homes have multiple children in multiple activities. Parents are often working long hours, learning to speak and read English themselves or dealing with the business of running a household. Finding time to read with your children can be a challenge. Many of our teachers send home books for their students to read at home and we really feel that this short time of reading at home can make a huge difference to your child's learning. We always appreciate parent in put in our programming, and also understand the challenge of what we are asking of you as parents. Please take a minute to complete the following survey... it should take less than a minute to complete. Your feedback will help us decide how the school can support home reading going forward. We are not collecting any identifying information in the survey. Your feedback is anonymous.
Southwood PAC Fundraising Information and Contact Info
Southwood students and families sold $39,715.00 in gift cards during the November Fundraiser! This generated $1532.36 in funds for the playground and school upgrade plan! Thank-you to everyone who participated.
PAC is planning a Niakwa Pizza and Sweetness Colouring cookies fundraiser towards the end of January and beginning ofFebruary. Stay tuned! We are excited about these fundraising opportunities.
If you need to contact the PAC committee for any reason, please use the following email...SouthwoodParentCouncil@gmail.com
Shellyna Lipic who served as PAC co-chair for the 2021 - 2022 school year and for the fall of 2022 has resigned. Thanks to Shellyna for her work these past years. Melissa Nykoluk is continuing as her role as the PAC chair.
Regular Attendance and the Cold and Flu Season
In October and November Southwood students were absent at higher than usual rates. Various colds, flus and likely some viruses, familiar and unfamiliar were making the rounds. Absenteeism rates have dropped again in the last weeks and we hope to enter the holiday season a little healthier. Regular attendance is so important to learning and enjoying school. Below is a list of helpful tips for parents from the Manitoba Education Website dealing with students who may be reluctant to come to school or return after a few days of being sick at home.
What Parents/Family Can Do with Children...
Attending school regularly helps children feel better about school and themselves. Building good habits as early as pre-school can help you child's education throughout their school years.
- Help your child get organized for school the night before
- Have regular bed time routines
- Avoid scheduling medical appointments and vacations when school is in session
- Follow personal health practices that reduce the risk of your child becoming ill
- Don’t let your child stay home unless he or she is really sick. Keep in mind that stomach aches or headaches can be a sign of stress or anxiety and not a reason to stay home.
- Talk to your child about the importance of going to school everyday
- Set an example of what good attendance looks like
- Read to your child from a very early age. Students who are good readers tend to stay in school longer and achieve higher academic scores.
Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers -- Helping us learn...
This winter and spring, we will again connect and partner with Elders and Knowledge Keepers for the purpose of learning, building relationships and honoring the contributions of our Indigenous communities. We will welcome them to teach us about a variety of topics in Science, Social Studies, English Language Arts. We also know that we learn many other life lessons from our Teachers and Elders - sometimes those lessons are the most important.
As always, we want to connect with parents and community partners to contribute to our learning. If you would like to join us in this partnership, as we do our part in the ongoing mission for Truth and Reconciliation, please contact Ms. Thiessen (Principal) at the school. You can email or call at mthiessen@hsd.ca or 204-326-3518.
Hanover Parent Child Community Program
We are a parent child play-based program that runs Tuesday mornings from 9:15 to 11:45 and Thursday afternoons from 1:00 to 3:30. Children will have the opportunity to play, learn, create, sing, and develop skills to prepare them for kindergarten.
Children ages 0-5 are welcome. You do not need to have a child attending the school, so feel free to invite other families that don’t have school aged children. Parents will be able to visit with other parents and participate in activities with their children. Programming is free and snacks will be provided.
Families can attend once or twice a week or drop by when able. We follow Hanover School Division’s calendar of in-services, holiday closures as well as hazardous/cold weather school closure. Our program is free to attend, and we can hardly wait to meet you!
Another Reminder about Avoiding a Change in end of Day Plans for your child
All changes to the end of day plans must be made by 3:00 p.m. on that day. Any calls after that time, may not be taken as there may not be enough time to ensure that the correct adults are notified of the change.
Upcoming Events
Dec. 5 - Rehearsals begin at the Grace Mennonite Church
Dec. 8 - Southwood Winter Concert ( Gr. 3 & 4) (At the Grace Mennonite Church)
Dec. 19 - Dress up week begins (see poster above)
Dec. 21 - Last day of classes before Winter Break
Jan. 5 - First Day back to school after the Winter Break