Woodridge in December
Throw kindness around like confetti
Portage Community School District Goals
District Curriculum Goal: Each student will make at least one year of growth in each curriculum area.
District Behavior Goal: As a school community, we will increase behaviors that promote learning and respectful interactions.
District Professional Development Goal: We will provide Professional Development for staff that increases learning for all students.
Mrs. Thistle's Thoughts...
2019-20 PCSD Goals
1-Students will make a year’s worth of growth
2-We will increase positive behaviors
3-We will provide professional development opportunities for staff
Summarize the needs assessment on which the Schoolwide Plan is based:
A comprehensive needs assessment of the entire school based on the information which includes the achievement of children as a systematic effort involving multiple stakeholders to acquire an accurate and thorough picture of strengths and weaknesses of the school community, thus identifying student needs through a variety of information-gathering techniques. During the summer, staff reviewed the district’s three goals and needs were determined through our assessment data, behavioral data, and attendance reports. Woodridge staff reviewed relative data and created a goal and an action plan in the summer of 2019. Staff have been reviewing the data at monthly staff meetings and weekly PLC meetings.
Strategies selected to improve instruction for all children, with a focus on the needs of children most at risk:
Intentional whole group instruction
Specific, posted learning objectives per academic area
Differentiated small group or 1:1 instruction
Small group teaching and reteaching
Computer-assisted programs for skill review and practice
Volunteer support
Woodridge Primary School offers numerous remediation opportunities within and beyond the instructional day, including:
Reading interventions during the school day
Instructional staff including paraprofessionals delivering small group and 1:1 instruction to flexible groups
Summer School programs
School-wide Volunteers
Teaching and reteaching
The Principal uses informal and formal observations to determine professional learning needs in math, reading, and behavior supports for classroom teachers
Teachers are engaged in the PLC process
Individual plans for students in our subgroups
Students set goals
WIN time for each student
Feedback
Please contact Salina Thistle if you have feedback about these goals or would like to help us review them. 608.742.3494 ext 3001
Thank you for your support of our school!
Mark Your Calendars
17th: Holiday Concert Practice 12-2 PM
17th: Holiday Concert 5-8 PM (Arrival K: 4:45 PM / 1st: 6:45 PM)
20th: Assembly in the gym
23rd-Jan 1st: Christmas Break
Administrative Assistant Notes
Just a friendly reminder
School starts at 8:00 a.m. If students arrive after 8:00 a.m then an adult needs to walk the child into the office to sign them in, the student will then receive a pass to give to their teacher.
Reporting an absence
Please contact Ashley Gumz in the Woodridge office before 8:15 a.m. if your child will be absent. 608.742.3494 ext. 3003
When should your child stay home?
Now that winter is here, we know that cold and flu season usually arrives with it. Many times parents are not sure whether they should send their child to school because they have a cold. The most important thing to remember is that if your child has a fever, it means that his or her body is trying to fight off something. They need to be fever-free for 24 hours without any medication before they return to school, per our School District Policy.
Changes in Bus/Pick-up
Please send a note with your child in their folder or call before 2:30pm if there is a change in the way they normally go home.
Ready.. Set.. Find that winter clothing!
Oh No! The cold weather season is here! Per state law, all students are required to go outside for recess unless they have a doctor’s excuse. If the temperature or wind chill is below 0 degrees Fahrenheit, recess will be held indoors. Please send students to school with hats, gloves or mittens, snow pants and boots. Students without snow pants and boots will need to stay on the blacktop to help keep them dry. All students should have a change of clothes in their backpack just in case!
Infinite Campus
It is important that your information on Infinite Campus Portal is up to date.
We use this information to contact you for various reasons. One example is when your child is sick or hurt at school.
Please check the following:
* Is your address correct?
* Is your email correct?
* Are your telephone numbers correct?
* Are your emergency contacts correct?
Click the link below to check and update your information.
Breakfast/Lunch Menu
Music Notes
All of our students have been working hard on their holiday program songs. Don’t forget our program is Dec. 17 at the Portage High School auditorium. That date is coming up fast. Along with practicing for our concert the Kindergarten students are learning about a new instrument, the melody bells. They are playing their melody bells following the music notation as the class sings along with them. They are also exploring the range of their voices with vocal roller coasters and a following the sound of the slide whistle. We use my puppets to work on solo singing voices. The First Graders are playing boom wackers to the beat of the music they hear. They are learning that a large boom wacker has a low sound and the smaller boom wackers have the higher sound.
Physical Education
Art Warriors
Reading Activity- Story, Snacks, and Snuggles
Snack: Pete the Cat Cookie
Use frosted blue cookie for Pete’s face
Use small pretzel sticks for whiskers
Use candies for eyes and nose
Use graham crackers for ears
Snuggles: Grab a blanket and curl up with your child, enjoy a story and make memories
Counselor's Corner
It is that time of year again, when we hope that we have successfully taught our children the importance of a grateful attitude. Kids who are taught to be grateful tend to have less stress, are happier, perform better at school, have less health issues, have stronger relationships with peers and family, and are less focused on material things. Below are 7 ways that we can foster gratitude in our children.
Seven Ways to Foster Gratitude in Kids
1. Model and teach gratitude
Our children want to be like us. We provide the blueprint for what to say and what to do and in what contexts. Expressing gratitude through words, writing, and small gifts or acts of reciprocity are all ways to teach children how to become grateful. Doing this will help make your appreciation for the goodness in your life more public, showing your kids that blessings abound and that being thankful is a valued attitude. Adults can promote gratitude directly in children by helping them appraise the benefits they receive from others—the personal value of those benefits, the altruistic intention of people providing them, and the cost to those people. This helps kids think gratefully.
2. Spend time with your kids and be mindful when with them.
Another way to spell love is T-I-M-E. Believe it or not, children and, yes, even adolescents, like being with their parents. Giving a child a lot of quality time with you teaches them the language of love—life’s greatest gift. Savor every moment together, big and small, and rid yourself of distractions at such times, including your smartphone. Being mindful helps you maintain empathy toward a child, and this provides important modeling of empathy, the most important emotion for developing gratitude and moral behavior. It will also give you and your child a heightened sense of appreciation for the things both of you love and for your relationship.
3. Support your child’s autonomy
Using an authoritative or democratic parenting style, which is firm, yet flexible, supports children’s autonomy. This will enhance family relationships, improve the atmosphere at home, and help bring out their strengths and talents, all good for making grateful kids. By taking ownership over their skills and talents and being responsible for developing them, children gain things to appreciate in life and make it easier to attract support from others, thus inviting gratitude into their daily life. Also, limiting children’s media consumption and guiding them to use media in prosocial ways protects them from commercial influences that discourage the development of the authenticity, self-development, and social interaction necessary to grow into positive, purposeful, grateful individuals.
4. Use kids’ strengths to fuel gratitude
After you’ve identified your children’s top strengths and you know their unique strengths profile, you should encourage and help them to use those strengths whenever possible. Not only does this open up opportunities for others to contribute to the things your children love, but it also enables your children to strengthen their ability to be helpful and cooperative toward others, which will make them more grateful. To directly promote gratitude, encourage and help your children to use their strengths to thank and be kind to others.
5. Help focus and support kids to achieve intrinsic goals
It’s very easy for people, especially youth, to pursue extrinsic—or materialistic—goals such as desiring or having possessions that show wealth, status, or convey a certain image. This usually leads to less fulfilling social relationships and forecloses prospects for developing deep connections with others and genuine gratitude. It’s our job to steer them away from pursuing extrinsic goals and toward pursuing intrinsic goals, such as engaging in activities that provide community, affiliation, and growth. Not only will successfully achieving these goals fulfill children’s fundamental human needs of competency, belongingness, and autonomy, but their personal development, happiness, success, and gratitude depend on it. To amplify their gratitude even more, remember to savor their accomplishments with them along the way, and encourage them to thank those who’ve helped them meet their goals.
6. Encourage helping others and nurturing relationships
Helping others and being generous are two key ingredients for making grateful kids. When children lend a hand, especially while using their strengths, they feel more connected to those they’re helping, which helps them to develop and nurture friendships and social relationships. A great way to do this is by teaching them through your actions that other people matter and that tending to relationships should be a priority. To help children strengthen their relationships, you should encourage them to be thoughtful of others, to thank others regularly, and to be cooperative, helpful, and giving.
7. Help kids find what matters to them
Having a sense of purpose in life gives youth a compass for creating a meaningful life. As adults, it’s our job to help kids discover their passions and to find a path to purpose that resonates with them— with their values, interests, and dreams. This starts with feeding their interests in the social issues they care about and pushing them to learn as much as they can about those issues and discover ways they can make a difference. The deepest sense of gratitude in life comes from connecting to a bigger picture, to an issue that matters to others and doing things that contribute to society down the road.
Trying to make grateful kids isn’t just an issue for families; it’s an issue for society as well. Society desperately needs to harness the power of gratitude. As our world becomes more culturally diverse and digitally connected, and as complex societal problems mount, gratitude may help catalyze the motivation and skills youth need to succeed not just academically but in the “life test” too. We must all do our part to help kids develop into moral adults, who will contribute to a world of compassion and care. But, while there’s no quick fix for cultivating gratitude in young people, the more we remain committed to it, the more rewards we’ll reap. Indeed, by bringing out the best in our kids, we can only imagine what blessings Generation Grateful could bring. Anything worthwhile takes a lot of time and effort. It’s up to all of us to make it happen.
~Froh and Bono
Zones of Regulation Information for Parents
Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it. -Charles Swindoll
A little bit about Self Regulation and the Zones of Regulation from the website describing it in more detail. Self-regulation is something everyone continually works on, whether we are cognizant of it or not. We all encounter trying circumstances that test our limits from time to time. If we are able to recognize when we are becoming less regulated, we are able to do something about it to feel better and get ourselves to a better place. This comes naturally for some, but for others it is a skill that needs to be taught and practiced. This is the goal of The Zones of Regulation (or Zones for short).
What are The Zones of Regulation?
The Zones is a systematic, cognitive behavior approach used to teach self-regulation by categorizing all the different ways we feel and states of alertness we experience into four concrete zones. The Zones curriculum provides strategies to teach students to become more aware of, and independent in controlling their emotions and impulses, managing their sensory needs, and improving their ability to problem solve conflicts.
The Red Zone is used to describe extremely heightened states of alertness and intense emotions. A person may be elated or experiencing anger, rage, explosive behavior, devastation, or terror when in the Red Zone.
The Yellow Zone is also used to describe a heightened state of alertness and elevated emotions; however, one has some control when they are in the Yellow Zone. A person may be experiencing stress, frustration, anxiety, excitement, silliness, the wiggles, or nervousness when in the Yellow Zone.
The Green Zone is used to describe a calm state of alertness. A person may be described as happy, focused, content, or ready to learn when in the Green Zone. This is the zone where optimal learning occurs.
The Blue Zone is used to describe low states of alertness and down feelings, such as when one feels sad, tired, sick, or bored.
The Zones can be compared to traffic signs. When given a green light or in the Green Zone, one is “good to go”. A yellow sign means be aware or take caution, which applies to the Yellow Zone. A red light or stop sign means stop, and when one is the Red Zone, this often is the case. The Blue Zone can be compared to the rest area signs where one goes to rest or re-energize. All of the zones are expected at one time or another, but the curriculum focuses on teaching students how to manage their Zone based on the environment and people around them. For example, when playing on the playground or in an active/competitive game, no one would think twice about one being in the Yellow Zone but that would not be same in the library.
From the Nurse's Station
When your child is ill
The Student Health Guidelines are published in the student handbook. Please review these for expectations of the district. The district medical advisor has participated in the development of the guidelines.
Students who present to the school office with symptoms during the school day will have these guidelines taken into consideration for the action plan. For example, a student who comes to the office complaining of not feeling well will be asked to identify what is not feeling well. Is it a headache, stomachache, fever, cough. Temperature checks are made frequently. Sometimes a few minutes of rest and a drink of water is all that is needed. But we will call you if your child meets a guideline and ask you to take action.
Please remember that students who need medication during the school day must have the medication delivered to the school office by an adult in the original pharmacy labeled container or original package with directions for over the counter meds, and one medication consent/request form per medication shall be completed and submitted to the office for the nurse to review before giving. Medication forms are online for your convenience. Go to Nursing Services, Medication. Ask the pharmacist to provide a second bottle for school when ordering or picking up the medication from the pharmacy.
The school nurse is available to you as a resource, please do not hesitate to call for support and guidance. Nurse Kristal may be reached at 608-742-2165 Ext 7008, or summertonk@portage.k12.wi.us
Head lice
As we approach the holidays and special visits with friends and family, please find a routine to complete head checks on your child. This time of year is known for an increase in cases of head lice as there tends to be more contact with more people. Head lice are a nuisance and do not spread disease. Portage Schools protocol is when students are found to have live head lice and or nits, parent or legal guardian contact will be made to notify you of the finding and to come pick your child up from school.
According to Pontius, “In most situations, the child has probably had lice for a month or more and possesses little risk to others” (2014).
Parents should develop a routine for checking their child’s head for lice daily or at least every few days.
The school nurse is available to you as a resource, please do not hesitate to call for support and guidance.
In this image from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, you can see the louse’s claws that are used to hold tight to hair.
Portage Weekend Snack Pack Program
The Portage Weekend Snack Pack Program, a Portage Child Hunger Committee project, provides a weekend supply of nutritious food for children when school lunch and breakfast is unavailable on a weekend. Each food bag will contain some food for breakfasts, lunches, and snacks, for each weekend for your child(ren). All food is nonperishable and provided to children free of charge. It is our hope these resources will support the health, behavior, and achievement of every student that participates. All children are eligible for this program. The program is run completely by wonderful volunteers who help pack the food bags, shop, recruit etc. The program is funded through the generous gifts from The Rotary Club of Portage, Society of St. Vincent de Paul Portage, Columbia County UW-Extension and the community at large. Please note, that the program is always looking for more sponsors and volunteers! We look forward to working with staff, teachers, and you for your children!
For more information or questions, please contact Caitlin Richardson, Columbia County UW-Extension FoodWIse Coordinator at 608-742-9693. To sign up for the program, please contact John Muir Elementary front office at 608-742-5531 or Woodridge Elementary front office at 608-742-3494.
Wellness
The Portage Community School District believes that nutrition and physical activity influence a child’s development, well-being, and readiness to learn. The District will promote healthy schools by supporting wellness, good nutrition and regular physical activity as a part of the total learning environment. The District supports a healthy environment where students and staff members learn and participate in positive dietary and lifestyle practices. By facilitating learning through the support and promotion of good nutrition and physical activity, our schools contribute to the basic health status of students and staff. Improved health optimizes student performance potential and contributes to the success of all students.
Resources available to you
Columbia County Health and Human Services
111 E. MULLETT STREET,
PORTAGE, WI, 53901
608-742-9227
- ADOPTION SERVICES
- AFFORDABLE CARE ACT
- CHILD CARE PROVIDERS
- COUNSELING
- CRISIS PROGRAMS
- DENTAL–FREE OR LOW COST SERVICES
- DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
- EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING
- FAMILY RESOURCES AND SERVICES
- FOOD PANTRIES
- GOVERNMENT OFFICES
- HEALTH CARE-FREE OR LOW COST SERVICES
- HEALTH CARE-GENERAL
- HOUSING
- LEGAL SERVICES
- LIBRARIES
- PARENTING EDUCATION AND SUPPORT
- PEER SUPPORT SERVICES
- PREGNANCY RESOURCES
- RECREATION
- SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS
- SEXUAL ASSAULT
- SOBER LIVING
- SUBSTANCE ABUSE RESOURCES
- THRIFT STORES/RESALE STORES
- TRANSPORTATION
- UTILITIES
- VETERANS
Go to this link to learn more:
http://www.co.columbia.wi.us/columbiacounty/Portals/7/Resource%20Guide.pdf?ver=2019-04-10-153102-620