Woodlawn Early Years School

January 2018 Newsletter

Principal's Message

Principal's Message

Welcome to 2018!


I would like to start the year off by saying a huge thank you to our community for the generous support they have provided this fall. We have such a giving community and we are very appreciative of that. Each time we ask for support or donations, people step up and great things happen! It is very humbling. An important component of Hanover School Division's Deeper Learning Plan is Learning Partnerships. This refers to the partnerships we create with parents, guardians and the broader community to enhance learning tasks and deepen learning for our students. Our students have learned about kindness, giving and social justice through activities such as the food drive, toy drive and gingerbread cookie sale. We have felt privileged to work with the community organizations and proud of our community for their spirit.



Strong Learning Partnerships create opportunities for our children to experience success in well being and education.


Together we are educating our children to be caring, connected and contributing citizens.


Thank you. You are valued. I wish you all the best in the new year.


Respectfully,

Shelley Amos
Vice Principal's Message

Vice Principal's Message

Happy New Year! As an educator, January is one of my favorite months in the school year. Teachers and students return from the holidays ready to learn together.

As a staff, we have been talking about self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is the belief in yourself that you are capable of handling different situations - even those that are hard. For some people, including children, self-efficacy seems to come naturally. Others need help developing this skill set.

As teachers and parents we are able to help children develop self-efficacy. By helping children learn how to overcome setbacks, we are teaching them how to be problem solvers and we are helping to build resiliency. Protecting children from failure can actually do them a disservice. Rather, we need to teach children that failure is normal and that it is actually something that they can learn from. Helping children to reflect on the experience and come up with a plan on how to do it better the next time is a great way to help children learn that they have the skills within themselves to face tough situations when they come their way,

Self-efficacy is related to mental health and social and emotional well being. Self-efficacy is even linked to cognitive and academic performance. Children who have high self-efficacy are often more willing to learn about new things.

If you are interested in learning more about how to help your child develop self-efficacy click on the links below for more information.


Karen Fraser


http://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/En/HealthAZ/FamilyandPeerRelations/life-skills/Pages/Self-efficacy-How-foster-children.aspxI


http://reflectd.co/2014/01/20/self-efficacy-beliefs/
COMMUNITY CHRISTMAS - TOY DRIVE

COMMUNITY CHRISTMAS - TOY DRIVE

Thank you to Woodlawn students for making our toy drive a HUGE success! We collected 429 toys for Southeast Helping Hands, almost double the number from last year. Many children in Steinbach and area will have had a brighter Christmas because of you!

Thank you to parents and community members who generously donated $1158.00 to Steinbach Community Outreach at our Christmas Concert.

1C, 1JC & 1S would like to thank Woodlawn students, staff and parents for their support with our Gingerbread Bake Sale. With your help, we raised $531.00 to support Steinbach Community Outreach. With this money we were able to provide warm clothes and food for people in our own community who are without these basic needs.

Outdoor Play in Winter

As also mentioned in our December newsletter:


There are many benefits for our young students to get outdoor breaks during the school day, even in the winter months. Many of us grew up being told that the cold weather makes us sick. That is simply not true! Illnesses like the cold and the flu are caused by viruses, not cold weather. In fact research states that spending time outside in the winter months actually improves our immune systems and gives us an escape from all of the germs and bacteria that are huddled up indoors. Outdoor recess time provides children with a brain break and helps them get their bodies ready for more learning. Spending time outdoors in the winter provides us with vitamin D which is essential for children’s physical well being and also their emotional well being. Vitamin D has been found to change serotonin levels in the brain. Serotonin is a hormone that is important in regulating mood (Dennison, 2008). In other words, spending time outside may help children manage their emotions and improve their self-regulation.


Making sure that your children have the proper clothing for outdoor play will help them enjoy the time they spend outside at recess. Dressing in layers is always a great idea in our Manitoba climate!


In addition, our belief at school is that generally, if children are too sick to go outside, they are also too sick to be at school. We will send all children out for all applicable recesses. Of course we understand that there are some exceptional circumstances. If you feel this is the case for your child, please contact your child's teacher to discuss if staying inside is an appropriate option.

COLD WEATHER PROTOCOL

If local conditions indicate that with the wind-chill the temperature is -30 or colder we have indoor recess. When temperatures with wind-chill range between -25 to -30 we normally have outdoor recess in the morning and afternoon and a shortened outdoor recess during the lunch hour. Weather and grounds permitting, all students play outdoors until 8:53 in the morning.


As we all know the weather in Manitoba can change from one moment to the next. The main reasons students find winter outdoor recesses too cold is that they do not dress warmly enough or they do not get active enough. Please send your children dressed to deal with the elements. Good boots, mittens,and a hat added to ski pants and a parka makes all the difference between a child enjoying the outdoors or tolerating it. Please label all your child's outwear items as our young students often lose or forget items in various places!
SCHOOL CLOSURE NOTIFICATIONS

SCHOOL CLOSURE NOTIFICATIONS

When extreme weather or road conditions call for a school closure you will receive a recorded phone call from Superintendent Randy Dueck beginning at 6:45 am. This additional communication effort is to help ensure that all students will be aware of school closures and no students will find themselves in an unsafe situation where they may be facing extreme weather unnecessarily. When school is cancelled due to weather and road conditions there are no staff members at the school. If your phone number has changed since the beginning of the school year please call the office at 204-326-6110 to update your information.

Schools will be closed due to extreme cold when the temperatures in most locations in the division are

–35 degree Celsius or colder with –45 degree Celsius or colder wind-chill.
SADDLE UP & READ BOOK FAIR - ADVENTURE AWAITS!

SADDLE UP & READ BOOK FAIR - ADVENTURE AWAITS!

Wednesday, February 7 8:30-8:55, 11:55-12:55, 3:45-6:30

Thursday, February 8 8:30-8:55, 11:55-12:55, 3:45-4:30

Friday, February 9 8:30-8:55, 11:55-12:55, 3:45-4:30


Students will be browsing Monday, February 5 and Tuesday, February 6, 2018.

Check out the preview flyer going home the first week of February for a taste of what will be at the fair. Don’t forget to bring your ballot in (from the back of the flyer) when you visit the book fair with your child(ren).

DAILY ROUTINE

8:53 Students enter the school
9:00-9:05 Homeroom Time or Religious Exercises (in designated area for students with parental permission)
9:08 School Begins: O Canada and Announcements/Attendance
10:40-10:55 Morning Recess
11:55-12:22 Lunch - Grades K & 4
Lunch Recess - Grades 1, 2 & 3
12:22-12:50 Lunch - Grades 1, 2 & 3
Lunch Recess - Grades K & 4
12:50-12:55 Attendance
12:55 Afternoon Class Time Begins
2:25-2:40 Afternoon Recess
3:40 Students Proceed to Homeroom
3:45 Dismissal of Students

If you need to pick up your child during the school day please report to the office to sign out your child and the secretaries will call your child to the office. It is very difficult to find students outside at recess times so we ask that if you must pick up your child you do so before or after recess times.
PARKING REMINDERS

PARKING REMINDERS

To ensure the safety of our students and due to the congestion of our staff parking lots and bus loop areas, parents are asked not to enter those areas between 8:15 - 4:30. Also note there is no public parking available at Entrance D (Barkman St.) at any time. All parking is reserved for school staff.
If you are dropping off or picking up your child, please park on Henry Street or on the church parking lot across from the school. When using the church parking lot please do not block entrances or exits. For the safety of your child, we request that you escort your child across Henry Street. For students’ safety, please avoid parking along Barkman Street across from the school during 8:30 - 9:00 am and 3:30 - 4:00 pm.
Please do not park in the parking lot of the Envision home on Penner Street. That is a private residence and your vehicle may be towed.

Thank you for choosing safety over convenience for the sake of all our children.
IMPORTANT DATES

IMPORTANT DATES

Friday, January 19 Winter Fun Day
Friday, February 2 PD Day - No Classes
Mon.-Fri., February 5-9 Kindergarten Phone in Registration
Wed.-Fri., February 7-9 Book Fair
Monday, February 19 Louis Riel Day - No Classes
Friday, February 23 HTA PD Day - No Classes
Friday, March 9 Admin. Day - No Classes
Friday, March 16 Report Cards Issued
Mon.-Fri., March 19-23 Wacky Week
Friday, March 23 Community Pancake Breakfast
Friday, March 23 Last Day of School Before Spring Break
Monday, April 2 First Day Back at School After Spring Break
Friday, April 6 Admin/PD Day - No Classes
Tuesday, April 24 Board/PAC Liason Meeting
Tuesday, May 8 Gr. 1 Spring Concert (Afternoon & Evening)
Thursday, May 10 Gr. 2 Spring Concert (Afternoon & Evening)
Thursday, May 17 Grade 5 Orientation Evenings at CMS and SMS
Thursday, May 17 Volunteer Appreciation Event

Monday, May 21 Victoria Day
Tuesday, June 26 Grade 4 Farewell
Wednesday, June 27 School Picnic - Last Day of School
Wednesday, June 27 Report Cards Issued at the End of the Day
About Us

About Us

411 Henry St, Steinbach, MB, Canada R5G 0R1 woodlawn@hsd.ca 204-326-6110 woodlawn.hsd.ca