Hillcrest Family Newsletter
April 17th, 2020
Message from Mrs. Lincicum
This wasn't the outcome we were hoping for. I know that feeling is the same for many of you. Our hope was always to come back to school this spring and finish things off together. I know this is a difficult decision to be made and it requires sacrifice on everyone's part. Our staff is all saddened by this news. We are working to honor these feelings in ourselves, in our learners and with our families. HERE is the message shared with students today in announcements.
So our hopes shift. Our hopes shift to continued safety and health for you all. And, our hopes shift to finding new ways to celebrate our community together. We will find ways to celebrate the end of our school year. We will find ways to celebrate our 5th graders before we send them off to middle school. Our entire staff, our amazing PTO and all of YOU are already dreaming of ways we continue to be Hillcrest in the coming months. Stay Tuned...the best may be yet to come.
A couple other reminders:
*There will be information shared in the coming week about how we will continue to operate in the next 8 weeks. There will be opportunities for families to come and get personal items. Those details are just beginning to be worked out.
* If you know your child is going to be absent from virtual learning for a day, please email Mrs. Perez at tperez@waukesha.k12.wi.us or call 970-1805 to report an absence. School messenger has been turned off. We have had amazing attendance...last week our top day was 99.4%!!
*Teachers post content every day OR for each week. Students should engage with the learning tasks at a time that works for each family. If you aren't able to complete work on a daily basis, just communicate with your child's teacher your family's plan.
*Teachers have office hours during the school day where they are available to offer support to students and answer questions. Just reach out via email, SeeSaw or WebEx, depending on the platform your child's teacher has shared. Platforms can be found HERE.
*Our virtual learning opportunities will be different than what we can offer in a face to face, in school environment. Please know that a child's stamina and attention are significantly different in a virtual learning environment and without the teacher available to coach the student throughout the day, we will not require students to learn and apply new content. The focus will be on retaining the learning from the school year and exposing students to concepts from the remainder of the school year. DPI recommends 2 hours of online time for an 8 hour in school experience. If your child is spending more than 2 hours total a day on school work, please let your child's teacher know.
*All events on the family calendar have been canceled. However, virtual and social distanced events and just beginning to be planned.
We are still here for you. If there is anything we can do to help. Please reach out. No one should suffer through this time alone. We are better together and we genuinely do want to help.
Take care,
Talk soon,
Faith
Specialist Dance Party
We are celebrating great engagement for our kindergarteners in specials this week! We’ve had 90% participation in art, music and physical education activities and we are looking forward to growing this across the building next week. Each week, students get one activity to complete and the goal is for each student to do one art, one music and one phy ed activity a week. Next week, ANY CLASS with 90% participation in all three specials gets a specials’ dance party during a scheduled WebEx!
PTO Update - Stay Connected
Facebook- Do you have a Facebook account? If so, like the Hillcrest Family Page to find ideas of activities to do during this time, stay connected or get assistance finding local resources.
PTO Staff Appreciation
Staff Appreciation week is all about showing how much we care about our Hillcrest staff. The week is a success because of wonderful donors and volunteers like you! Though this week may look a bit different this year, our staff is working as hard as ever, so lets show them how much we appreciate them! Watch the newsletter for more information.
Message from Our Literacy Coach
We hope you are all staying healthy and finding some time to enjoy some books as a family. I wanted to reach out to share some tips to help your child with his/her at-home independent reading. Please remember that one of the most important ways to help a child grow as a reader is by providing time and space for them to read engaging texts at their appropriate reading level.
- Explore different reading materials with your child
- audio books
- postcards, letters, e-mails, and text messages from relatives
- photo albums or scrapbooks
- e-readers or e-book
- books you have at home
- Create a special reading place
- Make sure the reading space is comfortable and is free of most distractions
- Try working together with your child to choose this spot
- Encourage kids to try reading the words to themselves prior to listening to a book when engaging with an audio book
- Give kids a moment to try a challenging word prior to telling them the word
- Make it inviting
- Allow students to have some choice in the reading materials that they are engaging with.
- Talk about what your child is reading and share what you are reading
Thank you for your support of our readers at home. Feel free to reach out to me if you need support or other suggestions for reading at home.
Mrs. Konieczka (Literacy Coach)
Message from Counselor Carol
Message from Student Services
I Miss My Friends
Mrs. Edwards put together this slideshow lessons to help students know what they can do when they are missing their friends.
Food Assistance
For assistance with food, the Waukesha Food Pantry does remain open during regular hours. The Salvation Army Food Pantry has pre-packaged groceries Tues & Wed from 1-4pm and Fri 9am-noon that will be passed out through a window in the parking lot. Families can also continue to use the meal program - Tuesday & Thursday and Saturday from 5:00 pm - 5:40 pm. All meals will be prepared ahead of time and given out in to go boxes in the same format as grocery distribution. Moreover, they will be distributing lunches at Sentinel Park during Spring Break from 11:45 and 12:30 pm. Additionally, Waukesha School District meal pick up information can be found here.
Talking to kids about the pandemic
A lot is changing in our world right now, very rapidly, and it can be hard to figure out how to explain this to our kids. The following resources might be a useful starting points. If your child is really struggling with everything that's happening, don't hesitate to reach out to Ms. Brilliant, our school psychologist, for additional support.
Story book - My School is Closed
Story book - My Story about Pandemics and the Coronavirus
Story book- My Coronavirus Story
Hillcrest Elementary School
Growing Curiosity
Growing Learners
We take pride in our history, our inclusive community and our collective sense of wonder!
Email: hillcrest@waukesha.k12.wi.us
Website: https://sdw.waukesha.k12.wi.us/Domain/14
Location: 2200 Davidson Road, Waukesha, WI, USA
Phone: 262-970-1810
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HillcrestElementaryWaukesha/
Twitter: @HillcrestSDW