I want to thank you all for your partnership and understanding as we work together for the sake of our students. Midyear data meetings with teachers have gone very well and we are seeing HUGE growth all around! We can't do this without each and every one of you supporting your child at home each and every day. We continue to want you all to be engaged in your child's education, not just involved. Engagement is keeping constant communication with your child's teacher, asking your child questions about their day and what they are working on (see HOT questioning chart below for some question stems), reading and writing with them at home, etc. Involvement is important too...you can do this by attending our PTO sponsored events (March events are listed below also!).

We have recently had many requests for students to have an extended absence from school for traveling. PWCS attendance Regulation 724-1 includes the following regarding family vacations/trips planned during the school year: "Preapproved absences are discouraged and will only be granted in extraordinary circumstances. Family trips should be scheduled during school holidays and over summer break.

We as Principals in PWCS will limit the total number of approved absences related to trips/vacations. If your family has a trip planned, please contact Mrs. Maire by calling the main number to submit an extended absence request form. Now more than ever we need our students in school for so many reason.

Last but certainly not least, we will be opening up our doors a little more! Volunteers will be able to come in and help the classroom out based on teacher need and communication with them. Volunteers are those that come in for the greater good of all students (helping with small groups, working with students one-on-one, making copies/laminating, cutting things out for the teacher, etc.). Stay tuned for more information! On a similar note, PWCS continues to limit visitors in the lunch room at this time. Visitors are those that are coming to simply spend time with their child...this occurs at lunch only so "visitors" are not allowed at this time.

We have been doing very well with health and safety protocols here at HMES and we plan to continue that for the rest of this year and as long as our school is open!! For more PWCS FAQs related to health and safety measures, please visit the PWCS site by clicking HERE.

During March, our school will be participating in One School, One Author. In the past, we have done One School, One Book and the entire school read the same book. This year, we will read different books by the same author. We will be studying the author Cece Bell by reading her books and learning about her writing style. Video read alouds of the books and discussion questions will be available on Canvas if you want to read along at home.

Kindergarten – 2nd grade will read three picture books, I Yam a Donkey, Rabbit, Ribbit & Robot, and Sock Monkey Takes a Bath. 3rd – 5th grade will read the graphic novel El Deafo. All of the books have a theme of kindness and friendship. As a culminating event, we will have a Kindness Week from March 28 – 31 to practice showing kindness to others.

While it's good to ask high level questions, we also want our students to get involved in asking questions. Our students can use the chart below as well...this will be more challenging, but with your help we can get there!

PWCS Department of Information and Instructional Technology are aware of an issue with PWCS emails going to the Gmail spam folder of some stakeholders. We are working with Microsoft on a resolution. In the meantime, parents or other mail recipients can use the following steps to unmark as spam:

1. On your computer, open Gmail.

2. On the left, click More.

3. Click Spam.

4. Open the email.

5. At the top, click Not spam.

If you have any questions about Kindergarten registration, don't hesitate to get in touch with Mrs. DeBoer, our Administrative Assistant who handles registrations (deboerrl@pwcs.edu).