Woodlawn Early Years School

February 2021 Newsletter

Principal's Message

Principal's Message

February is always a fun month at Woodlawn and this year is no exception. Although things still look a little different with all of the COVID protocols, we are still finding the joy in teaching and learning. February is I Love to Read month. Our theme for this year, is The Joy of Reading Month. Each morning a different staff member will share a recording reading their favourite story. The class will watch and listen to the story and then they are asked to rate the story based on the criteria of what makes a story a good one. As a school, we will rate the stories out of ten and this will be recorded on a large bulletin board for everyone to see as the month goes on. We hope the students get as much joy out of reading as we do.

Mrs. Loewen, our school librarian will be hosting a virtual book fair from Feb. 22- March 7. All of the details are listed below.

This year, instead of Winter Fun Day we will be having Winter Fun Month! Mr. Adams and Mrs. Kroeker will be setting up some fun stations outside for students to participate in during phys-ed class. Please make sure that your child is dressed warmly so he/she can participate fully and have fun!


Karen Fraser

Principal's Message
Vice Principal's Message

Vice Principal's Message

It is so great to have most of our students back at school! We are all learning and adjusting to what that means as learners and educators. Our staff have worked hard to provide engaging learning experiences even with the restrictions that are still currently in place. One of the tricky things that we are navigating is using learning materials that normally we would share freely with each other. Our teachers have created systems where each child has their own learning materials or time between uses to sanitize or sit. Loose parts and other learning materials are so important for all of our learners as they make sense of new ideas and the world around them. Many of our students are learning how loose parts can help us tell and write stories. Starting a new story or piece of writing can be a daunting task, sometimes making it challenging for students to get started. When they start with play or loose parts, they are able to create and share very detailed and engaging stories. Sometimes these stories remain as an oral story and sometimes students take these oral stories and put them into written form. Lots of our teachers have noticed this form of storytelling and story writing has improved the quality of stories and the confidence of their students as authors.
Vice Principal's Message

COVID-19 ARRIVAL AND PICK-UP REMINDERS

Morning Arrival


  • Students arriving off the bus will either go straight to their classrooms if they are in a hut or they will line up in their cohort lines. Mrs. Fraser or Mrs. Reimer will direct the lines inside socially distanced.
  • We ask that parents dropping off their children go directly to their child's entrance and an adult will let them in.

Entrance A (main office): KM1, KM2, All Gr.1s

Entrance C (K doors by fenced in area): KG1, KG2, KCG1

Entrance D (doors by back parking lot): 2MF, 2KF, 2LR, 3R, 3/4B

Entrance E (doors by the huts): 2PR, 2SF, 2G, 3/4S, 4G

Huts: All students in huts can go straight to their hut

  • If your child is arriving after the 8:53 bell, please have them go into Entrance A.


End of Day Dismissal


  • Students taking the bus will go directly to their bus or bus lines from their designated doors. All students (K-4) are required to be wearing their masks before leaving their classrooms and must keep them on until they are off the bus at their drop off location.
  • Students who are getting picked up will meet their parents at their designated drop off location. Please see the map to know where your child's pick up location is.

WINTER SAFETY REMINDERS

We experienced beautiful weather for the first couple of weeks back in January. As a result of those nicer temperatures and the warming and cooling of temperatures, our playground and areas around the school remain quite icy. Mr. Wolfe works very hard to continuously put down sand around all of our entrances and walking paths. Even with the sand, we remind our students to walk carefully inside and outside of the building. There will also be recesses where our teachers may close down the structure or our hill when it becomes to icy. When our students are playing on the hill, we do ask them to only slide down on their knees or bottom.


We try to get outside as much as we can. When the temperature with the windchill is between -25 and -29, we will go out for a shortened recess of 15 minutes. When it is colder than -29 we do stay inside. We ask parents to make sure their children are dressed warm and prepared to go outside. Warm mittens, neck warmers, toques, and ski pants help to keep them warm and dry. We also ask that you put your child's name on these items as they often get misplaced and end up in the lost and found.

Valentine's Day

Classroom teachers will be sending out information in regards to Valentine's Day celebrations. If you are asked to bring a snack, it must be nut free and prepared and individually packaged in a commercial kitchen. Any Valentine's day cards brought to school, must be "quarantined" for 48 hours before they can be handed out to other students. Please check with your child's teacher if you have any questions.
ATTENDANCE - DID YOU KNOW?

ATTENDANCE - DID YOU KNOW?

Are you looking for a more convenient way to let the school know about your child's attendance? You can enter your child's appointments and absences on the Parent Portal. You can even enter them ahead of time. The link to the Parent Portal is further down the newsletter. Check it out and give it a try!
ATTENDANCE - DID YOU KNOW?
2021 KINDERGARTEN REGISTRATION

2021 KINDERGARTEN REGISTRATION

If your child is eligible for Kindergarten Registration (must be five years of age on or before Dec. 31, 2021), our online registration will be available February 15. Our new online registration process takes only a few minutes to complete. To begin, visit the HSD Kindergarten Registration page at https://hsd.ca/schools/student-registration/

If you do not have access to the Internet, please visit our school and we will assist you in completing the registration form on a school computer.


Registering early will assist our school in preparation and planning for the upcoming school year. Early registration also provides parents/guardians with the opportunity to participate in upcoming orientation activities.

2021 KINDERGARTEN REGISTRATION

WINTER FUN MONTH!

Due to Covid 19 we will have to make changes to Winter Fun Day. For the month of February, Mr. Adams and Mrs. Kroeker will be choosing activities that would ordinarily be done during Winter Fun Day, and doing them during our gym classes. Some activities will be indoors and others will be outside. These will be done throughout the month of February.
VIRTUAL BOOK FAIR

VIRTUAL BOOK FAIR

This year our Scholastic Book Fair is going to be done virtually. You can browse and order from the comfort of your home. Not only that, your books will be delivered right to your home! Our Scholastic Virtual Book Fair will take place February 22 - March 7, 2021. Click on the header below to visit our school's Virtual Book Fair. Free shipping will be available February 24 and March 3 from 6:00 - 8:00 pm. More information will be sent home and will be available on our school website.
VIRTUAL BOOK FAIR
JOY OF READING MONTH

JOY OF READING MONTH

Many of our Woodlawn students already LOVE to read, which is fantastic! All of us (adults and children) will have many opportunities to read and listen to books together during I love to read month in February.

JOY OF READING MONTH

PARENT PORTAL/STUDENT INFORMATION

The HSD Parent Portal is a communications tool designed to enhance and increase parent/guardian involvement in the education of their children by providing secure online access to their child's student information. With a single username and password you can access data for each of your children attending an HSD school. If you have not received the Access ID along with setup instructions for your student please call the school office at 204-326-6110.


Please take a few minutes to review the student information and contact information for your child. It is important that the school has current address and contact information for your child in case it is necessary to reach someone during the school day. Changes can be made through the parent portal. Parents can access their child's report cards, attendance information and permission and consent forms through the Parent Portal.

For additional information please click on the button below.

PICK-UP & DROP OFF LOCATIONS 8:00 AM-4:30 PM

To ensure the safety of our students and due to the congestion of our staff parking lots and bus loop areas, parents are not to enter those areas between 8:00-4:30. If you are dropping off or picking up your child, please park on the street or on the church yard (do not block entrances) across from the school. Please do not park in the parking lot of the Envision home on Penner Street.

For the safety of your child, we request that you escort your child across Henry Street, Barkman Street and Penner Street.

SAFETY FIRST

At times, parents or designated others pick up their children during the school day or at the end of the school day. Most homeroom teachers recognize the parents but at times we have guest teachers or the children are in Music or Phys. Ed. It is virtually impossible for these teachers to recognize all the parents or the designated “picker-uppers”. So in order to provide a safer environment, parents are asked to report to the office to sign out their children during the school day. The secretary will be happy to call your child(ren) to the office for you.

If she is unfamiliar with you she can check our files to ensure your child is being picked up by the correct person.

If you are sending a different "picker-upper" than usual at the end of the school day please write a note in your child's agenda or phone the school office before 3:00. This applies to both walking and bus students. Please work with us as we continue to implement this method and bear with us when we ask you to check with the office if you forget and show up at the classroom door.

As a school safety is of utmost concern to us. We have security cameras in various locations on the premise, both inside and outside. We have an extensive crisis plan in place and a crisis team who reviews the plan on a continual basis. We practice lock downs twice per school year in order to prepare our staff and students for a real crisis should it ever happen. All of our staff are trained to be on alert for anything or anyone suspicious and report it to the Principal immediately.

ABSENT/LATE STUDENTS

It is the time of year again when many students become ill with a cold or flu. We ask that parents/guardians notify the school if their child will be absent or late. There are many ways to report your absent or late child:

- Parent Portal Account

-Phone the school at 204-326-6110 between 8:00 and 9:00 am

-Leave a voicemail at 204-326-6110 before or after school hours

-Email woodlawn@hsd.ca

-Email your child's teacher (email addresses are available at woodlawn.hsd.ca. Select the About tab, select Staff)

Students arriving after 9:05 or returning from an appointment during the school day are to report to the office for an entry slip before heading to their classroom.

Thank you to everyone for cooperating in reporting to the office when picking your child up from school during the school day.
BUS INFORMATION

BUS INFORMATION

All school busses that are running late or cancelled will be posted on the Hanover School Division website at www.hsd.ca
Under the Departments tab you will find Transportation, Bus Delay Bulletins, and a list of affected busses.

The transportation department will no longer be calling individual homes when busses are delayed. When a bus route is cancelled due to weather or road conditions it may be cancelled for the a.m. and p.m. runs. If you drive your students to school, you will need to confirm whether or not your bus is operating in the afternoon. Please call transportation at 204-320-2347.

Parents will be expected to obtain information, if needed, on the status of their bus through the website. Busses that are running more than 10 minutes late on a given day will have the bus number and estimated lateness posted on the page. Homes that do not have computer access to the web should make arrangements with another family on the route whom they could contact.
BUS INFORMATION
About Us

About Us

About Us

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