Williams-Cone School Newsletter

Williams-Cone School is a safe and kind school community that inspires every student to succeed.

-Compassionate, Curious, Confident Learners-

It's been an exciting couple of weeks within our community from the installation of the new playground slide, the FOWC Potluck/Basket Auction, Kid's Academies, to parent-teacher conferences. We also have a couple of very special announcements to make (see a few sections below!) regarding some upcoming events and opportunities.

On behalf of the WCS staff and myself, I would like to wish all of you a blessed Thanksgiving next week. In spite of the challenges and tragedies that many have experienced in recent days, we still have so much to be grateful for. With all of this, I want to say how thankful the staff and I are for your children, the support that all of you generously give to our school community and for having the opportunity to live and serve in this most wonderful community!

As always, if you are in need of support for you and your family, please do not hesitate to reach out to your child's teacher, our school counselor, social worker and/or myself.

Your Principal,

Randa

Mrs. Randa C. Rineer, WCS Principal

rineerr@link75.org

(207)725-4391

Students and staff alike are thrilled with the new 360 Typhoon Slide that was recently installed by the fantastic FOWC Playground Committee. Volunteers spent an entire weekend installing the new piece of equipment that was purchased with funds raised by FOWC as well as some of the 2023 WinterKids Winter Games prize money. The playground committee also completed some other needed outdoor projects (see photos below) while installing the new slide. Thank-you playground committee!!

Friends of Williams-Cone held its annual Potluck Dinner/Basket Auction Fundraiser on November 9th at the MTA Commons (cafeteria). Themed baskets ranging from legos, sports equipment, Made in Maine, arts and crafts to cooking themes were raffled off. The potluck dinner included many delicious dishes and desserts. Thank-you FOWC!!! A great time was had by all!

We are very excited (and proud!) to announce that WCS has been chosen to be the Sagadahoc County Representative in the 2024 WinterKids Winter Games competition!!!! Winter Games is a four week long healthy competition which spans from January 8th through February 2nd and features fun, educational activities that are designed to get students moving and learning outside! Sixteen elementary schools, one from each Maine county have been selected to compete for cash prizes for their schools. The program includes not only outdoor physical activity but also nutrition and family engagement concluding with a winter carnival. More details, including how families can support this fabulous opportunity will be shared in the near future.

Students from Mrs. Dedek's fourth grade class recently went on an erosion scavenger hunt around the WCS playground.

Several third grade students recently participated in a Building Books" after school creative event. Students read, "Building Books" by Megan Wagner Lloyd and built original creations to bring home under the direction and supervision of WCS parent volunteers.

Third graders participated in a Kids' Academy craft club where the focus was on making autumn wreaths using real pine cones, fake leaves, fake flowers and fake berries. The students attached them to a metal wreath frame using garden wire and twisty ties. They also had time to make leaves (handprints with writing something we are thankful for) and put them on Our Thankful Tree (hanging in the lobby at school).

Garden Club had its second fall session where students made different kinds of bird feeders. They started with making ones out of plastic drink bottles. Students made holes for the wooden perch to go through and holes just above the perch for the birds to get the food out. Students also made holes to hang it and decorated our bird feeders using sharpies. The bottles were then filled with sunflower seeds. Students also made some bird treats using stale bread and using cookie cutters to cut fun shapes. And they strung up some Cherrios on yarn for a bird feeding strand. A few students also had some time to make other hanging treats by covering a pine cone in shortening/crisco and then putting it in a bag with bird seed to cover it. The time went by in a flash and having a broom and pan in the art room proved to be most useful as we had a bit of a sunflower bird seed mess. But that just added to their fun!

11/13-11/21 Parent/Teacher Conferences

11/15 Support Staff Appreciation Day
11/21 Trimester 1 Ends
11/21 Half Day Dismissal, P/T Conferences

10:45 PreK Dismissal

12:10 K-5 Dismissal
11/22-11/24 Thanksgiving Break

11/29 FOWC Meeting, 5:30 P.M., LC

12/1 FOWC Holiday Caroling, 3:10-5:00 P.M.

12/6 Winter Chorus Concert- Grades 4/5, 6:30 P.M.

12/8. Holiday Lunch, 11:15-1:30 P.M., WCS Gym/Cafeteria

12/10 Sherman's Bookstore Fundraiser, Topsham Fair Mall, 9:00 A.M.-6:00 P.M.

12/13 Playground Committee Meeting, 5:30 P.M., LC

12/14 5th Grade Fundraiser Meeting, 6:00 P.M., LC

Winter Break 1 12/22-1/1

*The new 360 Typhoon slide!! Thank-you FOWC Playground committee for time, energy, talents, and resources to make this dream a reality for our school!

*The fabulous FOWC sponsored Potluck Dinner/Basket Auction Fundraiser. The generosity and creativity is so appreciated!

*Kids Academies for our students-thank-you Jenn & Heather for the program coordination and to the many volunteers who help to make it a possibility for our students!

*Parent/Teacher Conferences: Thank-you parents/caregivers for your support and thank-you staff for your time, intentionality careful planning. These important meetings help build stronger relationships and help support optimal student learning and growth.

*Robertson Family-Conference Snacks!

*Support Staff Appreciation: November 15th was National Support Staff Appreciation Day. We LOVE our support staff at WCS. They are the backbone of our school, from supporting instruction, cleaning our school, overseeing the learning commons, car duty, lunch duty, answering phones, etc., etc.,-they are truly amazing! Thank-you team!

*We are the Sagadahoc County WinterKids Winter Games 2024 Representative!! Yay!

*A safe and orderly unexpected building evacuation earlier this week. Great job all!

*5th-grade parents for getting a jump start on fundraising! Much love to Danielle T for supporting a Wicked Joe’s coffee sale, Meredith for organizing a Sherman’s Book Store fundraiser, and the many other members doing their part to support these and other events. Thank you, Wicked Joe’s of Topsham and Sherman’s Book Store of Topsham for partnering with us.

*Our planning committee for the Raffle Baskets and Community Potluck did phenomenally! Thank you Jenn, Christie, Anna, Haley, April, Gail, Becky, Heather, Laila, and Megan. Much love to our families and community for helping us raise funds to support our PTO activities!

*Another shout out to Smitty’s Cinema, Topsham for their generous donation of 4 admission tickets to a movie of your choice for a Big Ticket Item in the Raffle Basket Fundraiser.

*Thank you, April G, for supporting our students during the Retakes for school pictures!

*Much love to our Playground Committee volunteers for their support of the Typhoon 360 Slide installation in early November. Megan (project lead), Adam & Mac (installation leads), Jonathan, Sam, Mrs. Berube, Paul, Becky, Matt, Marci, Brian A, Kim, Monique, Mrs. Greenleaf, Mrs. Rineer, Mr. Johanson, our MSAD 75 Facilities Department, and Hunter Excavation. They were also able to complete a couple of other minor needs on our playground during build weekend too!

*Thank you Sam for the donation and installation of some much-needed shelving for one of our classrooms.

*Acknowledgement for all of our teachers and staff supporting Parent/Teacher Conferences from now until Thanksgiving Break. Thank you for the early mornings and late nights preparing for and meeting with our families.

*Looking forward to seeing what our Holiday Caroling committee is cooking up for December 1st! Thank you Anna, Jenn, Becky, Haley, Christie, Katie, Laila, Megan, Mrs. Rineer, & Mrs. Appel.

*Many thanks to Jenn and Heather for the Kids Academy program coordination, along with their many parent volunteers supporting each event - Kate, Matt, Joe, Jerod, Megan, and Amanda. Our students are having fun gardening, creating crafts, books & builds, and exciting stem projects. A special thanks to Ms. Pam & Mr. Randy for their clean-up and event prep support.

Our tiger stripes are showing this month! We have so much pride and happiness in being a part of the Williams-Cone School community. Thank you for your support of our second-largest fundraising event of the year. We are looking forward to closing out our 2023 with the Holiday Caroling event and looking toward the January to June 2024 calendar. Don’t miss our upcoming meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 29th where we will debrief our recent events, discuss plans for a school dance in January, and so much more!

Join us at Shermans Book Store in Topsham on Sunday, Dec. 10th from 9a to 6p to grab a new book.

Our WCS Teachers curated a wish list of new books! Not only can you help the WCS Class of 2031, but you can donate a book to a WCS classroom, too! You can find them on the ‘Gift A Book’ table inside the store.

Make sure to mention Williams-Cone at checkout. A portion of book sales will be donated to the WCS 5th-grade end-of-year celebrations.

A flyer will be coming home soon! Please reach out to Meredith at pinkham.meredith@gmail.com with any questions.

Yearbooks are on sale! Our annual release form and paper order forms will be coming home soon.

Cost: $22.00 (with tax) All checks should be payable to FOWC or Friends of Williams-Cone

You can order online! Visit: https://www.treering.com/purchase?PassCode=1015059372991326

!! 5th Grade Families !! FOWC purchases a softcover yearbook for every 5th grader as part of the Farewell Celebration. Please only order a yearbook if you wish to have a hardcover version.

Email us with any questions - WCSYearbook@yahoo.com