The Wonderful World of Woodbury
Weekly Update for Families 9/4/23
This Week at Woodbury...
Short week, NO SCHOOL on Friday, September 8th. Enjoy the Sandwich Fair!
Professional Learning Teams: This week we started implementing our Professional Learning Team Time. This is a time each week where our teachers and specialists get to come together to collaborate and discuss student progress toward learning standards and instruction. During this time from 2:00 to 2:50 one day a week your student (s) will have their Second Step Lesson with Miss Rogowski, our social worker, and will switch and have an extra PE for the week with Mr. Kozan. PLT time each week is as follows: Monday: Kindergarten, Tuesday: 1st Grade, Wednesday: 2nd Grade. Thursday: 3rd Grade.
We have been working on our Fastbridge Fall Benchmarking. This is series of assessments we utilize to capture the starting point for our students for the year. This helps us to make decisions on needed supports for our students and guides the classroom teacher in making instructional decisions in the classroom.
A friendly reminder that student devices are for educational purposes only. Devices are monitored for usage and safety of our students.
Mr. Kozan gets to know first graders during their extra PE time during the week.
Sandwich Fair Coloring Contest
Homecoming Week is coming up!
Dates to Remember
9/8: NO SCHOOL Enjoy the Sandwich Fair!
9/12: Practice Fire Drill
9/15: Law Enforcement Drill
9/15: Early Dismissal at 11:10
9/18: District Leadership Team Meeting, Homecoming Spirit Week Begins
9/19: School Board Meeting
10/2: Custodian Appreciation Day
10/6: Institute Day, NO SCHOOL
10/9: NO SCHOOL, Columbus Day
10/11: Severe Weather Drill
10/20: Kindergarten Fieldtrip to Woody's Orchard
Nature at it's best! 2nd graders are cicada shell hunters!
GLOWS & GROWS
GLOW: We loved all of the areas of growth you shared with us at curriculum night. Please take some time to post that on your fridge and continue talking to your child about that goal for them. We already see many adjustments from those first days in our students many as simple as coming to the playground and building that independence in these first days.
GROW:
Bathroom & Lunchroom: We have had several issues in our bathrooms with students shoving toilet paper and paper towels down the sink, splashing or throwing water everywhere, and even breaking faucets or taking the back of the toilet off. Please take some time to remind your students to respect our facilities. In addition, showing respect at lunch by using a conversational voice at the tables (we ask for Level 1- whisper or Level 2- conversation voice), cleaning up your area, and respecting adults is an area we continue to work on.
CHAMP it up!
CHAMPS is designed to clearly communicate expectations to your students. It’s not a system of rules and consequences. Its goal is to stop behavior issues before they even happen. The CHAMPS system focuses on six areas. In each of these areas, expectations are communicated before work even begins.
The goal of this communication is to:
- Limit interruptions – students already know where things go
- Set expectations for things like voice level and movement around the classroom
- Give students a heads up as to transition cues for the end of an activity
- Stop behavior issues before they start
Here's what it stands for!
C – Conversation
The C in CHAMPS stands for conversation. We work together at the beginning of the year trying out different voice levels. Students learn what an appropriate whisper voice sounds like vs. a presentation voice. This allows us to spend far less time taking breaks in instruction to quiet the class down when they know ahead of time what voice level is expected.
H – Help
The H stands for help. In this section, the teacher informs students what they should do if they have a question regarding their current activity. Should they ask the teacher? Ask a friend? Or maybe just figure out the problem on their own. Communicating this expectation leads to fewer interruptions, especially when you are trying to work with small groups!
A – Activity
The A stands for activity and simply lets the students know what kind of activity they will be completing. Teachers often share the objective or goal of the lesson/activity during this part
This also helps them cue into what sort of materials they might be using and what behavior expectations might be expected of them.
M-Movement
M is for movement and this one is key in minimizing behavior issues during the activity. When are students allowed out of their seats? Can they roam around freely, or only get up to turn in the assignment? This can vary greatly between different teachers and the activity at hand. We strive to embed several movement breaks throughout the day for all learners.
P – Participation
P stands for participation. With this expectation we let students know what their role should be in the activity. Are they actively answering questions, completing their assignment, or maybe quietly reading?
S-SUCCESS
If we are able to follow all of these things, we will have SUCCESS! We were safe, respectful and responsible learners during the activity!
Required Drills
Our first fire drill was a success! Our next drill will take place with the Sandwich Fire Department. This week Mrs. Martin, our PE teacher will be having bus evacuation drills with students. We will also have our law enforcement drill on September 15th at 10:00 a.m.
Please note that the Regional Office of Education requires us to have the following drills.
3 Fire Drills (one with the Sandwich Fire Department)
1 Bus Evacuation Drill
1 Law Enforcement Drill (within 90 Days of School with the Sandwich Police Department)
We also have 2 severe weather drills- one in the fall and one in the spring.
New Security Policy
Please take a moment to review the districts new security policy below.
Visitor Security: Every school in the district will be rolling out a new security protocol and technology for guests and volunteers entering the buildings. This system will require identification from visitors (i.e. state ID, driver’s license, etc.), and all visitors will be photographed. A quick background check will be performed by searching US sex offender databases (with the option to expand this to criminal databases.). This system will also link with our student database to provide an extra layer of protection for students with no contact orders.
Woodbury PPA
Woodbury Facebook Page
Woodbury Elementary School
Email: jkern@sandwich430.org
Website: https://ww.sandwich430.org/
Location: 322 E 3rd St, Sandwich, Illinois, USA
Phone: 815-786-6316
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wwwoodburyschool/
Twitter: @Woodbury430