The Wonderful World of Woodbury
Weekly Update for Families: October 31st
Updates & Friendly Reminders
Butter Braid Fundraiser Reminder: Order forms are due on November 8th! Butter braids will be on November 17th.
Don't forget! Our Halloween Costume Parade is at 1:00 on Monday! Please line our sidewalks to get a glimpse of your little ghost or goblin! Halloween parties will follow the parade. More information about Halloween festivities is below!
PT Conferences are coming up in November. If you have not scheduled a time with your child's teacher, please contact them.
Veteran's Day: On Friday, November 11th, we will be honoring our local service members with a Veterans Day assembly. We are excited to host veterans and active service members on this important day. Please encourage your students to wear patriotic clothing or camouflage on November 11th. We did an amazing job at our first assembly and look forward to welcoming our guests to Woodbury! If you have a special veteran or active service member in your family that you would like to us to recognize please check out the flyer below. Thank you for helping us honor our veterans!
Did you miss a weekly update? All previous weekly newsletters can be found on our website.
November is often the time of year when we change our focus onto things we are grateful for. Research shows that practicing gratitude is linked to overall happiness. Grateful parents can be great role models for their children. The Raising Grateful Children Project at UNC Chapel Hill has revealed that gratitude has four parts:
Noticing – Recognizing the things you have to be grateful for.
Thinking – Thinking about why you’ve been given those things.
Feeling – The emotions you experience as a result of the things you’ve been given.
Doing – The way you express appreciation.
Here are some questions The Raising Grateful Children Project at UNC Chapel Hill created that can help kids experience all four gratitude components:
Notice – What do you have in your life to be grateful for? Are there things to be grateful for beyond the actual gifts someone has given you? Are you grateful for any people in your life?
Think – What do you think about this present? Do you think you should give something to the person who gave it to you? Do you think you earned the gift? Do you think the person gave you a gift because they thought they had to or because they wanted to?
Feel – Does it make you feel happy to get this gift? What does it feel like inside? What about this gift makes you feel happy?
Do – Is there a way to show how you feel about this gift? Does the feeling you have about this gift make you want to share this feeling by giving to someone else?
In our Second Step lessons we are moving on to Unit 2. Our main focus is emotion management. Students will be learning how to identify emotions within themselves and others and then apply strategies to manage their various emotions. Students will be increasing their emotional vocabulary along the way. You can help your child at home too! During a family movie night or while reading a book together, ask your child how those characters are feeling and why. Dig deeper, ask them what clues they used to identify that emotion. When your child is experiencing a big emotion (anger, frustration), ask them if they would like to take a break. When they do, give them verbal positive praise for using their coping strategies to regulate back to a calm state.
Last Call for Socks! Thank you to all who have donated!
HALLOWEEN FESTIVITIES
We will be enjoying Halloween festivities on Monday, October 31st. In addition to afternoon Halloween Festivities, the reading room will once again be transformed into a BAT CAVE and classrooms are invited to come experience life as a bat and participate in DEAR time in the dark with finger lights. So fun! We will also have our annual Costume Parade. The parade will begin around 1:00. Parents/Guardians are welcome to attend along with younger children to see their older sibling(s) and their classmates! Guests of the parade can line the sidewalk around the building and students will be making their way around the building on the sidewalk by classroom. If we have inclement weather, we will parade around in the gym and hallways.
Students are invited to wear their costumes with the following guidelines:
Students will change into costumes after lunch and must be able to put on independently over their clothes.
If a student's costume includes a mask it will not be able to be worn while at school except for a picture and the parade.
Please limit costume accessories, as these can potentially serve as a distraction to our daily learning. Weapons (play swords, knives, guns, etc.) are not allowed.
Halloween parties will be coordinated by the classroom teachers. Due to limited space, only designated adult helpers who have been approved as volunteers will be able to accompany the students back to the classrooms for the parties. Please note that we are unable to approve last minute volunteers. Due to our new district handbook treat policy (seen below), we will not do not have treats during our classroom parties. Regarding holiday parties, food items sent in for classroom parties must be store-bought and include an available list of ingredients. Food items must be preapproved by the nurse and will be sent home for consumption.
Treat Policy:
Celebrations and positive reinforcement are an important part of our district’s culture of supporting students. Often students bring treats or snacks to school to share on special occasions. Due to food allergies and other health concerns, we do not permit students to bring in food items or treats to school to share. We would like to encourage healthy eating habits and promote non-food items such as pencils, stickers, bookmarks, or other small items in place of food treats. Curricular activities involving food will be dealt with individually.
Safety provisions will be set up for food or environmental allergies on an individual basis.
Curricular activities involving food will be dealt with individually.
Upcoming Dates to Remember
10/31: Outdoor Costume Parade 1:00 p.m., Halloween Classroom Parties to follow
11/11: End of Trimester I
11/15: Fall Picture Retakes
11/16: 3rd Grade Hoover Outdoor Ed
11/21: 11:10 Dismissal P/T Conferences
11/22: NO SCHOOL, P/T Conferences
11/23-11/25: Thanksgiving Break
Check out this great news!
Lexia Superstars!
District News
Student Fees
We want to send a reminder to all families that it is time to pay your student fees for the 2022-2023 school year if you haven’t already done so. To check your status or to make a payment please follow the steps below.
Login to Tyler
Fees and billing will be located on the left side of the screen.
Click on fees and billing then select online payment at the bottom right corner of the screen.
*If you have multiple students, you can toggle between students by using the drop-down arrow at the top middle of your screen.
We ask that all families complete payment on their student fees by Thursday, December 1.
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