Southwood School
October 2020
In This Edition
-House Color Fridays
-Southwood School Planning Priorities
-October is Safety Awareness Month
-Absentee/Late Policy
-End of Day Messages
-Sick Policy
-Fundraisers
-Additional COVID-19 Cleaning Measures
-Note from Transportation
-Parking Notes
-Picture Day
-Costume Parade
-Balanced School Day/Nutrition Information
-Drive Away Hunger
-Tumblebooks
-Terry Fox Run
-Dates to Remember
For more information on Orange Shirt Day, feel free to visit the link below:
House Color Fridays
Southwood School Planning Priorities for 2020-2021 Care. Learn. Grow.
● A focus on student well-being and activities that promote positive mental health choices will support healthy learning environments. These include Zone of Regulation, Music Therapy, Roots of Empathy, Project 11, and the development of citizenship skills. Staff professional development will focus on developing student well-being and trauma training.
● School programs and activities will be provided to increase student engagement and enhance student learning of the curriculum. Activities include iWalk, iBike, Earth Day, STEAM Month, Pink Day, Orange Shirt Day, Terry Fox Run, Literacy and Numeracy Month. Activities include the house colour system, balanced day scheduled clubs, Global Day of Play, MakerSpace challenges, Buddy Systems, Kindergarten Welcome and Orientation, Gr 4 Farewell, and school picnic. Intentional activities for cross-grade groupings will provide opportunities for deeper connections for students and enhance a sense of belonging.
● Learning partnerships with Indigenous leaders, high school students, and community members will be leveraged to support a variety of curricular objectives and to celebrate the diversity of those in our local and global communities.
● Learning partnerships with Variety Children’s Foundation and accredited music therapists to support students in developing their communication, academic, and social skills through the use of music.
Planning Priority #2 - Numeracy
● The school based numeracy support teacher, along with a numeracy team, will support classroom teachers in the planning, development, implementation, and assessment of classroom instruction. Direct intervention will be provided for students who would benefit from tier 2 interventions.
● The continued implementation of the Southwood Numeracy Achievement Project, in partnership with the Manitoba Rural Learning Consortium, will focus on teaching foundational outcomes for each specific grade level and based on a school based pacing guide. Teacher training and support will also be provided.
● Specific training and instruction will focus on the domains of mental math and estimation. Additional supports and professional development will be provided to students and staff. These include Jump2Math sensory decals, SeeSaw for Schools, and Carole Fullerton support documents for teachers.
Planning Priority #3 - Literacy
● Literacy team, clinicians, and learning coaches will support literacy training (guided reading, home reading, F & P Training, running records and continued review of the new ELA curriculum) including strategic writing and reading instruction. The team will continue to explore to improve tiered interventions for students (RTI Model)
● Teachers will engage in effective, frequent guided reading sessions and “check-ins” with students to support and provide timely feedback to the reader, focusing on the accomplishments and suggestions for the next steps.
● Whole school implementation of Sound Wall use in classrooms. Teachers will receive specific training and materials for the successful implementation of this program.
October is Safety Awareness Month
The month of October targets a number of safety awareness areas. Southwood School will be recognizing International Walk-to-School Month with three morning walks. The morning walks will take place on October 7th, 14th, 21st. Each day we will be starting from a new location and walking to school. Students are invited to join staff as they "walk to school”.
These morning walks are intended to promote traffic safety, physical activity, and promoting environmental issues. We will also be selling “walk-a-thon” t-shirts for $10 per t-shirt while supplies last. Proceeds from the sales will be used to purchase playground equipment. The iwalk dates and locations are as follows:
Iwalk#1 – Oct 7th/leaving from Barkman Park Parking lot at 8:30 am
Iwalk#2 – Oct 14th/leaving from Hanover School Division Office at 8:30 am
Iwalk#3 – Oct 21st/leaving from Emmanuel Free Church Parking lot at 8:30 am.
Bus safety drills will be conducted with all students during the week of Bus Safety Week from October 19th to 23rd. Bus specific evacuation drills will be conducted for each student that takes the bus to school by their bus drivers during one of the bus runs in the month.
Absentee & Late Policy
If your child comes to school late, please have them enter the school through the front office doors so that they can be escorted to their classroom.
Please contact the school or submit your attendance changes through Parent Portal by 9:00 a.m. if your child is going to be late or absent.
If we have not heard from the parent/guardian of an absent student, we will be calling the home and, if needed, work places to make sure the student is safe.
Contact the Office | Phone: 204-326-3518 | Email: southwood@hsd.ca
End of Day Messages & Early Pick Up
Please call the school to relay after school messages for your student by 3:00 pm so that we can ensure that student message are given before they are dismissed. This includes changes to pick up or bus information that the teachers on bus duty need to be aware of.
If you need to pick up your child early, please contact the office (and teacher) as soon as possible so that we can arrange an escort to the front office for them where you can pick them up, and they can be signed out.
Thank you for your cooperation in keeping your kids safe!
What Should I Do If My Child Is Sick
Upcoming Fundraisers
Monogrammed Mask Necklaces
Never lose your mask again! Keep your mask within easy reach with these handy mask necklaces! Perfect for when you take it off and put it on multiple times a day. Exclusively at Southwood School, your student can purchase a cohort color coded mask necklace so that it is always with them when they need it. And if they do misplace it during the school day, it will have their name, class and mascot so it can be returned to them quickly! For outside of school use, students at other schools, or friends and family who want to support our school, you can order mask necklaces with the information/words of your choice and pick your colors!
50% of profits go towards Southwood School Fundraising initiatives. Order forms will be sent home later this week with an order deadline of October 16th. Delivery to the classrooms will be as soon as possible with student necklaces being given priority before the end of the month and other orders to be filled by the first week in November.
Christmas Cards
Although school might be looking a little different these days, we continue to look forward with optimism. As we continue to dream of making Southwood School an even more exciting place for students to learn and grow, we are looking at innovative ways to fund these projects.
We are excited to announce our greeting card fundraising project. This project will allow you to purchase greeting cards for the upcoming Christmas season with your child's artwork on it. Student artwork will be uploaded by the middle of October and online orders can be made by November 1. See the attached flyer for more details.
More information to come in the following weeks.
Additional COVID-19 Cleaning Measures
Did You Know?
- Increased cleaning and disinfecting is occurring around your child's school and throughout the day, especially high-touch surfaces and washrooms. Extra hand washing and sanitizing stations are set up and monitored to ensure students utilize them. In addition, we are placing portable wash stations in many of our schools.
- All buses are sanitized before the next group of children boards. Sanitization includes enhanced cleaning of seats and other high-touch surfaces (e.g., windows, railings). Some of our buses will be sanitized 2-3 times per route.
- HSD has also purchased portable sanitizer spray equipment, which is utilized on a routine basis for sanitizing classrooms, washrooms, gym equipment and school buses. This equipment will also be utilized to sanitize spaces in the event that we do have a positive case of COVID-19 identified in one of our schools or buses.
- The cleaning and sanitizing products used by HSD are deemed safe products approved for use in schools. We work with organizations such as Safe Work Manitoba and the Manitoba School Boards Association to determine which products are safe for use.
- A printable version of the Self-Screening Questionnaire (PDF) has been made available by Public Health. Self-Screening must take place every day before your child attends school.
- Manitoba Education has outlined the steps to be taken by public health and your child's school if a positive COVID-19 case is confirmed. View the one-page Response Management Summary (PDF). For more detailed information regarding potential scenarios, visit the provincial Restoring Safe Schools web pages.
- All schools in the Hanover School Division are currently operating in the Caution Stage (yellow). The province has defined four pandemic response levels - Limited Risk (green), Caution (yellow), Restricted (orange) and Critical (red). These may change throughout the school year, and they can be applied differently in individual schools or regions across the province, depending on the situation. The response level is set by public health officials. Learn more about how each level impacts schools by viewing the Pandemic Response System (PDF) documentation.
Note from Transportation
All urban bus routes are posted on the HSD website with times and maps. Any bus urban or rural that will be late due to weather or mechanical issues is listed on the HSD website in the bus delay area.
Please go to hsd.ca. Go to drop down menu of Services/Transportation where you can choose:
1. School Bus Delay Bulletins where any bus that is late is posted with approximate delay.
2. STEINBACH URBAN BUS ROUTES - When you go to your school specific routes and click on the map icon you will see times as well as a map AM/PM displayed.
Thank you for checking these options before calling the Hanover School Division Transportation Department with your questions regarding bus delays and Steinbach urban bus route times and maps.
If you make a change with the Transportation Department to your transportation method, (to, or from, bussed to non-bussed) during the year, please inform the office.
Parking Notes
Picture Day
Picture day order forms were sent home with all students. Your photography program this year offers exciting online ordering capabilities.
For this prepay program, each student will receive a flyer and have the ability to view and order from all of these different looks online at mylifetouch.ca.
Orders can also be placed using the paper flyer which handed on photo day. Orders after October 7th must be done online. Students may order up to 48 hours after Picture Day online.
The online site will open and be available to accept your order 2 weeks prior to the photo day. Be ready to bring your smiles on picture day! To place your order online, Log on to mylifetouch.ca or Click the link below.
https://my.lifetouch.com and enter your Picture Id: QL919455Q0
For Tips on preparing for photo day visit www.lifetouch.ca
Questions call Lifetouch at 1-866-457-8212 or email: guestservices@lifetouch.ca
Picture day schedule for this year:
Tuesday, October 6th (a.m.) Day 2
K2G
K4C
3B
3J
1P
1C
1S
2F
2N
4M
4N
Wednesday, Oct 7th (a.m.) Day 3
K1D
K3B
K5V
3H
3P
1M
1G
2K
2C
4B
4H
Costume Parade
This year's costume parade falls on Friday, October 30th. We are currently working on the logistics as it will have to be a bit different. Please stay tuned for more information!
Southwood School Balanced School Day - Nutrition Break Information
The Balanced School Day at Southwood includes two breaks. One in the morning from 11:05 - 11:55 and one in the afternoon from 1:10 - 2:00.
The Breaks are split into 2 chunks:
(i) Activity Time - 25 minutes
(ii) Nutrition Time - 25 minutes
Depending on your child’s house color, they might have activity time first and then nutrition time, or it might be flipped.
The eating times are longer and so the lunches that you pack might need to look a bit different. Some examples of organizing your child’s lunch kit could include, lunch items separated by a piece of cardboard and everything on top is eaten during break 1 and everything below is eaten during break 2. Another idea is that lunch items can be labelled with break 1 and 2. Students catch on quickly with proper teaching and modeling.
Example Lunch
Break 1 Break 2
½ Sandwich/wrap, lunch in thermos, left overs (cold) Other ½ Sandwich, muffin, Bagel
Fruit Fruit
Vegetables Vegetables
Granola Bar or Crackers Rice cakes or popcorn
Yogurt or Yogurt Tube Cheese
Water Water
The following website has some interesting lunch ideas if you are interested take a look.
https://www.unlockfood.ca/en/Articles/School-Health/Articles/Food-for-a-Balanced-School-Day.aspx
Drive Away Hunger
October 5-15
We are happy to once again partner up with the Southeast Helping Hands for a food drive. Things will be done a little differently this year. We are asking each cohort to bring in different needed items.
Pink Flamingos- baby food and diapers for toddlers
Green Gators- canned vegetables
Purple Panthers- canned fruit
Yellow Yakity Yaks- breakfast cereal
Red Rockets- canned soup and canned stew
Blue Coyotes- rice
Orange Orangutans-pasta and pasta sauces
Students please bring food items to your classrooms. Food needs are especially high this year and we thank you for your support with our Southwood School caring project.
Tumblebooks
The Southwood literacy team has just subscribed to Tumblebooks. What are Tumblebooks? “Tumblebooks is a collection of books (animated, talking picture books) with fiction, non-fiction and foreign language titles, Math Stories, Read-Alongs (chapter books with sentence highlighting and narration but no animation), Videos (from National Geographics), TumbleTV which consists of pre-set playlists of a sequence of books, Tumble Puzzles & Games, and TumbleResources for teachers and students. TumbleBooks are created from existing picture books which we have licensed from children's book publishers and converted to the TumbleBook format”. This collection of online books, etc. can now be accessed from a link on our school website, or at the following web address:
http://www.tumblebooklibrary.com
To login at the top right, simply enter the following information;
Username = southwoodelem
Password = reads
We hope that teachers, students and families will all enjoy this collection of great books at school and at home. Enjoy!
The Southwood School Literacy Team
Fundraising for Terry Fox Continues until October 8th
This year, all fundraising is being done online. Fundraising continues until October 8th and you can donate on our school page at http://www.terryfox.ca/Southwood_. It’s fast,
easy and donors get a receipt immediately by email. Alternately, go to terryfox.org and search
“Southwood School.”
Your child may choose to set up their own fundraising page by clicking the "Donate to a Student" button. Their page will connect automatically to our school's fundraising page and they'll receive a link to email friends and family to help them reach their fundraising goal.
Dates to Remember
October
6 Photo Day - see schedule
7 Photo Day - see schedule
Oct 7 iwalk #1
12 Thanksgiving Day - NO SCHOOL
Oct 14 iwalk #2
14 Assembly @ 12:00 p.m.
23 Assembly @ 2:00 p.m.
Oct 21 iwalk #3
19-23 Bus Safety Week in October
30 Costume Parade
November
9 Admin Day - NO SCHOOL
10 Assembly 12:00 p.m.
11 Remembrance Day - NO SCHOOL
13 Photo Retakes (AM only)
19 Assembly @ 9:00 a.m.
25 Report Cards - Term 1
26 Student Led Conferences or Parent Teacher Conferences
Southwood School
Email: southwood@hsd.ca
Website: http://southwood.hsd.ca
Location: 155 Barkman Avenue, Steinbach, MB, Canada
Phone: 204-326-3518
Twitter: @SouthwoodHSD