News from WES 9/9/18

UPCOMING WES EVENTS

Monday, September 10 - WCUD Board Meeting, 6pm at Killington Elementary School

Tuesday, September 11 - Curriculum Exploration Night 6-7pm at WES (no students, please) 

Wednesday, September 12 - 5-6 grade to Pentangle, 10am 

Tuesday, September 18 - WES PTO and Principal coffee reception for WES parents, 8-9am at WES

Weds-Friday, September 19-21 - 4th grade to HOC 

Monday, September 24 - Musical Instrument Rental Pick-up Night, 6:30pm WES Cafe

Friday, September 28 - PreK-4th grade to Pentangle, 10am

Tuesday, October 2 - Picture Day

Monday, October 8 - No School, In-service Day for Teachers

WES Parent/Guardian Curriculum Exploration Night!

The Woodstock Elementary School Faculty invites WES parents and guardians to a curriculum exploration night on Tuesday, September 11th, from 6-7pm at the school. Teachers will present in content area teams to engage you in activities that demonstrate the type of learning WES students do on a daily basis. The topic options are listed below. Each session will be presented three times, during an A, B, and C time block, so you may pick from three of the sessions on the menu below. It is not important that you see your child’s teacher on this night because the whole faculty has planned these sessions together and each session fairly represents instruction across the school. If you need to speak to your child’s teacher about an individual matter or check in on your child’s progress, please email or call to check in or arrange a conference. This is an adult only event!

SCHEDULE

6:00 BLOCK A

6:20 BLOCK B

6:40 BLOCK C

MENU OF TOPICS

Topic	Group leaders	Location
Guided Reading of a nonfiction text	Ann Bahlenhorst Christine Halik Holly Taylor	2nd grade classrooms Frates/Halik, 2nd floor
PreK center-based learning: Families get to participate in the Pre-K Explorations block where they will experience the work children engage with daily	Jacquelyn Porter	PreK classroom, 1st floor
PALS program center-based learning	Cathy Costello	PALS classroom, 2nd floor
Fostering Your Child’s Growth Mindset	Erin Klocek Jamie Sudol Betsy Frates	Stockwell kindergarten classroom, 1st floor
Mathematical Brownies	Kelley Grace Kristen Hubbell Jo MacMaster DeVeau Sleeper Nancy Stockwell Hector Kent from WUMHS	Hubbell/Willis classrooms, 2nd floor
Introduction to Reading and Writing workshop in the upper grades	Martha Giller and Kelley Willis	5th grade math classroom, Grace, 2nd floor

Music is brain work! Recorder lesson one! Percussion game!	Peggy Ogilvy	Music Room, off cafe
Projects for Spanish Proficiency	Elaine Leibly	Roberts Room, 1st floor
Modeling Science Phenomena	Marcia Gauvin Jill Kurash Jay Mumford	STEM Lab, 2nd floor
PBIS At home!	Cody TanCreti Kevin Smith	Gym

AFTER SCHOOL STEM CLUB

Electronics and Circuitry:  In this first STEM After School Club, students will be doing a variety of explorations around electric circuits and electronics. We will start by deconstructing old electronics, and then using the pieces as teaching tools on how electronics are built and how they work.  We will then put the pieces together into new circuits to create buzzing, whirring, and flashing inventions of our own.

STEM After School Club will be held on Mondays and Wednesdays, Sept. 24th - Oct 17- from 2:50 to 3:50 in the STEM Lab. Registration is open to students in 3rd through 6th grade - and is limited to 15 students.  Because of limited space - registration is limited to students who can attend both days. There is a $10 materials fee.

Click here to register. https://goo.gl/forms/LG7fIHLh7VxyBjy63

WES NURSE NEWS 

Welcome back! Hope everyone is enjoying a healthy, happy start to the school year. It has been a hot start so please make sure your child is bringing a water bottle to school and wears cool, breathable clothing. Parents of younger children are reminded that an extra change of clothing is always helpful to have at school (especially since we have water pumps on our playground that are very tempting in hot weather!) 

Our school is an "Allergy Aware" school. We do not restrict the kinds of foods that can be brought in from home for lunch but we do have allergy safe zones such as allergy aware classrooms and allergy aware tables in the cafe. If your child is in an allergy aware classroom, a letter has been sent home explaining what this means. We recognize that many families and students rely on nuts and peanut butter for nutritional value and we do not want to cause a burden on these families. That being said, there are other food items besides nuts that cause allergic reactions.

The new Wellness Policy for the Windsor Central Unified District encourages teachers and parents to "seek alternatives to food for use in celebrations in order to respect and include those individuals with food allergies, cultural restrictions and / or economic challenges". With this in mind, we kindly ask that you do not send in food items to celebrate a special occasion such as your child's birthday. If you would like a special day to be acknowledged, please speak with your child's classroom teacher about alternative ways to celebrate. We understand that this is a cultural change but we aim to keep all of our students safe and included. I look forward to getting to know all of our new students and to seeing familiar faces! 

Jamie Sudol MEd, RN - School Nurse

RECESS AND LUNCH SUPERVISOR HELP WANTED!

Woodstock Elementary School is in need of a paraprofessional to provide recess and lunch supervision and support to all students in our PreK-6 school. Candidates need to be firm, consistent, direct, intuitive, patient, and willing to work on a team with other adults. This position is ~10:45-1:30 daily. Please spread the word and contact Maggie Mills if interested! 

INTERESTED IN HEALTHY HELPINGS?

“Healthy Helpings” is a service that WES provides to families in partnership with the Woodstock Food Shelf.  The purpose of the program is to provide healthy snacks and meal items for our students to eat on the weekends.  The program is free of charge.  Here's how it works:

If you sign up, your child will receive a bag of non-perishable food items on (most) Fridays (or the day before school vacation).  Items may include things like mac and cheese, canned goods, oatmeal, popcorn, tuna, snacks, peanut butter and jelly, fruit cups, etc. 

Items will be distributed confidentially and discreetly in a way that works for your family.  We typically put weekend food bags in students’ backpacks on Fridays when the students are away from the classroom.  Alternatively, parents can pick up the bags in the office on Friday afternoons. Click here for more info!

LEND A HAND ~ JOIN THE WES PTO TEAM! 

Help us build a vibrant school community!

The PTO Team is looking for students, parents, teachers, and grandparents to help us achieve our mission for the 2018-2019 school year.

WE NEED YOUR HELP!!!!

Our Pledge To You:

-      Limited meetings (we know you have a busy schedule!)

-       Focused teams to work on each activity

-       Fun for the whole family

WES PTO Sponsored Events Include:

Fall Bake Sale

Harvest Hoe Down Dance

Spring Teacher Appreciation Week

Family Game Nights

Sign Up Today!

To join the team, or for more information, email us at

smcdermo@comcast.net or amypomeroy23@gmail.com

 LEARN MORE AT CURRICULUM EXPLORATION NIGHT ON the 11th OR THE PTO/PRINCIPAL COFFE on the 18th! 

WES Welcome Letter 2018

August 13, 2018

Dear Woodstock Elementary School Families,

We want to officially welcome all of you to the 2018-2019 School Year! We hope you are enjoying a wonderful summer. As we countdown the days to the start of school, we want to say hello, wish you a fun few more days of summer, and update you on some news from WES and the newly formed Windsor Central Unified District.  

This is an exciting year for WES as our enrollment has grown from 160 to 197 students as of today. We welcome new families in kindergarten, new students via intradistrict school choice, our new public preK students, and those families who have moved to the area from other regions and states. We look forward to building a vibrant community with you all.

The above student numbers evolved over the summer and the open primary teacher search reopened, so as a result, teaching assignments shifted. Here are the current class configurations:   

• PreK: Jacquelyn Porter* (Cindy Emery, assistant)
• Kindergarten: Nancy Stockwell (Jennifer Gubbins, assistant)
• First grade: Joann MacMaster and Holly Taylor* (two homerooms; these teachers will collaborate to share instruction for all first grade students)
• Second grade: Betsy Frates and Christine Halik (two homerooms; these teachers will collaborate to share instruction for all second grade students)
• Third grade and fourth grade: Kristen Hubbell, math; Jay Mumford, science and social studies; Kelley Willis, literacy. Students will start the day in mixed grade level homerooms but will travel as two seperate groups: third and fourth grade.
• Fifth and sixth grade: Martha Giller, literacy; Kelley Grace, math; Jill Kurash, science and social studies. There will be one fifth grade homeroom with Ms. Grace and two sixth grade homerooms with Mrs. Giller and Mrs. Kurash. Students will travel throughout the day in these homeroom groups.

*Indicates new to WES. Please welcome our two new classroom teachers!

All students and families in grades K-6 will be welcomed at WES on Monday, August 27th from 5:30-6:30pm for Meet Your Teacher Night. Students will learn their homeroom assignments at Meet Your Teacher Night and have a chance to visit their new classrooms and teachers.

PreK families are invited to attend two opening events, On Friday, August 24th from 3-4pm we will have a PreK social on the WES playground. The WES PreK Open House classroom visit is on Tuesday, August 28th from 3-4pm. This will help students and families see the space and learn the preK drop-off routine for the start of school.

The first day of school is Wednesday, August 29th. The bell rings promptly at 7:55am and class begins at 8:00am. Please note that all schools in the district now adhere to the updated Windsor County truancy protocol which is included in our new district’s elementary handbook. Please see the attached school year calendar. Look for an upcoming email about the bus routes which will soon be finalized.

There are two initiatives to be aware of at WES this year. In October, we will launch a WIN block from 8:15-8:45 daily. WIN stands for “What I Need.” The goal is for this to be a time of individualized teaching such as targeted intervention for math and reading support, enrichment opportunities, and extra practice for students based on needs or interests. Look for more information about WIN as the school year launches. Our school is also entering year two of adopting Positive Behavior Intervention Systems (PBIS) after a successful first year of this approach. We will make slight adjustments to our school-wide PAWS systems based on feedback from teachers, families, and students. Please look for information in our newsletters and from your grade level team about PBIS. Below are some details about instructional programming changes happening in schools across the district.

LIBRARY

Last winter, Nancy Farwell, the WES librarian resigned. Support staff continued to maintain the library and provide opportunities for students to visit the library and check out books. This year, classes will have regular times to visit the library and borrow books. Cathy Knight, the Reading Elementary School principal, is also a school library media specialist and will be visiting WES regularly to help keep our collection updated and inform students about new and engaging titles. This year, there will be a review of library media needs across the district to create a longer term plan.

SPANISH

Elementary world language instruction is also under review in the merged district for the 2018-2019 school year. While district educators take time to study best practices in world language instruction, Elaine Leibly will create continuity by providing Spanish instruction in all WCUD elementary schools. In order to share Senora Leibly’s skill, Spanish will be adjusted across all schools. Due to the unique staffing and scheduling needs at individual schools, Spanish instruction will be similar, but not identical, on each campus. At WES, students in grades 1-2 will have 25 minutes of Spanish a week. Students in grades 3-6 will have 45 minutes of Spanish a week. We are still exploring ways for PreK and K students to be exposed to Spanish as schedules allow. Although your child may receive less Spanish instruction per week this year, Senora Leibly will continue to provide valuable instruction for our students.

LAB CLASSROOM

The WCUD is initiating a laboratory classroom model to improve instruction throughout the new district. Woodstock Elementary School will implement this in grades 3 and 4 while The Prosper Valley School will do the same in a combined kindergarten and grade 1 class.  The lab classroom is designed to build upon and improve aspects of facilitating, coaching, and professional development models that teachers find most helpful and successful in advancing teaching and learning. Our lab teachers will work with coaches to develop best instructional practices and  are committed to demonstrate and model these practices, while also experimenting with new techniques and curriculum such as improving units to push students’ deeper thinking. Teachers from all district schools will have opportunities to observe and reflect on these practices with some being adopted by the observing teachers and others perhaps needing more refinement. The overall goal is to improve instruction in the environment where students are learning.

DISTRICT WIDE PREK

WCSU is pleased to offer public preK for all three and four year olds in our member towns at Barnard Academy, Killington Elementary, Reading Elementary, and Woodstock Elementary. PreK students attend five mornings a week with optional extended day and after school programming. The program will utilize the Vermont Early Learning Standards to provide students with an enriching, developmentally appropriate educational experience.

As always, if there are ways we can collaborate to best serve your child, we want to hear from you. Please be in touch if you have questions, concerns, or ideas for us.

Sincerely,

Maggie Mills

Principal

FINAL News from WES June 9, 2018

UPCOMING WES EVENTS

Monday, June 11 - Inn Day for 6th Grade, Woodstock Athletic Club 11-2:40 

Tuesday, June 12, 6th grade promotion ceremony, 1:30pm 

Wednesday, June 13, Last day of school, no ASP, Dismissal at 11:55 (6th graders do not attend WES on Wednesday, they are at WUMSHS step up) 

THANK YOU, PENTANGLE!

 

The 6th grade team wishes to recognize Pentangle Arts Council for sharing their space with us for the 6th grade production of Theseus and the Minotaur. We are also grateful to Pentangle for providing us with free movie tickets to recognize 5th and 6th grade students who exemplify our three school rules. 

STAFF APPRECIATION

The end of the school year is a time of gratitude and farewell to those who are leaving WES for other pursuits. Please send your best wishes to the following departing staff: Peg Fothergill and Katie McCormack in Special Education; Alisa Vereshchagin, Spanish; Hannah Anderson, PALS support staff; Ali Gadapee, cafe support staff; Amy Wood, special education support staff (staying on in ASP); VC Moonstone, EEE support staff.

2018-2019 CLASSROOMS  

The following describes our '18-'19 classroom configuration the best we can determine at this time based on enrollment: 

FIRST FLOOR 

PreK: one class, Mrs. Porter (new hire)

Kindergarten: two classes, Mrs. Stockwell & TBD teacher

First grade: one class, Mrs. MacMaster

SECOND FLOOR

Second grade: two classes, Mrs. Halik and Mrs. Frates

Third and fourth grades: two separate grade level classes with departmentalized teaching: Mrs. Hubbell, math lead; Ms. Willis literacy lead, Mr. Mumford science/social studies integrated studies lead. This team may utilize the three teachers for multiage homerooms again. 

Fifth and sixth grades: one fifth grade homeroom, two sixth grade homerooms all with departmentalized teaching: Ms. Grace, math; Mrs. Giller, literacy; Ms. Kurash, science and social studies. 

New Spanish teacher: Mrs. Elaine Leibly

New Special Educators: Mr. Devyn Workman and Mr. Kevin Smith

Homeroom assignments will be finalized over the summer with placements made available in August at back to school night. Please understand that it is very difficult to honor parent placement requests as many factors are considered when composing homerooms. 

WES PARENT SURVEY RESULTS

Thank you to those parents who participated in our survey. The staff has reviewed the survey results and responses and we will use your thoughts to inform the coming school year. The results can be found in a powerpoint here. The winner of the Woodstock Farmer's Market Gift Card is Jen Flaster! 

Tie Up End-of-Year Loose Ends 

 

Don't forget to: 

• return library books
• settle café balances
• reclaim medications from the nurse
• check the lost and found

NURSE NEWS