There are still some spots left in the YWCA after-school program. This program is offered free of charge to our students in grades K-5. The program runs Monday-Thursday, 3:00-5:30. Students who attend the program get academic support, enrichment activities, and dinner. If you are interested, let your student teachers know, or email the Program Director Brittney Higgs at bhiggs@ywca-wny.orgs so an application can be sent home.

Oct. 25 - Farmers Market 9-10, School Board Meeting 3:30 at WCCS

Oct. 28 - Super Saturday - Trunk or Treat

Oct. 31 - Dress like your favorite Book Character

Nov. 1 - Farmers Market 9-10

Nov. 2 - Monthly Parent Meeting, ZOOM, 5 pm, https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88261442478?pwd=aMv2ch9SIalDkr6vEZRaJQs5J3Yiva.1

Nov. 8 - Farmers Market 9-10, Bingo Night, HS Application Nigth 5:00-6:30

Nov. 9 - End of First Quarter

Nov. 10 - No School Veterans Day

Nov.15 Farmers Market 9-10

Nov. 20 - 1/2 For Students, Parent Teacher Conferences

Nov. 22-Nov.24 - No School Thanksgiving

The Progress Reports are available on the parent portal. You can sign up on the website if you have not registered for the parent portal. https://parentportal.wnyric.org/WestminsterCSD

If you do not have your child's 900 number, please ask them; it is their login for the school computer, or reach out to the school, and we can get it for you.

If you have not checked your child's progress, please do so. Reach out to their teachers for was to support them at home.

All parents want their children to do well in school. One way to help your child is to help them build their vocabulary. Beginning readers use knowledge about words to help them understand what they’re reading. The more words a reader knows, the more they can comprehend what they’re reading or listening to.

Talking to and reading with your child are terrific ways to help them hear and read new words. Conversations and questions about interesting words (“The book says, ‘The boy tumbled down the hill,’ and look at the picture! How do you think he went down the hill?”) are easy, non-threatening ways to get new words into everyday talk.

Sharing a new word with your child doesn’t have to take a long time: just a few minutes to talk about the word and then focus back on the book or conversation. Choose which words to talk about carefully — choosing every new word might make reading seem like a chore. The best words to explore with your child are common among adult speakers but less common to see in the books your child might read.

When introducing new words to your young learner, keep the following four helpful hints in mind:

1. Provide a simple, kid-friendly definition for the new word:

Enormous means that something is really, really big.

2. Provide a simple, kid-friendly example that makes sense within their daily life:

Remember that really big watermelon we got at the grocery store? That was an enormous watermelon!

3. Encourage your child to develop their own example:

What enormous thing can you think of? Can you think of something really big that you saw today? That’s right! The bulldozer near the park was enormous! Those tires were huge.

4. Keep your new words active within your house.

Over the next few days and weeks, take advantage of opportunities to use each new vocabulary word in conversation.

Take the time to share new words and build your child’s vocabulary. You’ll be enormously glad you did!

Book Character Day! On Book Character Day, students and staff dress up as their favorite characters from books they love. We share about the book and our character role in it. We can bring the book and share it with our classmates if we have the book. Our younger students will have a parade around campus. It's an excellent way for us all to celebrate the Love of Reading!

What is chronic absenteeism?

Generally speaking, students who miss a defined number of school days, 10% or 18 days, for any reason, are considered chronically absent. Chronically absent students risk falling behind in school and becoming susceptible to many other harmful consequences.

Why does chronic absenteeism matter?

A report from the U.S. Department of Education (ED) used data from the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) for the 2015–16 school year to illustrate the extent of chronic absenteeism in our nation’s schools. The data revealed that chronically absent students are at more significant academic risk for missing early learning milestones, failing courses, and not graduating on time. Chronically absent students are also at a greater risk for several negative long-term consequences, such as being more likely to experience poverty, diminished mental and physical health, and involvement in the criminal justice system as an adult.

A summarization of the 2021 Attendance Works report states: “Before the pandemic, 8 million students in every state and at every grade level missed 10% (or nearly a month) of school in the 2017–18 school year, according to the most current data released by the U.S. Department of Education’s EDFacts initiative.” That equals about one in six students missing up to three weeks (15 days) of school a year.

While not all absences are in your control, some are. You control when appointments and vacations are scheduled. Try to;

• Make every effort to schedule doctor, dentist, and other appointments after school hours.
• If your child must be out of school for an appointment, get them back to school for at least part of the school day.
• Plan vacations when school is not in session.