Woodland Primary School
January 11, 2024
January 19th marked the end of the first semester of the 2023-2024 school year. For the Primary School students, this means that parents and caregivers will receive a report card on their child's growth and progress. You will be able to access these documents on Friday, January 26th, by 12:00 p.m.
Because the access of these reports is different for kindergarten and EC/WELE families, the directions and information have been broken down by program below. Please reach out to your child's teacher or me if you have questions or need assistance for any of the reports discussed below.
Your child has been working hard and growing and developing at their own rate. We are proud of the hard work our students have put in to learn academically and socially. Take time to celebrate your child!
Early Childhood and WELE
If your child is in and Early Childhood or WELE classroom, they will be viewing their child's report card in our Teaching Strategies Gold portal. As the parent/caregiver, you will receive a notification that your child's report is ready for viewing. If you have any difficulty viewing the report or don't receive a message through the Teaching Strategies Gold portal on Friday at noon, please reach out to your child's teacher, Mrs. Rouse, the Early Childhood Supervisor, me or our office staff to assist you.
Structured Learning and Individualized Education Plans
If your child is in our structured learning classroom, your child will not receive a report card. You will receive a progress report on your child's Individualized Education Plan. This will provide a picture of your child's growth towards their personalized goals.
All students that have an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) will receive an email with goal updates from your child's case manager.
**If you have had an IEP meeting in the last month, you have already received the progress report
Kindergarten
There is a lot of information to share regarding your child's first report card in kindergarten. Parents and caregivers will access these through our Skyward system. They will be available starting at noon on Friday, January 26th. In Kindergarten, we use a Standards Based report card. To fully understand how standards based grading works, please take some time to review the information that we have put together to assist you. Check out all of the links below.
Important Links:
Directions on how to access your child's report card in Skyward: Click HERE!
Information about understanding your child's standards based report card: Click HERE!
NWEA MAP Reports
Kindergarten students will also receive their Winter NWEA MAP reports in their backpacks on Friday. Information on how to read and review your child's MAP scores can be found HERE.
Even though we just started the new year, I wanted to communicate the plans for Valentine's Day at Woodland Primary early so that there is clarity for all parents on what their child's classroom will be doing.
Valentine's Day Parties at Woodland Primary will be held on Friday, February 9th. If your child would like to bring in valentines for their classmates (optional, of course) they will exchange them on Friday, February 9th. Head Room Parents will be communicating which volunteers will attend and the plan for activities.
Valentine Guidelines: Students may bring in valentines to exchange with their classmates, but they shouldn't have any food, candy, or gum attached. If trinkets are attached, they should be age appropriate and not considered a choking hazard.
***Please note that we don't have food, drinks, or candy sent in for the parties. Please don't send these items in. Any goodie bags sent in shouldn't contain any food or candy. The focus is on friendship, games, and crafts! The students will have a great time together!
January 2024
Time To Talk About Independence
When children start to attend school, independence becomes a topic of conversation between adults caring for children. What can my young child do by themselves? When are they old enough to have chores?
Often, this skill is delayed by adults because we feel guilty or it is easier to do the tasks ourselves rather than wait for a child to complete the task. However, teaching independence will benefit the child, the adult, and the entire family system.
This month, you will find helpful links that share tips and insights on fostering independence in your child. A special note - in Dr. Lisa Damour’s podcast, she discusses independence with older children; however, listening to this podcast will also help the caregiver of the younger child. Dr. Damour provides a helpful perspective on how to cope with teaching this skill when feeling pressure or guilt.
Parent Information On Building Independence
Youtube - Video
How to Encourage Your Kids To Become More Independent
How to use closed captioning to translate a YouTube video into Spanish
How to use closed captioning to translate a YouTube video into another language.
Podcast
Should I Push My Child Out Of The Nest - Dr. Lisa Damour
As the Kindergarten Family Coordinator, I support parents/caregivers as you support your children. Let me know how I can help you!
Click here to make an appointment with me.
For more information and videos on parenting, visit the Primary School Parent Resource Hub
It’s time for Kids Heart Challenge 2024 (formerly Jump Rope for Heart), our 12th annual fundraiser for the American Heart Association! Woodland Primary School is proud to be a part of this fantastic fundraiser in which students learn the importance of heart health. Over the past 11 years, our school has raised an incredible total of $108,821.01 for this worthwhile cause.
Some quick facts about this year’s fundraiser are listed below:
- You can participate in this year’s Kids Heart Challenge with or without making a monetary donation to the American Heart Association. EVERYONE can take the challenge!
- Our fundraiser will be 100% online this year, no traditional paper collection envelopes will be used, nor will cash or checks be accepted.
- We don’t hold a traditional “event” for Kids Heart Challenge at Primary, instead we use time during PE classes to learn about and participate in heart health related activities and exercises.
- Any “Thank You Gifts” earned by students will be delivered in late March/early April (aside from various “instant gifts”).
- Our school earns gift certificates for PE equipment from US Games (a PE equipment company) based on our school-wide donation total.
- If we raise $10,000 as a school, Mr. Kupfer and Mr. Mistrata will get a “pie in the face” by the top 5 student fundraisers during one of our Wildcat Wednesday Assemblies.
- The DUE DATE for all donations is FEBRUARY 15th, 2024.
Please visit www.heart.org/KHC to sign up to take the free challenge or make a donation today!
If you have any questions, please contact Mr. Mistrata (cmistrata@dist50.net) or Mr. Kupfer (ikupker@dist50.net). Thank you!
Stacey Anderson
Woodland Primary School
Email: standerson@dist50.net
Website: www.dist50.net
Location: 17366 West Gages Lake Road, Gages Lake, IL, USA
Phone: 847-984-8702
Twitter: @StaceyJAnd