Elementary Update

February 2019

Early Childhood Center Update

The Early Childhood Center is excited to welcome back student teachers from Macomb Community College in our GSRP classrooms. The child care and SACC staff were able to have a staff meeting together on MLK day. Mrs. Spadafore's class did an experiment using eggs in regards to MLK day (see picture). Our preschool staff is looking forward to begin visits to the elementary kindergarten classrooms observing readers/writers workshops, as well as guided reading groups.

Warren Woods Early Childhood is partnering with Henry Ford Macomb School and Community Wellness to implement an 8 week hands on nutrition and cooking program called LANA (Learning About Nutrition through Activities). The goal of the program is to help the students learn to taste, eat and enjoy more fruits and vegetables each day. A Registered Dietitian will teach the program one time a week for 30 minutes. The lessons introduce new fruits/vegetables, allow students to try new fruits/vegetables through cooking and tasting activities and teach general nutrition around the importance of eating fruits/vegetables. Data has shown that families who have children who participate in the LANA program, have an increase consumption of fruits and vegetables at home.

Briarwood Update

We are excited to welcome new staff members to Briarwood. The second grade students have embraced the arrival of their new teacher, Mrs. Stacey Demarco. Mrs. Stacey DeMarco comes to us with 16 years of teaching experience. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education from Central Michigan University and a Master’s Degree in Reading from Saginaw Valley State University. She prides herself on being a teacher that is patient and respectful. She is a creative lesson planner who designs engaging activities that build the skills students need to bring with them to the next level and beyond.

Attendance

The Briarwood School Improvement Team continues to review attendance and tardy data at Briarwood. We have identified students that are at risk and high risk according to the number of times they have been tardy or absent. In order to be proactive, the staff will use a small portion of the staff meeting time to make phone calls to parents/family members. Currently we have 18% of our students that have missed 8-15 days of school. Additionally, we have 7% of the Briarwood students that have missed 16 or more days of school. As a staff we are know attendance matters and looking at proactive ways to engage families in the dialogue.

Pinewood Update

Reading Recovery

A team, made up up Elementary Teachers and Administrators, recently attended the National Reading Recovery & K-6 Literacy Conference in Columbus, Ohio. This three day event gave our team an opportunity to explore new strategies to enhance the K-6 literacy practices within our district and within our Reading Recovery classrooms. One highlight of the event was listening to Dr. Lucy Calkins speak on the importance of becoming communities of practice, in order to continue to learn and grow as educators. This, once again, was a fantastic event that helped us move the literacy conversation forward in WWPS.

Westwood Update

As we continue to enhance our literacy instruction, Westwood's second and third grade teachers participated in Guided Reading Coaching Sessions with Dr. Taylor. Teachers utilized the new Literacy Footprints materials to engage students during these sessions. Teachers spent time after each session debriefing with Dr. Taylor. Feedback from our teachers was extremely positive as they found the information beneficial. As a district, we are eager to continue our coaching sessions with all K-5 teachers during the month February.