Windermere Weekly Parent Update
1.7.22
Happy New Year, Windermere. What a treat on Tuesday to see so many SMILING faces, ready to start a new year! I hope each of you were able to enjoy a fabulous winter break with your family.
This week, teachers spent lots of time with their students reviewing what it looks like, sounds like and feels like to be back in school, build community and practice the Windermere Way in all parts of their day. This is an important part of setting the foundation for a great rest of the school year.
Tuesday morning we had a Virtual Town Hall meeting. It is important to reconnect as a school community and this was the perfect way to do it! Student council representatives led the meeting and read the book Be You by Peter Reynolds. This is a simple but powerful book that encourages students to be who they are and be proud of this. Teachers are doing a follow-up activity in the classroom to reinforce this by having students reflect on who they are and why they are an important part of our school community.
Have a great weekend, Windermere.
Julie
Masks: Please help us by making sure your child has at least two clean masks available to wear. We are running out of our supply of extra masks due to so many students needing one. If you could please help us by sending in an extra so that your child has one in his/her backpack for backup that would be great. Thank you!
Windermere Way Spirit Week: Let's shake off those winter blues! Next week is Windermere Spirit Week! Your Windermere Student Council would love for your Hawk to participate starting on this Monday:
1/10 Monday - Bring a stuffie to school day
1/11 Tuesday - Crazy Hair Day
1/12 Wednesday - Inside out Day
1/13Thursday - Dress like your teacher
1/14 Friday - Wear TOO much green and blue!
Windermere Way Revisit: It’s that time of year again! Time to revisit what makes Windermere such a special place! It’s Windermere Way Week in PE class! This year we will revisit what it means to be Respectful, Responsible, and Ready to Learn, as well as what it means to be inclusive in PE. Students will have an opportunity to experience what it is like to have physical disabilities that may challenge a student to find alternative ways to participate in PE class. Our older students will be partnered with a younger buddy and come to the gym for special activities. It’s going to be a great day!
Family Fitness Night: Family Fitness Night (scheduled for Thursday, January 27th from 6-8 pm.) has been postponed. Our hope is that we can reschedule this fun night sometime early spring. We’ll keep you posted!
Windermere Family Cultures and Traditions: As we shared today via email and on our Windermere FB page, we will be rescheduling this event for spring. The date will be coming soon. We want to make sure as many families as can, are able to attend and participate. Thank you for understanding!
Service Learning Committee Update: Our Service Learning Committee has planned some great experiences for students throughout the rest of this school year. Our theme is “Caring for Ourselves, Caring for Each Other” with a focus on wellbeing and connection. Our year-end project will be the unveiling of a sensory garden and a permanent art installation entitled “A Windermere Hawk Is…” This artwork will represent the K-5 student voice on what they feel are the important qualities and characteristics that our students embody that make our school great. You can find more information HERE.
PBIS Committee Update: The PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports) committee wanted to share with you what PBIS is and how we incorporate it into our daily practice at Windermere. You can find this information in this document. We also wanted to share a resource you can use at home based on PBIS practices: Positive Solutions for Families: Eight Practical Tips for Parents of Young Children with Challenging Behavior
School Counselor January Update: Find parenting tips, resources and group opportunities in the January Counselor Connection Newsletter.
What a great idea! I thought this could be something you could do at home.
Golden Apple Award:
We are delighted to announce the start of Golden Apple season in Upper Arlington! As you are likely aware, there is a dedicated Golden Apple award for a special teacher, staff, or administrator for each school in Upper Arlington!
The nominations window opens this Friday, January 7th, and continues through March 1st. Nominations can be submitted by students, colleagues, parents, community members, etc.
Visit www.UACA.org to fill out a nomination form
PowerSchool Down for Oracle Database Upgrades
January 14-16 META will take our PowerSchool server off-line at 5pm on Friday, January 14. Due to the amount of time needed for the upgrades and miscellaneous server maintenance you should plan to NOT have access to PowerSchool for the duration of the weekend. This includes students, staff and parents.
PTO UPDATE
Happy New Year and welcome back to our Hawks and Hawk families! We are excited for the second half of the school year - PTO has lots of fun activities planned so stay tuned as we roll those out in the coming weeks!
With that in mind, we will need lots of volunteers for our events & activities coming up! Specifically, our spring flower sale and KidsFest will need a lot of volunteers to be the great successes they have been in the past! If you are interested in volunteering for these or other opportunities, please email us and let us know! [email protected] There are opportunities whether you have a little or a lot of time to spare!
Go Hawks!
Stephanie Tozbikian & Jen Mascho
PTO Co-Presidents.