Reminders

Innovation Day!!!

Next Tuesday, February 12 is Innovation Day in grade 3. You can help your child by getting all necessary materials to school by Tuesday morning. Some of you have already brought materials in--thank you!  Students will complete projects at school that day and will need to bring them home on Thursday, February 14th. Please help them make arrangements to get them home(large bag for transport on bus, pick them up that day, etc).

Message from Dr. Rhoads

These are exciting times for my family as we are preparing for the birth of our daughter. I wanted to make you aware of my plan for supporting my family as the due date is Feb. 9^th.  After the birth of my child, I will be away from the school for 5 days.  I will then continue to learn about parenthood by working mornings as your principal up to another 4 weeks. I am anticipating that one of the weeks of my absence will be the week of February vacation.

The leadership team at WPS has been planning for my absence. Also, Kris Grant, former assistant principal at WPS, has agreed to join our team as the acting principal in my absence.  When I am out of the building, Ms. Grant will be here to handle administrative duties. If a crisis should arise, I have agreed to return to the school to help support the students and staff. I am excited about how my life is about to change!    Sincerely, Kyle

I am pleased to announce that Dr. Rhoads welcomed his baby girl today, Feb. 6th.


Upcoming Music Dates to Remember--More info will come from the Music Dept.

Saturday, March 2

Orff Festival – Select 3^rd Grade Students

Primary School

Thursday, April 4

3^rd Grade Concert
6:30 - WPAC--Windham Performing Arts Center – auditorium at the high school

Monday, May 27

Memorial Day Parade
3^rd Grade Chorus, Manchester Chorus, HS Band

Thursday, May 30

3^rd Grade Chorus
6:00 PM - Seadogs Game


There is NO SCHOOL on February 15th. Enjoy an extra day of vacation!

Beth Earle

Good Morning Everyone,

I have a few things I'd like to let you know about this morning.

I'm sending home DVDs from the holiday concert today. If you ordered one from Mrs. Cash-Cobb, you can expect to find it in your child's backpack tonight.

Our 100th day is approaching. Traditionally our school participates in a food drive to benefit the Windham Food Pantry. Each grade level is responsible for donating certain foods. Third grade will be donating boxed foods this year. If you would like to donate please send items in between Feb 1-13.

As the flu/cold season continues please remind your child to keep washing hands with soap and water if they are coughing or sneezing onto them. I am doing my best to keep things sanitized here in class to minimize the germs. If your child is sick and contagious please keep them home, but please be mindful that attendance is important and use good judgement when keeping them away from school. If they will be absent you can either email me or contact the office to let them know. Remember to let us know specifically why they are out. For example, please say sick with a head cold instead of just sick. It helps with looking at our absences data.

Communication from the office: Please be sure that your child's emergency information for addresses, phone numbers and emergency contacts are up to date. Changes occur during the year and we sometimes forget to make necessary updates. This will help us out a lot!

If you plan to pick your child up from school any time after 2:30, please report to the cafeteria. Any time before 2:30 will still be dismissed from the office.

I hope everyone enjoys the weekend and hope that some of you will be able to be home on Monday as well.

Stay warm!

Beth Earle

Holiday Reward

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to write a quick post to tell you all how proud I am of my class for having such great behavior when Mr. Philpot was here. They worked tremendously hard to make good choices and really rose to the occasion! I had several colleagues looking out for them while I was away and they all mentioned today how wonderful they did! You should be proud of your student for helping with this work!

As a reward I would like to hold a Pajama Day and a movie afternoon on Friday. This will be in lieu of a holiday "food" party and will be a day for us to relax and reflect on the year so far. I'll show a holiday movie after lunch and we may play a few team building games in the morning.

I spoke with the kids this morning and told them they can wear their favorite pajamas (please make sure they are winter appropriate) and slippers (they will need shoes for the hallways). Only students who have chosen to bring a "fluffy friend" as their reward should have stuffed animals that day. They will know who they are and have received a "fluffy friend" coupon for this.

If you have any questions about Friday please let me know!

Beth Earle

Dec. 12-Dec. 14 Update

Hi Everyone,

I hope this season finds you all well. I just wanted to let you all know that I need to be away from school this Wednesday through Friday (Dec. 12-14) and will have Mr. Philpot subbing for me all three days. He is a retired teacher from WPS and has many years experience teaching third grade. I am confident he will have things well under control. If you could please remind your student each day to be helpful to Mr. Philpot, that would be great!
If you have concerns that need to be addressed before I return please contact our A House Leader, Becky Miller.
Also, if you normally email me regarding dismissal, please either call the office or send a note to Mr. Philpot. Thanks!


Also, a few reminders for the coming weeks:

Please remind your child that the weather is quite unpredictable this season and they need to be prepared for cold weather every day. Some kids are still coming in with only sweatshirts. As the temperatures drop, they need to be prepared.

The annual holiday concert is next Monday, Dec. 17th at 9am at the high school auditorium. Be sure to have your child to school on time that day so we will have time to check in before walking up.

Late start days have been confusing for breakfast eaters. Our school does not serve breakfast on late start days. Please help your child by either sending an extra snack that morning or by having them eat at home.

For those who have children who attend SACC, please communicate changes in your child's schedule with the SACC program.  I do not come into contact with them during the day and they are not part of our school programming. It's confusing for them and for me when I get calls from the office wondering where your child is. I know it's one more thing to remember, but it will help things run more smoothly here at school. Thanks for your help with this!

Have a wonderful holiday season!

Beth Earle

Dates to remember

Hello Everyone,

I have a few dates for you to put on your calendar.

The A House Holiday Concert will be held at 9am on Monday, December 17th in the High School Performing Arts Center. Orange sheets are coming home today with the information and slips to purchase DVDs of the performance.

The A House Chorus will be going on a field trip next week on Tuesday, December 11th from 10:30-11:30.  They will be singing for the elderly at Ledgewood Manor. A teal permission slip is coming home today with students who are in chorus. Please return them before next Tuesday so your child can go on this fun trip.

Report cards went home yesterday. Please check backpacks if you haven't seen your child's yet.


These next few weeks will be very busy here at school (and at your homes, I'm sure). I've had a few students out sick this week. Please remind your child to keep washing hands so we can keep the germs away! Thanks for the help!

Beth Earle

Conferences are coming!

Conferences will be held on Nov. 28th this year. They will be in a centers format. You will be here for 45min from beginning to end and will rotate through 3 centers.

Follow the link to access the website to reserve your conference.

http://www.ptcfast.com/schools/Windham_Primary_School_1

Please try and reserve the evening times for parents who are unable to attend during the afternoon.

Please remember, we will be using the entire room for conferences, so please try and arrange childcare for siblings. The hallway outside our room will be unsupervised, but available space. I look forward to having your child share their learning with you. Thank you!

Beth Earle

Safe, Respectful and Responsible Choices

Dear Families,

I wanted to write today to update everyone on a conversation I had with my class today. On the way back from lunch, as I entered my room, someone ran up to me to report that a classmate had pushed them in the closet area. This is a complaint that has come up time and time again in the last few weeks. Each time I have addressed it with the class and taken steps to see that it doesn't happen again. Unfortunately it keeps happening. Most often it's some sort of accident caused by students rushing to hang things up.
Today I got quite sharp with them and we had a serious conversation about why it keeps happening. I am now expecting that when an accidental "bumping into" happens, the first thing they need to do is apologize. If they do not realize they've bumped someone, then the person who got bumped needs to make the bumper aware so they can apologize.
My next step is to practice how we use the closet area during their recess time. I am not in favor of doing this, but we are using up way too much learning time processing these incidents and they just keep happening.

Please support me at home by talking to your student about their part in a solution to this problem by reminding them to be patient and wait outside the closet area if it's full and to help solve problems among their peers.

Thank you in advance for your help with this matter.

Beth