Woodside Elementary School
• Tues May 5—K Information Night for Parents 6-7 pm Cafeteria
• Wed May 6—Walk to School Day—See article
• Wed May 6—Budget Forum Meeting 7 pm Cafeteria
• Tues May 12—Partnership Meeting 6-6:45 pm Library
• Tues May 12—Partnership Meets with Superintendent 6:45
• Wed May 13—All District Chorus/Band Concert 7pm Orion
• Fri May 15—Woodside One Wheelers Perform 6:30pm Gym
• Mon May 18—Romeo's Night to Benefit Woodside
• Wed May 20—Grade 5 Step Up Day
• Mon May 25-Memorial Day NO SCHOOL
• Tues May 26 SCHOOL IN SESSION—Calendar change
• Wed May 27—Preschool Story Time and Craft Hour 10 am
• Sat May 30—District Budget Meeting Orion 2 pm
• Fri June 5—Variety Show 6:30 pm Gymnasium
• Tues June 16—Grade 5 Boston Trip
• Thurs June 18—Field Day Grades 2-5
• Fri June 19—Field Day Grades K –1
• Mon June 22—LAST DAY OF SCHOOL 11:30 Dismissal
As you learned in Mrs. Trach's letter of April 10 to all parents, she has accepted a principalship in Lexington , Massachusetts . Superintendent, Michael Wilhelm, will be at the Woodside Partnership meeting on Tuesday, May 12, at 6:45pm. He will be leading a discussion to gain your input regarding the qualities you would hope to see in any candidates for the principal 's position.
The regular Partnership meeting will begin at 6 pm to go over plans for the Family Fun Day and 5 K Race being held in June. Please plan to join us.
As many of you are aware, this year we have been increasing student motivation and encouraging aspirations for success through an effort we are calling “Models of Success.”
All year we have been explicitly teaching “success skills” such as hard work and practice, maintaining a can do attitude, self control, responsibility and respect for self, others and learning and independence. In addition, we have invited numerous mentors and role models into the school to expose students to young people and adults who set goals and work to achieve them, which makes them our “models of success”.
In the fall and winter, we had Bob Stuart, a college educator, come and speak to children in grade 1-5 about college and post-secondary education: what it is and how what we learn now helps us in later years. Jason Gibbons, otherwise known as “White Shadow” has been to visit to perform his basketball tricks and talk about reaching goals. He will be returning in June to help us celebrate our achievements through the year. Ed Webster, Topsham resident and mountaineer, came and had the fifth graders build mock Mt. Everest Base camps with tents in the deep snow out on our school field.
Most recently, Jason Spector, Bowdoin College student and Maine chess champion, who has been teaching chess to ten students in grades 2-5, held a chess tournament in our cafeteria and will be in to speak in some classrooms. On April 28 eight successful people from our community representing careers in cooking, law, news and media, computers, construction, healthcare, art and veterinary medicine spoke with all our 4 th and 5th graders. Wei Woo, our Chinese teacher at the high school will be coming May 7 to be an international role model for our students!
But just as important as the above mentioned “Models for Success stars” are the many young people from age 5 to age 25 who are in our building or have come to share with us skills and talents they have set goals about, and developed through the use of success skills. We have many Bowdoin students who work with Danielle Hall's fifth grade on photography club. A number of staff member's young adult children have come to speak to our students about mastering karate, practical applications of art through design, studying fish in Alaska, learning to be a teacher, or winning trophies and awards for various accomplishments. From the kindergarteners who have learned to tie their shoes, the Woodside One Wheelers who have mastered circus arts, and the students who everyday come to school, pay attention, treat others and learning with respect, and regularly complete their work, we have learned together that Models of Success are everywhere, and it is a good feeling to set a goal and work toward that goal.
Helene McGlauflin
Guidance Counselor
Our thanks to Annie Young, Karen Bergeron and Brenda French for organizing the recent Kindergarten Connection Playground Night as well as the 4 Year Old Story Time and Craft Hour. The next Story Hour and Craft Time for incoming 4 year olds will take place on Wednesday, May 27 at 10 am in the Woodside Library.
Dear Friends,
I am pleased to announce that the Maine Writing Project, an affiliate of the National Writing Project will be presenting a Young Author's Camp July 20th-24th at the Woodside Elementary School in Topsham. The Young Author's Camp is open to students in grades 3-12. The camp will meet Monday-Friday from 8:30a.m.-12:00 p.m. where the young author's will develop their writing while working with experienced Maine Writing Project teacher consultants. will explore different genres of writing including autobiography, poetry, fiction and non fiction. In addition, campers will be able to celebrate their work and share their creative pieces in a relaxed atmosphere with peers and writing project mentors.
Registrations forms are available in the main office at Woodside for any student who would enjoy this exciting opportunity. All are welcome, but students who exhibit a desire to write will enjoy camp the most!
Sincerely,
Michele Aronson, Teacher Consultant
Maine Writing Project
Woodside Grade 3 Teacher
New Photography Company
We have just welcomed a new photography company to Woodside. Our Spring photos were taken recently by GESKUS Photography. Please give us your feedback about this new company. We hope you will like their work. GESKUS will be creating a yearbook for Woodside this Spring.
MCHPP
We had a very successful collection of food items in March totaling 402 items. Children in the Special Programs did a wonderful job collecting the donations and counting it! Group of Mrs. Tardif's Kindergarten and Mrs. Farrell's Third grade students and counted our April collection of baby needs. Total for this month was 472 items! again our students have done an amazing job of helping people in our community!! May is our special collection which will once again be "Pennies for People". few years ago, we collected over $800.00 for MCHHP. are hoping that may be we can surpass that total this year. -you in advance for helping your child understand the "power of a penny"!
Mary Belanger
21 st Century Partnership
The final 21st Century Partnership for Parents was held on April 15. Thanks to the presenter, Jennifer Burns of Hyde School . The District would like to know if there would be interest in continuing the program during the next school year. Contact Sally Loughlin, Assistant Superintendent, at 729-9961 or email loughlins@link75.org.
WALK TO SCHOOL DAY WEDNESDAY
The "Walk to School" event celebrates a healthy and safe way to walk to school.It also encourages children and families to walk together as good exercise and fun. Typically, this nationwide event is celebrated in October, however with Woodside having over 70 kindergartners, we felt it was best to give the younger students time and experience with our weekly schoolwide walk, before venturing into the neighborhood.We are sure our students will be very excited for this schoolwide event!
Here's how it will work Wednesday, May 6:
* Woodside Staff members will be at the TopshamMunicipal Parking lot ready to receive students from their bus or car at 9:40 a.m.
* Teachers will work in pre-defined teams, immediately greeting children off the bus / car and personally walking them in a line through the rear fire road onto Hanson, around to Williams, right onto Wilson, right onto Barrows and up into the school driveway.Hanson and Williams are nearby side streets and Wilson and Barrows have sidewalks.Staff members will be at both ends of the line and along side of the line at all times.
* Some staff and myself will stay as long as possible past 10:00 a.m. to ensure every student is personally met and walked to school.
* Parents may park their cars temporarily in the municipal parking lot and walk their child to school OR we can meet their child and walk him/her to school in our teacher teams.
* All buses and parent drop-offs are requested to come in off of Monument Drive and pull up to where the dumpster is in the back of the parking lot.Our staff teams will meet parents / buses there.It will be critical that students are dropped off with a quick goodbye or parents should park their vehicle in a side lot.This will help the line of traffic move along.
* If parents prefer their child(ren) to not walk to school, Woodside will make sure there is a number of staff at the school to receive your child directly into his/her school routine.
* Special Programs students and Family Focus students participation will be up to their families and staff.
Our staff, M.S.A.D. 75 Transportation and the Topsham Town Municipal Officials have taken great strides to ensure that this is a very safe and fun event. If you have any questions or concerns. Please do not hesitate to contact me at 725-1243. I appreciate your support of this exciting day!
Sincerely,
Sandra Trach
Principal
Variety Show try outs were recently held. All students participating will receive the rehearsal schedule directly from Mr. OP. Students and parents should communicate the after school plans about rehearsals before school. According to our handbook calls home cannot be made to confirm after school rehearsals The permission slips, that were turned into Mr. O P are used for the purpose of after school permission, as well as, permission to participate in the Variety Show.
Special thanks to David Olsen Pietrowski and the students who recently performed in the Woodside Spring Choral Concert. Everyone did a wonderful job!
Our classroom placement process has begun. Each child's needs are taken fully into account to create balanced instructional groups. While Mrs. Trach is unable to accept specific teacher requests, she is able to accept a letter or email about your child's learning style and needs through May 29 .
Decades Dance a Success
Friday's Dance to benefit the 5th Grade earned $600 for their Boston Trip due to your generosity. Woodside is grateful to Betsy Lamb for her help organizing, decorating.