February Newsletter

NORTH WOODS INTERNATIONAL
PHONE: 608-789-7000 FAX: 608-789-7010
https://www.lacrosseschools.org/northwoods-international/
February 2015
Dear All,
I am excited to report that North Woods International now has a Facebook account!
Please like us on Facebook - and check out our most recent posts with pictures of
our first and fourth graders! Several of our classroom teachers also have Facebook
pages as well, and have found it to be a wonderful way to communicate easily with
parents and families on what students are learning in the classroom, as well as an
easy way to send out updates and reminders. Our parent organization TEAM also
has a page (North Woods TEAM).
I am hoping that many of you can join us for the highly recommended and important presentation at our
Family Adventure Night on Thursday, February 5th. Alison Feigh, the Program Manager for the Jacob
Wetterling Resource Center will present “Teachable Safety Skills.” Parents will gain skills regarding how
to talk to children about personal safety without scaring them to death. Her presentation will provide
current information about various safety concerns children and teens are facing today, both in-person
and online, and how to educate youth on those concerns in a positive way. See flyer attached to the
online newsletter for more information.
Our CORE VALUE for the month of February is Self-Discipline. Kids Net described self-discipline as the
act of denying yourself; controlling your impulse; and the trait of controlling your own behavior. One of
the things you often hear teachers saying at North Woods International is 'freeze that impulse'. This
gives students a minute to stop and think about what they are doing before following through with an
impulse that might negatively impact their own learning or the learning of others.
Also, please mark your calendars for some important upcoming dates:
Sunday March 1st - FAMILY FUN FEST at the La Crosse Center
(North Woods International will have a booth there!)
Friday, March 6th - Annual READATHON, to raise money for our sister school in Santa Celia Nicaragua
Friday, March 20th - TEAM's FAMILY FUN FEST
Due to state testing dates, we have decided to change the dates of Festival of Nations performances.
Performances will begin at 6 PM, followed by an Open House:
Grades 4 and 5-Thursday, April 23rd
Grades 2 and 3-Thursday, April 30th
Grades KG and 1 Thursday, May 7th
Also, we have a number of openings in kindergarten this year due to a smaller kindergarten class living
in our attendance area. If you have family, friends or neighbors interested in a tour, or more information
about our school - please encourage them to give me a call.
Finally, Happy Valentine's Day everyone!
In Partnership,
Sandy Brauer
CHECK OUT THE COMPLETE NEWSLETTER AT OUR NEW WEBSITE:
https://www.lacrosseschools.org/northwoods-international/
NEWSLETTER HIGHLIGHTS:
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Spanish
New Year
Celebration
called
Nochevieja
HARVEST OF MONTH FEATURE
LIBRARY UPDATE
T.E.A.M. NEWSLETTER
FEBRUARY ORAL HEALTH MONTH
LOGAN BIKEWORKS BIKE SWAP
ASP FAMILY ADVENTURE NIGHT
EXCUSED ABSENCE FORM
STRINGS UPDATE
BRAUER ADVENTURE
MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL
Spanish Celebration of
Los Tres Reyes Magos
or Three Kings Day
2014-15 School Calendar
Feb 5-Family Adventure Night
Feb 11-Early Release 1:15 dismissal
Feb 19-TEAM Mtg
Feb 20-No School
March 6-Read a thon
March 9-10-No School/PT Conf
March 11-TEAM Mtg
March 11-Early Release 1:15 dismissal
March 20– TEAM Family Fun Night
April 1-Report Card Day
April 2,3,6-No School/Spring Break
April 8-Early Release 1:15 dismissal
April 15-TEAM Mtg
May 20-TEAM Mtg
June 4-Last Day of
School
GEOGRAPHY BEE
The North Woods Geography Bee was held
in December. Ten teams of two people
passed through a preliminary quiz to qualify
for our school competition. The competition focused on state locations, nicknames,
and capitals; world landforms, oceans and
continents, and Wisconsin. All teams did a
great job and final scores were very close.
The competition ended with four teams (1
first place, 2 second place, and 1 third place)
receiving medals.
Welcome to our newest intern Daniel.
Daniel just arrived from El Salvador. He will be working
with the 1st and 5th grade classrooms. We are happy to
have him become a part of the North Woods family.
Please welcome him to North Woods when
you see him.
Bike Swap
February 28, 2015 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.
Logan Middle School
1450 Avon St, La Crosse WI
Logan Bike Works, an after school program for
students serving the Logan Middle school
community and beyond, has joined with the
Wisconsin Bike Fed to bring the third annual Bike
Swap to LaCrosse on February 28, 2015 from
10:00 AM until 2:00 PM at Logan Middle
School’s main gym. Our mission is to help more
students ride more often on safe bikes. This past
year we contributed over 25 bikes to some of our
elementary school students, 23 bikes to middle
school students through the earn-a-bike program,
donated bikes to the Salvation Army, and helped
to send 53 bikes to Ghana, West Africa for the
Village Bike Program. The bike swap will offer
bikes, gear, and clothing at pennies on the dollar
deals. Please join us on Saturday, February 28,
2015.
Logan Bike Works operates solely on bike
donations. Please contact Logan Bike Works at
Logan Middle School main office, 789-7740 if
you have a donation. We take all bikes!
Library/HPL Updates
Battle of the Books
Fourth and fifth grade students had the opportunity to challenge
themselves by joining the Battle of the Books lunch group. Twentythree students have chosen to participate, which means we have 6
teams this year. These teams will be participating in our school
Battle of the Books on February 6th at 2:00 in the LGI. They will be
answering questions about the 20 books that are part of Wisconsin’s statewide
competition. The two teams with the top scores from this school battle will advance
to the District’s battle where they will compete against teams from all elementary
schools in La Crosse. This District battle will take place on February 13 at UWLa Crosse from 9 - 11 AM. The team with the highest score from this battle will
participate in the online State battle at the end of February.
Library Webpage!
The North Woods Library webpage can be found at
https://www.lacrosseschools.org/ northwoods-international/classrooms/library/.
This page has links to Tumblebooks, Pebble Go, and many websites containing
reading and math games. Check out this resource!!
BRAUER ADVENTURE
STRINGS NEWS
The annual Fifth Grade Honors Orchestra Tour took place on Thursday, January 15th. Select students
performed at Northside and Hamilton/Sota 1 schools and had lunch at Pizza Doctors. Students who
participated from North Woods were (pictured): front row--John Herath and Sam Veenstra, viola, and back
row--Elsa Hirsch, cello, Tatyanna Roberts, viola, and Wyatt Restel, cello.
On March 3rd the fifth grade strings will be traveling to the La Crosse Center for a rehearsal with other
5th grade students throughout the district. The bus will pick them up at North Woods at 8:35 and they will
rehearse from 9:35-10:25, returning to North Woods by 11 a.m. The evening concert begins at 7:00 p.m.
Students need to arrange their own ride and should arrive at the LaCrosse Center by 6:00 p.m. for tuning
and a short rehearsal. The concert will be finished by 8:00 p.m.
On Thursday, March 12th, 4th and 5th grade strings will be attending a performance by the LaCrosse
Symphony at Viterbo. Selections include a Haydn
symphony and the 1812 overture by Tchaikowsky.
During February, 5th grade students will be asked to sign
up for music classes (orchestra, band, choir) at the middle
school next year. Please remember that students may
participate in more than one music class and some
students perform in all three!
The River City Strings performed at Concordia Ballroom
on Saturday, January 10th. Tatyanna Roberts performed
with the group and all in attendance had a great time
dancing.
Honey Roasted Root Veggies
Serves 8 (½ cup per serving)
Ingredients
2 cups chopped sweet potato (about 1 large) 1 ½ cups
chopped peeled turnip (about 2 medium) 1 ½ cups chopped
parsnip (about 2 medium) 1 ½ cups chopped carrot (about
2 medium) ¼ cup honey 2 Tbsp. olive oil ½ tsp. salt
Directions Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a large bowl,
combine all ingredients; toss to coat. Place vegetable mixture onto a baking sheet. Bake for 35 minutes or until vegetables are tender and begin to brown, stir every 15
minutes.
------------------------------------------------------------------Health Department
County of La Crosse, Wisconsin
300 4th Street North • 2nd Floor
La Crosse, Wisconsin 54601-3228
(608) 785-9872 • FAX: (608) 785-9846
www.lacrossecounty.org/health
February is Children’s Oral Health Month
Take this time to assess your child’s oral health. Children
can maintain good oral health by:
Drinking water that has fluoride in it (or take a fluoride
supplement).
Brushing and flossing twice a day with the right amount
of fluoridated toothpaste.
Eating a healthy diet limiting sweet drinks, sticky
candies, and unhealthy snacks.
Visiting a dentist every six months.
North Woods International School’s After School Program would like to invite you to…
Family Adventure Night
Refreshments & Activities are FREE for the entire family!
Thursday, February 5, 2015
6:00-7:30 p.m.
*Parent talk starts promptly at 6 p.m. - parents are welcome to come alone if the
length of the program is too long for your students.*
“Teachable Safety Skills”
by Alison Feigh, Program Manager for Jacob Wetterling Resource Center, a program of
Gundersen National Child Protection Training Center
Teachable Safety Skills: Replacing Myths with Facts (90 minutes)
For parents, youth leaders, community leaders, grandparents…How do I talk to children
about personal safety without scaring them to death? This presentation provides current information about various safety concerns children and teens are facing today, both in-person and
online, and how to educate youth on those concerns in a positive way.
Note that this presentation will tie in to a similar personal safety presentation that your students
will be receiving during the day entitled “Empower Me.”
plus a
Student DANCE
If you have any questions about this event, please contact: Nicole Brudos,
ASP Coordinator at 789-7000 ext 6409 or [email protected]
Please complete and return the pre-registration form
to your classroom teacher by:
.
Tuesday, February 3rd
ASP Family Adventure Night
February Pre-Registration Form
Please fill out one sheet per family & return to the teacher of your oldest child attending.
Parent Name(s): ____________________________________________________________________
Check this box if you will be attending the Safety Presentation without your student(s).
Complete for School Age Children
Circle Grade:
Child’s Name: _______________________ Pre-K K
Child’s Name: _______________________ Pre-K K
Child’s Name: _______________________ Pre-K K
Complete for Children Not Yet In School:
1
1
1
List Classroom Teacher
2
2
2
3
3
3
4
4
4
5
5
5
______________________
______________________
______________________
Please Circle Ages:
Children’s Names: _______________________________ 3 years
4 years
5 years
NORTH WOODS
TEAM newsletter
Thank you to all the Teachers, Staff, & Parent Volunteers who helped with our December and January activities!
Through your generous donations, Gift of Giving was appreciated by all. The School Holiday Sing-a-long,
Los Posadas, and Holiday parties were a fun way to help celebrate!
Our next meeting is MONDAY February 16th at 7pm AT SHENANIGANS!!
We will need all hands on deck to plan Family Fun Fest. Please join us! We will be asking for LOTS of
volunteers to help put on our biggest fundraiser of the year. What is Family Fun Fest?? It is a family
friendly event at school on Friday night, March 20th. A wristband allows each child entrance to enjoy
games and prizes, cake walk, silent auction, basket raffle, and bouncy houses. Concessions will also be
available. This is a night of fun for the kids and also LOTS of prizes for the whole family. We will be
collecting $$ and item donations for the Basket raffle and auction. Your child’s teacher will have a
basket theme for the c lasses to take part in supplying. Gift cards are also appreciated to fill the
baskets with fun prizes. This event is our major fundraiser so it takes lots of hands to help make this
fun for all the families to enjoy! If you have not volunteered yet – NOW is your chance to make a
difference!
Update on My Local Coupon Books: Great success on the Coupon Books as we are just shy of
earning $5,000. This was less than last year but overall a very easy fundraiser with major earnings.
We want to give a shout out to Ann Thurman for heading up this fundraiser and want to thank all the
families and staff for their efforts in selling them for our kids. Just a note that our TEAM budget
includes money needed for Field Trips – did you know that TEAM covers those costs? It is over $5K in
our budget every year so we really appreciate all the help to make sure every child gets to go on their
class field trips!
Prize WINNERS
for selling the coupon books:
*Top selling class will get a PIZZA PARTY-Mrs. Kulig’s class (sold 23 books!)
*Sold at least 8 books - Get Eat and Play pass from Shenanigans which gives them 3 hours of unlimited
attractions AND a meal: Chase Schams (Kulig) & Peyton Jerue (Schuttenhelm)
*The following sold 3 or more books and were entered in a drawing. We drew 10 of those from a hat & they will
receive Eat and Play Pass from Shenanigans: 1) Ella Sullivan (Buxton) 2) Carson Fink (Stanton) 3) Marley Hughes
(Kies) 4) Savannah Crocker (Welch) 5) Kaleb Tumerman (Schuttenhelm) 6) Kylie Devine (Stanton) 7) Sam Pogreba
(Hooper)8) Izaac Lange (Holinka) 9) Jacob Hackbarth (Yellick) 10) Mai Yer Xiong (Welch)
*Top 3 – receive a $20 gift card from Barnes and Noble: Phillip Berger (Kies) sold 5, Braydon Bauers (Kulig) sold
5, David Elsen (Kratt) sold 4 *Top selling staff -There were 5 staff members who sold all 3 books! We drew 2
names and they were: Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Brauer. Recess duty and Lunch are their prizes!
th
Important Dates
Feb 16 TEAM meeting 7pm at Shenanigans
March 6th Read-a-Thon
March 9th & 10th Teacher Conferences – We will be providing meals & will send a sign up!
March 20th 5pm Family Fun Fest @ School