Willard East Elementary

Every year our PTO puts together a beautiful ALL COLOR yearbook. The yearbook is professionally printed and the cost is $14. All orders are due by Friday Feb. 12th and a receipt for your yearbook will be sent home on February 19th. Year books are distributed in May.

Submitting pictures for the yearbook - Jacque Uckele has been our yearbook photographer for a number of years. She does a fantastic job and volunteers a lot of her time to make this a quality memory book. Jacque comes to school for all our special events and takes lots of pictures. If you have take pictures while you have been at Willard East events please let your child’s teacher know and so your pictures can be added if necessary. What a great way to remember your child’s elementary school years!

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It’s that time again! Below is a link to the February Scavenger Hunt. The class who has the most students participate in the scavenger hunt will get to spend an hour of FUN with Principal Miller. We will also draw a name from all participants to win a Barnes and Noble gift card. Be sure to fill out the form completely! Make this a family affair and HAVE FUN!

February Scavenger Hunt

Today I had the pleasure of spending time with Mrs. Kramer’s 1st grade class! They had the most students participate in the online scavenger hunt so they won an hour of fun with Principal Miller. During my time I read the book The Principal’s New Clothes. After I finished reading the students were given a piece of paper with a picture of Principal Miller and they had to make me new clothes. I have published their pictures into an online book for you to enjoy!

Beginning Thursday, February 4^th through Wednesday, February 10^th Willard East will be selling Valentines that will be hand delivered to classrooms on Friday, February 12^th. For only 50¢ each, you can have a Valentine Flower made with a Sucker delivered to that “special someone” here at Willard East. The Valentine orders will be taken before school each morning of that week from 8:15-8:35 in the front hallway, or parents may call Mrs. Woodall at 742-4639 to place orders. You may also send an envelope to school with your child, but please make sure to include who the Valentine is TO, FROM, the child’s teacher, and 50¢ per Valentine. This is a fun and inexpensive way to let friends and family know how special they are! All proceeds from Valentine flower sales will benefit Willard East by purchasing balls and jump ropes for the playground.

Last week we raised approximately $500 to donate to the Convoy of Hope for relief efforts in Haiti! Thank you for your contributions! What an amazing act of nature to such an unfortunate country to begin with. I know our donations will be appreciated.

Dates to remember: (Please refer to the calendar to the right also.)

• Thursday Feb. 4th
• Friday Feb. 5th – Hat’s On/Tiger Pride 2:30
• Friday Feb. 12th – Valentine parties
• Monday Feb. 15th – Make up day

Dates at glance:

• March 19th will be a 1/2 day for students. Students will be dismissed at 12:30 and teachers will attend Professional Development in the afternoon.
• April 5 will be a snow make up day
• April 5-16 will be 3rd and 4th grade MAP testing.

There is no place in the world that deserved the devastation of last week’s earthquake less than Haiti. Haiti is one of the poorest nations on earth. Lacking in natural resources, suffering from major deforestation, and having to endure decades of a corrupt government, millions of Haitians are now lacking their most basic human needs.

The images are hard to look at. Chances are that if you have your TV on your children will see some of these images. After children ask, “What happened there?” and you explain, chances are that their next question will be, “How can we help them?” And that is what all blessed American’s should be asking at this time.

Since we missed our Hat’s on for Community service event this month due to a snow day, we will be hosting a bonus Hat’s on for Haiti THIS Friday Jan. 22nd. If you, your neighbors, family friends, etc. have been looking for a place to donate you might choose Willard East. At the conclusion of Friday’s event we will donate all money raised to the Convoy of Hope. As much as we would like to donate tangible items, it is clear through the media that there are teams in place that know exactly what is needed and can provide those things if we provide them with money.

Below are other ways of offering your support:

From our friends at Twitter:

• Text HAITI to 90999 and you’ll donate $10 to the recovery effort via the American Red Cross. The money is billed to your mobile phone account.
• Musician Wyclef Jean’s Haiti-focused organization, Yele is also accepting text-message donations. To donate $5, text Yele to 501501 or visit the foundation’s web site.
• Oxfam International has also set up an earthquake response fund. You can visit their web site to make a donation to this fund.
• To follow each of these recovery efforts as they progress, we can follow @redcross, @wyclef, and @oxfam.The Huffington Post, CNN, and The New York Times have spent time curating special lists to track events related to Haiti.

Also:

• You can donate to the American’s Red Cross’s work in Haiti via iTunes. There’s a simple “Donate” button once you click the large red cross symbol in the middle of the store’s set-up page. Donation levels are: $5, $10, $25, $50, $100, and $200.
• Hollywood Stars will be hosting a telethon for Haiti relief on Friday, January 22.
• Other diverse charities are involved in Haiti relief as well such as Catholic Relief Services, Oxfam, UNICEF, The Salvation Army and The United Way.

Let us keep these people in our thought and prayers in the days, weeks, months, & years to come.

This is the time of year that we see changes in student information. If any of the following information has changed since August please call our office to update your information:

• Canceled home phone and only using cell phone
• New cell phone number
• New job with new contact information
• New address
• New emergency contact information
• New email account

We update our calling system and student information system regularly. If you have not been receiving calls or emails from the school, chances are we do not have correct information for your family. Please call Nikki or Betty in the office and they will assist you in updating your information.

Welcome back AGAIN! We hope you stayed warm and enjoyed an extra few days off. I am sure you are happy that school is open this week.

Here are some updates/reminders/rescheduled events:

Make up days: Monday Jan. 18 & Monday Apr. 5th. When the 3rd make-up day is scheduled we will let you know.

Tiger Pride Rescheduled Friday Jan. 15: 4th Grade Honor Roll will be recognized at 2:15 followed by the regular Tiger Pride Assembly at 2:30.

Report Cards: Your child will bring home his/her report card today or tomorrow. Please make sure any fines or lunch accounts are paid in full.

PTO Meeting: We will try to reschedule the PTO meeting. If not, I will send out an email or newsletter with updates.

Here’s hoping we are in school all week and don’ t have any more Snow Days!!!

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Welcome back to a very cold winter! We hope that your holiday vacation was everything you hoped and we are glad to have the kids back to school. Some of you may be glad they are back as well! We would like to thank you for all your holiday donations to families in need within our community. There are families close to us who had a better holiday because of your kindness.

Report Cards go home on Friday. Please make sure your child’s lunch account is paid in full and Library books returned.

Hat’s on for Commuity Service THIS Friday Jan. 8 - Proceeds this month will go to our school social workers to fill up the food pantry and purchase supplies for the clothing bank. Many, many people need extra help this year. Our goal each month has been $80 and we have exceeded our goal every month. Let’s beat it again!

December Scavenger Hunt due Friday – Below is a link to the December website scavenger hunt. As of today 36 students have filled out the form online. On Friday I will draw a students name for a $10 Barnes and Noble gift card. The class who has the most students complete the scavenger hunt will get to spend an hour with Principal Miller doing a fun activity.

Link to December Scavenger Hunt

Tiger Pride Friday – Semester Tiger Pride assembly will be held Friday. 4th Grade Honor Roll students will be recognized before Tiger Pride begins at 2:15. Once the Honor Roll assembly is complete the remainder of the grade levels will join us for our regular Tiger Pride assembly. 4th Grade parents may want to arrive shortly after 2PM if your child is being recognized.

Make up day for yesterday has not yet been scheduled. We will let you know as soon as  a decision is made.

Do you recognize anything in this picture? This is our collection of lost and found items. Please call Betty if you recognize anything! If you are in the building this week for the 4th grade program and/or Winter Parties please check the lost and found, by the office, to see if your student has lost any belongings.

After winter break we will donate all items in this collection to our school clothing bank.