Principal's Update 11-16-2012

Our celebration of American Education Week this week was enjoyable for staff and students! Students wrote so many caring compliments to our staff all week long. I know that many of their kind words made the day for our staff, as I personally experienced our students thoughtful words and truly enjoyed reading their notes. Thank you to all of our parents who assisted their children in writing these notes, as they were truly appreciated! I included some pictures from our school spirit wear day on Friday below.

Click on the links for the November Building Readers Newsletter in English and Spanish. At the end of the newsletter, there is a strategy shared called the "Five Finger Rule." This strategy can be used to help determine whether or not a book is a good fit for a child or if a book is too difficult. It is a great strategy for students to eventually use independently in order to choose their own books successfully.

A flyer went home with students this week regarding our Barnes and Noble Reading Night that will be held on Thursday, December 6th. Willow Creek Staff members will be reading stories from 6:30-7:30 p.m. Families are encouraged to come out and listen to staff read and enjoy the evening of fun! There are vouchers attached to the flyers that went out to families. If parents should chose to purchase books or holiday gifts that evening, please turn in the vouchers and Willow Creek School will receive a percentage of the sale.

Mr. Greg Wolcott attended our PTO Meeting this past Tuesday. He shared a PowerPoint that was presented to our Board of Education at the Board Meeting on Monday night. This presentation includes proposed changes for Jefferson Junior High's exploratory classes, as well as, changes that would benefit the elementary schools and some changes to our staffing in the district. The presentation has been posted to the district Teaching and Learning webpage for the community to see. I have included a link to the presentation for parents who were not in attendance at the PTO meeting this week who are interested in learning about the proposed changes. Our Board of Education will be voting on whether or not to approve these changes at a December board meeting. In addition, our student council secretary, Amber Moca, attended the PTO meeting this week in order to provide a report to the PTO regarding student council and to take notes during the meeting to report back to our students.

The name bricks that Willow Creek families purchased have recently all been installed in the section in front of our school that has been designated for the engraved bricks. I encourage families who purchased bricks to check them out when they visit the school on Monday or Tuesday for parent conferences this coming week.


Upcoming Dates to Remember
Monday, November 19th: No School, Parent/Teacher Conferences 4-9 p.m.
Tuesday, November 20th: No School, Parent/Teacher Conferences 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
November 21st - November 23rd: No School, Thanksgiving Break
Monday, November 26th: School Resumes
Saturday, December 1st: Band Winter Invitational
Tuesday, December 4th: PTO Meeting, 1 p.m.
                                          Catalog Order Pick-Up
Wednesday, December 5th: Holidays Around the World Assembly
Thursday, December 6th: Barnes and Noble Reading Night
Friday, December 14th: No School, School Improvement Day for Staff
Thursday, December 20th: Winter Chorus Program
Friday, December 21st: Holiday Parties
December 24th - January 4th: Winter Break

Check out the picture below of students whose names were drawn in this week's "Positive Paws" raffle!