New Website: http://willardeastelementary.edublogs.org/

An elementary perspective….You might wonder how these situations play out at the elementary level when it doesn’t directly involve one of our own students. Today was as normal as can be expected. Teachers are often times more affected by these events that than children. Teachers have big hearts and put a lot of effort into building relationships with their students. When something like this happens it feels like someone pulled a rug out from under them.

Elementary students are very intuitive when it comes to these situtations. They often hear parents talking or hear the news playing in the background at dinner time or in the evening. Teachers are usually aware of the circumstances and wait and see what information, if any, the children bring to school.

Often times the children will sensationalize the events for a short time and then be onto another subject. Talking honestly to your children about your beliefs is the best process for dealing with any emotional situation.  School couneslors are always available for our children when needed. This weekend we all leave school counting our blessings. However, we grieve for these families and hope they hear our prayers.

With a heavy heart,

Principal Miller

If you have access to the Parent Portal

If you already have access you may add money to your child’s lunch account by logging into the Parent Portal.

If you don’t have access to the Parent Portal

If you are not familiar with our Parent Portal, it is a means to keep track of your student(s) in our district through lunch balances, attendance, grades, medical history, and discipline.  The building your child attends determines which features you can access.  Elementary buildings only have information available relative to lunch balance, attendance, and discipline.   If you would like access to the Parent Portal you can do this by submitting your email address to:  family@willard.k12.mo.us.  Please be sure and include your name, address, the student’s name(s) and the building(s) he/she attends.

At some point over the past 6-8 weeks (maybe even today) you may have recieved an email from “jwelsh” @willard.k12.mo.us with your user name and password. If your If you did not recieve this or disregarded it because you did not know the sender, that’s okay! You can contact Jolene at the HS at 742-2860. Or you can email her at the email address listed above.

The elementary online system does not report grades at this time. You not be able to log in and check for your students midterms and/or report card grades. These will still come to you in paper form. In the future we hope to have the online grading capability at the elementary level. Any time you have questions about grades please contact your child’s teacher.

Disclaimer – Betty and Nikki do not have access to set up these accounts. All of our online student information is serviced by one or two people for security purposes. Betty or Nikki may have to direct your questions to Jolene. We hope you find this beneficial!

It’s time to kick off Tiger Pride!

During Tiger Pride assemblies we recognize the successes of our students, staff, and community. Below is a list of some of the awards/recognitions we celebrate:

• Character education
• Birthdays
• Students who are “Caught Being a Team Player”
• Showing good character in special classes (Art, Music, PE, Library, & Computer)
• Students of the Month

2:30 Start time with 3:00 group picture to be taken at the football stadium.

*If it rains we will reschedule the school-wide picture for some time in the Spring.

Bring it on!!!

If you have been following the news since last spring, you are aware that a new virus has been mutating and spreading, world wide. This new virus, H1N1–also called the Swine Flu,  was first detected in people in the United States in April 2009. This virus is spreading from person-to-person in the same way that regular seasonal influenza viruses spread.

As a district, we have been watching the reports predicting the spread of the H1N1 will increase as soon as school resumes.

If your child develops a cough or fever, PLEASE be on alert and keep your child home from school.  Children should not return to school until they are SYMPTOM FREE FOR 24 HOURS.  Your help with this protocol will help to prevent others from getting sick.

We will encourage hand-washing just as we always do and focus on a healthy learning environment that is clean and safe.  Please know that we are also going to be calm and supportive,  working to not raise children’s anxieties about flu worries. Even though thorough hand-washing is the best practice, in times that we can’t get to the sink as often as we would like, we are using hand sanitizer as well. We would welcome your donations of hand sanitizer and clorox wipes.

Also, if you would like to help your own children learn how to wash their hands properly, listen to the CDC’s kid friendly podcast below.  Here’s to clean hands and good health!

CDC Kidtastic Podcast:

How To Wash Your Hands

Nothing can replace a child or take away the pain of losing a son or daughter. The money will be donated to the Brymer family to use as they need paying medical bills and/or funeral expenses for precious Noah. May they feel comforted by the generosity of our students and community.

Image credit: http://know.triangle.com/node/11342