From the Principal Dear Parents, We have a wonderfully-busy schedule of special events for you during April! Thank you so much for your support of the programs and events being offered! This Thursday, April 11, we are looking forward to meeting next year’s kindergartners at our Kindergarten Orientation! That means our current kindergartners will have that day off from school, while we meet with our new students and their families. If you have friends who will have a child turning 5 on or before August 31, 2019, please have them call Andi to make an appointment for Orientation. Guys Night Out, conceived and organized by our fifth-grade teacher Brandon Daley, was a great success for the last two years, and we are hoping for an equally phenomenal turnout this year for our third, fourth and fifth grade young men on Friday, April 19! Last year our female staff members, with Julie Hageman taking the organization lead, hosted Girl Power, a leadership evening for our third, fourth and fifth-grade young women. We are looking forward to that event this coming Friday, April 12. For both these events, we truly appreciate the staff, community members and parents who are giving their time to build relationships and mentor our intermediate students! Please mark your calendars for the PTO Carnival on Saturday, April 27, from 11:00 am- 1:00 pm! Our PTO plans and organizes the Carnival as a way for our students and families to have fun and enjoy each other’s company. Please see the enclosed article about the Cardboard Arcade games the fourth and fifth grade students will be sharing. Plans are underway for an amazing day! On that same day, volunteers will be here to help us clean up the OWLS area during KU’s Big Event, from 10:00 a.m.- 2:00 p.m. This is a great opportunity for our students, their families and other interested community volunteers to help rake leaves, trim bushes and put down mulch to spruce up that area. Please join us- even if it’s for just a half-hour or so. Students will receive Rudy Rewards for their help. On Tuesday, April 30, our students will have the opportunity to attend an assembly featuring Joe Odhiambo. Joe is originally from Kenya in East Africa. He is a: · 6- time NBA All-Star Game Performer · Former Phoenix Suns and Mercury full time entertainer · Labeled the “World’s Greatest Basketball Dribbler” · 12-time Guinness World Record Holder for dribbling and spinning basketballs His humble upbringing taught him the drive and work ethic which has allowed him to become the best in his class. Odhiambo now communicates these tough life lessons and experiences to his audience. He strongly believes that even though we start the race in different places, at the end of the day, what you put in is what you will get back. As our students are communicating with students in BNEC (Bishop Ndambuki Education Centre) as part of the Global Classroom Exchange, we are hoping Joe will help give our students even more insights to life in Kenya. We also will be continuing with our end-of-the-year assessments these next weeks. Thanks for your help in making sure students get a good night’s sleep and are present for these assessments. As we are winding down this year, my sincere thanks for the support you give our students and staff! Thank you!

SAVE THE DATE: • APR 11: Incoming Kindergarten Orientation, NO SCHOOL for current Kindergarteners

• APR 12: Spirit Day, Dress a different age

• APR 12: GIRLS NIGHT!

• APR 16: WL night at Epic

• APR 19: Spirit Day, Hawaiian Luau Day

• APR 19: GUYS NIGHT!

• APR 26: Spirit Day, Tutu-Super Cool Day

• APR 30: Special Assembly, Joe Odjambo 2:00pm in the gym

• MAY 1: PTO mtg. 5:45 pm in the library

• MAY 2: 1st & 2nd grade music program 6:00pm

• MAY 3: Spirit Day, Star Wars, May the 4th be with you tomorrow!

• MAY 6-10: Teacher Appreciation Week!

• MAY 8: Bike to School Day

• MAY 10: Bicycle safety fair (am) Field Day (pm)

• MAY 10: Spirit Day, each grade wear a different color. Color TBD

• MAY 13-15: Art for the Sky

• MAY 17: Sprit Day, wear bright colors and sunglasses

• MAY 22: 5th grade moving on ceremony

Woodlawn Elementary Newsletter - APRIL / MAY

Jeanne FridellJeanne FridellJeanne FridellJeanne Fridell

RIVERHAWK NEWS

Check this out!

Bicycle Repair Opportunity Tradewind Energy and Sunflower Outdoor have donated some money to be used for bicycle repairs for Woodlawn students. If your child’s bicycle is in need of repairs, please fill out the voucher below and return to the school. The school will communicate with Sunflower Outdoor to let them know you will be bringing the bicycle and completed voucher to the shop at 804 Massachusetts St. for the repairs. If your child needs a helmet, please stop by any one of the Fire Stations in town and they will be able to help you with that.

Name of Student________________________________ Grade and Teacher ____________________

My bicycle needs help, please! This is what I think is wrong with it:

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Parents, please sign below that you will help your child get their bicycle to Sunflower Outdoor at 804 Massachusetts Street and return this form to Woodlawn. The principal will sign it and you may take the bicycle with the voucher for repairs, thanks to Tradewind Energy and Sunflower Outdoor.

Parent Signature: ________________________________________________ Date: ______________

Woodlawn Principal Signature: _________________________________________________________

More fun stuff... Cardboard Arcade The PTO Carnival is just around the corner, April 27th from 11:00 am – 1:00 pm. Several years ago, in an effort to get more of our 4th and 5th grade students involved and excited about the Carnival, we challenged them to make an arcade game out of cardboard and recycled materials to share with other students. This has become a favorite event for many of our staff, students, and families.

Once again our 4th and 5th graders have watched the video, Caine's Arcade, (http://cainesarcade.com/) and have been motivated to come up with a game of their own. Please look for these special games in the gym on April 27. We appreciate you supporting the creativeness and resourcefulness of our intermediate-grade students!

Art For the SkyArt For the SkyArt For the SkyArt For the Sky Woodlawn has the opportunity to host artist Daniel Dancer for an Art For the Sky project involving the entire school, on May 13-15. This project will be a culminating event for our year as we have taught empathy to others, as well as creatures of the earth. In Dancer’s words, “Art For the Sky is a unique, team building activity for schools that helps dissolve boundaries that often exist in our daily lives. These enchanting creations are an artful blend of science, history and math: a whole-body way of stimulating our imagination to see the elusive ‘big picture’ and help us better understand our interconnection with all life.”

Woodlawn students and staff will be making an image of a Blue Indigo Bunting, a migratory bird that lives in the woods near streams and rivers and has been spotted along the Kansas River. Many of the teachings that Dancer will share are concepts that are embedded in our expectations of respecting ourselves and others, respecting time and respecting property.

For this event, we will need 80 pairs of blue jeans to help build the image on the ground. If you have some blue jeans you would be willing to donate or loan to us (with your name attached so we may return them to you), please begin bringing these to Woodlawn at any time. Students will be given assignments to wear certain color shirts for the day. The backs of the shirts will be what is visible from above. Please see the images on Mr. Dancer’s website: http://artforthesky.com/ to help us visualize what we will be doing that week. Our thanks to the PTO for their generous support in sponsoring this special event.

From the PTO... Join in the fun!

Come One, come all...

volunteer!

This year's Woodlawn Carnival will be held on Saturday, April 27th from 11am-1pm.

We are looking for volunteers to help run the games. We are only asking for 1 hour of your time.

Please email Alicia at alerixon@gmail.com or use our Signup Genius link by grade:

1st grade: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B084AAAAC2EA6FB6-1stgrade1

2nd grade: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B084AAAAC2EA6FB6-2ndgrade1

3rd grade: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B084AAAAC2EA6FB6-3rdgrade1

4th grade: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B084AAAAC2EA6FB6-4thgrade1

5th grade: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B084AAAAC2EA6FB6-5thgrade1

Kindergarten: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B084AAAAC2EA6FB6-kindergarten1

Miscellaneous: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B084AAAAC2EA6FB6-woodlawn1

Spring Assessments

Kindergarten Orientation

Thursday April 11th!Thursday April 11th!Thursday April 11th!Thursday April 11th!

If you know of a child who will turn 5 on or before

August 31st please have them call 785-832-5920

to sign up for a session. We have 3 sessions available!

You may also begin the online enrollment

process by visiting the district website:

https://www.usd497.org/Domain/7439

April 2019 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2 3 SITE Council 4:00

PTO 5:45 pm

4 BOGO Book Fair!

3:00-6:30 pm

5 Spirit Day! Dress like a

teacher

6

7 8 9 10 HAWKS groups

11 Incoming

Kindergarten Orientation

No School for CURRENT

kindergartners

12 Spirit Day!

Dress a different age day!

GIRLS NIGHT!

13

14 15 16 17 Woodlawn night at

EPIC fun center 6:30-8:00

18 19 Spirit Day!

Hawaiian Luau Day

GUYS NIGHT!

20

21 22 23 24 HAWKS groups

25 26 Spirit Day!

Tutu-Super Cool!

27 PTO

CARNIVAL! 11:00-1:00

28 29 30 Special Assembly,

Joe Odjambo 2:00 in gym

May 2019 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 PTO 5:45 pm

2 Kindergarten &

First Grade Music Program

3 Spirit Day! Star Wars!

4 May the fourth

be with you!

5 TEACHER

APPRECIATION WEEK!

6 7 8 HAWKS groups

Bike to School Day

9 10

Bicycle Safety Fair & Field Day

Spirit Day!

Rainbow Day

11

12 13 14 15 HAWKS groups

16 Friendly Smiles

Dental Clinic

17 Spirit Day!

My Future’s too bright, wear neon

and sunglasses

18

19 20 21 22 5th grade moving

on ceremony

23 Last Day

Dismiss @ 11:30 am

24 25

26 27 28 29 30 31

Daniel Dancer, Art for the Sky project

Join us on Social Media!

https://www.facebook.com/woodlawnelementary/