March PreK-4 Newsletter
March 2. 2026
A Note from Mr. B.
Pickup/Drop Off
The elementary school opens at 7:30 AM. Please don't drop students off before 7:30. When picking up students, please use the pickup loop. Please DO NOT use the parking lot as a pickup loop. If you are in the parking lot, please park and walk to pick up your child. Additionally, please do not use parking lot B as a pickup loop or park in reserved parking spots. This hinders traffic towards the High School parent pickup. Thank you for your help keeping kids safe and traffic flowing.
Kindness Week Dress-up Days March 2-6
We will have the following Dress-up days for Kindness Week.
Monday 3/2: Pajama Day
Tuesday 3/3: Colorful Day
Wednesday 3/4: Superhero Day
Thursday 3/5: Workout Day
Friday 3/6: Eagle Pride
March Family Engagement Night- Paper Marble Runs
Bring your child to the elementary school on March 10 to build a fun craft together! Paper marble runs challenge you to work together to use paper, tape, and gravity to build a marble run of your own creation! This challenging activity incorporates creativity, problem-solving, teamwork, and sometimes emotional regulation. If you have any paper you would otherwise recycle, paper towel or toilet tissue tubes, or clean paper plates and bowls, bring them with to incorporate into your project! There is a free meal from 5:45-6:15 and building from 6:15-7:00. There will also be information on strategies we use at school to help support emotional regulation when big feelings like frustration fill small bodies. We'll see you March 10! Please sign up by clicking this image!
Dolly Parton's Imagination Library
Bridges and Elementary families,
If you live in the Windom/Wilder/Bingham Lake area, your children qualify to receive FREE books every month until their fifth birthday!
The Dolly Parton Imagination Library provides a free book each month via the mail to children who are enrolled. Children from birth to age 5 qualify to sign up for this program.
If you are interested in registering for this program and live within the qualifying area, click the image to open a form. Fill out the form and return it to:
Angie Geesman
Windom Public Schools
PO Box 177
Windom, MN 56101
Windom Elementary PTO
Windom Elementary PTO exists to support the needs of students and staff at Windom Area Elementary and Bridges Preschool. Watch for PTO activities and updates on their Facebook page.
Their current fundraiser is a meat raffle! Talk to a teacher or elementary staff member to buy a raffle ticket for $25. You could win 1 of 10 prizes including one of 4 (1/4 processed pork) or 1 of 6 ($100). Only 250 tickets will be sold.
Recent PTO Sponsored activities include the Elementary Dance, Valentine Grams, and Pork-tastic Raffle.
Early Childhood Family Education
ECFE provides a vital "village" for parents, combining expert guidance with structured play to strengthen the bond between parent and child. By offering research-based strategies and a local support network, it helps families navigate early developmental milestones while ensuring children enter kindergarten socially and emotionally prepared.
See the attached images for class times and special upcoming events.
Classes
Magical Music Event
Bunny Hop Event
Behavior
Windom Area Schools follow the Eagle Pride Expectations. These expectations include respect for self, others and the environment, and responsibility for self, work, attitude, and behaviors. Our students are building skills to help them continue their education and grow as a member of our community. Families can support these efforts by encouraging positive behaviors and supporting your student in making positive behavior choices. You can help students practice positive behaviors through playing games, practicing appropriate behaviors at local stores and restaurants, and communicating your expectations with your child.
Screen Time and Emotional Regulation
Here is how you can use screen boundaries to help your child build emotional resilience.
1. Prevent the "Digital Crutch"
If a child is handed a tablet every time they are bored, angry, or crying in a restaurant, they miss the chance to practice interception—the ability to feel a physical sensation (like frustration) and manage it internally.
The Strategy: Avoid using screens as an emotional pacifier.
The Benefit: It forces the brain to find "low-tech" ways to calm down, like deep breathing, physical movement, or tactile play.
Screens emit blue light that suppresses melatonin, but they also provide "frenetic" dopamine hits. A child who is overstimulated before bed will be emotionally brittle the next morning.
The Strategy: Implement a "Digital Sunset" at least 60 minutes before bed.
The Benefit: Better sleep quality leads to a higher "frustration threshold" the next day. A well-rested child is a regulated child.
Ever notice how kids are often at their worst right after you turn the TV off? This is a physiological drop in dopamine.
The Strategy: Use "Transition Bridges." Instead of a sudden shut-off, give a 5-minute warning and follow the screen time with a high-sensory activity (like a snack, a bath, or a quick game of tag).
The Benefit: It helps the brain transition from a high-stimulation state to a low-stimulation state without a total emotional meltdown.
4. Model the "Pause"
Kids regulate by watching how we regulate. If we reach for our phones the second we feel stressed or bored, they will mirror that avoidant behavior.
The Strategy: Verbalize your own boundaries. Say out loud: "I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by these emails, so I’m putting my phone in the drawer for an hour so I can relax."
The Benefit: It teaches them that tech is a tool, not a mandatory limb.
A Quick Reality Check: It is totally normal for kids to resist these limits at first. That resistance is actually the first "emotional workout" they need. Staying calm while they are upset about the limit is where the real coaching happens.
Building Independence
The single most effective strategy is The "Wait 10" Rule.
Before stepping in to zip a jacket, open a snack, or solve a math problem, pause and count to ten in your head. This brief window gives their brain the necessary space to move from "I can't" to "Let me try."