Washington February Update

Washington's Student Council held a boxed food collection at the beginning of February for the Whitewater Food Pantry. The goal of the food drive was to collect enough boxed food items to create a domino chain throughout the hallways. On Wednesday, February 14th, the boxed food items were set up in the main hallway of the elementary school. The boxed food items chained their way through the kindergarten hallway, past the office, down the stairs past first grade, and ended in the second grade hallway. The entire school lined the hallways to cheer on the boxed food domino chain! Mr. G pushed over the first box, which started the domino effect. Along the way, some items didn’t quite push over the box in front of them, but with the help of some student council members, the chain effect continued throughout the hallway. The boxed food drive was a success!

Each Friday on the morning announcements, Mr. G recognizes one Washington Eagle from each grade level based on her/his contributions to our Washington community; including excellence in the classroom, leadership abilities, and a positive mindset. Students are nominated by grade level teacher teams based on the following criteria:

1. Excellence in the Classroom - consistently advancing his/herself to higher levels of academic achievement. (Mindsets: Everything is Possible, The Time is Now, 100% Accountable)

2. Motivation/Improvement- having the ability to motivate and encourage his/herself or other students to advance past their expectations both academically and socially. This includes making a conscious effort to be better academically or socially and motivating others through empathy, encouraging words or help. (Mindsets: Everything is Possible, We are Connected, Live to Give, 100% Accountable)

3. Leadership- serving as a leader not only in the classroom through encouragement, behavior, classroom example etc., but also throughout the school (Mindsets: Live to Give, We are Connected, 100% Accountable, The Time is Now).

4. Creativity and Imagination- demonstrating creativity and imagination in the classroom (and beyond) that inspires students/teachers. (Mindsets: Everything is Possible, Passion First, We are Connected)

5. Overcoming Adversity- demonstrates a continued effort to overcome environmental situations and improves despite outcomes. Uses empathy to respond to others with kindness and compassion (Mindsets: Everything is Possible, Attitude of Gratitude, We are Connected)

On Fridays, Ms. Godoy's and Ms. Updike's literacy group gets to play literacy themed games to practice reading and writing. It's a motivating activity that challenges students to master the new digraphs and long vowel sounds they learn!

5th grade students buddied up with Kindergarten students to celebrate the 100th day of school!

Earlier this month, fifth grade hosted a “Valentine’s Day Starbucks” as fifth grade classrooms transformed into coffee houses for literacy. Guest readers were able to come in and read stories to the students. Students sipped on some hot chocolate and snack while hanging out with some of their favorite staff members.

The week prior the Super Bowl, Mrs. Rettinger hosted an NFL highlights lunch. Students came in to watch highlights from the season while having a few fun snacks.

Lastly, fifth graders competed in a Valentine’s Day box competition. All of the work done on the boxes was completed outside of the classroom. It was amazing to see students creativity with what they brought in! They really thought "outside the box"!!

Battle of the Books (BOB), is a statewide program organized by the Wisconsin Educational Media & Technology Association. This year, 487 teams competed across the elementary, middle, and high school levels in Wisconsin. Our school district was proud to host teams at all of our elementary buildings and the middle school.

Students are placed on teams of up to 4 people. Their job is to read 20 books and be prepared to answer questions on them. They learn to take notes, pay attention to details, problem solve and work as a team. Teams are created right around Thanksgiving with team meetings taking place in December, January and early February. Each building then hosts a Battle in which the teams compete against each other to be the TOP DOGS in their building.

This year, our building battles took place the week of February 12th. Congratulations to our teams for a great competition!

The mighty duo of Amaury and Tucker made up the victorious Golden Penguins, as they beat six other teams at Washington. This team also brought home the bragging rights for Washington as they were the top team this year between the three elementary schools.

Book Fairs take place in our school district in the fall and the spring. They are matched up with Parent Conferences so that parents can easily attend. Book Fairs are fundraisers. In the fall, the money that is raised goes toward helping build teachers' classroom libraries as well as supporting each building's library.

In the spring, profits are given back to the students through reading incentives they can choose to participate in. This year we had 199 students take advantage of their book fair dollars earned. If they read 400 minutes they earned $7.00 for the book fair, and if they read 800 minutes they earned $14.00. We gave back almost $700 in books to our students at Washington Elementary.

Congratulations to Ms. Wagner's class for winning this season's Book Fair Bingo! They will receive a goody basket full of books and other reading related items for their classroom!

Book Fair profits also help fund our classroom libraries, reading incentives, Battle of the Books program, our elementary book giveaway program, raffle baskets at events and improvements to all of our libraries. Thank you to all of the families that support us with their purchases!

Students in Mrs. Rettinger's and Ms. Guerra's class were able to video chat with a class in Guatemala! Traditions for Valentine’s Day were shared and along with our students learning about Guatemalan culture! The students had a blast!

Top 10 Sellers- A special lunch with Mr. G on 3/15

1st Place Overall- Abigail Swan $1005.00 winner of the Swim party at Whitewater Aquatic Center

2nd Place Overall- Haylie Reu $977.00 winner of the $50 Walmart Gift Card

3rd Place Overall- Chloe Crandall $971.00 winner of the $25 Walmart Gift Card

4th Place- Riley Reu $961.00

5th Place- Ava Nass $869.00

6th Place- Tucker Kurowski $771.00

7th Place- Kolton Luebke $667.00

8th Place- Hayden Vohs $510.00

9th Place- Isabelle McGarry $509.00

10th Place- Layla Magana $500.00

The fundraising goal was $5000, Washington students raised $6367.50! Way to go Eagles!

Pizza & Popcorn Pick up is on Thursday, March 7th in the Staff parking lot from 3:00-5:30pm. Orders MUST BE PICKED UP ON 3/7 or other arrangements need to be made PRIOR to pick up date. There is no storage for orders at the school. If items are not picked up or if no previous arrangements have been made the items will be donated to the Food Pantry and money will not be refunded. Questions? Contact Heather Reu at 262-812-3236 or washingtonschoolpatt@gmail.com.

Order your yearbook today!

Yearbook orders are due March 18, 2023

The cost is $20

https://ybpay.lifetouch.com/

ID code: 14969524

Topper's Night was a success! Thank you to everyone who purchased pizza that night! Washington PATT received $237.29!

Thank you to everyone who helped make the staff luncheon during conferences amazing! We appreciate all of the donations!

The next PATT meeting will be on March 6 at 6pm in the LLZ. Nominations will be held for the Secretary and Treasurer positions. We hope you can join us to hear about all the fun things happening with PATT!