February Newsletter
Important Dates
Please view the District Calendar for other important dates.
February 13 - 17: Spirit Week
February 15, 21, 23: TK-5 Conferences
February 23: Half Day for TK-5 students
February 24-27: Mid Winter Break
Principals Corner
Hello West Families,
We hope the New Year has started out well for you and your family! It is hard to believe that we have passed the halfway point of the school year. February is a short month with parent teacher conferences and mid-winter break on February 24-27. Please sign up for conferences if you have not done so already!
As the cold weather continues, we would like to stress the importance of students wearing the appropriate winter outerwear. Our goal is to have children go outside for recess whenever possible because outdoor play is not just FUN, it is also good for them. According to health experts, children who play outside are happier, healthy, and stronger. Children should come to school and ride the bus wearing a jacket, gloves, scarves, boots, etc. Students go outdoors for recess when it is above -10 degrees windchill or above 0 degrees.
Next week is spirit week for Holland Public Schools with the following themes:
Monday - Comfy Day
Tuesday - Heart Day
Wednesday - Mismatch Day
Thursday - Beach Day
Friday - Red and White Day
I am honored for the opportunity to lead West and be a part of this amazing school community. Please reach out to me if you have any needs or concerns pertaining to your students' experience at West.
Yours in Education,
Chad Tolson
Parent-Teacher Conferences
The school year is moving quickly and Parent-Teacher conferences are just a few weeks away. Our teachers are excited to meet with you to discuss your child's academic progress.
This year conferences will be held in person:
Wednesday, February 15 from 4:15 - 7:15 pm
Tuesday, February 21 from 4:15 - 7:15 pm
Thursday, February 23 from 12:30 - 3:30pm
We are encouraging parents of students at the Elementary Schools to click this link to schedule a meeting time with their teacher in advance.
We are looking forward to seeing you for parent-teacher conferences and we want to thank you so much for participating. We appreciate your support and working together, as a team, to help assure your child's success. Please look forms coming home in your child's backpack January 26!
Book Fair!
Visit us in the Media Center during conferences! You may also order online from 2/10-2/23.
!! Important SAFETY Information - Please READ !!
We are proud of our students that have stepped up to serve as Safety Patrols for West. Due to our volunteers, we are able to have a safety patrols at the crosswalk in the car loop as well as at the exit. Here's how you can help our safeties feel valued.
1. ALL adults and students should wait on the sidewalk until the safety acknowledges them and safely crosses them. We understand that adults feel safe to cross on their own but we want to teach all the students that the safeties are there to help us and are leaders. Please be patient as they assist you.
2. When you are pulling through the car loop, please do not stop within a car's length of the crosswalk if possible. Some of our safeties have said it's difficult to see around or over the cars.
3. Please avoid pulling in the middle lane. This is to protect everyone. Also, please park in the parking lot if you wish to get out of your car to pick up your student.
We appreciate all of our safety patrols and want to make sure that they are safe, provide safety and are seen as leaders. Thank you for your help with this.
PBIS News
Everyone is working on POWER expectations! For this month we are focusing on the “O” in POWER. This means “Owning our Actions.” When children are caught “Owning their Actions,” they are given a pink POWER ticket. The tickets are placed on big hearts throughout the school. It’s exciting to see children working hard toward this goal.
For the month of January, the POWER ticket jar was FULL!!! Classrooms celebrated last week Friday with a movie and popcorn! WOOT WOOT!!
Last, to encourage great student behavior for guest teachers, we are giving the guest teachers 5 golden POWER tickets to pass out to students for the day. These students who receive them will receive a special prize
STEM
Kindergarten and 1st-grade parents!
In STEM class last week we read the book: "Snowman All Year ", and designed our very own snowman to go on all sorts of adventures. Several students have already emailed their pictures. Keep sending them in and use your creativity! It has been fun to see all the adventures our kids are having with their snowmen! You can email your pictures to Mrs. Johns at jjohns@hollandpublicschools.org
Music
Spring Music Concert for 1st 3rd (2/3 Grade) and 5th Grade
Wednesday May 3rd at 6:00PM at the Holland High School Performing Arts Center.
Nurses Notes
Hannah Lee- Health resource advocate and Covid liaison hlee@hollandpublicschools.org
Vaccine Info: With all types of vaccinations, the body is left with a supply of “memory” T-lymphocytes and B-lymphocytes that will remember how to fight that virus in the future. It typically takes a few weeks after vaccination for the body to produce these lymphocytes. Therefore, it is possible that a person could be infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 just before or just after vaccination. Sometimes after vaccination, the process of building immunity can cause symptoms, such as fever. These symptoms are normal signs the body is building immunity.
Please fill out the following form to request a free COVID testing kit- COVID-19 At-Home Request Form