Welcome to November!
October was a busy month full of learning, as well as building a positive and safe environment here at Green Tree. Our schoolwide theme was focused on skills for learning: listening, focusing attention, using self-talk to stay on-task, and being assertive when asking for help with a learning task. In our morning announcements and in class, we focused on these skills each day, and students are really starting to shine as successful learners.
As we move into November, our schoolwide theme is focused on empathy. In our morning announcements, we’ll be reminding students to have empathy, identify their own and others’ feelings, notice and respect same and different feelings, and show compassion. When students can identify, understand, and respond in a caring way to how someone else is feeling, it helps create a positive and accepting school climate. We are excited to continue celebrating students for the practice and demonstration of these skills each and every day!
November News
ABC News
Green Tree School uses daily lessons from a program called Second Step to teach our students Skills for Learning, Emotion Management, and Problem Solving. Sometimes, individual students or groups of students have difficulty demonstrating one or more skills successfully within their school day. When this happens, we turn to a team of staff that provide another layer of support. Our team works with students to re-teach and reinforce the basic skills so all students can be successful. This re-teaching is called a Social Academic Instruction Group (SAIG).
If your child will participate in a SAIG group, the homeroom teacher will reach out to you to discuss which of the following areas will be focused on during this time:
- Skills for Learning: Listening, focused attention, following directions, or staying on task
- Empathy: Respecting individual differences and showing compassion for others
- Emotion Management: Managing strong feelings in safe and effective ways
- Problem Solving: Cooperatively resolving conflicts with peers, playing in a fair way, taking responsibility for actions
The SAIG intervention is facilitated by Mrs. Becker, our school counselor and Mrs. Pudwell, our family-school liaison.
Please reach out to your homeroom teacher with any questions or feedback if your child is asked to participate in this intervention.
Schoolwide Celebrations
We have been busy using our learning superpowers this past month and finally earned our celebration to "Dress Like a Book Character" for reaching 600 Gator Grin cards! Our true goal is we would love to see each student earn one card per week. Students earn stamps on their cards for demonstrating skills related to the ones mentioned above (Learning, Empathy, Emotion Management, and Problem-Solving). Each Friday, we choose a classroom, grade level, or classrooms from each grade level to celebrate the number of Gator Grin cards earned. Our current classroom average is 18 cards per room, with an average of 268 cards collected schoolwide weekly. While our goal to have each student earn at least one card a week is high, we all believe we can do it! When students turn in their cards, they are also entered into a daily drawing for small prizes throughout the week! Please encourage your students to collect stamps and ask what they earned stamps for daily!
October Winners
October 2: Kindergarten classes celebrated story time with SnappyOctober 9: Mrs. Baker's 4th Graders celebrated with an extra recess
October 16: Mrs. Averkamp, Mrs. Breit, Ms. Saleske, Mrs. Heberer, and Mrs. Waech's classes celebrated with a pajama day
October 23: Second grade classes celebrated with a flashlight party
October 30: Third grade classes celebrated with a virtual field trip to a place of their choice
Follow our Green Tree Facebook page to see photos of weekly celebrations!
Reminders
- Please send your child with a mask daily. Masks should be worn correctly throughout the day.
- As the weather begins to turn colder, please provide hats and gloves to your child (I'm hoping we can wait on the snowpants reminder until December!).
- Parent-Teacher conferences have been scheduled individually by classroom teachers. If you have any questions on the virtual conferences this year, please reach out to me or your child's classroom teacher for more clarification.
- ABC Parent Group: The Green Tree (A)cademic (B)ooster (C)lub consists of a group of caring and dedicated parents, in partnership with the school administration, committed to enhancing the educational experience of all our students. ABC meetings are held on the 3rd Monday of each month at 6:30 p.m. We welcome all parents to attend. The 2020-21 meetings will be held Virtually via Google Meets. If you are interested, please contact greentreeabc@gmail.com to request more information. Please see opportunities and vacancies if you would like to join the team here.
Upcoming Events
- Progress Notes will be updated in Skyward on November 9th
- Picture Retake will be on November 11th
- Thanksgiving Break will take place from November 25th - 27th
Thank you for all you do to help your child(ren) be successful learners at Green Tree Elementary School. Should you have any questions, comments or feedback, please feel free to reach out to me.
Jennifer Potter
Principal
262-335-5521
jpotter@wbsd-schools.org