Washington Student Videos

Mr. Barry met with the first two groups of students yesterday to talk about the website video project. The students brainstormed ideas and some have already started to work on some scripts or ideas. Our introduction is below! Mr. Barry will meet with more interested students during the month of December. Continue to check back for more student created videos highlighting what is going on at Washington!.

December Newsletter

The December newsletter is coming home with students on Friday, November 30th. Please look and read through it with your child! Lots of upcoming news, stories from our own students and some interesting information about what our staff members do during the holidays! Have a great December and holiday season. ~ DB

From the Desk of the Principal

December 2007 Newsletter - page 1

Parent Advisory Committee Date Change
Due to a scheduling conflict on my end, the Washington Intermediate Parent Advisory Committee meeting will be moved from Thursday, December 6, to Thursday, December 13, at 6:30 PM. This meeting is open to any parent of a Washington Intermediate student. We will host this at Washington in the media center. Some of the topics on the agenda will be: technology update, after school math update, attendance policy, healthy choices/treats, BD pilot program, and parent ideas, concerns & questions.

Holiday Happenings
Brrrr….as I write this month’s newsletter article, the north winds have brought us some chilly temperatures! As the temperatures go down, make sure your child dresses warmly. We often have students come without gloves, mittens, hats and coats. Unless the temperatures are below freezing, we head outside! Bundle up until March! J

We will be conducting our third annual food drive at Washington Intermediate during the week of December 10 – 14. Students, parents, and community members may drop off non-perishable food items at Washington during that week. Our December Student Advisory Group will coordinate the food drive and help me deliver it to a local food pantry the following week. This has always been a fun activity for the students and staff at Washington and we appreciate your generosity, compassion and help during the holiday season.

Holiday classroom parties will be held on Thursday, December 20th. They will begin after 2:00 pm. Look for notes to come home from your child’s teacher. We do want to remind parents that we do not exchange gifts at school.

Washington Hosts Pilot Program
Pending school board approval on December 13th, the Red Oak Community School District is looking to pilot a 4th through 8th grade behavior disorder classroom within the district. We are in the initial stages of putting together the program, but a Washington Intermediate classroom will be the site for this program during the 2nd semester. A question parents may have is, “What does this mean for my 4th/5th grade child at Washington?” I want to assure each parent that nothing will change for the students who attend Washington as the middle school students in the pilot program will be separate from all activities that our students participate in during the school day. Further explanation of the program will take place during our December 13th Parent Advisory Meeting mentioned above. This would be a great opportunity to hear more and get your questions answered!

Celebrating National Young Readers Day

National Young Readers Day (NYRD) was celebrated at Washington Intermediate on Tuesday, November 13. Several celebrity readers entertained 4th and 5th grade students by sharing some of their favorite books. Several parents volunteered to read in Mrs. Guinn's class and Red Oak CSD superintendent, Mr. Schmidt, read to Ms. Chelsvig's students. Mrs. Timmerman even had a former student, Marsha Fleming, read in her room. NYRD was co-founded in 1989 by Pizza Hut and a division of the Library of Congress to recognize the joys and benefits of reading. Students from all over the country set aside this special day annually to celebrate reading, one of life's most important and greatest pleasures.

A big thank you to Mrs. Burnison for setting this up for our building and for being Washington's "Everyday-Celebrity-Reading-Specialist"!

Good Luck Tigers!!

A few pictures from our black and orange spirit day & pep rally...

Important Cyber-Tips for Parents!

Did you know that there are over 200 youth in the Red Oak area who have their own account on myyearbook.com? Do you know if your child does? If so, do you know who your child talks to through this site or other forms of computer networking such as instant messaging and email? In today's world, these are important questions to ask your child and to have a conversation about the do's and don'ts of internet safety. There can be a lot of benefits from using social-networking sites such as myyearbook or myspace but parents and students should be aware of several risks too!

Children present unique security risks when they use a computer. The National Cyber Security Alliance, a partner in the National Cyber Security Awareness Month initiative, offers the following tips to keep children safe and to protect their data. By taking some simple steps, you can reduce the threats to your child.

1. Keep your computer in a central and open location in your home and be aware of other computers your child may be using.

2. Discuss and set guidelines and rules for computer use with your child. Post these rules by the computer as a reminder.

3. Use the Internet with your child. Familiarize yourself with your child’s online activities and maintain a dialogue with your child about what applications they are using.

4. Implement parental control tools that are provided by some Internet Service Providers and available for purchase as separate software packages. Remember, no program is a substitute for parental supervision. You may be able to set some parental controls within your browser. To find these options in Internet Explorer for example, click Tools on your menu bar, select Internet Options, choose the Content tab, and click the Enable button under Content Advisor. (For other browsers, contact the vendor to determine what parental controls are included.)

5. Consider using software that allows you to monitor your child’s e-mail and Web traffic.

6. Consider partitioning your computer into separate accounts. Most operating systems give you the option of creating a different user account for each user. If you’re worried your child might accidentally access, modify, or delete your files, you can give your child a separate account and decrease the access and number of privileges your child has.

7. Know who your child’s online friends are and supervise their chat areas.

8. Teach your child never to give out personal information to people he or she meets online, such as in chat rooms or bulletin boards.

9. Know who to contact if you believe your child is in danger. Visit www.getnetwise.org for detailed information.

10. If you know of a child in immediate risk or danger, call law enforcement immediately. Report instances of online child exploitation to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s Cyber Tipline at http://www.missingkids.com/

This information and more can be found at two very useful sites:

http://secureonline.iowa.gov/newsletters/index.html

http://www.cyber-safety.com/parents.html

After School Math Dates Remaining...

The Tuesdays listed below are our remaining days for After School Math. It runs the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month listed (not in December or April). The program is open to any and all 4th and 5th grade students. The program runs from 3:10 – 4:00 each day listed below.

Nov 13 & 27
Jan 8 & 22
Feb 12 & 26
Mar 11 & 25
May 6 - Year End Contest & Celebration

Students who attend more than 1/2 the days may participate in our year-end Math-A-Thon contest that will take place on May 6th.

5th Graders Celebrate Reading Success!

The Washington Intermediate 5th graders held their September/October reading party Friday afternoon at the YMCA to celebrate reading. To qualify, each student met individual goals for pages and genre. Their reward was to swim in the pool and play dodgeball or volleyball in the gym. What a fun and worthwhile afternoon!

Red Ribbon Week Winners!

*****Mrs. Timmerman's Class*****___*****Mr. Haufle's Class*****

During Red Ribbon week, Ms. Bates posed several trivia questions to the entire student body. The questions were centered on the negative effects of taking drugs and the positive effects of saying 'no' to drugs! Classes competed against each other and the winning classes for the week were Mr. Haufle's (4-2) and Mrs. Timmerman's (5-4) classrooms! Congratulations to both classrooms and to all the students who participated. We would also like to send a BIG THANK YOU to Brandon Lampkin and Hy-Vee as they sponsored our Rock In Prevention assembly during Red Ribbon week. We could not have brought in this engaging, entertaining and informative presentation for our students without the help of Mr. Lampkin and Hy-Vee!